Electronics AS project Essay Example for Free

Electronics AS project Essay The aim of this project is to create a fire alarm which will detect fire or the effects of fire and as a result, with a buzzer, aware any occupants and persons in the surrounding area. To do this, I have researched how to construct this particular circuit. Fire is a major hazard and without the proper warning indications, can lead to devastating consequences. This is a device that can solve this life-threatening problem. A device that relies on the smoke that is produced in the event of a fire. When this smoke passes between a bulb and an LDR, the amount of light falling on the LDR decreases. This causes the resistance of LDR to increase and the voltage at the base of the transistor is pulled high due to which the supply to the COB (chip-on-board) is completed. The sensitivity of the circuit can depend on the distance between bulb. A device that uses a thermistor and an LDR to detect the high temperatures and brightness of a fire. When the temperature reaches high, the resistance of the thermistor decreases dramatically and the voltage travelling across the thermistor is pulled high and is passed into an AND gate. The same thing happens with the LDR but as the brightness increases the resistance drops and the voltage travelling through the LDR is pulled high and is passed into the AND gate; switching on a \buzzer alarm. This is the system that I will investigate and use for my system. Using resistors 100K? and 10K? , a 10:1 ratio was formed to work out the trigger point. With the 5. 5K? as R1 the trigger point was made to be 550? which is need for the circuit to trigger at around 80 C. Resistor R1 forms a voltage divider with the thermistor; the voltage to the non-inverting input being larger than the reference voltage when the thermistor is hot. When the thermistor is in high temperatures, the non-inverting input is greater than the inverting input and so the output of the op-amp saturates at the positive supply voltage, +Vs. The output then goes into the same AND gate. This circuit, therefore, gives a logic 0 output in the dark and logic 1 output in the light.

Different Cultures, Different Essay -- essays research papers fc

Every society and culture has different ways of interpreting and defining occurrences by the way their own culture or society functions. â€Å"A society’s culture, consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members†(Geertz 242). The rituals, customs, ethics and morals that are attributed to the cultures have caused these differences. To understand how the people of one culture interpret a situation or event, one must evaluate the attributes that a culture has. The criteria that an event is based on changes as one culture applies their own ideas to the given situation. Heroism and violation are two concepts that are easily misinterpreted depending on culture’s ideals. Since cultures have different attributes it is impossible for two cultures to exist and share a view of a situation or event.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Heroism and violation are two concepts that are addressed by Geertz in his relating of Ryle’s story of the sheep raid. From the different cultures involved, two different interpretations are concluded. To the protagonist, Cohen, and the perpetrators of the crime, his raid on the Berbers was seen as heroism. Cohen risking his life for his redemption of crime that was committed against him is viewed as heroic. On the contrary, when Cohen returned to his French counterparts, they saw his redemption as a violation of the Berbers, and accused him of being a spy: Here, in our text, such sorting would beg...

In relation to mertons strain theory, consider whether crime is the product of blocked opportunities

