All posts by Peter Terezakis

NYU, Physics, Thesis

Glassware

Need to bend and melt borosilicate glass for experimental apparatus. Turns out that I need to get my material to 1510 F for forming. Made the mistake of asking a question of my thesis adviser which I should have first researched on my own. Will try not to let that happen again.

It’s been fifty years since I last worked glass; still have the scars in my hands and fingers. This time I need to use more patience.

Adiabatic flame temperatures for some common fuel gases:

Fuel Gas Combustion with Oxygen
(oC)		 Combustion with Air
(oC)
Acetylene 3480 2500
Butane 1970
Carbon Monoxide 2121
Ethane 1955
Hydrogen 3200 2210
MAPP 2927 2010
Methane 1950
Natural Gas 1960
Propane 2526 2392
Propane Butane Mix 1970

A Fisher burner using propane will work.

NYU, Professor Eric Rosenthal

WEAR Kickstarter: Eric Rosenthal and Michelle Temple

Wear – A wearable personal assistive hearing device
by Eric Rosenthal, Michelle Temple

I”m excited to see their project at this phase of development as I have watched the design mature since arriving at ITP in September of 2013 and for the simple fact that Professor Rosenthal will be advising me on my thesis project. Eric is a remarkable individual and in many ways he is ITP’s secret weapon of knowledge!

Click the image to head over to Kickstarter for project information.

Assistive tech wearable
sdds
Professor Rosenthal and Michelle announce auditory assistive device
3D, DIY, Physics

Electroscopes

I’ve been thinking about making as much as I can from recycled (or found) items and have started a DIY category for this blog.

This particular project is an electroscope. Electroscopes are one of the earliest types of instruments used to detect the presence of electrical charges. In the realm of physics, they are another way to render the invisible visible. They are old world, old school, and they do not require batteries. This is not the first electroscope I have constructed.

After I first read about electroscopes I needed to test what I had discovered.  Back then I would conduct experiments using my little brothers as test subjects. To demonstrate the presence of electrical charges I would shuffle my slippered feet on the wool carpeting and touch whoever was closest with an antennae from a transistor radio. Sometimes I would have to chase them to finish my tests. Since they were little, they couldn’t run very fast; they could never escape. But they did yell.  All in the name of science.

An evolved appreciation of humanity (and understanding of the legal system) has modified my research methods to that of a more classical approach.

This electroscope was made from a vinegar bottle, rubber stopper, copper wire, and some Aluminum foil. I charged and tested the instrument with a pvc pipe which  which was first rubbed with a cotton dish towel.

The big surprise came during my demonstration to my wife.  Allyson noticed that the  mobile was also moving in response to the proximity of the charge.  I thought that was pretty neat.  You can see this action in the second video.

[quicktime]http://www.terezakis.org/itp/video/electroscope-11-9920.mov[/quicktime]
[quicktime]http://www.terezakis.org/itp/video/electroscopes-2-9920.mov[/quicktime]

3D

Tap and Die

No, the title of this post isn’t the moral of a fringe fundamentalist group. It’s about a shop technique which allows you to thread blind rod and turn it into a bolt, or drill a hole and cut threads in it so that you can insert a bolt or threaded rod. It’s a very cool and empowering process.

You can get a full tap and die set or you can buy components; items that you need as you need them. The latter is the direction I took. Not having every size when you need or want it could be inconvenient. On the other hand, only buying what you need helps keep your kit to a manageable size.

I always use cutting fluid, wax, or some type of lubricant with any cutting tool. Tap and die cutting tools are no different. It’s also good to keep brushing the chips out of the cutting teeth. I use an old toothbrush for this purpose.

I needed to be able to control the alignment of some LED lasers for a project (http://www.afishstory.com) created with fellow ITP classmate, Vitor Freire.

Earth, Petition

Fracking Sequoia National Park?

Californians deserve to have their public lands managed for the good of the people. These precious wilderness areas belong to us, not the oil and gas industry.

The Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rules for regulated hydraulic fracturing on Federal and Native American lands are not only weak, but they do not take into account all the harmful processes required to frack for oil and gas.

Our forests are for hiking, not for fracking.

Earth

Chevron, Romania, Marcellus Shale, and Arithmetic.

Get Chevron out of Romania. Click to sign the petition.

 

And while you’re at it, maybe you can figure out why Europe has been so successful in keeping fracking out — while our land and water is being poisoned by Chevron and other oil companies?  Clicking the image below will bring you to the Chevron PR message.
Screen Shot 2013-12-10 at 9.51.51 PM

To see through the hypocrisy and lies foisted on the unwitting, give the video on this page five minutes of your time.

3D

Moby

Melville’s remains languish in the most beautiful part of the Bronx: Woodlawn.
His work lives on because while, “the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago,” technology on land has changed.  From a dead author’s existential fantasy, to my mind, to Adobe Illustrator, to the laser cutter:  From thought, to ink (many times), to thought, to digital files, to an object milled from plastic, to thoughts in a little boy’s mind: in this manner technology erases boundaries of space and time.

Behold the pale monster made for my nephew’s fourth birthday:
from hand to illustrator to laser to table top

Moby the mobile