ForkedUp (Mini Articel 1)

This article will be one of many suggesting change to tools that have not changed much
.
I have asked through a post on Facebook.
"Do you know a tool designed and used by humans that has not changed for 20 years ? 50 years ? 100..."

 I have received several replies from friends and one of the simplest tools mentioned is the Fork.
Yes the fork has not evolved much for thousands of year and the reason is the same for it as for the spoon and knife , these tools are very simple and perform the task very easily. We never needed to improve the design of a fork. Still there are small things about the modern fork we can improve.

Introducing ForkedUp !

The fork has several teeth aligned that allow the user to pierce through the food, hold to it and carry to the mouth. When the meal is over we clean the fork either by hand or in a dish washer. However, there i a small problem with the fork compared to the spoon; not all surfaces are accessible, and if we are eating sticky  greasy food, the food will stick between the fork teeth and it is not very accessible to be cleaned.

ForkedUp is a suggestion for a small change. Shifting some of the fork teeth up from the others will make it easier to clean the fork better.

Taking Planet Earth to Other Galaxies

So let us build our future ship "The Earth" and take it to other Galaxies. This article drifts a bit far from today's science ,maybe a bit into science-fiction but most probably in Future science.

Our Planet Earth is surrounded with the proper atmosphere for us to survive, it is at the proper temperature for water to exist in liquid state and our dear planet has the gravity field we are designed to live in as biological animals. So it seems , to build our perfect ship to space , we need to mimic the environment of life on Earth. Why not make Earth itself, yes the Planet , our ship into space.

Source paper4pc.com

What keeps earth orbiting in place is the gravity of the Sun, so we will have to overcome that "Huge" attraction and push the earth out of orbit. To achieve this we need to built new MEGA structures , the first step of making earth a ship ,"Boosters" that can push the earth out of orbit. Any structure too large needs huge amount of energy to be built in the first place; so in order to obtain massive energy amounts , we need to master nuclear fusion energy, the energy that fuels the Sun. Today we are taking steps towards that goal and we expect to achieve successful continuous nuclear fusion much earlier than 2050.

Our biggest source of Energy in the Solar system is the Sun, so we will be using the suns energy harnessed by solar systems , thermal systems and micro suns we create from the Hydrogen around the earth to power the industry needed to manufacture the boosters. The boosters also need material to be made of and as we are exploring the potential uses of carbon material , we will be able to build super high strength structures from carbon nano-tubes , Graphene , Graphite , Diamond and carbon fiber. Other planets in the solar system have carbohydrates , so the surrounding planets could also be the source for carbon and Hydrogen to build the "Earth Booster".

If we take the Earth far from the Sun , the planet will be deprived from the main energy source . So we need to create a Mega shell around the planet. This shell will include several mini Suns ( Fusion Reactors) that emit radiation on the surface of the earth from outside the atmosphere , so Ozone can still absorb any harmful radiation and earth's magnetic field still shields the planet surface from cosmic rays and other floating energy in space. So we replace the Sun by small suns we create and take with us wherever we go.

Now that we can move the Earth out of Orbit and we can replace the sun energy by micro suns, How do we find our way in Space and how do we protect the Planet through the journey ?

We will need scouting ships to gather info ahead on the 'road" , we will need a swarm of battle ships to protect the planet from meteorites or any form of space debris. The planet will also be surrounded with transport ships which float in surrounding space , gather resources and return to the "Earth Ship" cluster. So the system does not only feed on the planet resources , it feeds on all resources in surrounding space.

An artist’s concept of a Dyson sphere. Image via energyphysics.wikispaces.com

By achieving this design, our journey in space could be infinite and reaching other galaxies even if it is millennia away, is achievable. Maybe our first experiment on this approach will start when we have space technology developed enough and at the scale needed. Planet Earth will not probably become a ship before we turn Pluto into one , or maybe Mars.

Once we succeed in turning Earth into the Mother-ship and the journey starts , we could be able to enlarge the fleet , add another planet to it. We will need to decide if the Moon is necessary to take it with us , so that we maintain the tides and all other influences of its gravity. It is important to note that the shell around the Earth does not rotate with the earth but maintains the rotation of the earth by gravitational influence.