The basis of Merton's Strain Theory lies with Emile Durkheim and his theory of anomie in so far as ‘anomie' is translated as ‘deregulation' or ‘normlessness'. Durkheim developed the concept of anomie in his book, Suicide, published in 1897 to refer to the lack of social regulation in modern society as one condition that promotes higher rates of suicide. He believed that individuals possessed an unlimited appetite of aspirations and it was up to society to regulate such an appetite. According to Durkheim, the appetites were regulated by the ‘collective conscience' of society; meaning people were bound together by their common morals and beliefs. However, if this mechanism failed or was significantly weakened, anomie would occur. An anomic state would unleash in people limitless appetites that could result in a variety of deviant behaviours. It was after reading Durkheim's work that â€Å"Merton assigned himself the task of discovering what produces anomie† (Hunt, 1961:58) Robert Merton was a criminologist who applied Durkheim's definition of anomie to modern industrial societies, with specific emphasis on the United States of America, and redefined the term. According to Merton, anomie is the form that social incoherence takes when there is a significant detachment â€Å"between valued cultural ends and a legitimate societal means to those ends† (Akers, 2000:143). Anomie can be separated into two distinct separate categories: macroside and microside. Macroside is caused when society fails to establish clear goal limits and is unable to regulate society members conduct. It is the microsided category that is more commonly referred to as strain, which focuses its attention on the breakdown of society and the increased levels in deviance, which is associated with this declining change that produces a stronger pressure among society members to commit crime. (Calhoun, 2003). Strain is the pressure that is placed on disadvantaged minority groups, where the lower societal population take any effective means to income and success that they can find even if those means are illegal (Akers, 2000:144), and Durkheim classified two strains of strain: individual and structural. Individual strain is described as the personally created stress that is attained by the person while they search for a means of meeting the needs they define through their personal expectations. Structural strain applies to members of the society who determine what their needs are based on societal ideas and are constantly battling to achieve these ideals (O'Connor, 2003). Following on from this, when Merton introduced his general strain theory, as aspirations increase and expectations decline, delinquency and the amount of deviant behaviour that occurs increases in effect to these changes. Merton recognised that certain expectations created by these two general types of strain and went on to identify five specific â€Å"modes of adaptation† to tackle these strains (Akers, 2000:144). Merton began his expansion on anomie by stating there are two elements of social and cultural structure. The first structure is culturally assigned goals and aspirations (Merton, 1938:672). These are the things that all individuals should want and expect out of life, including success, money, material possessions etc. The second aspect of the social structure defines the acceptable mode for achieving the goals and aspirations set out by society (Merton, 1938:673). This is outlined as the acceptable and appropriate way that people get both what they want and what they expect out of life, fro example obeying laws and societal norms, getting an education and working hard through life. It is expected that in order for society to maintain a normative function there must be a balance between aspirations and means in which to fulfil these aspirations (Merton, 1938:673-674). Balance would then occur as long as the individual felt that he was achieving this culturally desired goal by conforming to the â€Å"institutionally accepted mode of doing so† (Merton, 1938:674). Put in other words, there must be an intrinsic payoff, an internal satisfaction in playing by the rules as well as an extrinsic payoff of achieving their goals. It is also an important factor for all social classes to achieve these culturally desired goals through legitimate means, as if they are not, then illegitimate means might be employed to achieve the same goal. There is however, sometimes a disparity between goals and means with too much emphasis being placed on the goal itself and not the legitimate means by which it is achievable. For some members of the society, there is a lack of opportunity, which leads the individuals to a possible illegitimate way of achieving the goal. This, according to Merton is how crime is bred: – overemphasis on material success and lack of opportunity for such material success leads to crime. As mentioned previously, to supplement his theory, Merton developed a list of five possible reactions to such a disparity between goals and means. The first of these is the most common – Conformity. An individual facing this reaction accepts the goal alongside the institutionalised means. A second possible reaction would be Innovation. In this case, the individual accepts the goals facing him, but rejects the institutionalised means of attaining them. Then we have Ritualism, where the goal is rejected because the individual does not believe that it can be achieved but legitimate means are employed. Retreatism is where both the goal and the means are rejected. Merton used the example of the drug addict or alcoholic to demonstrate – people who are in society, but do not take part in the function of that society. The fifth and final reaction is Rebellion. Merton reserved rebellion for the individuals who, when frustrated, would elect to simply adopt a new social order and dispose of the old one.

