Quasars Essays - Quasar, Radio Astronomy, Physical Cosmology

Quasars Stephen Ferruzza Astronomy project #3 Quasars Theories of how quasars are created is based on the idea that the universe is expanding. Amoung astronomers, the popular consensus is that the earth is in an expanding univerise and the laws of physics will hold true beyond our planet. Some astronomers belive that at the beginning of the universe was a time when many galixies would be visible to the naked eye because the universe was more condesed than it is at the present day. In the centers of many galixes would be radiant objects that looked like stars but seemed brighter than all the stars in its galixiy. Astronomers call these objects quasars andbelive their presence to be more plentoful during the eairly formation of the universe. The quasars seen today are billions of light years away indicating that they have already come and gone and they no longer exist. A massive collision is a probable process in which quasars form. It is possible that the diminishing number of quasars in the univerise is due to the fact the universe is expanding and that fewer collision are taking place. The hubble telescope revaled that amung galixies with quasars in them, three quarters appear to be colliding with or swallowing other galixies. Astronomy Essays

Just Write the Damn Thing

Just Write the Damn Thing Joe and I scampered through the old Madrid cobblestone streets, dodging puddles and party recruiters, having no choice but to embrace the rain. I lived in the center of the city four years ago with Joe ´s older brother, Ben. This night was Joe ´s first in the Spanish capital. After a few street beers and too many patatas bravas, we settled under a bus stop to escape the unusually heavy Iberian rain. Never having spent time alone with Joe, we spoke open and honestly most of the night, as if my connection with Ben extended to his brother before me. Joe writes. A lot. Joe writes for multiple sites based in London, where he studies abroad. At home in the states, Joe writes papers for his classes and for his friends at his large state university. He shared the intricacies of Germany ´s transition from WWI to WWII as if he was there himself. Turns out he has written three papers for that class, a class he does not attend. At our bus stop in Madrid ´s Sol plaza, thousands of miles from the students Joe may be hurting As conversation turned from life abroad and Joe ´s muddy shoe to his writing adventures, I revealed my fear of putting pen to paper. I have jumped off 50 foot cliffs and squeeze my moped between cars on the streets of my new Andalucian hometown, but my fear of opening my world of ideas to the world of humans around me is one I have not conquered. As Joe interrogated me for reasons, I felt minor embarrassment relaying them. Can a gunslinger who has written at least an article a day for three months understand why I want my 600-word blog entry to be perfect? I feel unworthy. I have a million ideas rattling around in my head and my iPhone notes, but my ideas cannot possibly be worth anybody ´s time. Even scarier, the rough drafts of my ideas remain perfect inside my head and behind my fingerprint passcode. When exposed to a world of readers, they certainly will be misunderstood, right? But what if they ´re not? What if something I write resonates with a stranger from a faraway place or gives joy to a friend from down the street. What if I enjoy sharing myself with people? What if I actually am worthy? Just write the damn thing! Joe says, as if stating the obvious. My old soul was educated So here I am, just writing the damn thing.

Ethical Relativism Essay Sample

Ethical Relativism Essay Sample Ethical Relativism Essay Relativism acknowledges that different points of view are valid in equal measures as individuals differ in their approach to truth. In ethics, relativism stipulates that moral beliefs tend to be relative. Thus, dependent on the individual or society. This theory indicates that there is no universal right or wrong, therefore, morality is subjective rather than objective as illustrated by the ethical objectivism. In light of this, this essay analyzes the two forms of ethical relativism- personal relativism and cultural relativism. Further, it looks at the arguments for and shortcomings of relativism. Morality is relative as different people uphold diverse beliefs on the same. For instance, eating pork is permissible in some societies while others like Islam detest such an act. In essence, morals change with time as per the evolving social norms of particular communities. The subjective relativism or personal ethical relativism attribute morality to individuals’ perception. In this case, a person has sovereignty over own thoughts, actions, and behavior. He/she dictates what is right or wrong. Cultural or conventional ethical relativism is another form of relativism that view morality being dependent on what society dictates to be wrong or right. According to this version, a person acts based on the values and norms of his community. In cultural relativism, a person’s will is subordinate the cultural majority‘s will. Nonetheless, a society’s definition of morality may still differ from another. In both subjective and conventional view, there is no standar d and objective form of morality. Arguments for ethical relativism Tolerance of differences: this is a pluralist position to morality which promotes diversity of opinions. Different cultures or people exhibit diverse moral beliefs that require tolerance as we might not subscribe to them. One’s view should not be superior to another’s point. Relativism bears a diversity of moral views. The differences in views create a complex and unique world with constant change and borrowing of ideas. The commonality in opinions would generate redundant societies. From diversity, innovation and creativity exist. Therefore, subjective moral beliefs occur and not objective moral truths. David Hume (1711-76) postulates that moral beliefs arise from emotions or sentiments and not reason. Situational differences also place different people and communities at divergent levels. Hence, implausible to have common moral principles for all persons. Moreover, ethical values arise from real-life interactions as per the circumstances. Shortcomings Critics of ethical relativism state that moral practices across societies may differ but the fundamental moral principles that underlie such practices should not. For instance, dress codes and local customs differ but aspects such as killing, political repression or torture remain governed by the universal moral standards thus wrong. To some extent, ethical relativism promotes social conformity. For instance, if a society believes that child marriage is morally permissible, a member of such a group must accept such practices as right. It hinders social change and improvement within a society. Diverting from such acts would be termed immoral. Disagreements may constitute objectivity on a view thus not merely the presence of subjectivity. Ethical relativism poses a self-contradictory approach as two mutually exclusive opinions would be both right. In addition, ethical relativism tends to promote outrageous practices like killings, rape or child abuse if they are perceived ‘right’ by standards of the concerned society. Hence, depriving the society the ability to initiate moral objections to counter such social vices. In conclusion, ethical relativism is promoting diversity of moral concepts. However, its relative approach poses several disadvantages calling for the need to uphold objectivity to some moral principles.

Religious experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Religious experience - Essay Example The second angel is believed to be a person’s fortune. It is believed that how good the second angel prays for a person at the court of God determines how good his/her fortune will be (Nasr, 2009). When a person has hard luck it simply means that his/her second angel is not doing well at the court of God. But I do not fully believe in this. Islam says that God will give good fortune to those who are righteous or moral and bring bad luck or wickedness to those who are immoral or committing evil deeds. So, if I avoid getting jealous of other people’s good fortune, if I do not invade other people’s privacy, if I avoid hurting other people, if I pray for the good fortune of other people, and if I strive in life, God will certainly give me good fortune. But if I am jealous of other people’s riches, happiness, and good health, God will refuse to bless me with good fortune. All my struggles in life, all my hard work, will be for nothing and all my personal belongings will eventually disappear. I have personally witnessed this in my life. I have a friend who was very wealthy. He had everything. But he got addicted to gambling and women. I advised him to stop doing these immoral things. But he did not listen. Sooner or later he found himself in a lot of trouble. He had a terribly large debt, his personal belongings and riches were taken away from him, and his life became miserable. No blessings came to him. Unlike my friend, I started with almost nothing. Our family was not that well-off. But because of hard work, good reputation, and respect for other people, our family was able to gain some good fortune. We were able to buy a good house and a good car. And our family became stronger as ever. I have even witnessed three siblings fight for inheritance. When their parents died, the two older siblings grabbed the bigger and best portions of the inheritance. But they were not contented with

Compare between contrast system software and application software Essay

Compare between contrast system software and application software - Essay Example The computer programming tools include, but are not limited to the debuggers, linkers, compilers, Microsoft software development tools and Java development tools. The document focuses only the system and application software and provides their detailed comparison. The initial section of the document contains a description of the system and application software, however, it proceeds with the comparison and contrast between the system software and application software. The system software is developed specifically for the computer systems so that the computer system starts and runs the application software. After successful installation of the system software in the computer systems is able to run separately as well as over the computer network. There are different types of system software include: operating systems, device drivers, firmware, Graphical User Interface (GUI), Middleware and free system software. Initially, the operating system(s) (type of system software) are installed on the bare hardware of the computer system to provide an interface to the computer users for provision of computer services. The prominent examples of the operating system include: the Microsoft Windows OS, LINUX, UNIX and Mac OS. Once even one of the operating systems is installed in the computer systems enable the computer user to install various computer utility software to fulfill particular requirements of the computer users. However, the Middleware (type of the system software) can also be installed in the computer system to get functionalities that are even not provided by the operating system. Usually, the Middleware system software is used by the software developers so that they can get an interface to communicate with the computer hardware. It is pertinent to mention here that overall the system software is used for the specialized purpose by the

Aaron Copeland :: Biography

Aaron Copland was born on November 14, 1900 in New York City. His musical works ranged from ballet and orchestral music to choral music and movie scores. For the better part of four decades Aaron Copland was considered the premier composer of 20th Century American Music. Copland learned to play piano from an older sister. By the time he was fifteen he had decided to become a composer. His first composing steps included a correspondence course. In 1921 Copland traveled to Paris to attend the newly founded music school for Americans at Fontainebleau. He was the first American student of the brilliant teacher, Nadia Boulanger. After three years in Paris he returned to New York with his first major commission, writing an organ concerto. His "Symphony for Organ and Orchestra" premiered in at Carnegie Hall in 1925. Copland's growth as a composer followed the important trends of his time. After his return from Paris he worked with jazz rhythms in his "Piano Concerto" (1926). In 1936 he changed his musical style toward a simpler sound. He thought this made his music more meaningful to the music listeners being created by radio and the movies. His most famous works during this period were based on American folk lore including "Billy the Kid" (1938), "Rodeo" (1942), Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944). Other works during this period were a series of movie scores including "Of Mice and Men" (1938) and "The Heiress" (1948). After 1970 Copland stopped composing, though he continued to lecture and conduct through the mid-1980s.