 So here is what the fleet is made of in brief :

• Planet Earth + Energy and Shielding hell 

• Resource collector ships

• Scout Ships

• Protection Battle Ships

One Last thing could be added to the system. The mega fabrication , a modular ship which builds any part needed for the fleet at any scale. Maybe the Mega Fabricator will have its own article on this blog

Reaper by Francisco Iglesias Perianez

So this is when we become a civilization type II and we can harness the entire energy of the sun and other stars. We can also harness all the resources of the solar system. Today we are Type 0 civilization , which mines some of the resources on the Earth surface and uses mainly fossil fuel for energy.

Picture Source thequotepedia.com

Reading Using the Flowreader Method

In English, and most languages in the world, the reading goes from left to right, and languages like Arabic, Persian and others, the reading goes from right to left. One thing we all struggled so many times with that we ended up ignoring , is the need to jump back to the left side once we reached the end of a line. This is when our eyes need split seconds to find the proper line and the starting word. 

While I also read Arabic text with inserted English sentences I have to switch reading direction, but I have noticed that switching reading direction and even a switch of language did not seem as annoying for me as jumping to a new line.

It might seem strange, but I think if we practice reading sentences that are flipped Horizontal + Vertical we can eventually read them as easy as the normal text.

So If we combine flipped and non flipped text, we will not need to jump while reading, we just zigzag through the lines with a continuous flow, which I call "Flowreading". I believe this could allow us to read faster and also allow our thoughts to follow without disruption. Many times when I am at the end of the line, I mistakenly skip the next line or start again with the line I just read. In that situation I end up also loosing my train of thoughts, so I read again the sentence.

Below is an example of a text in "Flowread" format. I did a search and I have not found any example of this concept. 

Was it hard ?

Now I must also indicate that the letters in this font or all fonts are not designed to be easily read when flipped, but we can still manage. I think a new font could also be developed for "Flowread" layout so letters can be read easier both in normal and flipped lines.

Below is another example, maybe now your brain is a bit more familiar with this exercise.

All languages developed in this form, because it seems to be the trivial for our brain, but I do not think It is the best form. 

I believe if we teach young children to Flowread from the first days of school, this will be natural to them and eventually prefer this on the old text format. 

One more thing. If we train our brains to do more work at first , that later becomes second nature , probably we could develop a stronger mind. 

Back to the flow of thoughts as a closing note, I think a reader could follow any story or description uniterrupted, not even for a split second to do the subconscience task (habit) of finiding the start of the next line. 

Do you think this could become the new norm ? 

Here is one more text by Charles Bukowski.

Mind Uploading Using Nanobots

Source CG Trader

Our human brain is one of the most complicated systems in nature, and our science has vastly advanced through the last century and the beginning of the twenty first , we have discovered many things and solved many mysteries, but we still have many challenges ahead. The brain is one of our biggest challenges, we understand many of the physical phenomena related to biology and physics but we still do not fully understand the "Thinking" process.

Perhaps the ultimate dream of a human is immortality, if you could live forever and everyone you have loved would live too. Now , I know this subject is a major ethical controversy; I do not intend to discuss this subject from that perspective. This article simply proposes a possible method to be able to transfer the conscience of a human to a machine.

In the picture below is a simplified illustartion of the main brain cell called "Neuron", of which we have about twenty billion ( 20,000,000,000) we carry over our shoulders. The cell consists of many parts and there are a lot of details about how it evolves into a brain cell and how it communicates, for the sake of this short article, I will keep the description short and use a simple analogy to convey my idea.

Source : Wikipedia

The cell has fiber called "Dendrites" ,with an Input side and an output side. The signal arrives from other neuro cells to a neuro cell body and then another signal is fired and transmitted through the axon to other neuro cells. Scientist have isolated few neuro cells and studied the signals between them, from that they have learned somethings about the cells and the brain, this research continues and is evolving especially  recently with major financial investments in brain research.

The brain cells communicate using electric signals with different signature form, but a known potential averaging at 60 mV.
In the physics of electricity a changing voltage is coupled with a changing current in a system with relatively constant resistance. Using a current clamp as the one shown in the picture below , we are able to measure the current passing through a cable without interfering with the power supply. Other more complicated laboratory equipment use the same Induction principle to measure the wave form, the wave phase , in other words a more accurate induction sensor can measure the signal form.

