Juguetes como instrumentos de enseñanza en ingeniería: el caso del Slinky®

(Eng) Though not so much nowadays educationally exploited as it should be, toys are very useful resources in courses in science and engineering. A widely known toy, the Slinky®, is used through this article to explain in a simple way important physical principles and to show how they have been applied for scientific and technological developments.(Spa) Aunque no tan explotados educacionalmente hoy en día como debiera ser, los juguetes resultan recursos muy útiles en cursos de ciencias e ingenierías. Un juguete ampliamente conocido, el Slinky®, es utilizado en el presente artículo para explicar de manera sencilla importantes principios físicos y mostrar como ellos han sido aplicados en desarrollos científicos y tecnológicos

The pre-history of cryoscopy: what was done before raoult?

Cryoscopy is considered one of the foundations of the modern theory of solutions and of physical chemistry. This paper shows in order the first regularities pointed out by several scientists on the subject, in the first chapter of its birth as a scientific discipline. The study is focused on the identification of the different steps that helped, first qualitatively and then quantitatively, to adjust the different classes of possible solutions, including those that formed hydrates, to a basic formulation that the French scientist François-Marie Raoult would later generalize in the law that bears his name

The contributions of Henri Victor Regnault in the context of organic chemistry of the first half of the nineteenth century

A very little known aspect of the scientific career of Regnault is his contribution to the emerging organic chemistry in the first half of the nineteenth century. The purpose of this article is not only to describe two of his most important researches in this field, as were the discovery of two series of halogenated derivates of certain organic compounds and the precise identification of some of the then recently discovered alkaloids, but also the main features that identified his research method. With the involvement in these subjects, Regnault unintentionally positioned himself in the midst of some of the polemics about the classification of organic compounds that characterized this age of science

Juguetes como instrumentos de enseñanza en ingeniería: El caso del pájaro bebedor.

casi que inflexible y que en buena proporción aun hoy en día presentan los conceptos y principios de manera abstracta y sin relación con la realidad que el estudiante conoce, a un esquema más pedagógico que permite una mayor conexión con el entorno. Un muy bien conocido y representativo juguete se usa en este artículo para mostrar como ejemplos relacionados de la vida real que rodean la vida de los estudiantes pueden usarse para complementar los conceptos teóricos, en este caso físicos, y desarrollos matemáticos que rodean un tema específico, contribuyendo así positivamente a la motivación para el estudio y análisis de sistemas más complejos

The history of the rectilinear diameter law

The formulation of the so-called law of rectilinear diameter for the determination of the critical volume of substances in the concluding decades of the nineteenth century became in a very useful and acceptably exact alternative tool for researchers in the field of critical phenomena. Its corresponding original expression, and even those of its early few modifications, were so mathematically simple that their use did not limit to exclusively contribute to remove the by then experimental obstacle for the estimating of this critical parameter, but also extended along several decades in the increasing applications of the principle of corresponding states

Toys as teaching tools in engineering: the cases of Newton’s cradle and the gyroscope

Resumen Los funcionamientos de dos juguetes ampliamente conocidos, el péndulo de Newton y el giroscopio, han servido como modelo, ya sea para el desarrollo de una variedad de aplicaciones en diversas áreas de ciencia e ingeniería, o como herramienta pedagógica para la explicación de los principios físicos que gobiernan estos accesorios. La presentación de estos dos casos destaca una vez más la existencia de otras alternativas educacionales, en ocasiones más claras y de mayor motivación para los estudiantes que las tradicionales, en la descripción de ciertos fenómenos físicos. Abstract The behaviors of two widely known toys, Newton’s cradle and gyroscope, have served as a model, either for the development of a variety of applications in various areas of science and engineering, or as pedagogical tool for the explanation of the physical principles that govern these accessories. The presentation of these two cases highlights once again the existence of educational alternatives, sometimes clearer and having greater motivation for students than the traditional ones, in the description of certain physical phenomena

El hidrociclón como una alternativa para la recuperación parcial de ayudas filtrantes en el proceso de refinación de azúcar

La incorporación de ayudas filtrantes o coadyuvantes en los procesos de filtración ha incrementado la eficiencia de remoción de las impurezas suspendidas en los licores resultantes de las etapas de evaporación y cristalización en el proceso de obtención de azúcar refinada. La reducción de su vida útil a un solo ciclo de utilización implica, sin embargo, evidentes inconvenientes para su aplicación industrial. El objetivo principal de este estudio fue la identificación y validación del uso de un hidrociclón como una alternativa técnica y económicamente factible para la recuperación parcial de estos materiales. La investigación se basó en las características físicas de los componentes del deshecho resultante del proceso de filtración (ayudas filtrantes, carbón activado, sacarosa, agua e impurezas), y la cantidad de sólidos suspendidos en la corriente. 12:39 p.m. 17/11/201

The design of high-temperature thermal conductivity measurements apparatus for thin sample size

This study presents the designing, constructing and validating processes of thermal conductivity apparatus using steady-state heat-transfer techniques with the capability of testing a material at high temperatures. This design is an improvement from ASTM D5470 standard where meter-bars with the equal cross-sectional area were used to extrapolate surface temperature and measure heat transfer across a sample. There were two meter-bars in apparatus where each was placed three thermocouples. This Apparatus using a heater with a power of 1,000 watts, and cooling water to stable condition. The pressure applied was 3.4 MPa at the cross-sectional area of 113.09 mm2 meter-bar and thermal grease to minimized interfacial thermal contact resistance. To determine the performance, the validating process proceeded by comparing the results with thermal conductivity obtained by THB 500 made by LINSEIS. The tests showed the thermal conductivity of the stainless steel and bronze are 15.28 Wm-1K-1 and 38.01 Wm-1K-1 with a difference of test apparatus THB 500 are −2.55% and 2.49%. Furthermore, this apparatus has the capability to measure the thermal conductivity of the material to a temperature of 400°C where the results for the thermal conductivity of stainless steel is 19.21 Wm-1K-1 and the difference was 7.93%

Probability Distribution Function of the Order Parameter: Mixing Fields and Universality

We briefly review the use of the order parameter probability distribution function as a useful tool to obtain the critical properties of statistical mechanical models using computer Monte Carlo simulations. Some simple discrete spin magnetic systems on a lattice, such as Ising, general spin-$S$ Blume-Capel and Baxter-Wu, $Q$-state Potts, among other models, will be considered as examples. The importance and the necessity of the role of mixing fields in asymmetric magnetic models will be discussed in more detail, as well as the corresponding distributions of the extensive conjugate variables.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication (Computer Physics Communications

Michael Faraday: de encuadernador a hombre de ciencia

La historia de la vida de Michael Faraday abarca diferentes aspectos que van desde una infancia prácticamente anónima hasta la consolidación de un prestigio e inmejorable reputación como hombre de ciencia. Además de su ampliamente difundida labor científica, se destacan, entre otras, facetas poco conocidas de él como su sencilla pero definida personalidad, sus profundas convicciones religiosas y unas excelentes habilidades como conferencista y divulgador del conocimiento para públicos de todo nivel