Today in Science Blog Posts
Singing Sand Leads to Many Questions
I know, I know… I should spend the weekend relaxing. But every place I visit offers me a variety of natural phenomena I wasn’t aware of and, as an engineer and a multiphysics enthusiast, I can’t help but sit in the sun jotting down a list of the physics involved – possible coupling mechanisms, boundary conditions, materials, and so on (we talked about stereotypes attached to engineer on our Facebook page in May).
SAWs are also used to Manipulate and Mix
I have always connected Surface Acoustic Waves (SAWs) as phenomena useful for sensors; where SAW devices act as the medium that transfers mechanical energy (of what you’re measuring) to electrical (what’s used to measure it). SAWs would occur at the surface of a piezoelectric device, mechanically changing it, and then the resulting electrical behavior would be used to provide the measurement. We have a great example that shows how such things can be modeled in a SAW gas sensor.
Follow-Up on Venus Transit of the Sun 2012
After reading about the COMSOL users over at MACCOR in David’s blog post I decided to watch Venus’ transit of the Sun live via their online stream from Tulsa, OK. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I, like many people around the world, did not want to miss.
University of Michigan Refines Solar Car Design
I have just read a cool article about the University of Michigan’s solar car. Back when I was a young and hopeful engineering student in Australia , the World Solar Challenge really sparked my imagination. This is the race from the top of Australia (Darwin) to the bottom (Adelaide) across the desert where the cars are powered by solar energy, which is basically captured by solar cells on the car roofs.