Tesla and AC Motors – Heera J

After Tesla thanked all his benefactors, he began to explain why the AC was better than the DC of Edison. Polyphase AC was necessary because it replaced the need for a commutator instead using a simple order of currents to provide power to the induction motor he had developed. He used one of his motors that he had to demonstrate it’s action and explained every detail involving the use of the polyphase AC and the magnetic fields used to rotate the motor. With the help of Westinghouse Tesla was able to option patens which would help further his design to make it more practical for everyday use. Tesla still at this time was viewed as a visionary and his ideas although abstract are still in use today.

Tesla and AC Motor – Robert S.

Tesla’s speech to the American Instutite of Electrical Engineers was primarily a discussion of his AC motor in order to make himself and his invention known in the field. Tesla not only discussed his AC motor and it’s advantages over DC motors, but he also demonstrated his motor. Additionally, Tesla explained why all the existing motors were “wrong”, as his AC polyphase motor fixed all the issues of the current generation of motors. Additionally, Tesla publically defended his posisition as developing a uniquie AC motor, and that his design, while similar to Professor Thomson’s, didn’t use a commutator, and thus wasn’t the same.

Tesla’s polyphase motor was truly unique, and worked differently from any other motor available at the time. Prior to Tesla’s motor, all motors used commutators, which was a device that supplied power to the rotating magnets inside the motor. The AC polyphase motor, however, used two out of sync AC currents to provide power to the motor, bypassing the need for a commutator and metal brushes that wore out over time.

Memory – Rafael

Delay line memory and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) are both volatile, meaning that after memory is not held while it is powered off. The difference is that delay line was is only accessible serially. If you ever used a cassette player to play music, that is an example of serial access, because to find a song you must forward through other songs. DRAM is random access which allows you to jump around in memory such as in a CD where you can jump to any song without have to go through other songs. Also, delay line used tubes filled with with liquids such as mercury and function on the timing of a pulse. DRAM keeps each binary bit in its own capacitor.

In micron, we saw the making of “wafers” which are assembled into products such as DRAM in other companies. Some of the processes we saw through the windows of the clean room, were machines which did an etching process. Alot of the machines did this by “blasting off the surface molecules, one molecule at a time. They are kept very sterile and are kept in yellow light because white light contains all frequencies of light, they rather keep it in one.

Memory – Andrew G.

Some of the first computers ever built used a system called delay line memory for the memory on the computer.  Delay line memory works by having tubes of mercury and sending in pulses then having the other part of the memory decode the pulses when they needed to be called uppon.  This was a very large system that had to be kept at a specific temperature so that the pulses could be decoded.  The new standard for memory is called DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory). This system uses capacitors to store bits instead of storing them in pulses.  The problem with the normal style of memory is that when the power goes out all the information is lost on the memory.

Micron Trip – Heera Jay

The micron trip was interesting. We learned a little bit of a background about the micron center and what it does. They showed us a little about the history of the micron center and how it is a part of an everyday household appliances. They manufacture chips for Intel, Sony, Apple and many other companies. Micron is a large corporate tha has branched out to Asia and Europe.

I was really happy with this trip becasue it was too bland. I was not expecting a small, very small tour down a hallway. I thought we migh get see the inside see how things are made. I wanted actually see indepth on how they do these things. So i was extremely disappointed when all we did was walk down a hallway.

How Transformers Work

The transformer is a device that transform electricity form one voltage to another. The voltage would travel thought many coiled insulated wires. ”The greater the number of wrapped coils, the higher the voltage would rise”(130).   It only works with alternate currents because of the magnetic field created by the swift oscillations of AC electrons. Alternate Current is like a sine graph, the way it moves up and down is the reason why the transformers works. The reason why AC became famous was because the electricity could travel longer distances without any voltage being dropped.

The transformer was first created by Michael Faraday in 1831. it was just two copper wires coiled around an iron bar. “The ‘primary’ is a copper wire that is fed electric current, generating a magnetic field. The ’secondary’ is the copper wire that intercepts the primary’s field of force .” Th