Building Definition and 891 Threads

Hi, I am interested in building precise machine in home. I don't have a clear idea of what the machine looks like yet. But it involves high precision to do calculation. Is it possible to build such machine myself in home? What tool do I need to use?

Disclaimer: I have zero electrical engineering/physics/math experience. In fact, I am a painting major. (Laugh it up) That said, I've been dreaming for quite some time of a very exacting music visualizer which would put all other music visualizers to shame, in that it would have a different...

I have looked everywhere for help with this, and I can't find any. I am trying to construct a mechanism that will rapidly switch a DC circuit on and off, anywhere from 10 to 100+ times a second. Ideally this switch should consume as little power as possible, and should be powered by a 6 volt...

I'm looking to build a basic electric shocker as part of simple game setup I'm making. The shock is not intended to be painful, but it should be somewhat irritating (like a pen shocker toy). However, I'm a little unsure how I'm to go about doing this. Obviously I'll need some sort of DC to AC...

This project is a basic 6 inch rotary piston engine. The rotary engine project is to build a external combustion chamber that will redirect the expanding heat into a rotor housing and turn a rotor with a single piston vane 340 degrees to the exhaust port. The basic piston,rod and crank...

...and need some help with a bit of engineering. I've got 5 2200μF capacitors @ 400V (I'm familiar with high voltage + current, just not inductors, and have the appropriate safety gear) in parallel with about .05Ω ESR a piece. These are running into a GE C150 SCR, which can surge up to 1200...

hi Im currently studying aeronautical engineering at college and needed some ideas for projects and whether they would be pliable or not My current idea: A replica of hero's engine to show the basic principles of jet propulsion but to spice the idea up a little bit, i was thinking about...

Is it possible to building one from using AND and OR gates, cause I've been trying and now I'm wondering if it's even possible

I am trying to have students build a tester with sourceMeter, lamp, etc. for solar cell efficiency measurement. Could someone give me advice on this project? Thank you very much.

Because of size constraints in my room, I need a platform for my queen size bed that is the exact footprint of the bed (60" x 80"). I've decided to attempt to build it however I have no experience with this and hopefully someone can point out any flaws in my plans. I've attached an image...

Homework Statement Suppose we want to to fit an arbitrary function f(t) with a polynomial of degree n - 1 using the values of the function in an arbitrary set of points z = [z1; z2; : : : ; zm]. how would do i construct the least squares problem Ax=b. in other words, how would i construct...

A charged hollow sphere with surface charge density \sigma & radius R is cut into two hemispheres...certainly the hemispheres with equal charges on them would repel each other...Now a force is applied on both the hemispheres to align them again as the original sphere..i shall be highly thankful...

I and my friend, want to build a spectrometer according to below graph basic information to design and build spectrometer are: signal level, Wavelength range, footprint and spectral resolution. we don't know two of them and that are footprint and signal level anybody can help us to...

It's my first time building one. I am aiming at a lab monitor position. I've included my skills in Mathematica, Maple, TeX (I am going to really TeX this one up to look cool) and some other trivial stuff like Microsoft Word. Any advice? Is it stupid to add microsoft word as part of my skills?

Hello. I've got an idea to build a plot in real time. What i want to do: 1) I've got a row (array) of numbers 2) for these numbers i calculate values of the expression i want to plot, put them into array, 3) use list plot or smth like that with the row and the array. The question is : how...

1. Hi, I am currently doing a project which the main objective is to build an miniature Maglev Train Prototype and compare its performance with a Conventional Train. 2. I am having a big problem in the propulsion system of the Meglev Train which is the long stator linear synchronous...

I have set out to do a project to make my own particle accelerator. As of now, I know nothing and I know I have to do extensive research to know my limitations of what I can and cannot do,etc. Since it's a very large subject, I really don't know where to start my research. Right now I'm not...

Homework Statement I've posted this in the homework section but really, it was asked by a young kid who had just been learning about gravity in high school science. It made my realize that I wasn't able to provide a superb answer. So, you have a man standing inside a building, what is the...

Something has bothered me for a long time about our model of light: that it has no mass. Just for a moment, forget what you know about light and let's call it the unknown, X, and suppose we want to model it. Here's what we know for certain: X has momentum, as seen by radiation pressure X...

Hi guys, I'm building a science exhibit demonstrating Bernoulli's Principle for a competition. It's similar to the setup found here () at 2:51 to 2:57. So, I tried a ping pong ball and a hair blower. Doesn't work. Firstly, the hair blower is pretty weak, so when the setup is in upright...

Terror has struck the Norwegian capital today. At 15.26 local time (roughly two hours ago), what appears to have been a car bomb blasted off in the governmental quarters in Oslo. Several have been confirmed dead; although none of our political leasers/ministers seem to be missing/hurt. This a...

For almost quite a time I observe that those computer games are remarkably woven carefully to entice gamers. From designing the webpage up to the building up the characters of the games. One of the games I like most is Ragnarok and Angry birds. With the latter I like the way how the game was...

This might be a stupid question, but here goes. I'm trying to build my first radio and I want to know if LCR meters are capable of measuring current and voltage or if I have to purchase a separate multimeter to perform those measurements. Any help would be appreciated.

Even though life on Earth spans such diverse creatures from bacteria to humans, at its core, all life on Earth is pretty much the same. Life as we know it uses the same four bases to store information in DNA, the same 20 amino acids to build proteins, and the same genetic code to convert DNA...

A friend of mine and I were having a discussion about acoustic resonance. He theorized that a building could be destroyed by acoustic resonance. Where I disagreed. Thinking that a building doesn't really have an acoustic resonance because of its non-uniformity of being brick and mortar...

