Paper 2000 Question: 1 (a) Al-Beruni
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| E Military Applications
Laser guidance systems for missiles, aircraft, and satellites have been constructed. Guns can be fitted with laser sights and range finders. The use of laser beams to destroy hostile ballistic missiles has been proposed, as in the Strategic Defense Initiative urged by U.S. president Ronald Reagan and the Ballistic Missile Defense program supported by President George W. Bush. The ability of tunable dye lasers to selectively excite an atom or molecule may open up more efficient ways to separate isotopes for construction of nuclear weapons. V LASER SAFETY Because the eye focuses laser light just as it does other light, the chief danger in working with lasers is eye damage. Therefore, laser light should not be viewed either directly or reflected. Lasers sold and used commercially in the United States must comply with a strict set of laws enforced by the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), a department of the Food and Drug Administration. The CDRH has divided lasers into six groups, depending on their power output, their emission duration, and the energy of the photons they emit. The classification is then attached to the laser as a sticker. The higher the laser’s energy, the higher its potential to injure. High-powered lasers of the Class IV type (the highest classification) generate a beam of energy that can start fires, burn flesh, and cause permanent eye damage whether the light is direct, reflected, or diffused. Canada uses the same classification system, and laser use in Canada is overseen by Health Canada’s Radiation Protection Bureau. Goggles blocking the specific color of photons that a laser produces are mandatory for the safe use of lasers. Even with goggles, direct exposure to laser light should be avoided. (iii)Pesticides The chemical agents called pesticides include herbicides (for weed control), insecticides, and fungicides. More than half the pesticides used in the U.S. are herbicides that control weeds: USDA estimates indicate that 86 percent of U.S. agricultural land areas are treated with herbicides, 18 percent with insecticides, and 3 percent with fungicides. The amount of pesticide used on different crops also varies. For example, in the U.S., about 67 percent of the insecticides used in agriculture are applied to two crops, cotton and corn; about 70 percent of the herbicides are applied to corn and soybeans, and most of the fungicides are applied to fruit and vegetable crops. Most of the insecticides now applied are long-lasting synthetic compounds that affect the nervous system of insects on contact. Among the most effective are the chlorinated hydrocarbons DDT, chlordane, and toxaphene, although agricultural use of DDT has been banned in the U.S. since 1973. Others, the organophosphate insecticides, include malathion, parathion, and dimethoate. Among the most effective herbicides are the compounds of 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), only a few kilograms of which are required per hectare to kill broad-leaved weeds while leaving grains unaffected. Agricultural pesticides prevent a monetary loss of about $9 billion each year in the U.S. For every $1 invested in pesticides, the American farmer gets about $4 in return. These benefits, however, must be weighed against the costs to society of using pesticides, as seen in the banning of ethylene dibromide in the early 1980s. These costs include human poisonings, fish kills, honey bee poisonings, and the contamination of livestock products. The environmental and social costs of pesticide use in the U.S. have been estimated to be at least $1 billion each year. Thus, although pesticides are valuable for agriculture, they also can cause serious harm. Indeed, the question may be asked—what would crop losses be if insecticides were not used in the U.S., and readily available nonchemical controls were substituted? The best estimate is that only another 5 percent of the nation's food would be lost. (iv) Fission and Fusion Fission and Fusion Nuclear energy can be released in two different ways: fission, the splitting of a large nucleus, and fusion, the combining of two small nuclei. In both cases energy—measured in millions of electron volts (MeV)—is released because the products are more stable (have a higher binding energy) than the reactants. Fusion reactions are difficult to maintain because the nuclei repel each other, but fusion creates much less radioactive waste than does fission. © Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Q: How would a fusion reactor differ from the nuclear reactors we currently have? A: The nuclear reactors we have now are fission reactors. This means that they obtain their energy from nuclear reactions that split large nuclei such as uranium into smaller ones such as rubidium and cesium. There is a binding energy that holds a nucleus together. If the binding energy of the original large nucleus is greater than the sum of the binding energies of the smaller pieces, you get the difference in energy as heat that can be used in a power station to generate electricity. A fusion reaction works the other way. It takes small nuclei like deuterium (heavy hydrogen) and fuses them together to make larger ones such as helium. If the binding energy of the two deuterium nuclei is greater than that of the final larger helium nucleus, it can be used to generate electricity. There are two main differences between fission and fusion. The first is that the materials required for fission are rarer and more expensive to produce than those for fusion. For example, uranium has to be mined in special areas and then purified by difficult processes. By contrast, even though deuterium makes up only 0.02 percent of naturally occurring hydrogen, we have a vast supply of hydrogen in the water making up the oceans. The second difference is that the products of fission are radioactive and so need to be treated carefully, as they are dangerous to health. The products of fusion are not radioactive (although a realistic reactor will likely have some relatively small amount of radioactive product). The problem with building fusion reactors is that a steady, controlled fusion reaction is very hard to achieve. It is still a subject of intense research. The main problem is that to achieve fusion we need to keep the nuclei we wish to fuse at extremely high temperatures and close enough for them to have a chance of fusing with one other. It is extremely difficult to find a way of holding everything together, since the nuclei naturally repel each other and the temperatures involved are high enough to melt any solid substance known. As technology improves, holding everything together will become easier, but it seems that we are a long way off from having commercial fusion reactors. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. (v) Paramagnetism and Diamagnetism Paramagnetism Liquid oxygen becomes trapped in an electromagnet’s magnetic field because oxygen (O2) is paramagnetic. Oxygen has two unpaired electrons whose magnetic moments align with external magnetic field lines. When this occurs, the O2 molecules themselves behave like tiny magnets, and become trapped between the poles of the electromagnet. Magnetism I INTRODUCTION Magnetism, an aspect of electromagnetism, one of the fundamental forces of nature. Magnetic forces are produced by the motion of charged particles such as electrons, indicating the close relationship between electricity and magnetism. The unifying frame for these two forces is called electromagnetic theory (see Electromagnetic Radiation). The most familiar evidence of magnetism is the attractive or repulsive force observed to act between magnetic materials such as iron. More subtle effects of magnetism, however, are found in all matter. In recent times these effects have provided important clues to the atomic structure of matter. II HISTORY OF STUDY The phenomenon of magnetism has been known of since ancient times. The mineral lodestone (see Magnetite), an oxide of iron that has the property of attracting iron objects, was known to the Greeks, Romans, and Chinese. When a piece of iron is stroked with lodestone, the iron itself acquires the same ability to attract other pieces of iron. The magnets thus produced are polarized—that is, each has two sides or ends called north-seeking and south-seeking poles. Like poles repel one another, and unlike poles attract. The compass was first used for navigation in the West some time after AD1200. In the 13th century, important investigations of magnets were made by the French scholar Petrus Peregrinus. His discoveries stood for nearly 300 years, until the English physicist and physician William Gilbert published his book Of Magnets, Magnetic Bodies, and the Great Magnet of the Earth in 1600. Gilbert applied scientific methods to the study of electricity and magnetism. He pointed out that the earth itself behaves like a giant magnet, and through a series of experiments, he investigated and disproved several incorrect notions about magnetism that were accepted as being true at the time. Subsequently, in 1750, the English geologist John Michell invented a balance that he used in the study of magnetic forces. He showed that the attraction and repulsion of magnets decrease as the squares of the distance from the respective poles increase. The French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb, who had measured the forces between electric charges, later verified Michell's observation with high precision. III ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the theories of electricity and magnetism were investigated simultaneously. In 1819 an important discovery was made by the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted, who found that a magnetic needle could be deflected by an electric current flowing through a wire. This discovery, which showed a connection between electricity and magnetism, was followed up by the French scientist André Marie Ampère, who studied the forces between wires carrying electric currents, and by the French physicist Dominique François Jean Arago, who magnetized a piece of iron by placing it near a current-carrying wire. In 1831 the English scientist Michael Faraday discovered that moving a magnet near a wire induces an electric current in that wire, the inverse effect to that found by Oersted: Oersted showed that an electric current creates a magnetic field, while Faraday showed that a magnetic field can be used to create an electric current. The full unification of the theories of electricity and magnetism was achieved by the English physicist James Clerk Maxwell, who predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves and identified light as an electromagnetic phenomenon. Subsequent studies of magnetism were increasingly concerned with an understanding of the atomic and molecular origins of the magnetic properties of matter. In 1905 the French physicist Paul Langevin produced a theory regarding the temperature dependence of the magnetic properties of paramagnets (discussed below), which was based on the atomic structure of matter. This theory is an early example of the description of large-scale properties in terms of the properties of electrons and atoms. Langevin's theory was subsequently expanded by the French physicist Pierre Ernst Weiss, who postulated the existence of an internal, “molecular” magnetic field in materials such as iron. This concept, when combined with Langevin's theory, served to explain the properties of strongly magnetic materials such as lodestone. After Weiss's theory, magnetic properties were explored in greater and greater detail. The theory of atomic structure of Danish physicist Niels Bohr, for example, provided an understanding of the periodic table and showed why magnetism occurs in transition elements such as iron and the rare earth elements, or in compounds containing these elements. The American physicists Samuel Abraham Goudsmit and George Eugene Uhlenbeck showed in 1925 that the electron itself has spin and behaves like a small bar magnet. (At the atomic level, magnetism is measured in terms of magnetic moments—a magnetic moment is a vector quantity that depends on the strength and orientation of the magnetic field, and the configuration of the object that produces the magnetic