Monday, April 30, 2007

Freeway

A freeway is a multi-lane highway designed for high-speed travel by large numbers of vehicles, and having no traffic lights, stop signs, nor other regulations requiring vehicles to stop for cross-traffic.

In general Design features
Freeways have high speed limits and multiple lanes for travel in each direction. The number of lanes may vary from four or six in rural areas to as high as sixteen or eighteen in certain global cities.
A median or central reservation separates the lanes traveling in opposite directions. Partition may be achieved through distance or through the use of high crash barriers like cable barriers and Jersey barriers.
Crossroads are bypassed by grade division using underpasses and overpasses. In addition to the sidewalks attached to roads that go over or under a freeway, nearly all countries also supply specialized pedestrian bridges and underground tunnels. Such structures enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross the freeway without having to make a long detour to the nearest road for which a grade separation has been provided.
Freeway entrances and exits are limited in number, and are designed with special onramps and off ramps, so as to ensure that vehicles do not disrupt the main flow of traffic as they enter or leave the freeway. In some countries, the exits are numbered. Exit numbering may be by mile or kilometer, or in a simple chronological fashion.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Egyptian chairs

The chair is of extreme antiquity, although for many centuries and certainly for thousands of years it was an article of state and dignity rather than an article of ordinary use. “The chair” is still extensively used as the emblem of authority in the House of Commons and in public meetings. It was not, in fact, until the 16th century that it became common anywhere. The chest, the bench and the stool were awaiting then the ordinary seats of everyday life, and the number of chairs which have survived from an earlier date is exceedingly limited; most of such examples are of ecclesiastical or seigneurial origin. Our knowledge of the chairs of remote antiquity is derived almost entirely from monuments, sculpture and paintings. A few definite examples exist in the British Museum, in the Egyptian museum at Cairo, and elsewhere.
Egyptian chairs
In ancient Egypt chairs appear to have been of great richness and splendour. Fashioned of ebony and- ivory, or of carved and gilded wood, they were enclosed with costly materials and supported upon representations of the legs of beasts or the figures of captives. An arm-chair in fine preservation found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings is astonishingly similar, even in small details, to that "Empire" style which followed Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt. The first monuments of Nineveh represent a chair without a back but with attractively carved legs ending in lions’ claws or bulls’ hoofs. Others are supported by figures in the nature of caryatides or by animals.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Atomic clock

An atomic clock is a type of clock so as to uses an atomic resonance frequency standard as its counter. Early atomic clocks were masers by means of attached equipment. Today's best atomic frequency standards (or clocks) are based on more advanced physics involving cold atoms and atomic fountains. National standards agencies maintain an accuracy of 10-9 seconds per day, and a precision equal to the frequency of the radio transmitter pumping the maser. The clocks keep up a continuous and stable time scale, International Atomic Time (TAI). For civil time, another time scale is disseminated, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). UTC is derived from TAI, but coordinated with the passing of day and night based on astronomical observations.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Satellite phone

A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a mobile phone that communicates directly with orbiting communications satellites. Depending on the architecture of a particular system, coverage may comprise the entire Earth, or only specific regions.
Satellite phone (Inmarsat)The mobile equipment, also known as a terminal or earth station, varies generally. A satellite phone handset has a size and weight comparable to that of a late 1980s or early 1990s cell phone, but with a large retractable antenna. These are popular on expeditions into remote areas where terrestrial cellular service is unavailable.
A fixed installation, such as used shipboard, may include large, rugged, rack-mounted electronics, and a steerable microwave antenna on the mast that mechanically tracks the overhead satellites.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Mobile phone

A mobile phone or cell phone is an electronic telecommunications device. Most current mobile phones connect in its place to the network using a wireless radio wave transmission technology. These mobile phones communicate via a cellular network of base stations, which is in turn connected to the conventional telephone network. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the car phone was the only mobile phone available.In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, a mobile phone can support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, packet switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video.Some of the world's largest mobile phone manufacturers include Alcatel, Audiovox, Fujitsu, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic, Philips, Sagem, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, SK Teletech, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba.
There are also specialist communication systems linked to, but distinct from mobile phones, such as satellite phones and Professional Mobile Radio. Mobile phones are also separate from cordless telephones, which generally operate only within a limited range of a specific base station.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Snake River

The Snake River is a river in the western part of the United States. The Snake River is 1,038 miles (1,670 km) in length, and is the Columbia River's main tributary. The Lewis and Clark expedition (1803-6) was the first major U.S. exploration of the river, and the Snake was once well-known as the Lewis River.
The Snake River's many hydroelectric power plants are a main source of electricity in the region. Its watershed provides irrigation for various projects, with the Minidoka, Boise, Palisades, and Owyhee projects by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, as well as a variety of private projects such as at Twin Falls. However, these dams have also had an adverse environmental effect on wildlife, most notably on wild salmon migrations.
The Snake runs through a number of gorges, as well as one of the deepest in the world, Hells Canyon, with a maximum depth of 7,900 feet (2,410 m).
The name "Snake" possibly derived from an S-shaped (snake) sign which the Shoshone Indians made with their hands to mimic swimming salmon. Variant names of the river have included: