Adding Channels In the early 1950s, cable systems began experimenting with ways to use microwave transmitting and receiving towers to capture the signals from distant stations. In some cases, this made television available to people who lived outside the range of standard broadcasts. In other cases, especially in the northeastern United States, it meant that […]
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Are Atomic Clocks Radioactive? Atomic clocks keep time better than any other clock. They even keep time better than the rotation of the Earth and the movement of the stars. Without atomic clocks, GPS navigation would be impossible, the Internet would not synchronize, and the position of the planets would not be known with enough
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The Basics If you have read How Pendulum Clocks Work, you know that all clocks (regardless of technology) have a few required components: A source of power to run the clock In a pendulum clock, the weights or the springs handle this role. An accurate timebase that acts as the clock’s heartbeat In a pendulum
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Circuit Breaker: At Work in Your Home The power distribution grid delivers electricity from a power plant to your house. Inside your house, the electric charge moves in a large circuit, which is composed of many smaller circuits. One end of the circuit, the hot wire, leads to the power plant. The other end, called
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Ceiva and the Computerless This picture frame is designed to enable people with no computer, no digital camera and no computer skills to benefit from some aspects of the digital boom. The idea is that a person who does have a computer, a digital camera and computer skills buys the frame, sets up the account
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Types of Security Cameras Before you actually invest in a security camera system, you need to think about what you’ll be watching and what you need in order to watch it. The number of cameras you want is probably the first question that should come to mind. Are you focusing on one room in the
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PSP Innovations Sony practically invented the world of portable electronics when it released the Sony Walkman audio cassette player in 1979. When it came time to design a portable gaming system, Sony wasn’t content to replicate what had come before: Typical handheld game systems are a few generations behind the cutting edge of home console
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What is Surround Sound? There are many ways to make and present a sound recording. The simplest method, and the one used in the earliest sound movies, is called monaural or simply mono. Mono means that all the sound is recorded onto one audio track or channel (a single spiraled groove in a record, for
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What is a Diode? A diode is the simplest sort of semiconductor device. Broadly speaking, a semiconductor is a material with a varying ability to conduct electrical current. Most semiconductors are made of a poor conductor that has had impurities (atoms of another material) added to it. The process of adding impurities is called doping.
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Making a Flash A basic camera flash system, like you would find in a point-and-shoot camera, has three major parts. A small battery, which serves as the power supply A gas discharge tube, which actually produces the flash A circuit (made up of a number of electrical components), which connects the power supply to the
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