Breakthroughs

Telescopes

Telescopes: is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. Telescope comes from the Greek tele= ‘far’ and skopein= ‘to look or see’.

Optical Telescopes

An optical telescope gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum (although some work in the infrared and ultraviolet). Optical telescopes increase the apparent angular size of distant objects as well as their apparent brightness. In order for the image to be observed, photographed, studied, and sent to a computer, telescopes work by employing one or more curved optical elements—usually made from glass—lenses, or mirrors to gather light and other electromagnetic radiation to bring that light or radiation to a focal point.

Radio Telescopes

Radio telescopes are instruments for receiving radio waves from space. A radio telescope consists of an antenna, an amplifying system, and a recorder to preserve the observations.

X-ray and Gamma-ray telescopes

X-ray and gamma-ray radiation go through most metals and glasses, but some X-ray telescopes use Wolter telescopes composed of ring-shaped 'glancing' mirrors made of heavy metals that are able to reflect the rays just a few degrees. The mirrors are usually a section of a rotated parabola and a hyperbola, or ellipse.

***Telescopes help us communicate from space to Earth. ***

Communication System 2

Communication System

Communication Systems

Communication: The imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs...

Systems: A group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole.

Communication System: In telecommunication, a communications system is a collection of individual communication networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and data terminal equipment (DTE) usually capable of interconnection and interconnection to form an integrated whole.

Examples

Optical communication system: Is any form of telecommunication that uses light as the transmission medium. Optical communications consists of a transmitter, which encodes a message into an optical signal, a channel, which carries the signal to its destination, and a receiver, which reproduces the message from the received optical signal. Fiber-optic communication system transmit information from one place to another by sending light through and optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic that is modulated to carry information. First developed in the 1970s, fiber-optic communication systems have revolutionized the telecommunications industry and played a major role in the advent of the Information Age. Because of its advantages over electrical transmission, the use of optical fiber has largely replaced copper wire communications in core networks in the developed world.

Telecommunication: Is the assisted transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication.

Ex: In earlier times, this may have involved the use of smoke signals, drums, etc.

In modern times, telecommunication typically involves the use of electronic devices such as the telephone, television, and much more.

Examples

1. Smoke signals:

Definition: Is one of the oldest forms of communication in recorded history. It is a form of visual communication used over long distance.

History: The Ancient Chinese, North American Indians, and the Greek used these. The Chinese used the smoke signals to alert one another from tower to tower in the Great Wall. The North American Indians had tribes which each had their own signaling system. They used different natural resources to make the fire do certain things and they were used as signals. There was a Greek, Polybius, which in 150 BC he came up with a more complex system of alphabetical smoke signals. He invented a system of converting Greek alphabetic characters into numeric characters. It enable messages to be easily signaled by holding sets of torches in pairs. Smoke signals are still in use today. In Rome, the College of Cardinals uses smoke signals to indicate the selection of a new Pope.

2. Drums:

Definition: Developed and used by culture living in forested areas, drums served as an early form of long distance communication and were used during ceremonial and religious functions.

History: Out of the modern instruments, the drum has the longest history. It has been in a lot of cultures. Almost everywhere they have strong ceremonial, sacred, or symbolic associations. Tribes, with use of the drum would communicate with other tribes often miles away. In fact you can say the drum was actually the first form of telephone. Drums frequently were used for signaling of meeting, dangers, etc.

3. Telephone:

Definition: The telephone is a telecommunications device that is used to transmit and receive electronically or digitally encoded sound(most commonly speech) between two or more people conversing. It is one of the most common household appliances in the developed world today.

History: Credit for inventing the electric telephone remains in dispute. As with other great inventions such as radio, television, light bulb, and computer, there were several inventors who did pioneer experimental work on voice transmission over a wire and improved on each other's ideas. Innocenzo Manzetti, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Elisha Gray, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison, among others, have all been credited with pioneer work on the telephone.

4. Television:

Definition: Television is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic("black and white") or color, usually accompanied by sound.

History: Television was not invented by a single inventor, instead many people working together and alone over the years, contributed to the evolution of television. At the dawn of television history there were two distinct paths of technology experimented with by researchers. Early inventors attempted to either build a mechanical television system based on the technology of Paul Nipkow's rotating disks; or they attempted to build an electronic television system using a cathode ray tube developed independently in 1907 by English inventor A.A. Campbell-Swinton and Russian scientist Boris Rosing. Electronic television systems worked better and eventual replaced mechanical systems.