Portal:Technology

Selected article

In 1822, Charles Babbage proposed the use of such a machine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society on 14 June entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". This machine used the decimal number system and was powered by cranking a handle. The British government initially financed the project, but withdrew funding when Babbage repeatedly asked for more money whilst making no apparent progress on building the machine. Babbage went on to design his much more general analytical engine but later produced an improved difference engine design (his "Difference Engine No. 2") between 1847 and 1849.

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News

• August 25: Astronomers discover large exo-solar system
• August 22: Scientists say the moon is slowly shrinking
• August 20: Scientists conclude that the universe may expand forever
• August 14: Iran to launch its first nuclear power plant
• August 13: Apple Japan to replace overheating iPod Nanos
• August 12: Plants may adapt faster to climate change than previously thought, new study shows
• August 12: Prospective Nobel Prize for Higgs boson work disputed
• August 11: Researcher claims solution to P vs NP math problem
• August 9: Apple executive leaves company after iPhone 4 antenna issues
• August 9: Technical troubles hold up International Space Station repairs

Did you know...

• ... that both the Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser design ideas descended from the Mosaic web browser?

• ... that a coherer, hot wire barretter, electrolytic detector, cat's whisker and vacuum tube were all types of radio detectors?

• ... that in 2008 Hewlett-Packard created a prototype of the theoretical fourth and last passive circuit element, the memristor, that may one day revolutionize electronics, although the theory was devised in 1971?

• ... that a mercury arc rectifier converts alternating current to direct current by means of an electric arc through mercury vapor?

• ... that only one of the 266 1076 Class steam locomotives built for the Great Western Railway was named, and the rest had only numbers?

• ... that the six Charles Tayleur locomotives ordered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway were unsuccessful?

• ... that the intensity of a tropical cyclone (pictured) is usually determined by the Dvorak technique using only visible and infrared satellite images?

• ... that the technique of double-balloon enteroscopy allows any position along the gastrointestinal tract to be visualized in real-time?

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Agriculture • Agronomy • Architecture (Bridges, Portal) • Biotechnology • Electronics • Energy (Renewable energy) • Engineering • Hazardous Materials • Home improvement • Nanotechnology • Nuclear technology • Robotics

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