Java Triangle

Some Java for your Christmas present…

Here is a short Java program to calculate triangular numbers,
(the sequence: 1 3 6 10 15 21 … ).


/********************************************
* Program to calculate triangular numbers
* inefficiently
* Mathew Peet
* Christmas 2009
*
*********************************************/

public class Triangular {
public static long tri(int n) {
int total = 1;
for (int i = 1; i <=n; i++)
total = total + (i+1);
return total;
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
int N = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
for (int i = 1; i <= N; i++)
System.out.println(i + ": " + tri(i));
}
}

Corus Teeside

2005 – Consortium starts with plan for 10 years of production.

Corus Press Release May 2009, Consortium’s termination of contract triggers consultations on future of Teesside.

2009 – a song.

2009 – 3000 march at Redcar to protest against closure of the Teeside plant.

BBC news 4 Dec 20091,700 jobs to go as production scaled down

Kerby Adams (CEO Tata Steel Europe) press statement

B Muthuraman, says future of Teeside in Employees hands, and they have to cut costs (Oct 2009)Video, Full Story.

BBC news 15 Dec 2009 – how much will loss of 1,700 jobs cost local community?.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Launch

The Boeing Dreamliner was launched for the first test flight yesterday.

The Boeing 787 is around the same size as 767-300. However the 787 is planned to be 20% more fuel-efficient than the 767. The efficiency comes equally from improvements in the engines, aerodynamics and reduced weight by use of composite materials, and the use of improved systems.

20% improvement in efficiency should translate into a 15% saving in operational efficiency.

Each plane can interchangeably use either the General Electric GEnx or Rolls-Royce Trent 1000, due to the design of a common interface. The Rolls-Royce engine was used for the test-flight.

Computer tells jokes

EPSRC are reporting about research into a computer that tells jokes. The program was developed to help children with learning difficulties to engage with the English language.

What I want to know it, what does the computer tell to the Jokes?

If you know any jokes that a computer might tell please write them in the comments.

Importance of Steel Research

Iron and steel continue to be vitally important to society. Steels are by far the most widely-used of metallic materials, worldwide the production continues to increase along with economic growth, with around 1000 million tonnes produced in 2004 (Source:IISI), one hundred and fifty kilograms of steel for each member of the worlds population. Obviously there are commercial pressures to maximise the profitability of production, there is also increasing environmental pressures on modern steel making.

The importance of steel is often overlooked or taken for granted, with even many steel producers even regarding it purely as a commodity. It’s true that large amounts of similar materials are produced by different manufacturers to commercial standards, for example automotive and construction markets. However the introduction of new materials for weight saving in automotive applications or the adoption of earth quake resistant steels after the Kobe earth quake in Japan show there is a requirement for innovation. Many steels are also produced in relatively low volumes to meet specific requirements, for example steel for nuclear reactors, tank armour, medical implants or jet engine components.

The importance of ferrous materials can arguably be traced back to before the iron age. Usage of iron increased rapidly during the industrial revolution when wrought iron was used extensively. The invention of the Bessemer process in 1855 greatly lowered the cost of production. Modern production of steel is based on a combination of the basic oxygen process in blast furnaces and recycling of scrap by melting in the electric arc furnace, production has increased steadily since 1950 (189 M tonnes to 1057 M tonnes in 2004). The energy consumption and CO$_2$ per tonne has decreased since 1975, in 2003 the average energy consumption (of companies reporting to IISI) was 19 GJ per tonne.

The complexities that have made ferrous alloys such versatile materials also have made them a fruitful area for research. The mechanical properties are controlled by a combination of alloying elements, mechanical and thermal processing, all of which affect the atomic arrangements in the steel. Significant effort is put into improving alloy design and manufacturing processes to achieve desirable properties in the most cost-effective way.

The use of the scientific methods of investigation into iron and steel really began with the optical microscopy studies of Sorby and Martens in the 19th Century. From 1860 to 1940 the major experimental techniques available and applied were optical microscopy, chemical and thermal analysis, dilatometry and X-ray crystallography. Important concepts introduced as a result of these investigations were allotropy, equilibrium, thermodynamics, solid-state transformation mechanisms and hardenability. The electron microscope and thin foil transmission techniques along with the concept of the imperfect crystal lattice has been important in ferrous metallurgy since the 1950s. Direct observation of atomic structure and defects on a surface was made possible with the atom probe microscope in 1955, and soon after with high resolution electron microscopes, and the scanning tunneling microscope. Experimental instruments continue to be developed and these improvements of instrumentation continually allow us to add to the range of knowledge.

The availability of modern computers has enabled theory to be consolidated into mathematical models which can be used to make predictions, or further aid our understanding, and also allowed the application of more flexible regression techniques to recognise patterns in experimental data.

Energy usage and CO2 in steel making

Increase in steel production

Properties of sheet steels and low-temperature bainite (After Sherif, 2004, PhD Thesis, Cambridge)