Engineering

Libby asks: How do light bulbs unscrew themselves? This can't be only be happening to me. My lamps are really old and rickety for the most part but I don't think that's the reason that I have to retighten the bulbs every once in while. Sometimes I think the bulb is out and discover it's just not twisted in far enough. And today I changed a bulb that did burn out but it was … [Read more...] about The Mystery of the Self-Unscrewing Bulb

The New York Times has a Flash illustration of Cory Lidle's plane crash that is just a terrific example of how to use computerized media to explain a news story. Check it out. … [Read more...] about NYT Animates the Cory Lidle Crash

Well, I thought my electrical problems were over. About five minutes ago, however, the lights went out. Looking out the windows, I can see that the lights are out in several neighboring blocks as well. I can still see skyglow, and some lights further away, so it's not the whole city. (4 minutes to shutdown.) After the first couple of minutes, the power came on for about 15 … [Read more...] about Son of VAC

(Links to Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3.) When I first called ComEd's customer service center to complain about the electricity in my house, I wasn't even sure that 135 volts AC was out of the accepted range for electric service. While several consumer web sites have information about electricity costs and rules for disconnection, the web has surprisingly little about … [Read more...] about VAC, The Final Chapter

I did some more exploration of the local electrical power situation I outlined in my previous two postings. (Part 1 and Part 2.) I drove to another block fed by a different phase of the same three-phase distribution lines that feed my building. After a couple of times around the block, I spotted an apartment building with an outdoor outlet, so I parked and walked up to test … [Read more...] about VAC, Part 3