Portal:Technology
The Technology Portal
Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life.
Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistoric times, followed by the control of fire, which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age allowed greater travel and the creation of more complex machines. More recent technological inventions, including the printing press, telephone, and the Internet, have lowered barriers to communication and ushered in the knowledge economy. (Full article...)
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Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
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New York State Route 252 (NY 252) is an east–west state highway south of Rochester in Monroe County, New York, in the United States. The western terminus of the route is at an intersection with NY 33A in Chili and the eastern terminus is at a junction with NY 64 and NY 96 in the village of Pittsford. NY 252 passes through the center of the town of Henrietta's commercial district, where it intersects NY 15. The route passes through three distinct areas: a lightly populated, rural area of Chili west of the Genesee River, the heavily developed commercial district centered on NY 252's intersections with NY 15 and NY 15A, and a mostly residential area of the town of Pittsford.
When NY 252 was assigned in the early 1930s, it extended from Scottsville Road (NY 383) in Chili to the village of Pittsford. NY 252 was extended northwest to Chili Center in 1949 by way of modern NY 252A, and east to Bushnell's Basin in November 1955 after NY 96 was realigned onto part of the Eastern Expressway. The route was shifted southward onto its present alignment through Chili in the late 1950s and cut back to Pittsford c. 1961. The segment of NY 252 west of NY 383 was initially county-maintained; however, ownership and maintenance of it were transferred to the state of New York in 2007. (Full article...) -
Little Boy is the name of the type of atomic bomb used in the bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped from the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr., commander of the 509th Composite Group, and Captain Robert A. Lewis. It exploded with an energy of approximately 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ) and had an explosion radius of approximately 1.3 kilometers which caused widespread death across the city. The Hiroshima bombing was the second nuclear explosion in history, after the Trinity nuclear test.
Little Boy was developed by Lieutenant Commander Francis Birch's group at the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, a reworking of their abandoned Thin Man nuclear bomb. Like Thin Man, it was a gun-type fission weapon. It derived its explosive power from the nuclear fission of uranium-235, whereas Thin Man was based on fission of plutonium-239. Fission was accomplished by shooting a hollow cylinder (the "bullet") onto a solid cylinder of the same material (the "target") by means of a charge of nitrocellulose propellant powder. Little Boy contained 64 kilograms (141 lb) of highly enriched uranium, although less than a kilogram underwent nuclear fission. Its components were fabricated at three different plants so that no one would have a copy of the complete design. Unlike the implosion design, which required sophisticated coordination of shaped explosive charges, the gun-type design was considered almost certain to work so it was never tested before its first use at Hiroshima. (Full article...)
Highway 3 (officially named the Crowsnest Highway) is a 324-kilometre (201 mi) highway that traverses southern Alberta, Canada, running from the Crowsnest Pass through Lethbridge to the Trans-Canada Highway in Medicine Hat. Together with British Columbia Highway 3 which begins in Hope, it forms an interprovincial route that serves as an alternate to the Trans-Canada from the Lower Mainland to the Canadian Prairies.
Highway 3 begins as a two-lane continuation of BC Highway 3 in the Canadian Rockies at Crowsnest Pass, winding through the foothills to a junction with Highway 2 west of Fort Macleod. Briefly concurrent with Highway 2, it becomes a divided highway and part of Alberta's "Export Highway", a segment of the CANAMEX Corridor that stretches from Alaska to Mexico. In Lethbridge it is an expressway named Crowsnest Trail that crosses the Oldman River and meets the northern termini of Highways 4 and 5; the former is a major route that assumes the designation of the Export Highway, connecting to Interstate 15 in Montana, while the latter branches southwest to Magrath and Cardston. Leaving Lethbridge, Highway 3 passes through Coaldale and Taber before reverting to a two-lane highway that ends at Highway 1 in Medicine Hat. (Full article...)
El Garces Intermodal Transportation Facility (also known as Needles station) is an Amtrak intercity rail station and bus depot in downtown Needles, California. The structure was originally built in 1908 as El Garces, a Harvey House and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) station. It is named for Francisco Garcés, a Spanish missionary who surveyed the area in the 1770s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
The Southern Pacific Railroad and ATSF subsidiary Atlantic and Pacific Railroad met at Needles and opened a station there in 1883. The Southern Pacific sold its line to the ATSF the next year, and Needles became a major waypoint on the ATSF route to Los Angeles. After the original station was destroyed by fire in 1906, the ATSF built El Garces – a large neoclassical structure containing a Harvey House hotel, restaurant, and train station – in 1908. It was the "crown jewel" of the Harvey House network, and among the first train stations made of concrete. (Full article...)
