hey.... guess who's back? Boo.. it's me. yep and tonight i'm just wondering how does a radio work. I mean i understand radio wave and stuff like that but what sre the real mechanics of it what is the process that sends the songs from the radio station to our vehichle's on air currrents? I know what your thinking... shouldnt he be crying about his life right now ? But i say thee nay! I am looking past my own diminished and seemingly pitiful life for this evening, to ask you to look at the small things and see them for what they really are. Not just little daily luxury's but huge and amazing leaps that mankind has made. Wether they be small, large, helpful and/or harmful. well thats all for now i will right mor later till then...


I'm just wondering.....

Hmm, true. It is odd that we never really know the deep mechanics of things which we use everyday. I've always wondered how a camera works. It actually amazes me.

Okay,

This is tricky - given that I haven't touched this subject since my secondry school (junior high school) days... many, many years ago. So here's what I can just about remember... appologies if it's all wrong.

Radio waves are a pulse-like form of electromagnetic energy that can be detected through an antena, the antena then channels the wave it has received down to the main circuitry of the radio.

Here the wave is transformed into electrical impulses that reflect the type of wave and the signal being carried along it (this is thanks to resitors, capacitors and the like).

This new electrical signal is then translated by the circuit and sent to the speakers, which reverberate according to the electrical impulse (causing the surrounding air molecules to move = sound).

To send a radio signal, it's very much a reverse of the receiver... A recording system converts the sound (displacement of air molecules) to electrical impulses. These in turn are broadcast (via a transmitter) and can be picked up, with the right kind of equipment (a radio) which transforms the wave into sound.

I hope this website helps - it's very late so I've only glanced over it... This website DOES answer your question

As above,

this is from memory... and may well be incorrect...

Cameras all started off thanks to the way light behaves...

Light travels in rays, which can be refocused to provide us with an image of something.

A pinhole camera shows this... the pinhole acts as the refocus and the light rays end up on the back of the pinhole camera upside down.

Another useful device is a lens, this does the job of the pin hole, but far more clearly.

The image that is projected is then cast on a piece of light sensitive film (very briefly or the film gets blurred or even damaged) thus making a picture.

Keeping the exposure of the film to a micro second is down to the shutter that covers the lens (keeping the film in darkness). The shutter clicks open and then close very quickly allowing the right amount of light onto the film to make a picture.

This website explains things far more clearly than I can at this late hour...just remember to follow the link to the next page at the bottom of the screen.

I heard about this thing called something like 'Cat hair' or maybe 'Cats' whisker' radio thing, choosing my words with care here, where it is possible to have a radio working off earphones that doesnt require ANY external power supply whatsoever. In other words, no batteries. It seems that the radio waves themselves create oscillation enough to actually make sound come out of an ear-piece. this is not new, btw. It seems this was around 40 years ago, cos its pretty simple stuff.

Explain that (and why there is'nt more of it about)....

hmmmm...

[disclaimer] I am very drunk... + it's 2 am here - so whatever I type might not even make sence and be absolutley incorrect. If that is the case then will some kind person please type the right answer below?[/disclaimer]

the reason that some things (ear peices, telephone receivers etc) pick up on certain radiowaves comes down to the nature of the waves themselves...

Radio waves are electromagnetic waves that opperate on many different frequencies. The wave travels along until it is picked up be something. Something that will react to electromagnetic waves (or fields of electromagnetism). Given that ear pieces are designed to pick up and enhance such waves - they sometimes do so without the radio being turned on.

There is still quite a lot of this about, it's sometimes mistaken for static interference, but is now less frequent due to the development of technologies in reducing background interference, so as to establish a clearer signal with better reception etc... but if you were to take a long enough ariel and fix it somehow to a metal plate or even a speaker - you might find that you get some limited reception.

yeah, it's like I've been thinking recently: if a small group of people were to be somehow separated from humanity and all of it's devices, I think they would be unable to recreate the things they use everyday, even if they had the materials.
We don't know anything.

There's a tv show in the UK (BBC2 late night) where various scientists are sent to remote locations and given only raw materials have to create everyday objects - like toothpaste... a working lightbulb, etc...

It is difficult, and the very idea of suddenly finding myself shipwrecked a la Rob Crusoe or lost in some desert or jungle - makes me realise just how reliant I am on my modcons.

However - having spent some of my childhood in a developing country - I am also reminded that there are at least a billion people who are living well bellow (what we in the West term) the poverty line... and they manage to survive with next to nothing.

I think that there are a few basic skills that humans require in order to survive... and they aren't too difficult to learn (when I say survive - I mean at a very basic level of existance).

Personally I am amazed when I look at the discoveries and advancements we have made as a species... and then I just take it all for granted, go to my fridge and get a cold drink (that's still fizzy) pour it into a glass and come back to post more nonsence to bore you lot to tears.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannucha, Eid Mubarak, Winter Solstice Greetings and a very Happy New Year.