Source : Wikipedia

Now here is where a nano robot can play a big role. If in the not so far future, we can design a nano robot with "Octopus" styled branches. This nano robot attaches itself to a cell and wraps one of  his tenticles around each of the dendrites connected to other cells, each tenticle has the function of an accurate microsensitive current clamp, this nano robot can measure and record every signal leaving the cell.

When millions of these nano robots are injected into the brain, and are programmed so that each select a brain cell and monitors it; then each brain cell signall is being recorded and monitored. This nano robots can have an effective communication system to be able to send the signal data to a recieving computer. By maping these signal we could start to better understand how all cells communicate in a human's brain.

Now comes the interesting part. The nano robots in the brain, which I will call NanobotA, are monitoring every single cell and able to communicate the data, then few steps are needed to test the concept of Uploading a mind to a machine.

1) build a complicated mesh of nano robots that have another function, I will call them NanobotB .These robots are not inserted into a body, but assembeled in a  non organic enviroment. NanobotB can align and connect the same way the brain cells are connected in the brain.They can generate similar signalls and read the incoming signals in the same way. So here we are copying the simple structure of the brain.

2) Connect each NanobotA to a NanobotB through wireless connection and synchronise the real organic brain with a NanobotB brain Mesh. Here the NanobotB mesh starts to generate and receive signals exactly like the ones in the biological human brain.

Once the two are synchronized, the NanobotB Brain will be functioning exactly like the real brain and containing the same data , the same signals and the same emotions.

Si what do you think ? Is our brain simply signals ?

Can you copy a person's mind with all memories and personality ?

What happened to the brigde? - Perfect Steel.

Why is half the bridge gone ?

Original Picture Source : Wikimedia

It should look like this.

Source : Wikimedia

All metals used today to build structures , especially steel and Aluminum are strong but not as strong as they should be. 

In theory steel should be 10 to 30 times stronger than it is. So far, with the industrial methods used to produce steel, it is impossible to make it that strong.

The metal material is generally formed of a main metal atom (Fe for steel) arranged in cubic form and attached together in what is called a crystal. Steel has a body centered crystal form (BCC), as shown in the picture below ,which means an atom in the center and four atoms on the corners of the cubic shape. These cubes grouped together make the large solid object.

It is also exactly like the Atomium structure in Belgium, it is meant to represent a single steel crystal.

Source : http://architecturelinked.com/profiles/blogs/the-atomium

What makes steel weaker ? 

The reason is simple... imperfections.

Imperfections are other atoms that should not be in the mix, atoms that are in the wrong place, not belonging to the crystal or snuggling additionally in a crystal where it should not be. The picture below shows some examples, and the video after it has a nice young lady explaining how steel deforms easier with the existence of imperfections.

Source : http://www.corrosionclinic.com/corrosion_online_lectures/ME303L02.HTM

Watch this video till the third minute, the remaining 1 minute could be too technical. 

The strength of steel is slowly improving, with the development of manufacturing technology and processes used after casting, like quenching and annealing, which are two methods the control the cooling speed of the metal so that the imperfections could decrease or increase and other properties of the metal change too. (Without diving into details here, if interested to know more simply google the words).

So why is half the bridge gone ? 

Because it is redesigned and manufactured from Perfect Steel. 

So if steel was produced perfect. How would the Tour Eiffel look like ?

How would Sydney Harbor Bridge look like ? 

What other structures do you think could change drastically ?

Source : Wikimedia

Original Picture Soure: Wikimedia

Source: Wikipedia

Original Picture Source: Wikipedia

Perpetual Popcorn Machine

This is a concept design of a perpetual motion machine. A perpetual motion machine is a mechanical system that is able to move without a source of energy, without ever stopping, some designs are too bold to even claim that the system generates free energy (free energy machine).

Of course this design is not a functioning Perpetual Motion Machine, it is nearly impossible to design such system, energy is always lost while it makes its cycle in the system. It is lost in form of friction, heat dissipation and by moving the surrounding air which absorbs the energy.

