"Super black" typically refers to a type of ultra-black material that absorbs a significant amount of visible light, making it appear extremely dark. The most famous example is Vantablack, a substance developed from vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays. Vantablack absorbs up to 99.965% of visible light, giving it an almost surreal appearance as it can create the illusion of a void or a flat surface.
Thermal history coating, also known as thermal history indicator or thermal monitoring coating, refers to a type of thermochromic coating that changes color in response to temperature variations over time. This technology is often used to indicate heat exposure for materials, components, or products in various industries, including aerospace, automotive, and electronics.
The timeline of materials technology spans thousands of years, reflecting the development and use of various materials by humans for tools, structures, and other applications. Here’s a brief overview highlighting key milestones in materials technology throughout history: ### Prehistoric Era - **Stone Age (~2.5 million years ago - ~3000 BCE)**: Early humans used stones for tools (e.g., flint, obsidian) and weapons. The development of methods to shape stones marked the beginning of materials technology.
A Universal Testing Machine (UTM) is a versatile and widely used instrument designed to test the mechanical properties of materials. It can apply tensile, compressive, and sometimes shear forces to materials, allowing for the evaluation of various mechanical properties such as: 1. **Tensile Strength**: The maximum amount of tensile (stretching) force a material can withstand before breaking.
Firearm construction refers to the design, materials, and manufacturing processes used to create firearms, including handguns, rifles, and shotguns. The construction of firearms involves several key components and considerations: 1. **Materials**: Firearms are typically made from a combination of metals (such as steel and aluminum), polymers (plastic materials), and sometimes wood. Each material has its own properties that affect the firearm's weight, durability, and cost.
Mechanics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of motion, forces, and the behavior of physical objects. It provides a framework for understanding how and why objects move or remain at rest, and it encompasses a variety of concepts and theories. The field of mechanics can be broadly divided into two main categories: 1. **Classical Mechanics**: This area focuses on the motion of macroscopic objects (from projectiles to planets) and is governed by classical physics principles.
An agitator is a device or component used to stir or mix substances, typically in a liquid medium. It is commonly found in various industrial applications, laboratories, and even household appliances. The primary purpose of an agitator is to promote mixing, improve homogeneity, enhance reactions, or facilitate heat transfer in a mixture.
A bearing surface refers to the area of contact between two surfaces that bear a load with the intention of allowing for relative motion between them. This term is commonly used in engineering, particularly in mechanical systems where components such as shafts, pivots, and slides are involved. Key points about bearing surfaces include: 1. **Functionality**: The primary function of a bearing surface is to reduce friction between moving parts, thereby facilitating smoother motion.
Break-in, also known as mechanical run-in, is a process that involves the gradual settling of parts in a mechanical system, such as an engine or transmission, to ensure that they operate effectively and efficiently. This initial period is crucial for several reasons: 1. **Seating of Components**: During break-in, components such as piston rings and cylinder walls wear slightly to create a better fit, which can improve sealing and reduce blow-by (the escape of combustion gases past the piston).
"Bullwheel" can refer to a couple of different concepts depending on the context: 1. **Ski Lifts and Aerial Tramways**: In the context of ski resorts or aerial tramways, a bullwheel is a large wheel that is part of the lift system. It is used to guide and support the cables that carry the gondolas or chairs.
Circle grid analysis is a spatial analysis technique often used in geographic information systems (GIS) to evaluate and visualize spatial patterns and relationships within a defined area. It involves overlaying a grid of circular shapes (often referred to as "circles" or "buffer zones") over a study area to analyze the distribution of certain features or phenomena. ### Key Components of Circle Grid Analysis: 1. **Grid Creation**: A grid of circles is generated over the area of interest.
A combined cycle power plant (CCPP) is an electricity generation facility that utilizes two different thermodynamic cycles to generate power more efficiently than traditional power plants. The combination typically involves a gas turbine cycle and a steam turbine cycle, which together maximize the use of fuel energy. ### Key Components and Operation: 1. **Gas Turbine**: - The CCPP begins with a gas turbine, where natural gas (or another fuel) is combusted to produce hot gases.
Critical speed refers to a specific velocity at which a rotating object experiences a significant change in its behavior, often leading to instability or resonance. This concept is commonly applied in various fields, including mechanical engineering, structural engineering, and the dynamics of rotating machinery. 1. **Rotational Dynamics**: For rotating shafts or structures, critical speed is the speed at which the natural frequency of the system aligns with the rotating frequency.
A meteorite is a solid fragment of a meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and lands on the Earth's surface. Meteoroids are small rocky or metallic bodies in outer space, and when they enter the atmosphere, they heat up due to friction, creating a visible streak of light called a meteoroid or shooting star. If a meteoroid is large enough to withstand this intense heat and reach the ground, it is classified as a meteorite.
The Timken OK Load is a measure used to determine the maximum load that a lubricant can withstand before it fails under conditions of extreme pressure. More specifically, it is indicative of the performance of a lubricant in preventing wear and scuffing in heavily loaded conditions. The OK Load is determined through a standardized testing method, often using a four-ball tester, where a lubricant is subjected to increasing loads until the point of failure is identified.
An Arrhenius plot is a graphical representation used in chemistry and physics to analyze the temperature dependence of reaction rates or diffusion processes. It is named after the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, who formulated the Arrhenius equation, which describes how the rate of a chemical reaction increases with temperature.
Goldbeter–Koshland kinetics, also known as the "Goldbeter-Koshland model" or the "biochemical switch model," describes a specific type of enzymatic reaction mechanism that accounts for the regulation of enzyme activity through allosteric interactions and feedback. The model was proposed by two biochemists, Serge Goldbeter and Daniel Koshland, in the 1980s.
Half-life is a term used in various scientific fields, most commonly in physics and chemistry, to describe the time it takes for half of a substance to decay or be eliminated. Here are some contexts in which half-life is used: 1. **Radioactive Decay**: In the context of radioactive materials, half-life is the time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay into a different element or isotope.
The More O'Ferrall–Jencks plot is a graphical representation used in the field of chemistry, particularly in the study of reaction mechanisms and transition states. It is named after the chemists C. A. More O'Ferrall and Susan Jencks, who developed the plot as a way to visualize the relationship between the structure of reactants, the energy of their transition states, and the progress of a reaction.
The non-thermal microwave effect refers to the biological and chemical effects induced by microwave radiation that are not solely explained by the thermal (heating) effects that microwaves typically produce. In other words, while conventional microwaves can heat materials and substances, the non-thermal microwave effect suggests that microwaves can influence biological systems at the molecular or cellular level without necessarily generating significant temperature increases. This phenomenon has garnered interest in various fields, including biology, medical research, and food science.

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
  1. topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculus
    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
    • a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
    . View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivative
  2. local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:
    This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
    Figure 2.
    You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either https://OurBigBook.com or as a static website
    .
    Figure 3.
    Visual Studio Code extension installation
    .
    Figure 4.
    Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation
    .
    Figure 5.
    Web editor
    . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
    Video 4.
    OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo
    . Source.
  3. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook-media/master/feature/x/hilbert-space-arrow.png
  4. Infinitely deep tables of contents:
    Figure 6.
    Dynamic article tree with infinitely deep table of contents
    .
    Descendant pages can also show up as toplevel e.g.: ourbigbook.com/cirosantilli/chordate-subclade
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact