Switches in Circuits

This is a miniature portable key board that can be plugged in and used for sending text messages to friends on the Xbox 360. It draws power from the xbox controller itself and works through the physics concept of circuits. When a button is pushed down, it completes a circuit that then sends an electrical impulse contiguous to a given letter or number on the pad. Each word on screen is created by a complicated set of circuits within the messenger kit. Furthermore, circuits are altered by the addition of a SHIFT button, which can produce capital letters, and a GREEN and ORANGE button. When these buttons are held down, they are able to change what each letter or number does. For example, by holding down the green button and pressing W, the @ sign will appear. This is because the green button + W is a different circuit for the electrical impulse than the letter W alone.

CFL vs. Incandescent

Did you know that the action of switching out an incandescent light bulb for a CFL (compact fluorescent light bulb) in every US household would be equivalent to removing the emissions of 1,000,000 cars? This is possible because of the more energy-efficient design of the CFL. While incandescent light bulbs rely on tungsten filament that uses more energy to produce heat than light, CFLs work using a different design. CFLs are made up of tubes with electrodes at their ends. The electrodes shoot electrons through the argon and mercury filled tubes. In turn, having recieved energy, the gases strike a phosphor coating inside a tube, which creates a fluorescent light. This virtually takes away the heat factor in using up energy. An incandescent light generally produces 15 lumens per watt, while a CFL produces 45 lumens per watt. That is why, when producing the same level of brightness, a CFL only needs a 1/3 of the amount of energy that the incandescent bulb uses.