Recent content by poor mystic

Your capacitor probably failed due to age

As an electronics tech I suggest actually measuring the resistance of the plumbing. I’d use a static test of pressure with no water flowing, and a further measurement with the tap fully ON. Does that make sense to the fluid dynamics guys?

Attenuation is measured in dB; so that for example a level of -10dB is the outcome when a signal at a level of 0dB is attenuated by a factor of ten. :)

So gravitational waves are waves of electromagnetic energy which come from some direction, weakly interact with matter, and move on. You'd think that a massive sphere (say a planet) would focus gravitational waves much as a glass sphere focuses visible light, so that at some distance a...

Possibly, the fact that the Earth is rotating away from the rocket's launch point makes it seem to turn to the horizontal, when it's actually moving in a straight line.

Hi :-) This question reminds me of the problem that ancient mathematicians had with Achilles and the Tortoise, because their problem required the expansion of mathematical understanding to encompass the calculus - in other words the paradigm within which they attempted to get a grip on the...

I really liked those books too. The "College Algebra, with 1720 solved problems" if I remember correctly, was such a big help.

Hi :) I have found that the best teaching resources are at New Zealand/Australian "4th Form" level. Almost any modern book will do. Usually, the most trouble people have is learning the meaning of division. Good luck, and feel free to PM me if you have any further questions. Mark

maybe this could be done with powdered or gaseous chemistry

Thanks for your question Ranger Mike :) I have very little money, being a pensioner. The design I'm using is one I cooked up for myself in the olden days (ended last week) when I believed that lasers just continuously lased, and did not continually restart as seems to be the case.

Hi people :) I want to build an interferometer. In the course of looking for a suitable light source for my instrument I have been advised to check the 'coherence distance' of the sources; it is clear to me that this distance places practical limits on the design of the machine. However...

Hi Litup! :-) are you still looking for ideas? I suggest ultrasonic 'radar'. You could pulse a burst of 40kHz sound, time the received signals, and locate the nearest item using Arduino. I hear that the Arduino platform is very good for this kind of work, and is very cheap. There will be a...

... or the pellets could be swept up from the bottom of the tube by air moving towards a partial vacuum at the top, or Lester's "2)" could use air pressure instead of a ramrod

I have heard that there are often conflicts when a soundcard is used for both input and output simultaneously. I might look for a way to resolve those conflicts or include a second soundcard. I found this: http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/638/lsdj-to-mp3/ which may help... :-D

Further question: I've been turning this over and over in my mind and I just don't see why a laser should be required. It seems to me that a Young's double slit should work just as well, with no dangerous lasers. Perhaps I got that wrong?