Physics
Balloons to the stratosphere
Catalan industry is a world leader in the manufacture of balloons, used for sport and tourism. We will ascend to 6,000 meters with a balloon made in Igualada and see how the temperature and oxygen decrease rapidly with altitude. Faced with these difficulties, Would you dare to ascend balloon into the stratosphere, 36 kilometers altitude? […]
Tempus fugit
Time is an unattainable dimension. We live within the time from birth, and it structurates our lives. We have learned to measure it with nanosecond precision in atomic clocks, but we are still experiencing it subjectively. Einstein showed that time is relative and, apparently, on a cosmic scale could be slowing down until stop it. […]
Light at our service
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to three Japanese researchers for inventing a new efficient and durable light source: the blue LED. Quèquicom explains how it works. But beyond lighting, the more versatile light is laser, allowing encryption, cut, cool, heat, diagnose, read, print or move. Speakers Maria Guell, The Invisible Lighting Design […]
Cause of death: Entropy
The immediate cause of death is always a cardiac arrest, the mediate cause is cell death, and the ultimate cause is the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Death is irreversible, the process can not be reversed as well as the coffe with milk can not be separated.
Lightning catchers
The lightning are highly potent electric shocks that occur in microseconds. Nevertheless, it is possible to catch them with a high speed camera, detect them by antennas, track them on trees or subsurface minerals, lead them to lightning rods, and reproduce its plasma in cutting steel machines, fluorescent or neon. Speakers Oscar Van der Velde, […]
Designing the Catalan keyboard
The program Quèquicom proposes to the linguistic engineer Lluís de Yzaguirre from the UPF, and to the member of Softcatalà Joan Montané, the design of a new keyboard adapted to the Catalan language. With this new keyboard would be possible to write faster and reduce injuries to hands and wrists. The QWERTY keyboard finally has […]
1714: Science in war
Why eighteenth century military clothing was very showy colors rather than camouflage like today? How functioned firearms? What factors decided the victory in the open field? How was raised a siege to a city? And how the city was defended? How was medicine and surgery? The report explains what is aposematic coloration, shoots with an […]
The engine wide
What makes a car “has nerve” as a Formula 1? ABS, ESP … What do these acronyms? When the first car was manufactured? What does an engine inside? The reporter Pere Renom rides a motor piece by piece, visits the SEAT testbed and get a practical lesson in safe driving circuit.
Three faces of the carbon
What do they have in common the coal, a motorcycle helmet and a diamond? Three sides of the carbon, a chemical element with properties remarkably different depending on how it is organized. Pere Renom built a stack for charcoal. Later attends the size of a diamond and understands why it is so bright. Finally, learns […]
The influence of the Moon
The phases of the Moon are thought to be related to the number of births, crime, suicide, the menstrual cycle and even the growth of hair. Do these beliefs have any basis? “Quèquicom” witnessing a lunar eclipse and explains its influence on the tides and other phenomena. Also, visits a team from the Politechnical University […]