How to be in two places at the same time

An ambitious experiment to make a glass sphere exist in two places at once could provide the most sensitive test of quantum theory yet. The experiment will place a sphere containing millions of atoms – making it larger than many viruses – into a superposition of states in different places, say researchers in Europe.

Physicists have questioned whether large objects can follow quantum laws ever since Erwin Schrödinger's thought-experiment suggested a cat could exist in a superposition of being both alive and dead.

The idea is to zap a glass sphere 40 nanometres in diameter with a laser while it is inside a small cavity. This should force the sphere to bounce from one side of the cavity to the other. But since the light is quantum in nature, so too will be the position of the sphere. This forces it into a quantum superposition.

The experiment will have to be carried out in high vacuum and at extremely low temperatures so that the sphere is not disturbed by thermal noise or air molecules, says lead author Oriol Romero-Isart from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany.

No overlap

Last year Aaron O'Connell and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, demonstrated that it should be possible to create superpositions in a 60-micrometre-long metal strip. However, the physical separation associated with the two different states of the strip was only 1 femtometre, about the width of the nucleus of an atom.

The new experiment, in contrast, would put the glass sphere in two entirely distinct places at once, with no overlap. "In our proposal the centre of mass is put into a superposition of spatial locations separated by a distance larger than the size of the object," Romero-Isart says.

Atom interferometer experiments have previously achieved good separation, putting fullerene and other molecules containing up to a few hundred atoms into distinct superposition states, but the new scheme will do this with truly macroscopic objects.

This will be particularly valuable in providing tests for quantum mechanics, the researchers say. Observing the behaviour of such very large objects obeying quantum laws offers our best hope of finding ways in which quantum theory breaks down.

The Romero-Isart experiment would take us "substantially beyond the current state of the art", says Anthony Leggett of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Neither the fullerene experiments nor that of O'Connell and his team are able to test well-developed competitors to quantum mechanics."

Source:http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20712-how-to-be-in-two-places-at-the-same-time.html

Latest Technology News-Bendy solar cells that can be printed onto paper

(Image: Patrick Gillooly)
Imagine decorating your bedroom walls with paper made from the same solar cells that now power your home.
That's the tantalising possibility thrown up by the development of lightweight solar cells that can be printed on paper, be scrunched up like an accordion and still conduct electricity. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology printed them on untreated copy paper using a technique that could help slash the cost of producing solar cells.
The glass or plastic backing typically used for solar cells accounts for 25 to 60 per cent of the total cost for materials and so lightweight paper-based cells could significantly reduce photovoltaic production, transportation and installation costs.
A team led by Vladimir Bulović and Karen Gleason changed an ingredient in the material sandwich that makes up a solar cell. They used a flexible conducting polymer as the bottom electrode in the sandwich instead of a transparent metal oxide.
The researchers constructed the solar cell using a dry fabrication process, depositing each layer as a vapour dispersed in a vacuum. A thin mask patterned with holes restricted the placement of the five separate layers of material into cells: the polymer electrode, three energy-collecting materials and the metal electrode at the top of the sandwich. The fact that the vapour was deposited at a relatively low temperature means that the technique allows solar cells to be created on fabric, plastic, tissue paper and even printed newspaper.
At the moment, these paper solar cells are only about 1 per cent efficient. But that's still enough to run small electronics like an alarm clock. A lightweight solar cell could be used for wallpaper or window shades and simply installed using staples or glue.

Source:http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/07/green-machine-printing-solar-c.html

Todays Game!

Try to break the record of this science game (circuit game-Electric Box)  in 2hrs and 15mins! A very interesting game please play it, you'll just love it! This game will improve your practicality things and will increase your logical ability!
Click on the link to start the game-http://www.candystand.com/play/electric-box

HOW TO MAKE A METAL DETECTOR!

Wikipedia

Links to this site from Wiki have now been removed by the socialist brothers there. You will find little else of any use on Wiki regarding metal detectors.

See it working on Youtube here

There are three or four Youtube videos of the project if you can find them.

Building your own metal detector is an ideal school, college, or hobby project. Requiring very little skill or equipment. 

Build with confidence this project  is completely free, costs nothing, is guaranteed to work, and has been built by thousands worldwide.

Use this Google custom search to find information and suppliers for Transistors,resistors,capacitors and other electronic components.

