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August 16, 2021



WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY BATTERIES ARE REALLY RECYCLED.

Batteries Can Be Recycled

Tesla claims in its 2020 Impact Report that it can now recycle up to 92 percent of the raw materials used in its battery cells, a method that the company's facilities have already started to apply.

The procedure could have a significant impact on the environmental cost of producing electric vehicle battery packs. Not only is the process energy-intensive, but Tesla's current battery lineup also requires cobalt, a rare element linked to controversial mining practises in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and elsewhere.

Long-term planning

Tesla, for example, did not provide any particular numbers on how many battery packs it recycled last year.

Tesla battery packs recycled 1,300 tonnes of nickel, 400 tonnes of copper, and 80 tonnes of cobalt in 2020, according to the company's calculations.

According to the study, “a Tesla battery pack is meant to outlast the vehicle itself.” “As a result, just a handful customer Tesla batteries have been retired to date, including those from our nearly nine-year-old Model S cars.”

According to InsideEVs, Tesla has been working with third-parties on the process for more than two years, but has remained tight-lipped about any details.

The study states, "The modest number of post-consumer batteries that we acquire are mostly generated from our fleet of on-the-road cars, predominantly taxi-like vehicles."

Because the Model S has only been in production for nine years, it will “likely be some time before we start getting back batteries in bigger volumes,” according to the business.

Tesla is keen on creating its own nickel, cobalt, and copper from recovered batteries, thus it makes sense for the company to invest in improving its recycling procedures.

Fortunately, this could also be beneficial to the environment.


This article is originally published in - futurism


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July 15, 2021 1
Meissner effect (Explained)

Meissner effect, the expulsion of a magnetic field from the interior of a material that is in the process of becoming a superconductor, that is, losing its resistance to the flow of electrical currents when cooled below a certain temperature, called the transition temperature, usually close to absolute zero. The Meissner effect, a property of all superconductors, was discovered by the German physicists W. Meissner and R. Ochsenfeld in 1933.



As a superconductor in a magnetic field is cooled to the temperature at which it abruptly loses electrical resistance, all or part of the magnetic field within the material is expelled. Relatively weak magnetic fields are entirely repulsed from the interior of all superconductors except for a surface layer about one-millionth of an inch thick. The external magnetic field may be made so strong, however, that it prevents a transition to the superconducting state, and the Meissner effect does not occur.


Generally, ranges of intermediate magnetic-field strengths, which are present during cooling, produce a partial Meissner effect as the original field is reduced within the material but not wholly expelled. Some superconductors, called type I (tin and mercury, for example), can be made to exhibit a complete Meissner effect by eliminating various chemical impurities and physical imperfections and by choosing proper geometrical shape and size. Other superconductors, called type II (vanadium and niobium, for example), exhibit only a partial Meissner effect at intermediate magnetic-field strengths no matter what their geometrical shape or size. Type II superconductors show decreasing expulsion of the magnetic field as its strength increases until they abruptly cease being superconductors in relatively strong magnetic fields.

Well, this could be very useful, for example, in extremely high-speed trains. If you can levitate a train above its rails, then you can make it go much faster with no friction against the rails, and there are demonstrations of this type of train already in existence.


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July 12, 2021

 

Rocket aerodynamics is the study of how air flows over a rocket and how this affects drag and stability.

The nose cone and fins of a rocket are designed to minimise drag (air resistance) and to provide stability and control (keep it pointing in the right direction without wobbling).

Nose cone and rocket diameter affect drag

The amount of air resistance that opposes a rocket’s motion depends mainly on the shape of the nose cone, the diameter of the rocket and the speed of the rocket.

The first point that meets the air is the nose cone at the front end of the rocket. If the speed of a rocket is less than the speed of sound (1,200 km/h in air at sea level), the best shape of a nose cone is a rounded curve. At supersonic speeds (faster than the speed of sound), the best shape is a narrower and sharper point.

Rockets with a larger diameter have more drag because there is more air being pushed out of the way. Drag depends on the cross-sectional area of the object pushing through the air. Making a rocket as narrow as possible is the best way to reduce drag.

The speed of a rocket through the air similarly increases drag. As speed doubles, drag increases four times as much.

https://youtu.be/oAh4_bDFHls

Fins control direction and stability

The stability of a rocket is its ability to keep flying through the air pointing in the right direction without wobbling or tumbling.

Fins are used on smaller rockets to provide this stability and control direction. It works in the same way as placing feathers at the tail of an arrow. The greater drag on the feathers keeps the tail of the arrow at the back so that the point of the arrow travels straight into the wind.

To understand how to place fins and how large to make them, it is important to understand about centre of mass and centre of pressure.

