34
votes
Accepted
How can one detect a device (phone) falling using its 3-axis accelerometer?
TL;DR: Accelerometer records the $x,y,z$ projections of acceleration $\vec{a_r} = \vec{a} - \vec{g}$, where $\vec{a}$ is the total acceleration of the object.
When the object is free-falling, the ...
- 1,988
7
votes
Accepted
Is there any sensor that creates a visual image of magnetic fields?
You maybe interested in looking here:
Magnetic field gel based viewing film
or for more advanced applications the ferrolens (commercial product named Ferrocell).
However these optical magnetic sensors ...
- 3,768
6
votes
What's the difference between proper acceleration and coordinate acceleration?
Why does proper acceleration does not depend on a coordinate system,
and why coordinate acceleration does?
Essentially, this defines the difference. Coordinate acceleration depends on the ...
- 59.3k
5
votes
Why do the sensitivities of magnetometers and gravimiters have such strange units?
These figures represent the root mean square background measurement noise per unit bandwidth, in other words if you had an ideal bandpass filter placed after the instrument whose bandwidth is B [Hz] ...
- 18.1k
5
votes
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The change of mechanical into electromagnetic waves and vice versa
Yes, a microphone is a device that takes mechanical vibrations from sound waves and turns them into electrical signals. A loudspeaker takes electrical signals and creates mechanical vibrations of a ...
- 13.7k
4
votes
A logic question on binary variables
Assuming that each sensor sees only the light from the other night light, and assuming that each night lights is bright enough to reliably trigger the other's sensor, then you have discovered a ...
- 13.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Does the size of CCD/CMOS of a telescope affects the magnification?
The magnification of a telescope is the ratio of the focal length of telescope over the focal length of the eyepiece. At least for a telescope that you want to look through with your eye. The ...
- 411
3
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to "override" the Earth magnetic field locally?
As long as you know the magnitude and direction of the Earth's field at that spot, it's very possible! Suppose you measure the magnitude of the field as $B_{earth}$ in tesla (T), and you set up a ...
- 35.3k
3
votes
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Can a syringe be used as a hanging scale if needed?
Yes you are basically right, and I will add a historical note. When Robert Boyle (1627-1691) did his experiments which led to what we now call Boyle's law, he compared air to a spring and wrote of "...
- 56.7k
3
votes
The change of mechanical into electromagnetic waves and vice versa
Amending the previous answer, which refers more to air pressure, there is also the piezoelectric effect of some materials that can be used to transform mechanical waves and pressure from various other ...
- 3,768
3
votes
What is the negative pressure?
what is meant by negative pressure?
A pressure that is below zero gauge pressure, i.e, below 1 atm.
To translate it into a positive value, you need to use units of absolute pressure. In general those ...
- 69.2k
3
votes
Accepted
How can I determine how much energy a sensor pixel can withstand before exploding?
This isn't trivial. Silicon sensors can generally handle power well above saturation without damage. Usually, the limit is temperature. So, what you need to do is a heat transfer calculation involving ...
- 18.9k
2
votes
Piezoelectric water flow detection
Actually the answer is YES. Ultrasonic flow sensors which depend on piezoelectric transducers have been used for decades in precision flow measurement of gases and liquids. The principle usually ...
- 11.6k
2
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to determine when an accelerometer is in a vibrating state compared to a non-vibrating state?
In principle it is possible to do what you are asking for by taking the Fourier transform of the signal coming from the accelerometer. During normal motion, the energy will be distributed among ...
- 118k
2
votes
Accepted
How to sensor Jerk=$d^3{\bf r}/dt^3$, or higher derivatives (4th, 5th, 6th order) when applied in the equation of motion of a ballistic missile?
From when I worked among missile engineers, accelerometers were used, along with gyroscopes (mechanical or laser).
I don't know of 6th order differential equations.
I do know of 3rd order, namely in ...
- 17k
2
votes
How does smartphone VR really work?
Phones and other VR systems typically have a 6 axis Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). These devices can sense accelerations in all 3 translational axes and all 3 rotational axes. Software (or ...
- 45.6k
2
votes
Accepted
light point and photosensor
In order to see something, that "something" must either emit or reflect photons into your eye (or detector). If photons leave a light source in some direction, but are seen/detected "in the air", then ...
- 10.6k
2
votes
Accepted
Ficticious forces influences what an accelerometer exactly measures?
I've spent some time thinking about my question and I think that i've arrived to the answer.
Accelerometers measure only the acceleration of non-fictitious external forces
To reach this conclusion I ...
- 41
2
votes
Why can't I use a gyroscope/accelerometer only as a compass?
In theory you could.
A mems gyroscope - assuming you could hold it flat and still enough for long enough - can sense geographic North. But you need a low noise sensor and some clever filtering ...
- 30.7k
2
votes
Inductive sensor - How does it work?
When a tooth is near the core of the coil, the magnetic flux through the core will greatly increase ,because the tooth (and the wheel) helps lowering the reluctance of the magnetic circuit generated ...
- 1,556
2
votes
When the barometer drops, my well level seems to rise - how?
The porous rock just outside the well bore has a certain pressure in it. That changes only slowly.
That pressure pushes the water up, and the air pressure pushes the water down. They reach ...
- 14.4k
2
votes
How is measurement uncertainty defined / calculated (of a sensor or measurement)?
The uncertainty specified by a manufacturer is not evaluated by considering a single sensor but by considering the spread across the whole production, determined both from sampling the production and ...
- 4,845
2
votes
Is Daredevil's superpower conceptually possible?
Bats famously use echolocation to hunt for insects, but bats are sensitive to ultrasound. Human hearing tops out at frequencies around 20 kHz (or lower for middle-aged humans), for which the ...
rob♦
- 86.3k
2
votes
How does a sampling rate of 1ns equate to 15cm for an optical instrument?
We can easily check this by calculating how far light travels in 1 ns.
$$
x = c \cdot t = 299792458\,\text{m}/\text{s} \cdot 10^{-9}\,\text{s} \approx 0.3\,\text{m} = 30\,\text{cm}
$$
By how a LIDAR ...
- 10.3k
1
vote
Accepted
Physical processes taking place inside Germanium detectors
It is not pair production. Although the energy of the Cobalt gamma rays is in principle greater than the 1.022 MeV needed for to create an electron and a positron, the cross section is negligible ...
- 10k
1
vote
Physical processes taking place inside Germanium detectors
The gamma photons produce highly energetic electron in Ge which by ionization generate a large number of electron-hole pairs proportional to the energy of the electron in the depletion or intrinsic ...
- 15.8k
1
vote
Accepted
Keeping sensors at constant temperature
"heater with PID control" sounds like an unreasonable engineering effort, given that we have devices designed for this exact purpose: thermostats.
But the classical solution is to keep the ...
- 5,594
1
vote
How does the "Electromagnetic Position Tracking" work, exactly?
There are several categories of technology that can do this sort of thing (and note that there is considerable intellectual property involved):
Near-field detection: The sending unit is a simple ...
- 2,178
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