Piezoelectricity as a Future Energy Source

Power Sector Reforms Issues And Challenges A Report On Piezoelectricity As a future energy source Submitted by: Nikhil Gupta (5th Sem) Mechanical Engg. Dept. , JEC,Jabalpur Abstract The Future Smart House is going to have a large number of sensors and microelectronic devices located throughout the house. These devices will need a clean, reliable source of energy that won’t need constant maintenance. The goal of this report is to get awareness about the piezoelectric energy sources to provide power to certain applications in the house. Initially the researchers were planning to create an energy scavenging floor that used piezoelectric transducers to harvest wasted energy in the foot strike of a human being. In consideration of the high cost and minimal power output of these piezo-sources, it seems more feasible to create small, localized energy sources rather than one large unified system. This idea has lead to several potential applications. The first is to combine a piezoelectric power source with sensors such that there would be no need to ever change the batteries in these sensors. The next application is to use piezoelectric cable throughout the floors of the house as a means of tracking. The final application is to combine piezoelectrics with a device to eliminate vibrations in household appliances. Introduction So generally Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting is based upon the piezoelectric effect. The essence of the piezoelectric effect works as follows: by applying a mechanical stress to a crystal, one can generate a voltage or potential energy difference, and thus a current. Also by applying a current to a piezoelectric one can stress or strain the material. The mechanical stress can be supplied by any source. But with so many people walking around from place to place, why not harness that kinetic energy to power stuff, right? Technical Overview Piezoelectric materials exhibit the unique property known as the piezoelectric effect. When these materials are subjected to a compressive or tensile stress, an electric field is generated across the material, creating a voltage gradient and a subsequent current flow. This effect stems from the asymmetric nature of their unit cell when a stress is applied. As seen in Figure 1, the unit cell contains a small positively charges particle in the center. When a stress is applied this particle becomes shifted in one direction which creates a charge distribution, and subsequent electric field. These materials come in several different forms. The most common is crystals, but they are also found as plastics and ceramics. [pic][pic] Fig. 1: Lead Zirconate Titanate unit cell Existing Technologies There are several companies and research institutes throughout the world who are focusing on finding useful applications for piezoelectric energy sources. Several years ago a project was done at MIT entitled, â€Å"Energy Scavenging with Shoe-Mounted Piezoelectrics. † In this project the researchers lined the bottom of a shoe with piezoelectric transducers and saw what kind of power they got out of it. They eventually attached an RF-transmitter to the shoe that was powered by the piezoelectrics. The two materials they used were polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Their initial results were that the PVDF material produced 1. 3 mW per foot strike and the PZT produced around 8. 4 mW. They went back and tried numerous other approaches but they were confined to working with the limitation of a shoe. In this report they hinted at the fact that much great power output could be achieved if they were not confined to working with a shoe. Another company that is looking into using piezoelectric sources to power networks of wireless sensors is MicroStrain Inc. This company setup an experiment where piezoelectric transducers were attached to the support beams in a structure. As the structure was constantly under strain, the voltage created by the piezoelectrics was stored up in a capacitor. Once the capacitor voltage reached a certain level, the power was than transferred to a transmitter which sent a wireless signal to some receiver. It was reported that the cycle time was about 20 to 80 seconds to store up a charge of 9. 5 V on the capacitor given the size of the piezoelectric was 17 cm2. A German based company called EnOcean already has a commercially available product. The slogan for this company is â€Å"no batteries and no wires. † They create products that use piezoelectric transducers to power RF transmitters. One particular product is a light switch that requires no wiring at all. Behind the actual switch is a piezoelectric transducer. When the light switch is flipped, this motion is used by the transducer to power the RF transmitter, which signals the receiver on the actual light to turn on. This would be an interesting technology to demonstrate in the house because it enables you to have light switches on places you never could before such as on a window or outside in the middle of the yard. Two other companies, Ferro Solutions Inc. and Continuum Control Corp. make small ambient energy harvesting sources. Ferro Solutions makes a product called the Energy Harvester. This little device about the size of two AA batteries contains an electromagnetic generator inside. There are two magnets and in between them is a coil of wire. When vibrations cause the coil of wire to move around in the magnetic field, current is generated in the wire. This small energy source could be used in place of batt eries or as a means to recharge batteries. The device supplies about 1 to 10 mW of power and the company is looking to license this echnology to wireless sensor companies. Continuum Control Corp. makes two different products called the PiezoFlex and the iPower Generator. The PiezoFlex is a new type of piezoelectric material that is both flexible and robust. At the same time it also cheaper to manufacture than most other piezoelectric materials. The second product, the iPower Generator contains a piezoelectric transducer that converts mechanical input into electrical output. This product was used was used as a backup energy source in an Antarctic Expedition several years ago. The device has a crank and as you turn