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Charming Engineering

 This site is about engineering.    All kind of engineering.    Made in admiration.

 

Charming stuff


Other stuff (more or less charming)

    Orbital-ring-type Space Elevator
    Quite a science-fiction stuff. But also a quite charming one... Check this proposition on how to build a space elevator on slow rotating planets

    Helicopter steering - how do you handle a chopper
    I was most amazed when learned that a helicopter moves by changing the atack angle of rotor blades. A cool thing.

    Sailing faster than the wind blows
    At first thought you may think that it is not possible for a sailboat to sail faster that the wind blows. It turns out that it is possible. And is not complicated to understand either.

    Thermal power plant - steam/water circulation
    If you look at some thermal power plants photos, you will see that the most prominent structures are cooling towers. Do they have to be so huge?

    Jet engine - pressure diagram
    As a child it puzzled my mind - why don't the burning gases exit at both ends?

    Natural gas distribution
    For example, did you know that they intentionaly add some odor to the natural gas? They also heat it prior delivery.

    Steel - the most precious of all metals
    Did you ever consider the steel to be so precious? It is. And you should know at least the basic stuff about how it is produced.

    Gasoline and Diesel engine
    Only a slight modification in the Otto cycle makes for a very different engine. And as you use these everyday, you better make sure you know some charming details. Also, read about torque versus power.

    World of money and banking
    ...here on Charming Engineering. Check out what is so charming and so engineering about money and banking. I found a lot of beauty burried somewhere at the bottom of the monetary world.

    Feedback and regulation (PID controllers too!)
    The feedback, being positive or negative, is one of most important concepts in engineering. It is cahrming because it is simple but powerfull. You will learn how regulation depends on negative feedback. You will also learn what do bistables have to do with positive feedback...

    Oscillators, small rings of power
    Oscillators do have the will on its own - they just want to oscillate. Read about relaxation oscillators and sine wave oscillators.

    Dealing with stepper motor vibrations by 'sensorless' rotor position sensing
    Not exactly I would call stepper motors charming. Stepper motors are just too 'vibrant' for my taste. But still, understanding some underlying effects is not only fascinating, but can help us fight vibration and instability issues. A somewhat lengthy article.

    Semiconductors: the p-n diode and the bipolar-junction transistor
    It is not intuitive to understand how semiconductors work. But still it is possible to roughly describe their operation even without any math. It would be a shame not to understand at least theory basics.

Charming tricks

    Three-way and four-way light switches
    Of course you know how three-way switch is used to control your staircase light bulb from two different places. But do you know about four-way switches?

    Battery charger - how simple can it be
    Very simple indeed... You will find hundreds of designs on the web but this one strikes with its simplicity. Sure, it can also strike you with a "thunder" if you put your fingers in it.

    RS232 splitter cable
    The RS232 serial line is intended for point-to-point communication. However, in some cases it is useful to connect more than two units together

Coming soon


    Sewing machine
    How do you hook two treads together? Thousand times in a minute.

    Autocorelation function
    Finding the invisible signal burried into tons of noise

    Tomography
    Constructing 3D images from outside.

    Fast Furier Transformation
    Rarely anything is so useful but yet so efficient.

    Inductrak
    Maglev of a new sort - read the induction motor article first.

    Computer
    Ok, you must admit that at least the theory is charming.


You can download software that I made and that I offer for free to everyone:
- Math-o-mir, the mathematical notepad. Deal with math equations as easy as with pencil and sheet of papaer.
- Ethernet Throughput Utility, measure throughput of TCP/IP networks.

The Charming Engineering web site.
Copyright Danijel Gorupec


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