Advances in the science of measurement are simplifying the task of accurately quantifying uncertainty. Michael Brown, Fluke Calibration Accurate measurements are critical to every aspect of our lives; that’s why metrology is the oldest science in the world. Our ability to understand the world around us depends on how well we can measure it. As […]
FAQ
What are the telegrapher’s equations?
You can thank Oliver Heaviside (actually a short, thin man), for the telegrapher’s equations (or just telegraph equations). These are probably better known as the transmission line equations. They are actually a pair of coupled, linear partial differential equations that describe the voltage and current on an electrical transmission line with distance and time. RF […]
Teardown: Why the Kinect V2 doesn’t show “ghosts” that aren’t there
Do you believe in ghosts? And do you believe video gaming equipment can find ghosts lurking in your house? That’s the premise of some YouTube videos that use the Xbox Kinect gaming system to display what they have claimed are ghostly apparitions. That premise has been thoroughly debunked by several YouTubers, perhaps most notably Ken […]
What are the most common digital security techniques for storage systems?
By Rebecca Reinkunz, Release Manager, Hyperstone NAND flash memory is used in various consumer and industrial products, from laptops and mobile phones to industrial robotics, medical equipment, and embedded IoT devices, such as sensors and controllers. In our increasingly connected world, adequate and robust security measures are required at all vulnerable points in these applications, […]
Can I park in one of your Lagrange points?: Part 3
Analysis and insight from an 18th-century mathematician were used to place the James Webb Space Telescope in a “parking spot” optimally suited for its imaging, communication, and solar-power needs. There’s more to the n-body story and Lagrange’s work. All planets orbit the Sun in an oval, as characterized by Kepler’s Laws, so there is a […]
Can I park in one of your Lagrange points?: Part 2
Analysis and insight from an 18th-century mathematician were used to place the James Webb Space Telescope in a “parking spot” optimally suited for its imaging, communication, and solar-power needs. Lagrange’s analysis was an analysis of the three-body problem and provided insight into the conditions under which it could be solved analytically. The five Lagrange points, […]
Can I park in one of your Lagrange points?: Part 1
Analysis and insight from an 18th-century mathematician were used to place the James Webb Space Telescope in a “parking spot” optimally suited for its imaging, communication, and solar-power needs. You’ve undoubtedly followed the stunning success of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched in December 2021 (Figure 1). It is now about 1.5 million kilometers […]
Can you tell the difference between an electrolytic and supercapacitor?
If you disassemble an electrolytic capacitor and a supercapacitor, you might have trouble distinguishing differences between the two unless you had a practiced eye. Physically, the two can resemble each other though their electrical performance differs drastically. First a few basics. Ordinary capacitors, of course, are characterized by metal plates separated by a dielectric. In […]
How many internal memories does an MCU have?
The number of internal memories in an MCU depends on how the memory is categorized. At the highest level, there are two; random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM). But, if the interest is in memory performance, there are different types of RAM and ROM. And these different types of memory can be employed […]
Exceptions, traps and interrupts, what’s the difference?
Exceptions and interrupts pause a program in response to an unexpected event in hardware or software. Interrupts are asynchronous events, and exceptions are synchronous events, but the difference between interrupts and exceptions also depends on the circumstances. For example, the definitions differ between x86 machines and ARM processors and between CISC and RISC processors. This […]