The classic design of a mechanical clock generally consists of a display, a way to store energy, a way to release that energy at regular intervals, and a mechanism to transmit it where it needs to go. Most of us might be imagining a pendulum or a balance wheel, but there have been many other […]
The Argon40 ONE UP unsurprisingly looks like a laptop. (Credit: Jeff Geerling) The Raspberry Pi Compute Module form factor is a tantalizing core for a potential laptop, with a CM5 module containing a fairly beefy SoC and RAM, with depending on the exact module also eMMC storage and WiFi. To turn this into a laptop […]
[The Signal Path] shows us how to recreate a classic science experiment to measure the weight of an electron. Things are easier for us, because unlike [J. J. Thomson] in 1897, we have ready sources of electrons and measuring equipment. Check it out in the video below. The main idea is to trap an electron […]
For as long as small, hidden radio transmitters have existed, people have wanted a technology to detect them. One of the more effective ways to find hidden electronics is the nonlinear junction detector, which illuminates the area under investigation with high-frequency radio waves. Any P-N semiconductor junctions in the area will emit radio waves at […]
Ham radio operators may be familiar with slow-scan television (SSTV) where an image is sent out over the airwaves to be received, decoded, and displayed on a computer monitor by other radio operators. It’s a niche mode that isn’t as popular as modern digital modes like FT8, but it still has its proponents. SSTV isn’t […]
Originally only sold at the Pokémon Center New York in late 2001 for (inflation adjusted) $80, the Pokémon Mini would go on to see a release in Japan and Europe, but never had more than ten games produced for it. Rather than Game Boy-like titles, these were distinct mini games that came on similarly diminutive […]
Anyone who has spent any amount of time in or near people who are really interested in energy policies will have heard proclamations such as that ‘baseload is dead’ and the sorting of energy sources by parameters like their levelized cost of energy (LCoE) and merit order. Another thing that one may have noticed here […]
It is no secret that we often use and abuse bash to write things that ought to be in a different language. But bash does have its attractions. In the modern world, it is practically everywhere. It can also be very expressive, but perhaps hard to read. We’ve talked about Amber before, a language that […]
If you’ve been even casually following NASA’s return to the Moon, you’re likely aware of the recent Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) for the Artemis II mission. You probably also heard that things didn’t go quite to plan: although the test was ultimately completed and the towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket was fully loaded with […]
Although at its face the results seem obvious, a recent study by [Sandrah Eckel] et al. on the impact of electric cars in California is interesting from a quantitative perspective. What percentage of ICE-only cars do you need to replace with either full electric or hybrid cars before you start seeing an improvement in air […]