it, the mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy. At the MIT Media Lab, researchers in the Responsive Environments Group created a piezoelectric floor called the â€Å"Magic Carpet. † This floor contained a grid of piezoelectric cables spaced 4† apart. The goal of this project was to create a floor that could track the movements of the person walking across it. This technology was then combined with lights and sound such that depending on where you walked a different sound would play. Today you can find examples of the magic carpet in some of the museums at MIT. A similar project was done at Georgia Tech. At Georgia Tech they built a â€Å"Smart Floor† that used piezoelectrics as sensing devices to monitor and predict when people were walking across it. They could predict with about 90% accuracy what person was walking across the floor just given the way the piezoelectrics reacted to their foot strike. Application to Residential There are several ways to incorporate piezoelectric technology into a residential setting. The first would be to use small piezoelectric sources in the place of batteries. These piezoelectric sources could be used to power sensors throughout the house so that the batteries would never need to be changed. Another application was proposed by MIT researchers. Their idea was to use piezoelectric materials to cancel out vibrations in certain household appliances. They envisioned a device that could autonomously adapt the amount of dampening based on the magnitude of the vibrations. They proposed that first the device be built with a battery power source and eventually switch to an energy source that converted the vibrations into energy using either piezo or electromagnetic generators. Their second idea was the opposite of the first: rather than cancel the vibrations, you would enhance them. This idea originated from the fact that subwoofers only go down to about 20 Hz, yet the electrical signal coming from the actual media contains frequencies below 20 Hz. These signals are too low for us to hear, but they can be converted into vibrations. For example when there is an explosion in a movie, there are frequencies below 20 Hz, but the subwoofer can’t make a sound with that long of a wavelength. If you were to install proof mass actuators into the floor of the media room, whenever there was a signal below 20 Hz, these actuators would respond accordingly and literally shake the room.. The next set of applications would involve piezoelectric cable. Piezoelectric cable behaves much the same way as flat piezoelectric transducers only the cable is much cheaper. The cable resembles the standard coaxial cable that plugs into the TV, but the piezo cable has a layer of piezoelectric polymer wrapped into it. This cable could be used to create a grid across the floor that could generate power from people walking across it, or the more viable purpose would be for tracking. These cables come with varying degrees of sensitivity. The cable could be used to track both the location and the orientation of a person in the house. Based on the way they walk, the floor might also be able to identify who the person is. Design The major obstacle in designing your own piezoelectric circuit is finding a way to maximize the power output. The major components involved in this circuit would be an AC/DC rectifier, a filter capacitor, and a DC-DC converter. The AC/DC rectifier converts the AC signal from the piezo-source into DC current. The filter capacitor smoothes electrical flow and the DC-DC converter is what allows the battery to store the energy. Most of the power conversion comes into play in the DC-DC converter. Fig. 2: Adaptive Energy Harvesting Circuit Recently in a paper published in Power Electronics entitled â€Å"Adaptive Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Circuit for Wireless Remote Power Supply,† esearchers found a way to increase power output by roughly 400% compared to when a converter is not used. They used an adaptive control technique in the converter that adjusts itself to find the optimal power transfer options for every moment. Last year, MIT created a setup to demonstrate the power output you could achieve using the vibrations in a plane wing. They didn’t use piezoelectrics, but rathe r electromagnetic generators. Regardless, the circuit for capturing and storing the energy would still be the same. He still has the circuit and is willing to let us use it in designing a piezoelectric energy source. Simulation Results From the study of a project report undertaken in MIT a circuit was modeled. The circuit used a piezoelectric transducer as the voltage source which than fed into an op amp. The purpose of the circuit was to provide a voltage gain of 100. The simulation results proved that the op amp did in fact multiply the voltage from the piezo-transducer by a factor of 100. Unfortunately, in the program they could not find an actual piezo-transducer so they had to model it with an ideal voltage source with an estimated equivalent Thevenin resistance. They considered this project a success on the grounds that it proved that piezo-transducers can in fact act as voltage sources. It also showed that the voltage provided by the transducer can be multiplied by several orders of magnitude using certain circuits. This circuit essentially failed to answer the real question of what kind of maximum power one can get out of the piezo-transducer. A final word on piezoelectricity as a future energy source In the near future, the lights at your favorite coffee shop or the stereo system at your local bar could very well be powered by foot traffic. If we want to maintain a certain lifestyle in an increasingly competitive, resource strapped world, we need to think outside the box when it comes to energy production. There are a million sources of clean, environmentally conscious power all around us, we just have to explore and utilize these sources in the most efficient manner possible. Ambient energy capture will no doubt play a large part in the future of renewable energy, and there's no time like the present to work on developing new, innovative means of electricity generation. I feel confident in saying that the world of tomorrow looks pretty bright, both literally and figuratively.