Custom Search

Simple BFO metal detector 

BFO ( beat frequency oscillator ) metal detectors use two oscillators, each of which produces a radio frequency. One of these oscillators uses a coil of wire that we call the search loop. The second oscillator uses a much smaller coil of wire, and is usually inside the control box and is called the reference oscillator. By adjusting the oscillators so their frequencies are very nearly the same, the difference between them is made audible as a beat note, this beat note changes slightly when the search loop is moved over or near to a piece of metal. It has been found in practice best to make the search oscillator fixed say at 100khz and to arrange for the reference oscillator to be adjustable 100khz plus or minus 250hz. This gives a beat note of 250hz to 0 to 250hz. The beat note disappears or nulls when the two oscillators are about equal. This type of detector is most sensitive when the beat note is close to zero, about 5hz ( motor boating ) any slight change being noticeable.

 

Parts list

Power source:
Any 9v battery PP3 is ideal.

Capacitors:
2 off  220uF 16v electrolytic.
5 off  .01uF polyester.
5 off  .1uF polyester.

Resistors:
All resistors 1/4 watt 5%
6 off  10k
1 off  1K
1 off  2.2m ===== 2.2 Mega ohm
2 off  39k

Transistors:
All BC 184B, or 2N3904, or 2N2222A. Just about any small signal npn with a gain of 250+ will do. There are hundreds to choose from.

Audio output:
A 2.5 inch 8 ohm speaker will work but headphones or earpiece are preferable the higher the impedance the better.

Many of the above parts could be salvaged from a broken transistor radio, or purchased from companies like RS Components, Maplin Electronics, Radio Shack, or Digikey who's adds often appear at the top of this page..

Once the components have been obtained the circuit can be built in a few hours using copper clad stripboard, or if you the facilities make a printed circuit board using the layout below. The original layout as below should print out at about 50mm x 100mm. Coils
This is the only tricky part. The search loop is best wound on to a plywood former. Method 1: Cut three circles from some 3mm plywood, one 15cm diameter and two 16cm diameter. Using wood glue make a sandwich with the 15cm circle in the center. When the glue has set you can wind 10 turns of . 25 mm  enameled copper wire around the groove in the edge of the former. Connect this coil when finished to the points marked coil 1 on the schematic.  Method 2: Cut a 16mm diameter circle from some 10mm plywood. Then with this circle clamped in a vice run a saw around the edge of the circle so as to make a slot about 5mm deep and 2mm wide around the edge to accommodate the windings. If you have access to an oscilloscope or frequency counter make a note of the frequency. Ideally This coil will be oscillating at about 104khz, with an amplitude of about .5v p to p.  The second or reference oscillator needs to be made much smaller and if possible attached to the control box so it can be adjusted as the detector is used. To make a really good adjustable reference oscillator you will have to visit a DIY store, what you need are  some plastic water fittings, two examples are shown below. The smaller one is the inlet pipe to a plastic ball valve assembly fitted with a brass nut. The larger one is a plastic tank connector fitted with a brass nut from an old tap. Both of these work well and are glued to the control box in a position where they can be adjusted. The reference coil itself is wound on a piece of wood or plastic about 10/12mm diameter and about 50mm long  The actual number of turns of this coil depends on the diameter of the former and can only be found by experiment. Start with about 125 turns . 25 enameled copper wire ( this coil when finished has to fit inside the plastic tube ) and remove turns until the two frequencies are close. This coil is attached to the circuit board at points marked coil 2. If all is well the detector should be howling at this point. When the two oscillators are well matched it should be possible by adjusting the brass nut in or out to bring the beat note to a halt or null.

Note. On the working detector shown in these pictures we wound 10 turns on to the searchcoil which then oscillated at 104 khz Then we wound on to a piece of 12mm dia x 50mm long  wooden dowel ( taken from a bird cage ) 120 turns of wire. This was pushed inside a  threaded plastic tube from a ball valve assembly. This oscillated at 96 khz without the brass nut and increased gradually as the brass nut was screwed on up to 106 khz. This was perfect for tuning the detector.

Searchcoil  made from 10mm thick plywood

The reference coil is wound on to a piece of wooden dowel about 12mm diameter x 50mm long. This has to fit inside the Plastic pipe fitting above, and is tuned by moving the Brass nut. Drill a very small hole 1mm through each end of the wooden dowel so that you can pass the beginning and end of the wire through these holes to keep the windings in place.

This large coil is 30cm wide by 60cm long ( 12 inches by 24 inches ) and is made from 10mm plywood. It has 5 turns of wire in a 3mm deep groove cut around the edge with a saw. it oscillates at 104 khz . If you want to make different size coils start with the big one, as with only 5 turns you can only alter it in big jumps eg. 4 turns = 115 khz and 6 turns = 85khz . next make the reference coil to match. next make the next smallest coil and so on. The smaller coils  are easier to match up as adding or removing a turn at a time only alters the frequency in small amounts

Building a practical detector.