Centre of mass

The centre of mass of an object is the point at which all of the mass of an object can be thought to be concentrated.

To find the centre of mass of a rigid object such as a water bottle rocket, balance the rocket on your finger so that the rocket is horizontal. The centre of mass is a point directly above your finger.

The centre of mass can be moved closer to the nose cone end of a rocket by adding some mass near the nose cone. This will increase stability.

Centre of pressure

The single point at which all of the aerodynamic forces are concentrated is called the centre of pressure.

To find the approximate position of the centre of pressure, draw an outline of the rocket on a piece of paper. The centre of the area of the outline shape is approximately the centre of pressure.

Centre of pressure

This stable model rocket shows the centre of gravity (cg) (also known as the centre of mass) closer to the front end of the rocket than the centre of pressure (cp).

For a rocket to be stable, the centre of pressure needs to be closer to the tail end than the centre of mass. If the centre of pressure is at the same position as the centre of mass, the rocket will tumble. Stability increases as the distance between the centre of mass and the centre of pressure increases.

https://youtu.be/oAh4_bDFHls

Placing fins at the tail end of a rocket moves the centre of pressure closer towards the tail end and increases stability. However, this also increases drag, so there is an optimal size for fins so that the rocket has enough stability without having too much drag.


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April 14, 2021

 


  1. The automobile is the most recycled consumer product in the world.
  1. The best selling car of all-time is the Toyota Corolla.

  1. The average consumer spends $400 a year on diagnostics, scheduled maintenance, and tune-ups.
  1. Traffic congestion wastes three billion gallons of gas each year.

  1. White is the most popular car color.
  1. The invention of the first vehicle was by Ferdinand Verbiest in 1672.

  1. The first cars did not have steering wheels. They were operated by a lever.

  1. It takes half an ounce of gas to start a car.
  1. 60 million cars are produced every year
  1. 1 billion cars are currently in use around the world
  1. The average car contains over 30,000 unique parts
  1. The largest speeding fine ever produced was €1,000,000(This was levelled at a man in Sweden, who was clocked doing 180mph.)

  1. The world record for removing and replacing a car engine is 42 seconds(This record was set by mechanics working on a Ford Escort on 21 November, 1985.)
  1. Boston University Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts.(This is one place in the world where a boat can sail underneath a train, while the train is driving underneath a car that is driving underneath an airplane.)
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May 18, 2020


In its 100-year history, the electric vacuum cleaner has become an indispensable home appliance for most people, and it's obvious why. Imagine picking all this sawdust out of the carpet by hand!

When you sip soda through a straw, you are utilizing the simplest of all suction mechanisms. Sucking the soda up causes a pressure drop between the bottom of the straw and the top of the straw. With greater fluid pressure at the bottom than the top, the soda is pushed up to your mouth. ­

This is the same basic mechanism at work in a vacuum cleaner, though the execution is a bit more complicated. In this article, we'll look inside a vacuum cleaner to find out how it puts suction to work when cleaning up the dust and debris in your house. As we'll see, the standard vacuum cleaner design is exceedingly simple, but it relies on a host of physical principles to clean effectively.

It may look like a complicated machine, but the conventional vacuum cleaner is actually made up of only six essential components:

·         An intake port, which may include a variety of cleaning accessories

·         An exhaust port

·         An electric motor

·         A fan

·         A porous bag

·         A housing that contains all the other components


When you plug the vacuum cleaner in and turn it on, this is what happens:

1.      The electric current operates the motor. The motor is attached to the fan, which has angled blades (like an airplane propeller).

2.      As the fan blades turn, they force air forward, toward the exhaust port (check out How Airplanes Work to find out what causes this).

3.      When air particles are driven forward, the density of particles (and therefore the air pressure) increases in front of the fan and decreases behind the fan.

This pressure drop behind the fan is just like the pressure drop in the straw when you sip from your drink. The pressure level in the area behind the fan drops below the pressure level outside the vacuum cleaner (the ambient air pressure). This creates suction, a partial vacuum, inside the vacuum cleaner. The ambient air pushes itself into the vacuum cleaner through the intake port because the air pressure inside the vacuum cleaner is lower than the pressure outside.

As long as the fan is running and the passageway through the vacuum cleaner remains open, there is a constant stream of air moving through the intake port and out the exhaust port. But how does a flowing stream of air collect the dirt and debris from your carpet? The key principle is friction.

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May 01, 2020 2


Using keyboard shortcuts can greatly increase your productivity, reduce repetitive strain, and help keep you focused. For example, to copy text, you can highlight text and press the Ctrl+C shortcut. The shortcut is faster than moving your hands from the keyboard, highlighting with the mouse, choosing copy from the file menu, and then returning to the keyboard.

