It’s no surprise that engineering (also science and mathematics, for that matter) uses a heck of a lot of Greek letters to represent concepts and variables. English, for example, has only 26 letters in the alphabet (actually, the Roman alphabet). When we talk about things like diameter, density, degrees of freedom, and displacement, a single [...]
Have you ever looked at a car’s radiator or a computer’s cooling mechanism and wondered why they consist of several thin protruding surfaces? These protruding surfaces are known as fins, and they are key elements in effective heat transfer for components such as a radiator or a computer that require effective cooling. What makes fins [...]
This is a modest part 2 of Airport Runway Design from last week. Last time, I explained a little about the nomenclature of runways, from the 10-degree approximated angles in the direction they are pointed. As review, the “09″ marker below indicates 90 degrees (which we know as pointing to the right). Note that the [...]
While we’re on the topic of airplanes and things related to airplanes, here is an interesting article from The New York Times about a safety board meeting regarding US Airways Flight 1549, which landed safely in the Hudson River earlier this year as a result of an unfortunate rendezvous with some Canada geese (a bird [...]
Understanding airport runway design is probably unnecessary if you aren’t in the business or industry of caring about it, but it is actually pretty cool stuff. (It’s not likely that you’ll be running around on the tarmac anyway.) What’s a runway for? It is for airplanes to take off and land. That one’s easy. But [...]