Here is a brief explanation of how this simple machine could operate. An individual corn kernel falls on the heated platform (colored in red), the water in the corn kernel heats up and eventually causes an explosion (The POP), the explosion allows the corn to expand into a popcorn and this expansion pushes the piston downward and the Popcorn with it. At the bottom, the Popcorn exits the piston from the right side. The motion of the piston drives a gear which rotates a shaft connected to an electric alternator. The alternator generates electricity which is fed back to the heating platform. 

By this design, the energy of the exploding Popcorn is partially recovered and sent back to heat up another corn.

 

I should point out however that this system can be multiplied to several pistons connected to the same shaft and flywheel , each allowed to input energy to the alternator freely but also keeping a more continuous motion for the flywheel. The gear and the flywheel are not connected by a straight shaft, the gear drives the main shaft by a torque in one direction and free rotation in the other direction, exactly like the drive gear of a bicycle.

There are few mechanisms removed from these pictures.There is a mechanically connected gate , that allows one corn kernel to fall into the piston when the piston moves downward and returns to place, this gate will allow feeding in the kernels, one by one. This system also assumes that all corn kernels will explode. It is of course possible to later add electronic smart systems that detect a bad corn kernel and disposes of it to keep the Perpetual popcorn machine running.

Of course a system like this has no point other than interesting mechanical design , popcorn making and just a fun thing to try out. All previously design "Perpetual Motion Machines" had no purpose, at least this one , while consuming energy from the electric grid to keep running, it will also make you something to munch on while you watch a movie.

There could be in fact a perpetual motion machine, if you can cheat with the conditions, for example, two bodies in the vacuum of space connected together by gravity, can rotate around each other endlessly if there are no external gravity fields affecting their motion and no contact between the two bodies to create friction.

Next Generation Self Parking Car

RFID is a relatively simple technology, it is not new and it is already implemented in several industries, including logistics. RFID stands for Radio frequency Identification. Below is a simple picture of an RFID tag. This tag includes a chip which carries a memory and an antenna which is used to read the data on the memory. This particular tag does not need energy, but it is energized by the wave sent from the reading device. This tag is relatively cheap, also carries and transfers back data accurately. Recently , there is intense research to improve the performance of the chip and expand its application. One direction is to allow the reading device to read from distances exceeding five meters and to measure the distance from the device to the tag. By measuring the distance with accuracy up to one cm and using at least three reading devices, the accurate location of the tag can be determined.

This self parking car concept, suggests using the RFID tags and reader to guide the car into a parking spot. As the accuracy could be up to one cm;the sensor placed on the car and RFID placed on the sidewalk, the distance separating the car and sidewalk can be accurately measured and the orientation of the car can also be measured using two or more tags.

As the tags , carry data, the tags can have the exact distance between them on the memory and the approved car dimensions that can fit in specific parking.

The sensor on the car emits an all direction radio wave, that arrives to all nearby RFIDs , energizes the tags and receives feedback data from individual tags.

As the data reaches the tags, a radio wave is reflected from the tags carrying the data. The time delay for this reflected data and the known speed of the wave propagation is one method the car can identify the distance from the tags and orientation.

This  RFID self park system, can be the basic system for park guidance, and additionally assisted by rear view camera and other types of sensors (Ultrasound or other) that the car could be equipped with.

It could be more accurate so that the car identifies its location and orientation for a perfect positioning compared to camera assisted park.

Installing RFID tags along a sidewalk is not of high cost, the tags price is dropping as the technology spreads. The tags do not need energy, they are passive systems, only energized by the car sensor when it is activated.

Küg - A Dice you do not Throw

As Successful redesign has a higher chance than a dice's 1/6 if you know what you are doing. Küg is a redesign of the dice function of generating a random number from 1 to 6. The exception is that the user does not need to throw Küg, but a small ball that runs through it to reach one of six gates in the design. Each gate has a number from 1 to 6 and the chance for the ball to reach each gate is 1/6.

It must be noted that One of the oldest known dice games was excavated from a Mesopotamian tomb, dating back to around 24th century BCE (ISBN 978-1-4522-6610-7). The dice has not changed for thousands of years.

