Subject:
All Disciplines Arts & Humanities Biology & Life Sciences Business & Economics Chemistry & Materials Science Computer Science & Mathematics Engineering Environmental & Earth Sciences Medicine & Pharmacology Physical Sciences Public Health & Healthcare Social Sciences
Sort:
Hottest Latest Alphabetical (A-Z) Alphabetical (Z-A)
Type:
All Topic Review Biography
Topic Review
Year
A year is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet, four seasons are generally recognized: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In tropical and subtropical regions, several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons; but in the seasonal tropics, the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked. A calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earth's orbital period, as counted in a given calendar. The Gregorian calendar, or modern calendar, presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a leap year of 366 days, as do the Julian calendars; see below. For the Gregorian calendar, the average length of the calendar year (the mean year) across the complete leap cycle of 400 years is 365.2425 days. The ISO standard ISO 80000-3, Annex C, supports the symbol a (for Latin annus) to represent a year of either 365 or 366 days. In English, the abbreviations y and yr are commonly used. In astronomy, the Julian year is a unit of time; it is defined as 365.25 days of exactly 86,400 seconds (SI base unit), totalling exactly 31,557,600 seconds in the Julian astronomical year. The word year is also used for periods loosely associated with, but not identical to, the calendar or astronomical year, such as the seasonal year, the fiscal year, the academic year, etc. Similarly, year can mean the orbital period of any planet; for example, a Martian year and a Venusian year are examples of the time a planet takes to transit one complete orbit. The term can also be used in reference to any long period or cycle, such as the Great Year.
  • 2.4K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Biography
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich ForMemRS[1] (Belarusian: Я́каў Бары́савіч Зяльдо́віч, Russian: Я́ков Бори́сович Зельдо́вич; 8 March 1914 – 2 December 1987), also known as YaB,[2] was a Soviet physicist of Belarusian Jewish ethnicity, who is known for his prolific contributions in cosmology and the physics of thermonuclear and hydrodynamical phenome
  • 842
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Yajnavalkya's 95 Years Cycle of Synchronisation
Yajnavalkya's 95 Years Cycle of Synchronisation is the model proposed by the great Indian philosopher Yajnavalkya which explains the mathematical concept of the synchronisation of the motions of the Sun and the Moon. Yajnavalkya invented the 95 years of the periodic cycle, when the solar and lunar motions get synchronised. This 95 years of the periodic cycle is also known as Yajnavalkya Cycle. 
  • 415
  • 25 Dec 2023
Topic Review
X-ray Images and Spectrograms with Spatial Resolution
X-ray imaging diagnostics based on Fresnel lenses are very promising as the field of view is of the order of 1 mm and even higher, and the spatial resolution can reach hundreds of nm. The obvious disadvantage of such diagnostics is the presence of the chromatic effect, which reduces the contrast of the image and leads to the need to use a rather narrow spectral range. The spectrographs with flat or curved crystals used have a satisfactory spectral resolution but cannot always provide sufficient luminosity and spatial resolution when it comes to obtaining images of plasma sources. Spectrometers with toroidal schemes do not have these disadvantages, but their surface is much more difficult to fabricate and the resulting schemes are difficult to set up because of the limitation in all six degrees of freedom.
  • 447
  • 16 Dec 2022
Topic Review
X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure
X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), also known as near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), is a type of absorption spectroscopy that indicates the features in the X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) of condensed matter due to the photoabsorption cross section for electronic transitions from an atomic core level to final states in the energy region of 50–100 eV above the selected atomic core level ionization energy, where the wavelength of the photoelectron is larger than the interatomic distance between the absorbing atom and its first neighbour atoms.
  • 390
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Working Fluids
Heat engines, refrigeration cycles and heat pumps usually involve a fluid to and from which heat is transferred while undergoing a thermodynamic cycle. This fluid is called the working fluid. Refrigeration and heat pump technologies often refer to working fluids as refrigerants. Most thermodynamic cycles make use of the latent heat (adventages of phase change) of the working fluid. In case of other cycles the working fluid remains in gaseous phase while undergoing all the processes of the cycle. When it comes to heat engines, working fluid generally undergoes a combustion process as well, for example in internal combustion engines or gas turbines. There are also technologies in heat pump and refrigeration, where working fluid does not change phase, such as reverse Brayton or Stirling cycle. This article summarises the main critera of selecting working fluids for a thermodynamic cycle, such as heat engines including low grade heat recovery using Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) for geothermal energy, waste heat, thermal solar energy or biomass and heat pumps and refrigeration cycles. The article addresses how working fluids affect technological applications, where the working fluid undergoes a phase transition and does not remain in its original (mainly gaseous) phase during all the processes of the thermodynamic cycle. Finding the optimal working fluid for a given purpose – which is essential to achieve higher energy efficiency in the energy conversion systems – has great impact on the technology, namely it does not just influence operational variables of the cycle but also alters the layout and modifies the design of the equipment. Selection criteria of working fluids generally include thermodynamic and physical properties besides economical and environmental factors, but most often all of these criteria are used together.
  • 2.1K
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Wireless USB
Wireless USB (Universal Serial Bus) was a short-range, high-bandwidth wireless radio communication protocol created by the Wireless USB Promoter Group which intended to increase the availability of general USB-based technologies. It was unrelated to Wi-Fi, and different from the Cypress WirelessUSB offerings. It was maintained by the WiMedia Alliance which ceased operations in 2009. Wireless USB is sometimes abbreviated as "WUSB", although the USB Implementers Forum discouraged this practice and instead prefers to call the technology Certified Wireless USB to distinguish it from the competing UWB standard. Wireless USB was based on the (now defunct) WiMedia Alliance's Ultra-WideBand (UWB) common radio platform, which is capable of sending 480 Mbit/s at distances up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) and 110 Mbit/s at up to 10 metres (33 ft). It was designed to operate in the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz frequency range, although local regulatory policies may restrict the legal operating range in some countries. The standard is now obsolete, and no new hardware has been produced for many years. Support for the standard was deprecated in Linux 5.4 and removed in Linux 5.7
  • 254
  • 28 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Wind Turbines Vibration Control
The larger wind turbines are facing higher loads, and the imperatives of mass reduction make them more flexible. Size increase of wind turbines results in higher structural vibrations that reduce the lifetime of the components (blades, main shaft, bearings, generator, gearbox, etc.) and might lead to failure or destruction. Different systems to control the vibration of wind turbines are available, acting either on the tower or directly on the blade.
  • 3.7K
  • 06 Jun 2021
Biography
William T. Kane
William T. Kane (September 8, 1932 – September 23, 2008) was a physicist for Corning Incorporated, formerly Corning Glass Works, Inc., in Corning, New York, who held patents in crystallography and heat-sensing technology—developments which contributed to the early processing and manufacture of fiber optics. He was also the Corning representative for the establishment of international standar
  • 303
  • 16 Nov 2022
Biography
William Happer
William "Will" Happer (born July 27, 1939[1]) is an American physicist who has specialized in the study of atomic physics, optics and spectroscopy.[2] He is the Cyrus Fogg Brackett[3] Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Princeton University,[2] and a long-term member of the JASON advisory group,[1] where he pioneered the development of adaptive optics. From 1991 to 1993, Happer served as director
  • 993
  • 15 Nov 2022
  • Page
  • of
  • 130
Featured Entry Collections
>>

Featured Books

>>
Encyclopedia of Social Sciences
Encyclopedia of COVID-19
Encyclopedia of Fungi
Encyclopedia of Digital Society, Industry 5.0 and Smart City
Feedback