Building a practical detector for outdoor use will depend on the skills and materials at your disposal. The golden rule is keep it lightweight, avoid using heavy materials such as hardwood or perspex. The round search loop needs to be glued to some sort of handle, with the circuit board inside a small box at the other end for balance. You will need to adjust the reference oscillator from time to time when in use. 

Coil A = Search coil:   Coil B = Reference coil:    B+ = Battery + 9V PP3 or similar :       B- = battery -

Notes for the electronics beginner.

2 off 220uf / 16v Electrolytic : These are 220 microfarad / 16v working voltage. You can use a higher working voltage but not less. Higher working voltage capacitors work just the same but they get physically bigger. They have a negative lead that must be connected to the battery - track. These components must go in the correct way round.

5 off .1 and .01 polyester : These also have a working voltage. 63 volt in quite common and will be ideal. If you want to use the pcb layout above you will need capacitors with 5mm lead spacing.     .1 can be marked as .1 or 100n or sometimes 104 :   .01 can be marked as .01 or 10n or sometimes 103. These components can go in any way round.

All resistors 1/4 watt 5%: These are general purpose carbon film resistors with a 5% tolerance and rated at 1/4 watt. You could use resistors of a higher wattage as this does not affect the working they just get bigger. 1 watt or bigger will not fit on the board. These components can go in any way round.

Transistors: The bc 184b transistor is described has Audio, low current, general purpose NPN . These are quite easy to get in the UK but may be difficult to get in other countries. There are hundreds of types of small plastic NPN transistors available around the world and just about all will work in this circuit. You will have to be sure of the pinouts though. You can get the pinouts for most transistors from manufacturers websites. This will be the most likely problem area when building this project. These components must be connected correctly. PNP types won't work.

Other Transistors: 2N 3904 --2N2222A --BC183--most small npn transistors will work

Frequently asked questions.

Q. I know nothing about electronics, but like to make things, and have always been fascinated by those little electronic components that look like sweets. I have no equipment, but I am prepared to sod about with this for days on end until it works. Do you think I will get it going .

A. Well if you have little knowledge of electronics, and no equipment it will be difficult, but hundreds of people like you have done it. You need to keep to the plans exactly and have a bit if luck with it. Resist the temptation to alter things and add stuff like a meter or a pilot light. Whatever happens it won't cost you much and at the end you will know something about electronics.

Q. I am making this detector for my school course work project can you send me a detailed explanation with diagrams how it works.

A. Would love to but don't have the time.

Q. How many meters down can I detect a single Gold coin with this detector.

A. None. For a single coin its about 120 mm if you are lucky. A bit more for larger objects.

Q. I built it but I cant get it to work.

A. Well it does work and usually straight away. The most likely reasons for not working would be. Transistor of the wrong type eg. PNP, or connected wrong. Wrong pinouts. Stripboard  can be used but be careful not to get solder bridges across the tracks. If the search coil and reference coil are way off frequency you won't get any sound.

Q. What is the best size for the searchcoil.

A. The bigger the coil the deeper it goes. But big coils are no good for small objects like coins and rings. The 16 cm coil is just about perfect for coins and rings.

Q. Is it OK to use a metal shaft and bracket down to to searchcoil.

A. Any metal near or on the coil will effect the frequency, you must take this into account when you wind the coil. A small ally bracket will not make a lot of difference. If you use a metal pole and it moves as you are detecting it will alter the tuning.

Q. Can I buy a kit of parts from you for this project.

A. No we don't sell anything to do with this project.

Q. Our son wants to build this detector for a school exam project, could you build it for him and send it to us.

A. No tell him cheats never prosper.    ( trouble is cheats do prosper ) .

Email           Saxons#Easytreasure.co.uk   Please include name and location e.g.  John from Alabama

Please put Metal Detector in the subject box

# = @

If you are successful with this project send us an email, small picture would be nice but not essential.

 

From Transylvania

A Probe

 

Source:http://www.easytreasure.co.uk/bfo.htm

Making a hydroelectric generetor!

We all know that scientists are in a constant search for alternative energy sources and this happens because in recent years conventional energy sources have started to decrease significantly.

