Many people know that modern LEDs are more effective than incandescent lamps, and some models can argue with fluorescent lamps. But rarely does anyone think about what changes these technologies promise us.

Almost two trillion dollars - so many new LEDs will save earthlings in the next 10 years, provided they are widely implemented. In energy units, the savings will be expressed in 18.3 terawatt hours. Reducing CO2 emissions over this “LED” decade will be 11 gigatons, and oil consumption will drop by almost a billion barrels. And 280 average power plants can be closed.

Yes, professors Jung Kyu Kim and Fred Schubert from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute approached the forecast of the future of solid-state lighting systems. They tried to go beyond the scope of saving electricity "for one house" and imagine what our world will be like, in which LEDs will become much more widespread ...

Lightning always awakened a person’s imagination and desire to know the world. She brought fire to the earth, having tamed which, people became more powerful. We do not yet count on the conquest of this formidable natural phenomenon, but would like "peaceful coexistence." After all, the more perfect the equipment we create, the more dangerous atmospheric electricity is for it. One of the methods of protection is to preliminarily, using a special simulator, assess the vulnerability of industrial facilities for the current and electromagnetic field of lightning.

Loving the storm in early May is easy for poets and artists. The power engineer, signalman or astronaut will not be delighted from the beginning of the thunderstorm season: he promises too much trouble. On average, each square kilometer of Russia annually accounts for about three lightning strikes. Their electric current reaches 30,000 A, and for the most powerful discharges it can exceed 200,000 A. The temperature in a well-ionized plasma channel of even moderate lightning can reach 30,000 ° C, which is several times higher than in the electric arc of the welding machine. And of course, this does not bode well for many technical facilities. Fires and explosions from direct lightning are well known to specialists. But the townsfolk clearly exaggerate the risk of such an event ...

Recently, in the chandelier of one of the institutions of Bucharest, Edison's bulb was found miraculously discovered. To the surprise of those present, when it was turned on, it caught fire, but not instantly, as we used to, but flared up to a full glow for more than a minute. But this was not a defect of the bulb, although its service life was about 80 years ...

The path to creating a modern incandescent lamp, which seems elementary in design, was not very simple. To increase the light output, its thread had to be heated to very high temperatures, but then it, even isolated from the air, quickly evaporated, and the light bulb “burned out”.

Inventors were looking for material that could withstand high temperatures. Metals were proposed: osmium, tantalum and tungsten, as well as carbon ...

German theorists from the University of Augsburg have proposed an original model of an electric motor operating on the laws of quantum mechanics. A specially selected external alternating magnetic field is applied to two atoms placed in a ring-shaped optical lattice at a very low temperature. One of the atoms, which scientists called the “carrier”, begins to move along the optical lattice and after a while reaches constant speed, the second atom plays the role of a “starter” - due to the interaction with it, the “carrier” begins its movement. The whole structure is called a quantum atomic engine.

The first working electric motor was designed and demonstrated in 1827 by the Hungarian physicist Agnos Jedlic.The improvement of various technological processes leads to the miniaturization of various devices, including devices for converting electrical or magnetic energy into mechanical energy. Almost 200 years after the creation of the first electric motor, their sizes reached the micrometer threshold and stepped into the nanometer region.

One of the many micro / nanoscale electric motor projects was proposed and implemented by American scientists in 2003 in an article ...

In modern electric power industry, radio engineering, telecommunication, automation systems, transformer has become widely used, which is rightfully considered one of the common types of electrical equipment. The invention of the transformer is one of the great pages in the history of electrical engineering. Almost 120 years have passed since the creation of the first industrial single-phase transformer, the invention of which was worked from the 30s to the mid 80s of the XIX century, scientists, engineers from different countries.

Nowadays, thousands of various designs of transformers are known - from miniature to giant, for the transportation of which special railway platforms or powerful floating equipment are required.

