Category Archives: Photos

Seven Ferrite Rings For the Laser-Lords in Their Dark Labs of Cinderblock

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OK, more than seven. Ferrite rings (aka cores) are used as inductive loads in circuits, among other things. Any alternating current in a wire creates a magnetic field. By looping the wire through the ring a few times, you will create a changing magnetic field inside, which will produce eddy currents. These currents create fields which oppose the induced changes (this is Lenz’s law). From the circuit’s point of view (I hope it will excuse me anthropomorphizing it; I know circuits dislike that) this is an inductive load, so the alternating current sees a higher impedance than the DC, and this knocks down any high-frequency noise you might have and reduces what you write onto the components being powered.

The Drop Thickens

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Eau, water picture! Artist makes a splash with his amazing portfolio of liquid droplets

By thickening the water with guar gum he was also able to alter the shape of the splashes, making some of them take on the bizarre look of something from a science-fiction film or a nuclear mushroom cloud.

The shapes, which varied from 3cm to 15cm, were altered even further by adding sugar and, by putting rinse aid in the dish, he was able to increase the height of the droplet splashes.

However, were it not for the advancements of high-speed photography, these images would not exist as they are impossible to see with the naked eye.

flickr: Liquid Splashes

Johnny Cash Takes Some Pictures

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I fell into a burning ring of fire …

Nyiragongo Crater: Journey to the Center of the World

In June 2010, a team of scientists and intrepid explorers stepped onto the shore of the lava lake boiling in the depths of Nyiragongo Crater, in the heart of the Great Lakes region of Africa. The team had dreamed of this: walking on the shores of the world’s largest lava lake. Members of the team had been dazzled since childhood by the images of the 1960 documentary “The Devil’s Blast” by Haroun Tazieff, who was the first to reveal to the public the glowing red breakers crashing at the bottom of Nyiragongo crater. Photographer Olivier Grunewald was within a meter of the lake itself, giving us a unique glimpse of it’s molten matter.

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15. The goal of the expedition is to reach the rim of the lava lake. Nobody has previously survived such an encounter.

Same photographer who did the burning molten sulfur spread.

That's Infralife!

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The Virtuosi: Life in the Infrared

Modified-webcam pictures.

[I]f we get an object hot enough, it will glow visibly. However, warm objects (say, humans, cars, tanks) while not emitting enough visible light to glow, will emit easily detectable infrared light. This makes infrared imaging a handy technology for finding warm things in the dark. And, since many opaque things in the visible are transparent in the infrared (or vice versa), you can dream up a lot of fun to be had if you could only see in the infrared.

Not only fun, but also easy, and I know because I’ve done it, too.