Tag: Engineering

Exploring Engineering Zen: Uncovering the Secrets of Technology and Science | July 02 2026, 21:47

I’m reminding you that I have an Engineering Zen group on Facebook and Telegram. In recent days, there have been posts about:

– Why a fridge magnet sticks only on one side, and barely on the other. It turns out, this is the same trick used to focus beams in particle accelerators. It has a name and a very unobvious “inside out”.

– A skyscraper in New York that could have been toppled by wind — and which was secretly fixed “live,” at night, while during the day offices went about business as usual. It all started with a student doubting the calculations. The story was then classified for almost 20 years.

– The fact that trolleybuses, electric cars, faxes, drones, video calls, and even humanoid robots are much older than you think. One of these robots, by the way, walked, talked about 700 words, counted on fingers, and smoked. In 1939.

– “Kelvin’s Thunderstorm” — dripping water that pumps thousands of volts and strikes with a spark. Completely without a power source. It is assembled on a kitchen table, and the energy comes not from what you might think (and it’s not a perpetual motion machine).

– A fax machine that became commercially successful before the telephone. A two-meter-tall eight-kilogram pendulum with a needle, 1860s. Guess who was the main customer.

– A simple soap film, which instantly “solves” a problem still unsolved by mathematicians in general terms. Without performing a single computation.

– Hoover Dam, inside which nearly 1000 km of pipes are hidden — otherwise, the concrete would have taken 125 years to set and would have cracked. How exactly they cooled it is a separate attraction with an ice plant right on the site.

– Those very same rusty “rusty” iron pieces sticking out in every fashionable square. They rust deliberately, and that is precisely what makes them almost eternal. Of course, they were not designed for beauty.

– Why memory cannot be erased by force of will — and why it’s so easy to inadvertently rewrite it. Also explains why so many people want to go back to the USSR.

– Benford’s Law: the first digit of a random number does not appear haphazardly — a one is at the forefront in almost a third of cases. It is used to catch fraudsters, and is even accepted as evidence in court.

– And for dessert — the world’s best mechanical calculator the size of a can, designed by a Buchenwald concentration camp prisoner. It was this work that saved his life.

Join us to not miss out on many more interesting things. “Engineering Zen”, @engineersdzen

Engineering Zen: Insights on Oil Storage, Time Illusions, and the Self-Righting 3D Object | June 20 2026, 14:50

I’d like to remind you that I have a group called “Engineering Zen” on Facebook and Telegram, which in recent days has featured content about:

1) the structure of oil storage facilities and what that lid flying over Moscow was all about

2) the “stopped clock” illusion, experienced by everyone but understood by almost no one.

3) about the 3D monostable, which always rights itself no matter how it’s placed. It was first proven mathematically, then constructed.

Join us so you don’t miss out on much more intriguing content. I am particularly concerned about Telegram — somehow 37 guests showed up, but as I understand it, they won’t keep coming by themselves, and with such a small audience, I fear I won’t have enough motivation to write regularly. Let’s at least push it to 50, then the motivation will be somewhat better. “Engineering Zen”, @engineersdzen

Engineering Zen: A Daily Dose of Science and Creativity | June 19 2026, 03:28

Due to numerous requests, I have created a Facebook group and a Telegram channel “Engineering Zen”, where I can write about all kinds of interesting things related to science and engineering every day, and guests can write too. I’ll find it interesting if we gather at least 50 people. Shall we gather? I have a ton of interesting content, enough for a year for sure.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/4344370099148010

I will also write on Telegram if we gather at least 50 members there. The channel is called @engineersdzen.

I will be happy for the shares and likes. If we don’t gather enough people, I will drop this activity with groups and channels, which I’ve been planning to do for ten years anyway 🙂

The Crucial Role of Data Quality Oversight in Development Projects | May 06 2026, 16:07

Almost every development project features a dedicated functional testing automation team, yet surprisingly, a similar emphasis on Data Quality is rarely found. Regardless of whether data comes from external integrations, users, or is generated by the system itself, it often remains without proper control simply because no one seems to consider it important, and later they struggle with the consequences – they accumulate like a snowball. The longer such issues persist, the harder they are to resolve, eventually leading to a situation where people just resign themselves to the “irreparable” state of the database. It is much better to identify these problems at the moment they arise, while the technical debt has not yet become insurmountable, rather than later figuring out how to prevent them from causing everything to crash;

In essence, there needs to be a constant “supervisor” over all types of databases used by the system (relational, NoSQL, search indexes, or graph databases) — essentially, this is a layer of data quality checking over processes. Of course, there must be clear rules – specifically what to check and which flags to use to mark specific anomalies.

There must be a responsible party for the process (a human, not AI), who will integrate these reports into the development and support workflows. Many data integrity issues cannot just be resolved through an interface — they require the engineering team to develop scripts for mass correction and data cleansing.

