Catalog Search Results
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Electronic sensors—instruments that detect some type of physical quantity—have been around for more than 130 years, ever since the invention of the electric thermostat. Explore today's proliferation of sensors all around us and discover their basic similarities as they convert signals into electrical quantities that can be used to take action.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
How do we create the massive amounts of energy needed to power our cities and individual homes? We don't. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only converted from one form to another. Learn how electrical engineers use Maxwell's foundational equations—via four revealing demonstrations—to create generators to power our grids.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
What does the future of electrical engineering look like? Explore why answering that question depends on technological advances and … everything else in the physical and cultural environment. Using the now-defunct Picture Phone and Betamax as examples, learn how economics, politics, marketing, culture, and more affect which technologies are brought to market, and which will succeed.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
In the 1880s, Heinrich Hertz proved that the high-frequency phenomena of light and heat are also electromagnetic waves and Nikola Tesla invented the "Tesla coil" which served as the basis for the radio oscillator. A few years later, radio signals were sent and received across the Atlantic Ocean. Examine the developments that led to the television monitor and then the emergence of digital TV.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I in 1957, the space race was on. A US satellite was launched 14 months later and it demonstrated the feasibility of two-way satellite communications. Since then, electronic communications have become part of our daily lives. Follow the fascinating story that has led to the need for us to track almost 10,000 active satellites.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Sedimentary rocks make up a substantial majority of rocks at Earth's surface. In this episode, focus on clastic rocks, which are composed of broken fragments of pre-existing rocks. The fragments can vary in size from clay particles to silt, sand, gravel, and larger pieces. Learn how these rocks form and the rich stories they tell about the past.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
When people first realized that electricity could be controlled, it was the beginning of an explosion of opportunity, eventually leading to electronic circuits—circuits that can control other circuits. Learn why just two laws, Ohm's law and the conservation of energy, provide all the information and relationships needed to design circuits.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Learn what it's like to walk on barely cooled lava from an active volcano—one of many fascinating geologic experiences you can have in volcanic landscapes. Examine the different types of volcanoes and volcanic rocks, and which active sites are safe to explore and which you should avoid. In field geology you should be prepared, so review the special precautions to take when visiting volcanoes.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
From the moment your phone alarm wakes you in the morning until you turn off the lights at night, almost everything you do—cooking, working, driving, checking the news—is possible because of one simple fact: electrons carry energy. Consider the two ways electrons use their energy-carrying ability to create electricity.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Reading rock samples like the pages of a book, Professor Cotter recounts the stories they tell of change across vast stretches of time. He presents three key concepts that will open your mind to the fun and fascination of practical geology. Then he focuses on the idea of deep time, noting that humans have been around for only an infinitesimal fraction of Earth's 4.6-billion-year geologic drama.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
In the original telephone system, the connection stayed in place until that one conversation was complete. But when email was developed in the 1970s and ‘80s, people weren't satisfied sending just one type of signal. Explore the development of the ethernet and internet and learn about the protocols that now allow us to send such a wide variety of information types.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Having learned about sediments, sedimentary environments, and how fossils are preserved, you are ready to go fossil hunting! Professor Cotter prepares you with background on rules and regulations, strategies for finding the best sites, and how to photograph and collect specimens. He closes with a quiz, challenging you to predict the types of fossils associated with different geologic formations.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Having studied igneous rocks that cool quickly, now turn to igneous rocks that cool deep underground over the course of millions of years. Find out how to distinguish granite from diorite, gabbro, and other intrusive igneous rocks. Learn about notable batholiths, such as Yosemite's Half Dome, and look at the abundant uses for granite and similar rocks.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
The development of the transistor was motivated by the need for a device that could amplify signals. How batteries could convert chemical energy to electrical energy was also developed. Learn how the emergence of these two technologies have allowed us to move from electric circuits to electronic circuits, in which one circuit controls another.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
The entire communication system between our brain and each of our senses is electrochemical, with each of our senses acting as a sensor that emits electrochemical outputs. Learn how this aspect of the body opens the door to electrical engineering solutions for medical problems—from cochlear implants to heart pacemakers to defibrillators.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Stressing that he is not a medical doctor, Professor Cotter delves into the healthful and harmful effects of geologically sourced substances. Some have proven benefits, such as the antibacterial properties of salt and copper. Others can be deadly. For example, radon, a gaseous product of radioactive decay, causes lung cancer. Asbestos, a fibrous silicate mineral, is similarly dangerous to breathe.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
The most highly prized rocks among non-geologists are gemstones. This episode covers all 12 birthstones, plus other gems, probing the shifting categories of precious and semi-precious gems. You learn how gems form and where to find them. Even more difficult to find are meteorites. Hear tips for identifying these extraterrestrial rocks, which are unlike anything native to Earth.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Taught by Professor James F. P. Cotter of the University of Minnesota, Morris, this course teaches you the fundamentals of field geology. You learn the basics of rocks, minerals, and landforms, and how to apply this knowledge to read an outcrop, find and prepare fossils, assess soil and groundwater, prospect for gems and ore, and much more.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
Soil may be the most important geologic resource on the planet. Discover how geologists classify soils, focusing on the concept of soil horizons, which are distinct layers that often vary in composition, color, and texture. Analyze how this cross section, which signals soil fertility, differs depending on the type of biome. Learn how soils form and how easily they are destroyed by erosion.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
In the 1870s, Alexander Graham Bell was trying to improve the telegraph when he and his assistant discovered that speech itself could be transmitted over telegraph wires. Explore the subsequent engineering developments that brought the telephone to almost all households, including Bell's invention of twisted-pair cabling to reduce crosstalk, still in use today.
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Try our Materials Request Service. Submit Request