Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Raccoon Mountain Pumped-Storage Plant

Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Plant is located in southeast Tennessee on a site that overlooks the Tennessee River near Chattanooga.

The plant works like a large storage battery. During periods of low demand, water is pumped from Nickajack Reservoir at the base of the mountain to the reservoir built at the top. It takes 28 hours to fill the upper reservoir. When demand is high, water is released via a tunnel drilled through the center of the mountain to drive generators in the mountain’s underground power plant.

The area around Raccoon Mountain is a state-designated Wildlife Observation Area. The mountaintop is home to whitetail deer, woodchucks, gray foxes, and, of course, raccoons. The most compelling wildlife attraction of the area is a large wintering population of bald eagles, which can be sighted from the overlook as they hunt in the woods and waters.

The Raccoon Mountain Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except major holidays. Tours of the power plant itself are no longer available, but the center has photographs and models to give visitors the same sort of experience. TVA closes all visitor centers when the Homeland Security alert is at a level of high (orange) or higher.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical Engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the request of main beliefs of physics for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. Mechanical engineering is single of the oldest and broadest engineering disciplines.

It requires a solid understanding of core concepts together with mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and energy. Mechanical engineers utilize the core principles as well as other knowledge in the field to design and examine motor vehicles, aircraft, heating and cooling systems, watercraft, manufacturing plants, industrial equipment and machinery, robotics, medical devices and more.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Star network

Star networks are one of the most common computer network topologies. In its simplest form, a star network consists of one central switch, center or computer, which acts as a medium to transmit messages. Thus, the hub and leaf nodes, and the transmission lines between them, form a graph with the topology of a star. If the central node is inert, the originating node must be able to stand the reception of an echo of its own transmission, delayed by the two-way transmission time (i.e. to and from the central node) plus any delay generated in the central node. An active star network has an active central node that typically has the means to stop echo-related problems.

The star topology reduces the possibility of network failure by between all of the systems to a central node. When functional to a bus-based network, this central hub rebroadcasts all transmissions established from any peripheral node to all peripheral nodes on the network, sometimes including the originating node. All peripheral nodes may thus converse with all others by transmitting to, and receiving from, the central node only. The stoppage of a transmission line linking any peripheral node to the central node will result in the isolation of that peripheral node from all others, but the rest of the systems will be unchanged

Friday, December 12, 2008

Floppy disk

A floppy disk is an obsolete data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, supple ("floppy") magnetic storage medium covered in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Floppy disks are read and on paper by a floppy disk drive or FDD, the initials of which should not be puzzled with "fixed disk drive," which is another term for a (nonremovable type of) hard disk drive. Invented by IBM, floppy disks in 8-inch (200 mm), 5¼-inch (133⅓ mm), and the newest and the majority common 3½-inch (90 mm) formats enjoyed many years as a well-liked and ubiquitous form of data storage and exchange, from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s. They have now been superseded by USB flash drives, CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

F3e Technology

F3e is a masterpiece integrating both IT technology and Auto technology of BYD. It combines world class rechargeable battery technology, outstanding R&D technology of automobile core components and parts and complete vehicle developed technology. F3e is a extraordinary example of energy-saving, environment-friendly, technology-driven and fashionable automotive manufacturing. Inheriting the plan concepts of being Faddy, Faithworthy and Futuramic, it has taken the idea of driver-friendly into full consideration It is also ready with an on-board charger, which is well-matched with a standard electric socket (220V 10A). Thanks to BYD’s outstanding technology integration capacity, F3e’s cost has been abridged to the maximum degree, laying the base for commercialization of F3e.

The excellence of the F3e assures outstanding performance: The price of electric power is only 1/3 of that of gasoline consumption; Top speed is over 150km/h;it takes less than 13.5s to go faster from 0 to 100km/h;The maximum gradeability is additional than 30%;The electric power use is less than 12kwh per 100km;The car can travel over 300km / per charge; In the meantime, the battery's life-cycle is about 2000 times/ 600,000km for a complete vehicle.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Biography
Biography (from the Greek words bios meaning "life", and graphein meaning "write") is a type of literature and further forms of media such as film, based on the written accounts of individual lives. While a biography may focus on a subject of fiction or non-fiction, the term is frequently in reference to non-fiction. Pat Shipman however, says "I think a good biographer has to write fiction some of the time to make apparent a significant event in someone's life." This is sometimes debated. As opposed to a profile or curriculum vitae, a biography develops a complex analysis of personality, highlighting different aspects of it and including intimate details of experiences. A biography is more than a list of distant facts like birth, education, work, relationships and death. It also delves into the emotions of experiencing such events.

Ancient Greeks developed the biographical tradition which we have inherited, although until the 5th century AD, when the word 'biographia' first appears, in Damascius' Life of Isodorus, biographical pieces were called simply "lives" ("bioi"). It is quite likely that the Greeks were drawing on a pre-existing eastern tradition; certainly Herodotus' Histories contains more exhaustive biographical information on Persian kings and subjects than on anyone else, implying he had a Persian source for it.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Aberrations

A lens is a device for either concentrating or diverging light, usually produced from a piece of shaped glass. Lenses do not form perfect images, and there is always some degree of distortion or aberration introduced by the lens which causes the image to be an defective replica of the object. Careful design of the lens system for a exacting application ensures that the aberration is minimized. There are several different types of aberration which can influence image quality.