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1500 questions
12
votes
5 answers
Why is using steam to rotate a turbine more efficient?
For example i have an exhaust pipe with very hot air from burning biofuel, and i have a turbine at the end of the exhaust that rotates and generates electricity.
Why is it more efficient to use the heat to boil water then use the steam produced to…
Mohdak
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12
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3 answers
Can a magnetic lock be negated or overcome by a stronger electromagnet?
Magnetic locks seem to be fairly common on the doors of modern buildings, but I question their reliability when compared to a traditional, mechanical lock. I realize that the strength that it would take to actually pry a door away from a good…
Taylor Lopez
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12
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2 answers
What is the process of transferring an engineering license from the United States to Germany?
The United States have different rules about exactly how one obtains an engineering license, but the general process is the FE exam, a few years of work, and the PE exam. Suppose one then wishes to practice engineering in Germany. What are the legal…
Stephen Collings
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12
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1 answer
Is steel relaxation plastic?
Hooke's Law defines a linear-elastic relationship between stress and strain.
$$ \sigma = E\epsilon $$
Steel behaves very much like a linear-elastic material, following Hooke's Law closely. It does, however, display non-elastic behaviors such as…
Wasabi
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12
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4 answers
How thick is it reasonable for the walls of a steel gas pipeline to be?
The TurkStream project site claims the gas pipeline will use pipes made from 39 millimeters of high-quality carbon manganese steel with additional plastic coatings on both sides. Yes, they claim 39 millimeters (roughly 1,54 inches) of steel walls -…
sharptooth
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12
votes
2 answers
What is the difference between aeronautical and aerospace engineering?
Every time I search for "aeronautical engineering" on Google I see a few results about aerospace engineering. So they must be similar, but what is different about these careers?
Ethan
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12
votes
4 answers
What is the physical reasoning behind metal becoming stronger and harder if heat treated?
I was wondering that if a proper process of heat treatment (heating to a temperature above upper critical temperature, then soaking and then quenching) is applied to a metal like steel, then what happens within the metal itself on microscopic level…
Rameez Ul Haq
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12
votes
2 answers
How was this toy made?
This is a toy for infants. My son was playing with it, and I started wondering how you could manufacture this. I can't think of any reasonably cheap way it could be done.
I believe it's made of plastic and not silicone. It's flexible, but not…
Drew
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12
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3 answers
Defining the heap and stack size for an ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller?
I have been working on and off on small embedded systems project on and off. Some of these projects used an ARM Cortex-M4 base processor. In the project folder there is a startup.s file. Inside that file I noted the following two command…
Mahendra Gunawardena
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12
votes
1 answer
Why are typical UART baud rates not in multiples of 1000?
Why are typical baud rates not in multiples of 1000 instead of being in multiples of 300 i.e. 4800, 9600, 19200, 115200, etc...? Is there a mathematical or electrical reason behind this?
prasad
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12
votes
1 answer
What are left justified and right justified ADC results?
The TI MSP430F20XX series has a 12-bit internal ADC output, which is right-justified.
What is the difference between a left-justified output and a right-justified output? What are their pros and cons?
prasad
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12
votes
7 answers
Why does a gear have extra holes?
In a gear you normally have a center hole for the shaft to be put into. Why do some gears have holes surrounding that center hole?
Is it for weight reasons? Does it add stability? Is it so you can add special parts?
Mat NX
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12
votes
3 answers
Thermoelectric Technology to Harvest Energy from Internal Combustions Engines
Background:
In an automobile, only 1/3 of the potential energy in the fuel is converted into mechanical energy and significant portion of the energy is lost as heat.
There have been previous attempts to recuperate this lost energy. In the early…
Mahendra Gunawardena
- 7,135
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12
votes
4 answers
How do I calculate the forces on a desk and its legs?
I have a design for a desk, and I'd like to not just guess at how strong it'll be, but I can't find an explanation on how to figure out all the forces involved that doesn't assume I already know a lot about engineering already.
So, if I were to…
mordac
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12
votes
1 answer
What is the meaning of vorticity and circulation?
In fluid kinematics I can't understand the meaning of these terms : vorticity and circulation.
Can somebody give me a description of these terms so that a lay person can understand them easily?
M.Tarun
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