They have developed various systems that convert the energy from nature in electricity and many of these systems could be built at home, on a smaller scale, in order to reduce electricity consumption.  After we saw how to produce electricity using magnets or wind power, it is time to talk about those people who live near a river. In this case, the best way to produce electricity is represented by a small-scale hydroelectric generator made at home. Often called as a low-impact hydro, micro-hydro or run-of-stream hydro generator, this system is not very hard to build.
To build such a micro-hydro generator you must follow these steps:
A. Preparing Disks

Our generator will consist of two main parts:
-The stator (this part is not moving and it is equipped with coils of wire to collect electricity)
-The rotor (the rotor is the part that moves and has some powerful magnets that will induce electricity in the coils)
First you need some templates and a cardboard. The two templates that contain the rotor and stator scheme must be cut and attached to the front and back of the cardboard. After these templates are well glued to cardboard make a hole (1 cm) at the center of the stator disk.

B. Attaching the Stator
Now, you have to make 4 coils that will be attached on the cardboard. This requires you to use a cardboard with an oval section. Then, start winding the wires on this cardboard to form a tight coil (200 turns). Remove carefully the coil from the oval section and then, repeat this procedure to make three more coils.
Arrange the coils on the cardboard according to the template scheme (their windings have to alternate between clockwise and counter clockwise). You must be sure that an electron would follow the path shown by the arrows in the template, begining from the left counterclockwise coil.
Connect the ends of coils and use insulation tape to prevent any errors. Use a multi-meter to cehck electrical resistance (ohms). If the wires are properly connected the meter should produce a reading of about 10 ohms.
C. Attaching the Rotor
At this stage you need 4 strong magnets to be attached on the stator template. Check the magnets, mark the south pole on two of them and the north pole of the remaining two. The magnets should be arranged on the template so that their polarity alternates (N-S-N-S).
Then you need a cork and 8 plastic spoons. You have to shorten the spoons so that the handle will not measure more than 1cm. Look at the rotor template and insert the spoons into the cork (1cm depth).
D. The Turbine
Make a 6mm hole through the cork (make sure the hole is centered), fix again the geometrical position of the spoons and add some hot glue to each spoon to secure it.

E. Generator body and Final Assembly
Find a plastic tank or a bottle to attach the rotor, the stator and the small turbine. After you find the center of the tank, make a hole in that place (6mm) and fix the stator with its coils just above the hole. Then, attach on the same shaft the turbine and rotor (the spoons have to face the neck of the bottle and the magnets should be close to the coils (3mm between the coils and magnets)).

It seems that our micro-hydro generator is almost ready to use. All we need now is a stream of water so that the turbine to spin continuously as long as there is water to drive it. If the turbine is properly connected to the generator this stream should produce enough electricity to power our utilities or charging batteries.

You may also want to find how to produce free energy at home.

Source:http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2010/03/09/build-small-scale-hydroelectric-generator/

Computer Science Projects

Digital Image Watermarking

This is a suite of algorithms implemented in delphi that demonstrate simple high-capacity fragile watermarking algorithms and how they can be implemented on loss-less format images. The algorithms implement LSB watermarking on 1st, 2nd and 3rd bits, and have been optimised to be run in parallel. Due to the high data storing capacity of the algorithms they can also be used as steganographic tools for storing hidden data.

FastGEO

FastGEO is a library written in object pascal that contains a wide range of highly optimized vector based geometrical algorithms and routines for many different types of geometrical operations such as geometrical primitives and predicates, hull construction and triangulation, clipping, rotations and projections.

Particle Engine System (P.E.S)

This is a fully scalable particle engine, that has the capabilities of running on clusters that run MPI and Open-MPI protocols. Currently the system simulates mass-spring systems, and visualizes the result via OpenGL 3D graphics and GLUT windowing interface.At the moment the system uses very primitive ODEs such as Euler, Extended Euler and Runge-Kutta algorithms. PES has been successfully compiled and run under both Unix and Windows systems, however under Windows MPI capabilities are not available.

N-Mice Simulation

This is a simulation of the N-Mice problem, which is presented as the paths that "N" mice which are standing evenly distributed around a circle with a particular radius would take if they were all trying to reach the mouse on their right hand side. It turns out that mathematically they never reach each other, however physically they do. The paths they create are in spiral form, This application can simulate up to 20 mice, in theory it could do much more, however the visual effect of the nice spirals really begin to dissipate after about 20 mice. The simulation assumes each mouse as being an independent particle in 2D space, each particle (mouse) follows the particle on its right hand side, with an attraction force that is calculated via Newton's formula of matter to matter attraction. There are many other ways to implement this problem, a full mathematical definition of the problem and other possible solutions can be found at mathworld.

Polynomial Signal Rectification

This is a signal generation and processing application. It is capable of producing many different types of commonly used wave forms such as square, saw-tooth and triangular wave forms, it can also take an algebraic expression representing a continuous analog signal and turn it into a useable digital wave form. The application also has a rendering system which applies different types of smoothing and noise reduction algorithms. I hope to add Fourier and Hadamard transformations to future versions of this application. (If I get the time...)