field.) The German physicist Werner Heisenberg gave a detailed explanation for Weiss's molecular field in 1927, on the basis of the newly-developed quantum mechanics (see Quantum Theory). Other scientists then predicted many more complex atomic arrangements of magnetic moments, with diverse magnetic properties. IV THE MAGNETIC FIELD Objects such as a bar magnet or a current-carrying wire can influence other magnetic materials without physically contacting them, because magnetic objects produce a magnetic field. Magnetic fields are usually represented by magnetic flux lines. At any point, the direction of the magnetic field is the same as the direction of the flux lines, and the strength of the magnetic field is proportional to the space between the flux lines. For example, in a bar magnet, the flux lines emerge at one end of the magnet, then curve around the other end; the flux lines can be thought of as being closed loops, with part of the loop inside the magnet, and part of the loop outside. At the ends of the magnet, where the flux lines are closest together, the magnetic field is strongest; toward the side of the magnet, where the flux lines are farther apart, the magnetic field is weaker. Depending on their shapes and magnetic strengths, different kinds of magnets produce different patterns of flux lines. The pattern of flux lines created by magnets or any other object that creates a magnetic field can be mapped by using a compass or small iron filings. Magnets tend to align themselves along magnetic flux lines. Thus a compass, which is a small magnet that is free to rotate, will tend to orient itself in the direction of the magnetic flux lines. By noting the direction of the compass needle when the compass is placed at many locations around the source of the magnetic field, the pattern of flux lines can be inferred. Alternatively, when iron filings are placed around an object that creates a magnetic field, the filings will line up along the flux lines, revealing the flux line pattern. Magnetic fields influence magnetic materials, and also influence charged particles that move through the magnetic field. Generally, when a charged particle moves through a magnetic field, it feels a force that is at right angles both to the velocity of the charged particle and the magnetic field. Since the force is always perpendicular to the velocity of the charged particle, a charged particle in a magnetic field moves in a curved path. Magnetic fields are used to change the paths of charged particles in devices such as particle accelerators and mass spectrometers. V KINDS OF MAGNETIC MATERIALS The magnetic properties of materials are classified in a number of different ways. One classification of magnetic materials—into diamagnetic, paramagnetic, and ferromagnetic—is based on how the material reacts to a magnetic field. Diamagnetic materials, when placed in a magnetic field, have a magnetic moment induced in them that opposes the direction of the magnetic field. This property is now understood to be a result of electric currents that are induced in individual atoms and molecules. These currents, according to Ampere's law, produce magnetic moments in opposition to the applied field. Many materials are diamagnetic; the strongest ones are metallic bismuth and organic molecules, such as benzene, that have a cyclic structure, enabling the easy establishment of electric currents. Paramagnetic behavior results when the applied magnetic field lines up all the existing magnetic moments of the individual atoms or molecules that make up the material. This results in an overall magnetic moment that adds to the magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials usually contain transition metals or rare earth elements that possess unpaired electrons. Paramagnetism in nonmetallic substances is usually characterized by temperature dependence; that is, the size of an induced magnetic moment varies inversely to the temperature. This is a result of the increasing difficulty of ordering the magnetic moments of the individual atoms along the direction of the magnetic field as the temperature is raised. A ferromagnetic substance is one that, like iron, retains a magnetic moment even when the external magnetic field is reduced to zero. This effect is a result of a strong interaction between the magnetic moments of the individual atoms or electrons in the magnetic substance that causes them to line up parallel to one another. In ordinary circumstances these ferromagnetic materials are divided into regions called domains; in each domain, the atomic moments are aligned parallel to one another. Separate domains have total moments that do not necessarily point in the same direction. Thus, although an ordinary piece of iron might not have an overall magnetic moment, magnetization can be induced in it by placing the iron in a magnetic field, thereby aligning the moments of all the individual domains. The energy expended in reorienting the domains from the magnetized back to the demagnetized state manifests itself in a lag in response, known as hysteresis. Ferromagnetic materials, when heated, eventually lose their magnetic properties. This loss becomes complete above the Curie temperature, named after the French physicist Pierre Curie, who discovered it in 1895. (The Curie temperature of metallic iron is about 770° C/1300° F.) VI OTHER MAGNETIC ORDERINGS In recent years, a greater understanding of the atomic origins of magnetic properties has resulted in the discovery of other types of magnetic ordering. Substances are known in which the magnetic moments interact in such a way that it is energetically favorable for them to line up antiparallel; such materials are called antiferromagnets. There is a temperature analogous to the Curie temperature called the Neel temperature, above which antiferromagnetic order disappears. Other, more complex atomic arrangements of magnetic moments have also been found. Ferrimagnetic substances have at least two different kinds of atomic magnetic moments, which are oriented antiparallel to one another. Because the moments are of different size, a net magnetic moment remains, unlike the situation in an antiferromagnet where all the