As you know, when transmitting electricity over a long distance, a voltage of hundreds of thousands of volts is applied. But consumers, as a rule, cannot use such huge voltage directly. Therefore, the electricity generated at thermal power plants, hydroelectric power stations or nuclear power plants undergoes transformation, as a result of which the total power of transformers is several times higher than the installed capacity of generators in power plants. Energy losses in transformers should be minimal, and this problem has always been one of the main ones in their design.

The creation of a transformer became possible after the discovery of the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction by outstanding scientists of the first half of the XIX century. Englishman M. Faraday and American D. Henry. The experience of Faraday with an iron ring on which two windings isolated from each other were wound, the primary connected to the battery, and the secondary with a galvanometer, the arrow of which deviated when the primary circuit was opened and closed, is widely known. We can assume that the Faraday device was a prototype of a modern transformer. But neither Faraday nor Henry were the inventors of the transformer. They did not study the problem of voltage conversion, in their experiments the devices were fed with direct rather than alternating current and acted not continuously, but instantly at the moment the current was turned on or off in the primary winding ...

Hitachi has developed a new technology for generating electricity, using naturally occurring vibrations in the air with an amplitude of several micrometers.

HITACHI has developed a new technology for producing electric current through the use of natural processes of vibrations that occur in the air, which pass with an amplitude of a couple of micrometers. Despite the fact that this technology provides a very low electrical voltage, interest in it is very high due to the fact that such generators can work in any weather and natural conditions, which they cannot boast of, for example, solar panels ...

Even the last loafer, having studied for some time in the 10th grade, will tell the teacher that Ohm’s law is “U is equal to I times R”. Unfortunately, the smartest excellent student will say little more - the physical side of Ohm's law will remain a mystery to him for seven seals. I allow myself to share with my colleagues my experience in presenting this seemingly primitive topic.

The object of my pedagogical activity was the art and humanitarian 10th grade, whose main interests, as the reader guesses, lay very far from physics. That is why the teaching of this subject was entrusted to the author of these lines, who, generally speaking, teaches biology. It was a few years ago.

The lesson about Ohm's law begins with the trivial statement that electric current is the movement of charged particles in an electric field. If only an electric force acts on a charged particle, then the particle will accelerate in accordance with Newton’s second law. And if the vector of electric force acting on the charged particle is constant on the entire trajectory, then it is equally accelerated. Just like a weight falls under the influence of gravity.

But here the paratrooper drops completely wrong. If we neglect the wind, then its fall rate is constant. Even the student of the art and humanitarian class will answer that in addition to the force of gravity, another falling force acts on the falling parachute - the force of air resistance. This force is equal in absolute value to the force of attraction of the parachute by the Earth and is opposite to it in direction. Why?...

In most multi-storey buildings, stairwells usually have an electrical panel, where there are meters and circuit breakers for all apartments on the site. However, in detached houses and in the old fund, electricity panels often have to be installed on their own. And given the increased power consumption in our time, the installation of an electrical panel becomes a necessity.

You can purchase an electric switchboard with a single-phase electric meter and circuit breakers, either completed already assembled or assembled in parts. Personally, I recommend the first option to you, because finding such parts so that they all fit in the shield and can be securely fixed there is not easy.

Most importantly, before purchasing an electricity meter, you should consult your local energy sales department about this. That is, in a campaign that takes money from you for consumed electricity. The fact is that electric meters can be very different, both according to the principle of action, and according to their technical characteristics. This is mainly power and accuracy class. You need to find out these data in the energy supply from the controllers, write them down, and it is also advisable to find out the address of the store where these meters are sold. Usually, energy sales workers are willing to share this data, since then they themselves will be less trouble.

After you have decided on the choice of the meter, you need to first find out in the electrics store whether there is a ready-made panel with such an electric meter and circuit breakers (“automatic machines”). If there is, then you are lucky. And if not, then you have to buy everything separately. In this case, you will need: an electric meter, a shield (a box in which the meter and “automatic machines” will fit), circuit breakers (the number is determined by the number of power lines), a bar for installing “automatic machines” (din rail), a copper contact plate for connecting 8- 10 wires and 1 meter of copper three-core cable with a cross section of at least 2.5 mm for wiring ...