 

In the Küg design,the ball is thrown in the center hole, it falls on a tiny platform inside the moving bell and rolls out of six axi-symmetric openings in the bell, and finally lands on the bottom platform and stops at a gate.( In the above picture the gate Roman numbers II ,III and IV are shown) . The ball trajectory is shown in the section view below.

The bell at the center of Küg is not made for esthetic design only, but also for function. If Küg is placed on a tilted table of up to 10 degrees, due to the force of gravity, the bell adjusts and aligns perfectly vertical to keep the chances of all gates equal at 1/6.

The above picture is a first 3D printed prototype to allow the testing and improvement of the design function.

The final functional Küg. 3D printed

Matter, Mass and the Big Bang

This article will go through several small ideas or concepts to end up with a different approach to how the universe formed and where did matter come from.

Starting with the idea that light (which is an electromagnetic wave, photon particle) is attracted by large gravitational fields, light bends arround large objects and is sucked into a balck hole and never allowed to leave. So then light should have a virtual form of mass , a mass in motion, the energy (based on E=mc2), this gravitational effect should also be valid between light rays themselves, they should be attracted and drawn closer along their path.

Computer generated imge of a star. source: http://pics-about-space.com/orange-star-in-space?p=3

So we move to the idea that light traveling thousands of light years distance should not be perfect parallel but converging slightly. Objects then seen in the sky appear smaller than they are, because light converges.
Moving to another idea with the same subject, the question must be asked, what happens when light enters a black hole, if it is not able to move at the speed , if time stops in a black hole, if it has to be concentrated at densities far higher than anywhere in the Universe. The proposed idea is that this light confined, trapped and condensed may itself turn into matter of different forms; forming the particles described in the standard model, or even the smaller pieces that make them. The idea is that energy in electromagnetic form, moving at high speed is trapped in a black hole and converted into matter. Same as Hydrogen goes through fusion in a star to become Helium. Light goes into confinement in a black hole to become matter.

Light Bent by Gravity (Image: C. Sheng, H. Liu, Y. Wang, S. N. Zhu and D. A. Genov)

This Idea leads itself to a grander thought. If at a point, the universe was filled with light energy and no matter. This light could be attracted through gravity to itself, grouped in a huge spherical form of light, where energy density is too high, Confined Energy forms as what we are familiar with as particles (in a similar approach of H , He, O, C ... Fe sequence) until the process collapse and the sphere ejects all energy and newly formed matter. This would be another way to look at the Big Bang. There was only light, light grouped in a sphere of high energy density and formed confined energy. At a point this "Fusion" collapsed, porbably when reaching a certain particle that does not balance the forces. The sphere collapses and releases Energy and Confined Energy; thus a "Big Bang".
 So in the picture below, one would have Confined Energy (matter) at the core, formed from "Fused" light; and Moving Energy (light) surrounding the core.

Fusion of H to He insidea star Source : http://starformation.synthasite.com/main-sequence-stars.php

Here is a thought. There is no absolute direct way of measuring mass. Mass is derived from the resistance to change, gravity force, impact energy or chemical reactions. In reality, there could be no mass, no matter, no particles, simply confined energy, which we perceive as matter.

 What we call mass is what I call here "Confined Energy".

Now you can look at you arm and see it as a group of infinitely small confined energy spheres, that refuses to interact or to disconnect. This Confined Energy is the building block of our Universe.

Digital Art  Source : http://thespiritscience.net/2014/06/21/ascend-academy-geometry/

A closing thought on gravity, which is still a mystery for physicist.One theory could be that there is a third field which create gravity force, this field originates from the imbalance of the electromagnetic field, the quantum effect of this disturbance is the gravity force. Because it is a simple disturbance of a major field, it is  much weaker and it has a constant value relative to the quantity of confined energy (what we call mass) because, at the Macro level, a quantum disturbances has a mean value.

Differential Wheel

It is a bold statement to say, I am reinventing it, and obviously it cannot be taken seriously, but here is a concept design of the simplest and most used mechanical device, also considered one of the oldest inventions, the Wheel.

This concept is a mechanical approach, which in theory should function, and the next step is to test it.