New York State Route 430 (NY 430) is a state highway located entirely within Chautauqua County, New York, in the United States. Its western terminus is located at the Pennsylvania state line near the hamlet of Findley Lake in the town of Mina. The eastern terminus is located in the city of Jamestown at a junction with NY 60 and NY 394. NY 430 is ceremoniously designated as the Senator Jess J. Present Memorial Highway in honor of Jess Present, a New York State Senator from Jamestown.
Municipalities NY 430 runs through include (from west to east) the villages of Sherman and Mayville, the hamlet of Maple Springs, the village of Bemus Point and the city of Jamestown. Besides NY 60, NY 430 intersects with NY 76 in Sherman and NY 394 in Mayville. It meets the Southern Tier Expressway (Interstate 86 or I-86 and NY 17) multiple times: in Sherman via NY 76, twice in Bemus Point (once by way of a short expressway designated as the unsigned NY 954J and also via an interchange located southwest of NY 954J), and in Jamestown via Strunk Road. NY 430 also runs along the east side of Chautauqua Lake, and services both Long Point State Park and Midway Park. (Full article...)
Municipalities NY 430 runs through include (from west to east) the villages of Sherman and Mayville, the hamlet of Maple Springs, the village of Bemus Point and the city of Jamestown. Besides NY 60, NY 430 intersects with NY 76 in Sherman and NY 394 in Mayville. It meets the Southern Tier Expressway (Interstate 86 or I-86 and NY 17) multiple times: in Sherman via NY 76, twice in Bemus Point (once by way of a short expressway designated as the unsigned NY 954J and also via an interchange located southwest of NY 954J), and in Jamestown via Strunk Road. NY 430 also runs along the east side of Chautauqua Lake, and services both Long Point State Park and Midway Park. (Full article...)
Euston is a London Underground station. It directly connects with its National Rail railway station above it. The station is in Travelcard Zone 1.
Euston was constructed as two separate underground stations. Three of the four Northern line platforms date from the station's opening in 1907. The fourth Northern line platform and the two Victoria line platforms were constructed in the 1960s when the station was significantly altered to accommodate the Victoria line. Plans for High Speed 2 and Crossrail 2 both include proposals to modify the station to provide interchanges with the new services. (Full article...)
Aeroméxico Connect Flight 2431 (SLI2431/5D2431) was a Mexican domestic scheduled passenger flight bound for Mexico City that crashed on takeoff from Durango International Airport on July 31, 2018. Shortly after becoming airborne, the plane encountered sudden wind shear caused by a microburst. The plane rapidly lost speed and altitude and impacted the runway, detaching the engines and skidding to a halt about 1,000 feet (300 m) beyond the runway. The plane caught fire and was destroyed. All 103 people on board survived, but 39 passengers and crew members were injured.
A final report on the crash was released on February 23, 2019. Investigators found that the primary cause of the accident was adverse weather conditions encountered by the flight, and contributing factors included crew error, air traffic controller error, and the lack of equipment that could detect wind shear conditions at airports. Investigators determined that an unauthorized student pilot in the cockpit who was flying the plane during the takeoff caused the crew to be distracted, leading to a loss of situational awareness. The crew failed to react to dangerous weather conditions that were developing, and did not notice irregularities in the airspeed indicators that could have alerted them to potential hazards. The sole air traffic controller on duty at the airport at the time also failed to notify the aircraft of rapidly deteriorating weather conditions. (Full article...)
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The GameCube is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo beginning in 2001. Meant as a successor to the Nintendo 64, the GameCube sold approximately 22 million units worldwide. It was the third most-successful console of its generation, behind Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox. The GameCube was succeeded by the Wii in 2006. -
Photo credit: Michael ReevePitstone Windmill, believed to be the oldest windmill in the British Isles
A windmill is an engine powered by wind energy. In Europe, windmills have been used since the Middle Ages. They were developed from the 12th century, apparently from technology gained by crusaders who came into contact with windmills in the Middle East. Persian sources indicate windmill use as early as the 7th century BC. In the United States, the development of water-pumping windmills was a major factor in allowing the farming of vast areas of North America. -
Daguerreotype credit: UnknownA daguerreotype from the 1850s of the Ben Campbell, a paddle steamer—a ship or boat driven by a steam engine that uses one or more paddle wheels to develop thrust for propulsion. The paddle wheel was the first form of mechanical propulsion for a boat, but has now been almost entirely superseded by more modern forms of marine propulsion. -
Photo credit: Alfred T. Palmer"Big Pete" Ramagos, rigger at work on Douglas Dam, Tennessee, June 1942. A rigger is a person or company which specializes in the lifting and/or moving of extremely large and/or heavy objects. Riggers use equipment expressly designed for moving and lifting objects where ordinary material handling equipment cannot go. -
An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy along large distances. It consists of one or more conductors suspended by towers or utility poles.