magnetic moments cancel out. Interestingly, lodestone is a ferrimagnet rather than a ferromagnet; two types of iron ions, each with a different magnetic moment, are in the material. Even more complex arrangements have been found in which the magnetic moments are arranged in spirals. Studies of these arrangements have provided much information on the interactions between magnetic moments in solids. VII APPLICATIONS Numerous applications of magnetism and of magnetic materials have arisen in the past 100 years. The electromagnet, for example, is the basis of the electric motor and the transformer. In more recent times, the development of new magnetic materials has also been important in the computer revolution. Computer memories can be fabricated using bubble domains. These domains are actually smaller regions of magnetization that are either parallel or antiparallel to the overall magnetization of the material. Depending on this direction, the bubble indicates either a one or a zero, thus serving as the units of the binary number system used in computers. Magnetic materials are also important constituents of tapes and disks on which data are stored. In addition to the atomic-sized magnetic units used in computers, large, powerful magnets are crucial to a variety of modern technologies. Powerful magnetic fields are used in nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, an important diagnostic tool used by doctors. Superconducting magnets are used in today's most powerful particle accelerators to keep the accelerated particles focused and moving in a curved path. Scientists are developing magnetic levitation trains that use strong magnets to enable trains to float above the tracks, reducing friction. Contributed By: Martin Blume Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Q5: (i) Microcomputer and Minicomputer Minicomputer, a mid-level computer built to perform complex computations while dealing efficiently with a high level of input and output from users connected via terminals. Minicomputers also frequently connect to other minicomputers on a network and distribute processing among all the attached machines. Minicomputers are used heavily in transaction-processing applications and as interfaces between mainframe computer systems and wide area networks. See also Office Systems; Time-Sharing. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microcomputer, desktop- or notebook-size computing device that uses a microprocessor as its central processing unit, or CPU (see Computer). Microcomputers are also called personal computers (PCs), home computers, small-business computers, and micros. The smallest, most compact are called laptops. When they first appeared, they were considered single-user devices, and they were capable of handling only four, eight, or 16 bits of information at one time. More recently the distinction between microcomputers and large, mainframe computers (as well as the smaller mainframe-type systems called minicomputers) has become blurred, as newer microcomputer models have increased the speed and data-handling capabilities of their CPUs into the 32-bit, multiuser range. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. (ii) Supercomputer I INTRODUCTION Supercomputer, computer designed to perform calculations as fast as current technology allows and used to solve extremely complex problems. Supercomputers are used to design automobiles, aircraft, and spacecraft; to forecast the weather and global climate; to design new drugs and chemical compounds; and to make calculations that help scientists understand the properties of particles that make up atoms as well as the behavior and evolution of stars and galaxies. Supercomputers are also used extensively by the military for weapons and defense systems research, and for encrypting and decoding sensitive intelligence information. See Computer; Encryption; Cryptography. Supercomputers are different than other types of computers in that they are designed to work on a single problem at a time, devoting all their resources to the solution of the problem. Other powerful computers such as mainframes and workstations are specifically designed so that they can work on numerous problems, and support numerous users, simultaneously. Because of their high cost—usually in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars—supercomputers are shared resources. Supercomputers are so expensive that usually only large companies, universities, and government agencies and laboratories can afford them. II HOW SUPERCOMPUTERS WORK The two major components of a supercomputer are the same as any other computer—a central processing unit (CPU) where instructions are carried out, and the memory in which data and instructions are stored. The CPU in a supercomputer is similar in function to a standard personal computer (PC) CPU, but it usually has a different type of transistor technology that minimizes transistor switching time. Switching time is the length of time that it takes for a transistor in the CPU to open or close, which corresponds to a piece of data moving or changing value in the computer. This time is extremely important in determining the absolute speed at which a CPU can operate. By using very high performance circuits, architectures, and, in some cases, even special materials, supercomputer designers are able to make CPUs that are 10 to 20 times faster than state-of-the-art processors for other types of commercial computers. Directory: 2014 2014 -> For want of a nail 2014 -> The Global Warming that Wasn’t 2014 -> Assembly, No. 3901 state of new jersey 216th legislature 2014 -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 2014 -> Ihbb asian Championships 2014 middle school bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> Unit: Automotive and Auto Body 2014 -> Ihbb european Championships 2014 Bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> International History Bee and Bowl 2013-14 Asian Division Question Set Bowl Round Six 2014 -> United states patent and trademark office 2014 -> Walnut creek, ca branch executive committee meeting minutes Download 0.98 Mb. Share with your friends:
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