Applied Physics

How to get gasoline from crude oil 101

Refining oil starts with distillation Have you ever wondered why you can't just use raw crude oil in a diesel engine or why your car won't run by filling the tank with kerosene or engine oil?  If these things could be done, then in large part, w ...

Blog Post - Robert Hayes - Aug 17 2015 - 5:15pm

1859 Balloon Voyage

My wife and I went to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (“You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three”) Saturday at Conner Prairie, part of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Symphony on the Prairie summer series. We got there a bit early and ended up sweating in the h ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Aug 30 2016 - 9:28am

Electromagnetics Without Leaks- Like Throwing Pebbles In A Pond With No Splash

Physicists have found a radical new way confine electromagnetic energy without it leaking away, akin to throwing a pebble into a pond with no splash. It appears to contradict a fundamental tenet of electrodynamics, that accelerated charges create electrom ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 2 2015 - 6:33am

Bevel Gearbox Fail

Sometimes I’ll picture an idea in my head and it seems to work fine—in my head—but when I actually build it, it doesn’t turn out the way I planned. I wanted to try using a bevel gearbox as a pan and tilt mount for my Lego optics lab (as a pan/mount for my ...

Blog Post - Steve Schuler - Aug 28 2015 - 10:45am

Magnetic Fields Provide A New Way To Communicate Wirelessly

Electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego demonstrated a new wireless communication technique that works by sending magnetic signals through the human body. The new technology could offer a lower power and more secure way to communic ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 7 2015 - 10:30am

Independent spent fuel storage installations

An independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) is a place to safely store spent nuclear fuel while it is waiting for a geological repository to permanently dispose of the material.   The amount of nuclear fuel required to supply a typical American ...

Blog Post - Robert Hayes - Sep 1 2015 - 8:27pm

Lego Optics Lab: Cell Phone/iPod Mount

I’ll demonstrate how I built my mobile phone/iPod mount out of Lego for my Lego optics lab polariscope project. Parts needed: Mobile phone mount (from my DIY Super Selfie Stick project) 2 Lego plates 1 X 8 4 Lego beams 1 X 2 4 Lego Beams 1 X 8 Here’s how ...

Blog Post - Steve Schuler - Sep 3 2015 - 8:40am

Origin Of The Spin Seebeck Effect Discovered?

The recovery of waste heat in all kinds of processes will lead to making established processes more energy-efficient and more environmentally friendly. The Spin Seebeck effect (SSE) is a rudimentarily understood effect which allows for the conversion of a ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2015 - 7:00am

Lego Optics Lab: Laser Interferometer

Last week the European Space Agency announced the launch of its Lisa Pathfinder mission later this year to test if laser interferometry can be used in space to detect gravitational waves. It's fairly easy to build a laser interferometer so I decided t ...

Article - Steve Schuler - Sep 10 2015 - 3:38pm

Flowing Electrons Help Ocean Microbes Gulp Methane

Good communication is crucial to any relationship, especially when partners are separated by distance. This also holds true for microbes in the deep sea that need to work together to consume large amounts of methane released from vents on the ocean floor. ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 28 2015 - 7:32am