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Photograph: NASAA self-portrait by the Mars rover Curiosity on October 31, 2012. The mosaic is stitched from a set of 55 images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager at "Rocknest," the spot in Gale crater where the mission's first scoop sampling took place. Self-portraits such as this help NASA document the state of the rover and track changes, such as dust accumulation and wheel wear. -
Image credit: FastfissionSchematic representation of the two methods with which to assemble an atomic bomb. An A-bomb produces its explosive energy through nuclear fission reactions alone. A mass of fissile material (enriched uranium or plutonium) is assembled into a supercritical mass—the amount of material needed to start an exponentially growing nuclear chain reaction—either by shooting one piece of sub-critical material into another (the "gun" method, shown on top here), or by compressing a sub-critical sphere of material using chemical explosives to many times its original density (the "implosion" method, at bottom). -
Photo: Drew Jacksich; edit: Bruce1eeUnion Pacific 844 at Painted Rocks, Nevada, on a run from Elko to Sparks, on September 15, 2009. Built in 1944, it was the last steam locomotive delivered to Union Pacific and is the only steam locomotive never retired by a North American Class I railroad. -
Photo credit: Christian KuhnaThe rotor of a modern steam turbine , which converts steam (heat) energy into kinetic (mechanical) energy. The steam path is from the smallest blade, expanding through progressively larger blade elements. Steam turbines are used in power plants to extract mechanical work from pressurized steam and benefit from their high efficiency and high power-to-weight ratio compared to other technologies, leading to their widespread deployment from electricity generation to marine propulsion. -
Image credit: Lewis HineA structural worker bolts beams on the framework during the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. The 1,250-foot (380 m) building opened on May 1, 1931, at the time the tallest building in the world, overtaking the Chrysler Building (seen to the right), which had just been completed the year before. The addition of a pinnacle and antennas later increased its overall height to 1,472 feet (449 m). -
Credit: Berthold WernerA telephone, or phone, is a telecommunications device that converts sound, typically the human voice, into electronic signals suitable for transmission via cables or other transmission media over long distances through satellite. -
Photograph credit: Stefan KrauseThe BMW S1000RR is a sport bike made by BMW Motorrad. It was introduced in 2008, initially for competition in the 2009 Superbike World Championship, and has been in commercial production since then. Powered by a 999 cc (61.0 cu in) four-cylinder engine, redlined at 14,200 rpm, it delivers 133.6 kW (179.2 hp; 181.6 PS) to the rear wheel, making it the most powerful motorcycle in the class. Rubén Xaus and Troy Corser rode the bike for its inaugural Superbike World Championship in 2009, gaining highest finishes of fifth and seventh respectively, but it achieved greater success in the 2010 FIM Superstock 1000 championship season, with rider Ayrton Badovini winning every single race but one on the S1000RR. -
Photograph: Katsuhiko Tokunaga/SuperJet InternationalThe Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a modern fly-by-wire twin-engine regional jet with 8 to 108 passenger seats. Development began in 2000; the aircraft had its maiden flight on 19 May 2008 and entered commercial service on 21 April 2011. This aircraft is seen flying off the coast of Italy near Sanremo. -
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Credit: Mike McGregorThe OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive subnotebook laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries. -
Photograph: David ShankboneDavid Faiman is an Israeli engineer and physicist recognized for his expertise on solar power. He is the director of the Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center and Chairman of the Department of Solar Energy & Environmental Physics at Ben-Gurion University's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research in Sde Boker. -
Photo: Bachrach Studios; Restoration: Michel VuijlstekeThomas Edison (1847–1931) was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. -
Photo: IkiwanerAn Agusta A109 rescue helicopter leaves Mount Pilatus, near Lucerne, Switzerland, after recovering a patient. Later renamed AgustaWestland AW109, the A109 is a helicopter manufactured by Agusta (now AgustaWestland) of Italy. It is a light-weight, twin-engine, eight-seat multi-purpose craft. -
A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axial bearing. The wheel is one of the main components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines.
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Photo credit: HeptagonA multiple exposure composite image of the implosion of a chimney at the former brewery "Henninger" in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. This controlled demolition technique involves strategically placing explosive material and timing its detonation so that a structure collapses on itself in a matter of seconds, minimizing the physical damage to its immediate surroundings.
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