Technology would be nothing without the basic principals of physics.
Many people would agree that in the past few decades technology has taken a giant leap. It is used in everyday life and is greatly present in almost every consumer device from the car to the light bulb. It’s become more readily available and therefore cheaper. Almost every household has a fridge, microwave, television, DVD player etc. It could almost be considered embarrassing not having the latest mobile phone or portable audio device nowadays. However this evolution in technology would not be possible without the understanding of basic physics principles. The best example is of course; electricity. If it wasn’t harnessed and understood like it is today we’d still be celebrating the Stone Age.
At the moment we’re on a roll and the rate at which new technology is invented and produced is astonishing. It took the Pc industry around 19 years to produce a computer which had a 1 Giga-hertz central processing unit and then in just under 2 years its 2 Giga-hertz successor came out. Wires these days are becoming obsolete with the introduction of wireless networking which basically uses radio waves to send digital data back and forth. Surprisingly the receivers and emitters work just like normal radios except they use higher frequencies which enable the transmitting of more data. Mp3 players these days have mini hard drives within them that use Bernoulli’s principal in order to read and write data. As the disc spins the read/write head floats above the disc (like an aeroplane wings basically floats when passing through air) and then picks up small magnetic particles which it moves around and then places back onto the spinning disc. These hard drives are now no bigger than a two pound coin. Obviously technology is not limited to the computer industry, but these examples do show how advanced products use very old concepts of physics.
Elsewhere perhaps the race to evolve and improve is not so hectic. A fridge is still a fridge and will always cool food, just as a kettle will always heat water. Having said this, a fridge follows the 2 nd law of thermodynamics (Work is done on the body in order to extract heat and reduce its temperature) to cool down whatever is inside.
Even televisions are based on age old theories. Their plastic cases may have become more stylish and perhaps a few more functions have been added but their cathode ray tubes still use a heated cathode to release electrons and accelerate them onto a screen.
On the other hand cars are starting to undergo a more advanced make-over with the introduction of electric motors. These so-called hybrid vehicles have traditional petrol engines but also include an electric motor to assist in low speed driving and performance whilst enhancing fuel economy. Michael Faraday would’ve been proud since he invented the electric motor in 1831 after noticing how a current passing through a wire which is placed in a magnetic field produces a force so as to oppose the electromotive force causing it.
The world’s step into the future is somewhat reliant on the evolution of technology, which is improving and is an integral part of our everyday lives. However it’s only with key understandings of physics that we have helped technology get to where it is today. The ideas and principles behind most everyday appliances are not new and are based on the fundamentals of this very useful science.
In order to see what the future holds for technology we must never forget neither the future nor the past of Physics.