Below are the top 10 keyboard shortcuts we recommend everyone memorize and use.


Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert and Ctrl+X

Both Ctrl+C and Ctrl+Insert will copy highlighted text or a selected item. If you want to cut an item instead of copying it, press Ctrl+X. This action removes the text or item and stores it in the clipboard for you, rather than copying it to the clipboard while leaving the original behind.

Apple computer users can substitute the Ctrl key for the command (cmd) key on their computers. For example, pressing Cmd+C copies highlighted text.


Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert

Both the Ctrl+V and Shift+Insert will paste the text or object that's stored in the clipboard.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+V instead.

Practice

Use the above text input fields to highlight the "Cut or copy this text" text and press either Ctrl+C to copy or Ctrl+X to cut the text. Once cut, move to the next field and press Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert to paste the text. For further demonstration, visit the following link.

Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y

Pressing Ctrl+Z will undo any change. For example, if you cut text, pressing this key combination will undo the cut. These shortcuts can also be pressed multiple times to undo or redo multiple changes. Pressing Ctrl+Y would redo the undo.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+Z and Cmd+Y to undo and redo.

Use the above text input field to highlight some or all the text and then press Ctrl+X to cut the text. Once the text has disappeared, press the Ctrl+Z to undo the cut.

Tip

If you did the first example as well (cut and paste text) and you continue to press Ctrl+Z, it is also going to undo that change.
Ctrl+F and Ctrl+G

Pressing Ctrl+F opens the Find field, which allows you to search the text currently displayed in any program that supports it. For example, Ctrl+F can be used in your Internet browser to find text on the current page. Press Ctrl+F now to open the Find in your browser and search for "shortcut" to display each time shortcut is mentioned on this page.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+F to find.

Ctrl+G may be used to repeat a search (from using Ctrl+F) in a document or on a web page.

Alt+Tab or Ctrl+Tab

Pressing Alt+Tab switches between open programs moving forward. For example, if you have your browser window open and other programs running in the background press and hold Alt and then press the Tab key to cycle through each open program.

On Apple computers, instead of using the Alt key use the Command (Cmd) key. For example, Cmd+Tab to switch between open programs.

Bonus Tip

Press Ctrl+Tab to switch between tabs in a program. For example, if you have multiple tabs open in your Internet browser, press Ctrl+Tab to switch between them.

Bonus Tip

Adding the Shift key to Alt+Tab or Ctrl+Tab moves backward. For example, if you are pressing Alt+Tab and pass the program you want to use, press Alt+Shift+Tab to move back to that program.

Bonus Tip

Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 users can also press the Windows Key+Tab to switch through open programs in a full screenshot of the window.
Ctrl+Backspace and Ctrl+Left or Right arrow
Note

The following shortcuts are for PC users only and do not work on Apple computers.

Pressing Ctrl+Backspace deletes a full word at a time instead of a single character.

Holding down the Ctrl key while pressing the left or right arrow moves the cursor one word at a time instead of one character at a time. If you want to highlight one word at a time, hold down Ctrl+Shift, then press the left or right arrow key. Your highlighted selection moves one word at a time in that direction.
Ctrl+S
While working on a document or another file in almost every program, pressing Ctrl+S saves that file. Use this shortcut key frequently if you're working on anything important in case of an error, lost power, or any other issues that causes you to lose any work since the last save.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+S to save a file.


Ctrl+Home or Ctrl+End

Ctrl+Home moves the cursor to the beginning of the document, and Ctrl+End moves the cursor to the end of a document. These shortcuts work with most documents, as well as web pages.

On Apple computers, use the Cmd + up arrow to get to the beginning or Cmd + down arrow to get to the end of a document or text.


Ctrl+P

Control+P is used to open a print preview of the page or document currently being viewed. For example, press Ctrl+P now to view a print preview of this page.

On Apple computers, use Cmd+P to open the print preview.


Page Up, Spacebar, and Page Down

As you may have guessed, pressing either the page up or page down key moves to the next or previous page. When browsing the Internet, pressing the spacebar moves the scrollbar down a page. Similarly, Shift+spacebar moves the scrollbar up one page.

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May 01, 2020

The trouble with pendulum clocks and ordinary watches is that you have to keep remembering to wind them. If you forget, they stop—and you have no idea what time it is. Another difficulty with pendulum clocks is that they depend on the force of gravity, which varies very slightly from place to place; that means a pendulum clock tells time differently at high altitudes from at sea level! Pendulums also change length as the temperature changes, expanding slightly on warm days and contracting on cold days, which makes them less accurate again.