Incidentally, this also transitions into the realm of anomaly detection (outlier detection). Machine learning and LLMs for identifying subtle “bad” patterns that traditional rule-based systems might miss.

What do you think about this? Are similar mechanisms implemented in your processes?

Repurposing Components from a Broken Air Purifier | May 03 2026, 15:00

The air purifier broke down, so I bought a used one with a new cartridge for the price of a replacement cartridge plus $40. I completely disassembled the old one, extracted the reusable components, and figured out how it works. Just like in school 🙂

Inside, it comprises:

– an ESP32-WROOM-32D controller. But a part of the board responsible for voltage burned out, so it’s trash now.

– a CO sensor MQ-7 (unfortunately soldered to the board, but can be desoldered). Though, it needs a heating cycle for correct operation. First 5V (60 sec) for sensor cleaning, then 1.5V (90 sec) for measurement. But, it can also be used elsewhere.

– Plantower PMS9103M — a high-precision laser sensor for measuring airborne particulate matter concentrations (PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10). Can be connected to Arduino, specification available.

– a microwave motion sensor (radar), model RCWL-0516. Can be connected to Arduino, very simple interface. Detects motion up to 5-7 meters around within 360 degrees.

– 200W Snowfan YY225H310B motor. Also quite simple to connect, but it requires 310V DC plus 15V for speed control. But that’s all.

– a Hall sensor (magnet)

The motor is the most valuable part. It’s priced at $100 on eBay. Though, it should probably be tested first to see if it hasn’t burned out.

Cherenkov Radiation: The Ethereal Blue Glow of Nuclear Decay | April 26 2026, 23:52

In the picture – Cherenkov radiation. This is me in 2009 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, standing in the hall with the nuclear reactor. The water in the photo is for slowing down neutrons and cooling spent fuel rods. The glow occurs when electrons are ejected from the fuel at a speed exceeding the phase velocity of light in water. Kind of like a sound barrier, but for light. The intensity of this glow can roughly indicate how “fresh” the fuel is in the pool. The brighter and denser the blue, the more active the decay processes are. Interestingly, Cherenkov radiation is the reason why there is no absolute darkness at great depths of the ocean floor.

Near-Miss at Leningrad: The Unknown Predecessor to Chernobyl | April 26 2026, 17:32

On the anniversary of Chernobyl. Those interested in this topic may not know that a similar accident could have occurred ten years earlier on the main (very first RBMK-1000 unit) Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant.

There was a nearly identical situation: one turbine in operation, reactor shutdown by emergency protection, and subsequent power escalation.

Back then, the situation was saved by the Chief Reactor Operator Mikhail

Karrask, who, acting intuitively and relying on his experience with industrial reactors, introduced into the reactor in portions

12 manual control rods

BEFORE pressing the emergency shutdown button.

A couple of years ago, Karrask passed away. This story is almost unknown outside the industry. For proof, google his obituary on Rosatom.

The technical part. The main danger of the RBMK reactors at that time was in the design of the control rods. At the bottom, they were equipped with graphite “displacers”. When the emergency shutdown button was pressed, the rods began moving down, and in the first seconds, the graphite tips did not dampen the reactor, but on the contrary, displaced the water and increased the power in the lower part of the active zone. But precisely, the instructions in case of trouble suggested pressing the emergency shutdown button. If you followed the instructions, “Chernobyl” would have happened earlier.

After the incident at the Leningrad NPP, a commission was formed. Experts (including those from the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy) pointed out the dangerous design flaws of the RBMK – the positive void coefficient of reactivity and incorrect design of the rods. Unfortunately, extensive changes to the design of all RBMK reactors were not made at that time. Only operational regulations recommendations were given, which, as history showed, were insufficient to prevent the tragedy in Chernobyl.

CPU vs GPU: A Speed Challenge in Embedding Creation | April 11 2026, 18:08

When working with certain tasks, the difference between a CPU and a GPU is simply astounding. For example, I need to create many (millions) of embeddings, model BGE M3. Running this on my quite powerful 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor takes 45.85 seconds to create 500 embeddings, while using an NVIDIA 5090 GPU, the same task is completed in just 0.36 seconds. It is so fast that I specifically wrote this benchmark to figure out whether my GPU is being utilized at all. The program that sends requests to TEI does it in test mode not actively enough (roughly a couple of times per second), and the GPU load graphs are practically zero.