This wheel concept, I am calling "Differential Wheel", because it uses the same mechanical principle as a differential drive in a car but here it is applied to the wheel itself. The wheel is segmented into two parts, there is no complete circle. Part A and Part B are as shown in the picture,each is made of  three identical pads separated  by 120 degrees angles. At anytime, one Part is in contact with the ground and thus is not totally free to rotate; it conducts the torque to the ground and drives the vehicle. The other part is not in contact with the ground and thus it is free to rotate; and moves faster to be ready to make contact with the ground. The animated video could be very helpful to show how this works.

To explain how this mechanism is actually functioning, the below picture brings more information. The torque comes in through the red shaft, which rotates and with it the green gears rotate around the shaft, these green gears are in contact with Part A (in Blue) on the left and Part B (Also in Blue) on the right. One Part is free to rotate so it does not carry torque but moves with high velocity, the other part is in contact with the ground and then is moves slower as it conducts the energy to the ground and moves the vehicle forward.

The design is of course not a final functional model and does not show any bearings that are essential to make it efficient. This is simply a concept model.

Opinions are welcomed. Do you think it could work ?

Partial Indirect Extrusion (PIE)

The extrusion process, is a technology in which a metal material (usually heated to below melting point, or worked cold) is pressed in a sppecially designed container with one opening , which is the forming die. Through the opening the metal flows outward in a prism form with section similar to the designed die hole.

There are two major extrusion technologies, each with advantages and inconviniences.First and most widely used, is the Direct extrusion (DE). In the Direct extrusion process the metal block (called Billet in the industry) is placed in a cylindrical shaped container and pressed fom one side, thus it exits from the other side through the die which has a reduced cross section. The second technology is Indirect extrusion (IE), in this alternative approach the die is pushed against the billet inward and thus the metal flows from the die opening in the other direction.

An advatage of DE is that it is more stable and faster compared to IE; and the extruded profile can have width in any direction close to the general billet diameter. Disadvantage of DE is that the entire billet of metal compressed at high pressures moves forward in the container and thus friction occurs on the entire contact surface. Friction is of course a major loss of energy and efficiency (About 20% of Energy is lost due to friction).

Advantage of IE is that the Die is compressing the billet, there is no relative movement between the Billet and the Container and thus no friciton occurs, so IE is more efficient in terms of energy. The problem with IE is that the mechanical system pushing the Die inward is in the shape of beams in compression, which could cause buckling due to less stiffness and thus there is a limit on the proces speed (forces occuring) and the extruded profile passes inside the push beam hollow structure (which has to be smaller that the container diameter to go through it) and thus there is a limit on the profile dimensions.

Now that the general available technologies are explained, It should be pointed out that there are other processes with minor differences, also what is called the Hydrolic press which has its own problems too.

The process being suggested here, tries to use the advantages of both IE and DE and to get rid of the disadvantages. Any new system though would also have its own disadvantages, which I leave to the reader to point out. The design presented here, is only a concept design, there could be many details needed for having a final functional model.

In the first picture you could see the Die in green, connected to “Pull rods” also in green because they move in the same direction. In red is the metal material in form of large diameter Billet and smaller cross section extrudate. 

Figure 1 Partial Indirect Extrusion system

Now, how is the Die connected to the “Pull rods”? it might be asked. The picture below shows the connection. It is another cross section of the same exact device in a similar plane parallel to the main axes , but rotated ninety degrees (90°) from the first section plane. This design is thus not axis symmetric, but makes use of the freedom of geometry to achieve this “Partial Indirect extrusion” concept.

Figure 2 Partial Indirect Extrusion Pull Rods

The last picture below, isolates the “Pull rods” structure connected to the Die. it entirely moves backward thus forcing the metal to flow forward through the Die Hole.

Figure 3 Isolated Pull Rods and Die

Advantage:

1- The Billet will not move relative to the container in a major part of the surface. The percentage of relative moving surfaces depends on the exact dimensions of the container surface relative to the “Pull rods” contact surface. This is expected to reduce the energy loss and thus increase efficiency.

2-The profile could have width close to the Billet Diameter, as it is not limited by the “Pull Rods” geometry  (It does not pass through like the IE).

3-The process can be run as fast as DE because the “Pull Rods” do not risk buckling in tension.