Hello PFs, I need to build some Helmholtz coils, and I was wondering if anybody here had suggestions on what to make the actual rims that hold the wire in a coil are generally made out of? So far its been suggested that I use bicycle rims, but even that creates a question--aluminum or steel...

I want to make an heirloom mechanical pendulum clock that is very tradition in design and yet will accurately work for centuries—and so I want to micro adjust the pendulum amplitude automatically and that requires some electricity, not very much electricity, but it will take some small amount of...

Hi, I read in a book by M. Kaku: "To describe the universe, cosmologists sometimes use the example of looking down from the top of the Empire State Building, which soars more than a hundred floors above Manhattan. As you look down from the top, you can barely see the street level. If the...

Hello all, I'm modelling an office building using Google SketchUp to determine its cooling load during summer. Unfortunately, the default building materials (external walls, floor, roof etc.) seem like they are for residential buildings. Can someone please tell me what are the typical...

Hello. I'm looking for some assistance with building an electromagnet. Was going to just build it, but want to be on a safe side =)... Due to my chronic Lyme Dis. did forget somethings, and being a son of electrician doesn't really qualify me as an electric engineer. Have googled but came...

Homework Statement A 0.21 kg rock is projected from the edge of the top of a building with an initial velocity of 7.82 m/s at an angle 56 above the horizontal. Due to gravity, the rock strikes the ground at a horizontal distance of 10.5 m from the base of the building. How tall is the...

I was in Boston this past weekend and noticed this building. It has no doors. It is located directly above the "big dig" and has security cameras lined around the outside. Any ideas what it houses? It's on the Congress and Atlantic intersection.

A ball is thrown from the ground onto a roof of height yroof = 15 m from a distance of x = 7 meters away as shown in the diagram to the left. The maximum height of the ball's trajectory is ymax = 4 meters above the top of the roof. (a) Find the required initial vertical component of the...

Greetings, for the school I must find some information about the building of a small close wind tunnel . Some one know where to find it? Good day!

Hi, I'm looking for some good books on engine building or modification. Any suggestions or preferences would be appreciated.

Hi All, I was given the challenge of building a high flow rate pump, but I haven't been able to find any resources were useful. I'd like to control the pump and its pulsatile nature with a LabVIEW VI. I know I'd have to get a stepper motor and a DAQ board, but I'm not sure where to begin. I'd...

Hello all. I was hoping someone could help me. I am building a storage loft in my garage. The issue that one side is drywall and metal studs. I was thinking that I would attach joist hangers to the concrete wall, then another set into the drywall wall but I wanted to know if the joist hangers...

If you don't want to hear my, boring philosophy and want to answer what's probably a supid question, its closer to the end. T=0 singularity, a plague of questions just by it's mention follow. Nothing may be the answer. First nothing is a paradox in nature, it has a meaning that states it does...

Is anyone familiar with the Tesla magnatic fueless generator and the associated Tesla coil set up, I have some basic engineering questions before making the coil eg. can three 200V 1uf capacitors in series be used instead of one 600V 1uf capacitor (which is difficult and expensive to purchase)?

I have received the following private message. Questions should not be asked this way. However it is a reasonable question so all may benefit from the answer. I do not know much about the structure of the twin towers but observe that since they are likely to be of similar framed...

Homework Statement You are making a laser with light of wavelength 310 nanometers using a MgF2 window (which will transmit the UV). The mirrors will be external so each end of the 'pumping' gas discharge tube must be cut at Brewster's angle so that there is no reflection from the surface as...

Homework Statement A ball thrown horizontally at 21.7 m/s from the roof of a building lands 35.5 m from the base of the building. How tall is the building? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution Vy= Voy + 1/2AT^2 Vy= -4.9(21.7)^2 Vy= -2307.361 I know it should be...

Hi, I'm building a pair of helmholtz coils to do a variety of magnetism-related experiments. I've borrowed an old Avo Douglas coil winder and plan to do a couple of thousand turns on two sections of 50mm or 60mm diameter pipe. Some nylon threaded rod will pass through the middle of each coil...

Hello Everyone, I've been looking for an answer to problem I have and I'm getting nowhere so I thought asking the question in a place like this might be useful. I'm planning to build a kiln. I have refractory material that can sustain 1500 degrees celsius. I'm trying to choose an element...

So since I am a physics major and a help tutor people in Introductory physics (for free), my mom decides to turn everyone who has physics for me to solve. While most of the time I can solve these problems, here is one that I am not sure even where to start. Heck I am not even sure if this is...

"Building an artificial lake" Howdy PF :smile: this is actually a Calc III project I'm working on with two others. We are in the beginning stage and are having a little trouble on how to exactly go about doing this problem... Homework Statement "A small man made lake is being proposed on...

Building an "atmospheric chamber" I have to build a chamber (ok, large box) to do some atmospheric pressure tests. The box will be 48 inches square. I have to simulate going from sea level (0 feet, 14.696 psia) to 7000 feet (11.34 psia). I'm thinking of building the "box" from 3/4" plywood...

Hi everyone. This is my first time trying this. So please be gentle. My question is to do with a dc motor. I want to build a wind generator and I am trying to figure out what size motor to start with and try to size the blades to get the best out of it. I know that their is a lot of other...

Look at this photo of the severe damage to one of the fukashima reactor buildings (I'm not sure which one) and tell me that the containment structure and/or reactor vessel have not been severely damaged? Judging from the photo, 3/4 of the reactor building has been obliterated. Nobody is saying...

I am trying to build an optics bench, similar to one you might find in a high school physics classroom. This is a prototype for a science center exhibit. Now, it's been a while since I took optics, so I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I know what I want my result to be, but I'm having trouble...