— Testing http://localhost:8080/embed — <– CPU version

Requests completed: 500

Total time: 45.85 sec

Throughput: 10.90 req/sec

Average latency (Avg Latency): 4386.11 ms

P95 latency: 5021.88 ms

— Testing http://localhost:8090/embed — <– GPU version (NVIDIA 5090)

Requests completed: 500

Total time: 0.36 sec

Throughput: 1398.69 req/sec

Average latency (Avg Latency): 31.38 ms

P95 latency: 53.18 ms

========================================

RESULT: http://localhost:8090/embed is 99.22% faster

Precision in the Sky: Aerial Refueling of HH-60 Pave Hawks by a KC-130 Hercules | April 05 2026, 12:59

An interesting photo from Iran. An American Lockheed Martin KC-130 Hercules tanker and Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters connected to it. If you think about it, it’s incredibly complex. Look, the plane has to fly at a super low speed for it – close to the stalling speed – while the helicopters, in contrast, must push to their limits to keep up. To avoid entering into a spin, the plane is forced to rapidly lose altitude, consequently, the helicopters must also purposely drop altitude. The helicopters are positioned lower than the plane, so if the pilot slows down even more (though how much more can he slow down?), and the helicopters don’t slow down, the hose could hit the rotor blades and that’s it. The helicopters also gain several tons during refueling, which adds to the complexity. Why refuel two at once? It’s more complicated. Actually, it’s both more complicated and simpler, because the load on the wings is distributed symmetrically, making it easier for the plane to maintain a stable course. It’s also interesting how the issue of static electricity is handled in the dry air.

A good addition from the comments (Sergey Snegirev):

1. It is noted that the Hercules stalls at 100-110 knots (depending on the air temperature and altitude, which is important in Iran), and the photo shows the flaps deployed, allowing it to stay up to even 90 knots. Meanwhile, the Pave Hawk can accelerate up to 190 knots (but obviously, nobody performs AAR at max speed), with a cruising speed of 150 knots, so there’s quite a sizable overlap. It’s assumed that AAR takes place around 120 knots on the video.

3. It is noted that AAR happens at exactly the same altitude, so there’s no need to lose altitude

4. It is noted that the tanker – like any other aircraft – can dissipate static electricity using an electrostatic discharger. The refueling hose has a contact that equalizes the potentials of the two aircraft before fuel delivery.

5. It is noted that the fuel used to refuel external aircraft is stored in tanks in the aircraft’s cargo section, separate from the tanker’s own fuel system. Even if the pumping were from the tanker’s own fuel tanks, it would come from the central tank, which is set up to transfer fuel from the side tanks.

It is noted that on the underside of the plane’s wings, several metal “antennas” are installed on the flaperons to discharge static electricity into the air. It is noted that when the hose is connected, a wire passes through and the potentials on the bodies are equalized.

When the Night Lit Up: Unraveling the Mystery of a Superbolt Storm | March 21 2026, 12:55

We had a thunderstorm last night. The whole county is buzzing because everyone thinks that something exploded just before midnight. Several posts in a row on social media. In short, it was thunder. But a bit more rare than usual. Caused by a 401 kA lightning, dubbed the Wild House Shaker. A typical lightning strike is 30 kA. If the numbers are to be believed, 401 kA is really damn a lot. They will likely say we haven’t had such lightning here for decades.

Attaching an interesting map.

The points on the map show superbolts — lightning strikes with an energy of no less than 1M J. Red points — particularly powerful superbolts with an energy of more than 2M J. That is, superbolts mostly occur in the northeastern part of the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean Sea, and less frequently — in the Andes, off the coast of Japan, and near South Africa.

this is what the page from which I took the map says (translation):

“New work shows that superbolts most often occur over the Mediterranean Sea, the northeastern Atlantic, and over the Andes, as well as in smaller amounts to the east of Japan, in tropical oceans, and near the southern tip of Africa. Unlike regular lightning, superbolts often strike over water.

“Ninety percent of lightning occurs over land,” said Holzworth (that’s the main guy on lightning at the University of Washington).

“But superbolts mostly arise over water, right up to the coastline. For example, in the northeastern Atlantic, the distribution maps of superbolts clearly show the outlines of the coasts of Spain and England.”

“The average energy of a discharge over water is higher than over land—that we knew,” he said. “But we did not expect such a stark difference.”

The season for superbolts also does not match the usual patterns of lightning. Regular lightning most often occurs in the summer—the three main so-called “lightning chimneys” coincide with summer thunderstorms over America, Africa south of the Sahara, and Southeast Asia. However, superbolts, which are more common in the Northern Hemisphere, occur in both hemispheres from November to February.

The reason for such a distribution remains a mystery. In some years, there are significantly more superbolts than in others: the end of 2013 was record-breaking, and the end of 2014 was the second largest, while in other years such events were much less frequent.

“We speculate that this may be related to sunspots or cosmic rays, but we will leave that for future research,” said Holzworth.

“For now, we are just demonstrating that there is a previously unknown pattern.”