Wernher Von Braun and The History of the V-2 Rocket

Rockets and missiles can serve as weapons systems that  deliver explosive warheads to targets by means of rocket propulsion. Rocket is a general term that describes any jet-propelled missile which is thrust forward from the rearward ejection of matter like hot gases. Rocketry was originally developed in China when firework displays and gunpowder were invented. Hyder Ali, prince of Mysore, India, developed the first war rockets in the 18th century, using metal cylinders to hold the combustion powder needed for propulsion. The First A-4 Rocket Then, eventually, came the A-4 rocket. Later called the  V-2, the A-4 was a single-stage rocket developed by the Germans and  fueled by alcohol and liquid oxygen. It stood 46.1 feet high and had a thrust of 56,000 pounds. The A-4 had a payload capacity of 2,200 pounds and could reach a velocity of 3,500 miles per hour. The first A-4 was launched from Peenemunde, Germany on October 3, 1942. It reached an altitude of 60 miles, breaking the sound barrier. It was the worlds first launch of a ballistic missile and the first rocket ever to go into the fringes of space. The Rockets Beginnings Rocket clubs were springing up all over Germany in the early 1930s. A young engineer named Wernher von Braun joined one of them, the Verein fur Raumschiffarht or Rocket Society. The German military was searching for a weapon at the time that would not violate the Versailles Treaty of World War I but would defend its country. Artillery captain  Walter Dornberger  was assigned to investigate the feasibility of using rockets. Dornberger visited the Rocket Society. Impressed with the club’s enthusiasm, he offered its members the equivalent of $400 to build a rocket.   Von Braun worked on the project through the spring and summer of 1932 only to have the rocket fail when it was tested by the military. But Dornberger was impressed with von Braun and hired him to lead the militarys rocket artillery unit. Von Brauns natural talents as a leader shined, as well as his ability to assimilate great quantities of data while keeping the big picture in mind.  By 1934, von Braun and Dornberger had a team of 80 engineers in place, building rockets in Kummersdorf, about 60 miles south of Berlin.   A New Facility With the successful launch of two rockets, Max and Moritz, in 1934, von Brauns proposal to work on a jet-assisted take-off device for heavy bombers and all-rocket fighters was granted. But Kummersdorf was too small for the task. A new facility had to be built. Peenemunde, located on the Baltic coast, was chosen as the new site. Peenemunde was large enough to launch and monitor rockets over ranges up to about 200 miles with optical and electric observing instruments along the trajectory. Its location posed no risk of harming people or property. The A-4 Becomes the A-2 By now, Hitler had taken over Germany and  Herman Goering ruled the Luftwaffe. Dornberger held a public test of the A-2 and it was successful. Funding continued to flow in to von Brauns team, and they went on to develop the A-3 and, finally, the A-4. Hitler decided to use the A-4 as a vengeance weapon in 1943, and the group found themselves developing the A-4 to rain explosives on London. Fourteen months after Hitler ordered it into production, on September 7, 1944, the first combat A-4 -- now called the V-2 -- was launched toward Western Europe. When the first V-2 hit London, von Braun remarked to his colleagues, The rocket worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet. The Teams Fate The SS and the Gestapo ultimately arrested von Braun for crimes against the state because he persisted in talking about building rockets that would orbit the earth and perhaps even go to the moon. His crime was indulging in frivolous dreams when he should have been concentrating on building bigger rocket bombs for the Nazi war machine. Dornberger convinced the SS and the Gestapo to release von Braun because there would be no V-2 without him and Hitler would have them all shot. When he arrived back at Peenemunde, von Braun immediately assembled his planning staff. He asked them  to decide how and to whom they should surrender. Most of the scientists were frightened of the Russians. They felt the French would treat them like slaves, and the British did not have enough money to fund a rocket program. That left the Americans. Von Braun stole a train with forged papers and ultimately led 500 people through war-torn Germany to surrender to the Americans. The SS was issued orders to kill the German engineers, who hid their notes in a mine shaft and evaded their own army while searching for the Americans. Finally, the team found an American private and surrendered to him. The Americans immediately went to Peenemunde and Nordhausen and captured all the remaining V-2s and V-2 parts.  They destroyed both places with explosives. The Americans brought over 300 train cars loaded with spare V-2 parts to the U.S. Many of von Brauns production team were captured by the Russians.