Equation Evaluator

This is my contribution to the plethora of mathematical applications on the web. I wrote this to prove to myself I could write and implement a grammar, and once I had achieved that I saw many different areas in which I could use the grammar. The application does function graphing, solution to expressions, integration in 2D and 3D and it also does simple series calculations. Its a very simple program and was only intended on demonstrating the speed and capabilities of the parser engine I had developed. A note on the parser engine is its unique ability to simplify expressions and re-order them so that they are executed as a list of sequential operations rather than a tree of prioritized expression this functionality leads to great decrease in time needed to evaluate a particular expression which makes it ideal for repetitive evaluations of expressions where only the variables change value and not the expression itself, such as graphing a function or integrating an area.

Virtual Particle Flame

This is a particle simulation with a cooling algorithm implemented as the particles move within the 2D space. The particles follow a very simple parametric equation and the space that they have traveled on begins to cool down with regards to Newton's differential equation for the cooling of matter. What is interesting here is if another particle intersects the path of a particle which has just passed the space where the intersection occurs heats up more than what the second particle would have heated it up normally. This is due to the remaining heat that was already there being summed up by the new heat that is arriving. This simulation makes for some very interesting eye-candy .

Simple Java Paint Brush

This is a simple java applet implementation of a paint-brush style program. It has the basic drawing tools such as pen, line, filled and non-filed rectangles and ellipses and color manipulation options, other than that its really boring, but a good example of how to use java's graphics libraries.

C++ Galois Field Arithmetic Library

A simple library written in the C++ language for performing arithmetic over Galois fields. The arithmetic can be in the form of either elements or polynomials over a specified Galois field. The library is optimised to run in one of two modes, normal or LUT mode. In the LUT mode performance is increased dramatically at the cost of large consumption of memory. The library can be used in but not limited to such fields as cryptography, error correcting codes and computational analysis.

To read more:http://www.partow.net/projects/index.html

What is Vedic Mathematics?

Vedic Mathematics is the name given to the ancient system of Indian Mathematics which was rediscovered from the Vedas between 1911 and 1918 by Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji (1884-1960). According to his research all of mathematics is based on sixteen Sutras, or word-formulae. For example, 'Vertically and Crosswise` is one of these Sutras. These formulae describe the way the mind naturally works and are therefore a great help in directing the student to the appropriate method of solution.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the Vedic system is its coherence. Instead of a hotch-potch of unrelated techniques the whole system is beautifully interrelated and unified: the general multiplication method, for example, is easily reversed to allow one-line divisions and the simple squaring method can be reversed to give one-line square roots. And these are all easily understood. This unifying quality is very satisfying, it makes mathematics easy and enjoyable and encourages innovation.

In the Vedic system 'difficult' problems or huge sums can often be solved immediately by the Vedic method. These striking and beautiful methods are just a part of a complete system of mathematics which is far more systematic than the modern 'system'. Vedic Mathematics manifests the coherent and unified structure of mathematics and the methods are complementary, direct and easy.

The simplicity of Vedic Mathematics means that calculations can be carried out mentally (though the methods can also be written down). There are many advantages in using a flexible, mental system. Pupils can invent their own methods, they are not limited to the one 'correct' method. This leads to more creative, interested and intelligent pupils.

Interest in the Vedic system is growing in education where mathematics teachers are looking for something better and finding the Vedic system is the answer. Research is being carried out in many areas including the effects of learning Vedic Maths on children; developing new, powerful but easy applications of the Vedic Sutras in geometry, calculus, computing etc.

But the real beauty and effectiveness of Vedic Mathematics cannot be fully appreciated without actually practising the system. One can then see that it is perhaps the most refined and efficient mathematical system possible.

To read more: http://www.vedicmaths.org/introduction/What%20is%20VM.asp

IIT Bombay Student Satellite Project

The IIT Bombay Student Satellite Project is a landmark project taken up by IIT Bombay students. The objective of this project is to make IIT Bombay a respected centre for advancement in Satellite and Space Technology in the world. The project aims at launching at least 5 satellites within the next few years. These Satellites could be test-beds for new technology that is being developed in the institute and also a method for space qualification. Click here to view enlarged image

'Pratham' is the first satellite under this project. The plan is to build a fully functional microsatellite in less than three years which would then be launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This is entirely a student initiative with mentorship provided by ISRO scientists and IIT Bombay Faculty. The satellite will fit in a 30*30*30 cm cube and will weigh less than 15 kg. Click here to view the Mission Statement of 'Pratham'.

To read more:http://www.aero.iitb.ac.in/pratham/