30.01.2016

Thermodynamics Chapter One

(Norsk)
Right! In the course UNI2002 Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, where I do the thermodynamics lectures, we are well into chapter two. Chapter one is an introductory chapter, introducing concept such as heat, work and system. We have looked at the different properties and units we will be using the most in this course. We have talked about how to determine the state of the working fluid and what is meant by reversibility. Then we looked at the first law of thermodynamics, conservation of energy and the non-flow and steady-flow equations. My lecture notes from chapter one can be found here.

27.01.2016

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

(Norsk)
Image from Amazon.com
Ashlee Vance has written this interesting book about Elon Musk. Now, there are several books about the man and I have not read any of the others, so I am not proclaiming this to be the Elon Musk book. I enjoyed this book however, and maybe it might be because Ashlee also hails from South Africa originally, like Musk. Ashlee is a columnist writing about technology and business also, so he problably knows his way around in the business world pretty well.

As mentioned Musk is from South Africa, but his family is Canadian, so he had ties to the American continent from birth. Although it is difficult to tell without knowing him personally, I feel that the book gives a fair account of his upbringing, a rough one with lots of bullying, his late-teenage move to Canada, and going to University.

Then it all begins! With the startup of the software company Zip2 (eventually sold to Compaq for US$307 million), on to the online financial service and payment company X.com which merged with PayPal (eventually sold to Ebay for US$1.5 billion).

Then a shift from pure software to software and hardware combined (and I mean real hardware, we are talking space rockets here!) in SpaceX, Tesla Motors and SolarCity. The first of which aims to bring the stars to the masses (or more realistically, bring the masses into space), the second aims to shift transportation from fossile fuels to electric and thus help combat global warming, the third aims to bring solar panels to the masses and thus also combat global warming.

In recent years Musk has also been active on other projects, the most known being the Hyperloop which aims to make mass transit faster and more environmentally friendly. Late last year he also announced an OpenAI project, a not-for-profit Artificial Intelligence research project.

All in all, this guy has a lot on his plate! We should be thankful that the world contains people like him, the visionaries that basically kicks progress in the butt and makes it hurry up. If you are interested in this book, I recommend your local library, or if you are willing to pay money for it you can use Amazon or some other bookstore to buy it. If you prefer to listen to your books, grab it from a streaming service like Audible, buy a download or a hardcopy, or maybe you are lucky and can get it from your local library. (PS: Libraries are great!)

Mechanical Design 25.01.16

(Norsk)
This lecture we continued on fillet welds and calculated a few more examples. Since we did not cover any new subjects this lecture, there is no new recommended problems.

  • Lecture notes can be found here
  • Suggestions for solving the recommended problems can be found here