Tag: handful

Mercedes F1 automobile borrows “a handful of methods” from rocket technological know-how

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Mercedes F1 automobile borrows “a handful of methods” from rocket technological know-how

Symonds reported that know-how derived from the aerospace field has served Mercedes to package an ultra-effective cooling process that in switch has enabled it to develop the slender sidepod arrangement unveiled on the initial day of the Bahrain test.

Symonds, who was the key architect of the 2022 rules, admitted that he hadn’t expected these types of a extraordinary interpretation of the principles.

“This is a very novel method,” he stated in an interview with F1 TV’s Ted Kravitz.

“I like to see novel interpretations. I have to say it can be not one particular that I would anticipated to see. And I’m nonetheless genuinely impressed at how they are acquiring the air by means of to neat the motor vehicle, but they naturally are.

“And I think it will have acquired their rivals form of going back again to the rulebook with their purple pencil, and observing just what they’ve carried out.”

Symonds admitted that when his group of engineers wrote the principles and created a entire-sizing design of the 2022 auto they predicted a requirement for larger radiator inlets.

“I guess it was just a minor little bit a lot more radical than we assumed,” he reported.

“As we developed the aerodynamics of this established of laws, of course, we seemed at lots of things, not just downforce generating, but we had to glance at brake cooling, had to seem at tyre heating. And specifically, we experienced to search at motor cooling.

“And we were utilizing a greater inlet than that [on the W13] to get the cooling. I think on the Mercedes, they have a handful of very little tricks in there that enable them in this regard.

“So for instance the intercooler, is a extremely, very neat unit, it really is a drinking water/air intercooler, which of class Mercedes have experienced for a very little while, but I feel this is a minor little bit different.

“And that is why they can actually shrink wrap this car a small bit additional than most of the some others can.”

George Russell, Mercedes W13

George Russell, Mercedes W13

Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photos

Expanding on what Mercedes had accomplished, he extra: “The intercooler that I was talking about, I consider, arrives from Response Engines in Oxfordshire, the men and women who are carrying out this sort of air respiratory rocket motor, and the kind of spin-off from that has been this really extremely productive warmth exchanger technological innovation.

“And I consider which is aspect of the reason why they’ve been in a position to develop the automobile the way they have.”

Symonds pressured that all groups have honed their packaging to make sidepods as tiny as feasible.

“I believe a single of the traits we’re viewing, and it’s not distinct to these new rules, but we are observing that it really is really, very tough to commence to package every little thing into the facet pods.

“People think what is in the aspect pods, certainly it can be only the

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How a handful of prehistoric geniuses launched humanity’s technological revolution

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How a handful of prehistoric geniuses launched humanity’s technological revolution

For the first few million years of human evolution, technologies changed slowly. Some three million years ago, our ancestors were making chipped stone flakes and crude choppers. Two million years ago, hand-axes. A million years ago, primitive humans sometimes used fire, but with difficulty. Then, 500,000 years ago, technological change accelerated, as spearpoints, firemaking, axes, beads and bows appeared.

This technological revolution wasn’t the work of one people. Innovations arose in different groups – modern Homo sapiens, primitive sapiens, possibly even Neanderthals – and then spread. Many key inventions were unique: one-offs. Instead of being invented by different people independently, they were discovered once, then shared. That implies a few clever people created many of history’s big inventions.

And not all of them were modern humans.

The tip of the spear

500,000 years ago in southern Africa, primitive Homo sapiens first bound stone blades to wooden spears, creating the spearpoint. Spearpoints were revolutionary as weaponry, and as the first “composite tools” – combining components.

Image of a Serengeti spearpoint.
Serengeti spearpoint.
Nick Longrich, Author provided

The spearpoint spread, appearing 300,000 years ago in East Africa and the Mideast, then 250,000 years ago in Europe, wielded by Neanderthals. That pattern suggests the spearpoint was gradually passed on from one people to another, all the way from Africa to Europe.

Catching fire

400,000 years ago hints of fire, including charcoal and burnt bones, became common in Europe, the Mideast and Africa. It happened roughly the same time everywhere – rather than randomly in disconnected places – suggesting invention, then rapid spread. Fire’s utility is obvious, and keeping a fire going is easy. Starting a fire is harder, however, and was probably the main barrier. If so, widespread use of fire likely marked the invention of the fire-drill – a stick spun against another piece of wood to create friction, a tool still used today by hunter-gatherers.

Image of a Hadzabe fire drill.
Hadzabe fire drill.
Nick Longrich, Author provided

Curiously, the oldest evidence for regular fire use comes from Europe – then inhabited by Neanderthals. Did Neanderthals master fire first? Why not? Their brains were as big as ours; they used them for something, and living through Europe’s ice-age winters, Neanderthals needed fire more than African Homo sapiens.

The axe

270,000 years ago in central Africa, hand-axes began to disappear, replaced by a new technology, the core-axe. Core-axes looked like small, fat hand-axes, but were radically different tools. Microscopic scratches show core-axes were bound to wooden handles – making a true, hafted axe. Axes quickly spread through Africa, then were carried by modern humans into the Arabian peninsula, Australia, and ultimately Europe.

Ornamentation

The oldest beads are 140,000 years old, and come from Morocco. They were made by piercing snail shells, then stringing them on a cord. At the time, archaic Homo sapiens inhabited North Africa, so their makers weren’t modern humans.

Image Kondoa beads.
Kondoa beads.
Nick Longrich, Author provided

Beads then appeared in Europe, 115,000-120,000 years

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