Quartz watches solve all these problems. They are battery powered and, because they use so little electricity, the battery can often last several years before you need to replace it. They are also much more accurate than pendulum clocks. Quartz watches work in a very different way to pendulum clocks and ordinary watches. They still have gears inside them to count the seconds, minutes, and hours and sweep the hands around the clockface. But the gears are regulated by a tiny crystal of quartz instead of a swinging pendulum or a moving balance wheel. Gravity doesn't figure in the workings at all so a quartz clock tells the time just as well when you're climbing Mount Everest as it does when you're at sea.

Quartz sounds exotic—with a "q" and a "z," it's a great word to play in Scrabble—but it's actually one of the most common minerals on Earth. It's made from a chemical compound called silicon dioxide (silicon is also the stuff from which computer chips are made), and you can find it in sand and most types of rock. Perhaps the most interesting thing about quartz is that it's piezoelectric. That means if you squeeze a quartz crystal, it generates a tiny electric voltage. The opposite is also true: if you apply a voltage to a piece of quartz, it vibrates at a precise frequency (it shakes an exact number of times each second).


Inside a quartz clock or watch, the battery sends electricity to the quartz crystal through an electronic circuit. The quartz crystal oscillates (vibrates back and forth) at a precise frequency: exactly 32768 times each second. The circuit counts the number of vibrations and uses them to generate regular electric pulses, one per second. These pulses can either power an LCD display (showing the time numerically) or they can drive a small electric motor (a tiny stepping motor, in fact), turning gear wheels that spin the clock's second, minute, and hour hands.
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March 02, 2020
Whether you get on a plane once a year or once a week, there are probably still a few things you don’t know about flying.

Here are a few secrets you never know about taking to the skies, according to flight attendants, pilots, and industry experts.
The chimes you hear during a flight are actually a secret code.
Notably, they’re not usually conveying anything too exciting.
According to a blog post by Qantas Airlines, flight crews usually use a system of chimes and bells to communicate across the cabin.
These chime messages could be about anything from the number of remaining snacks to turbulence detected on the flight path.
On rarer occasions, the chimes could be a signal from the cockpit conveying an emergency or change of route.
Airplane lavatories can unlock from the outside.
You can actually unlock the lavatory from the outside via an external lock mechanism, which is usually hidden beneath the “no smoking” sign on the door, according to LifeHacker.
Though it might seem invasive, the lavatories unlock from the outside for safety reasons.
You may not want to drink the water on a plane.
Even if you’re not a germaphobe, you might want to think twice about ordering tea or coffee on a plane.
According to testing conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2004 and 2012, the drinking water on more than one out of every 10 planes tested positive for “high” levels of coliform, which are potentially harmful bacteria found in human feces.
Though coliform by itself is not a serious hazard, it usually signals the presence of other dangerous microorganisms like E. coli.
While the EPA now requires planes to have their water supply tested once a year, most flight attendants will tell you to avoid the onboard water supply at all costs.
Generally, dimming the lights is meant to prepare your eyes for a potential evacuation.
No, the crew isn’t trying to lull you to sleep when they dim the lights for takeoff. Turning down the interior lights is actually done so that passengers’ eyes are already adjusted to the darkness, just in case something goes wrong during takeoff or landing, according to Conde Nast Traveler.
Flight attendants don’t get paid until the plane doors close.
Flight attendants who earn an hourly wage don’t actually start getting paid until the aircraft doors close.
Similarly, they stop getting paid after the doors open, according to The Points Guy.
That’s right – all that time flight attendants spend getting the plane ready, boarding passengers, doing safety inspections, and getting everyone off the plane is unpaid.
Many European airlines use a salary system for compensating their flight attendants, and most crew members on both sides of the pond receive a tax-free allowance to help them cover expenses like food during their layovers.
That emergency oxygen mask only lasts about 15 minutes.
In what probably sounds like a terrifying revelation, the drop-down emergency oxygen masks on the plane are usually only equipped to pump out oxygen for about 12 to 15 minutes, according to HuffPost.
But don’t freak out. It normally takes a pilot far less time to drop the plane to a safe altitude than it does for those masks to run dry of oxygen.
The important thing is to get your mask on over your nose and mouth as soon as you can, as you risk passing out just 30 seconds after cabin pressure drops to unsafe levels.
A plane captain has some serious authority.
Federal regulations give the PIC, or “pilot in command,” a lot of authority while the plane doors are closed, according to Think Aviation.
A PIC can put a passenger in restraints, take a will, write fines, and refuse entry to a passenger who looks sick. A PIC is the ultimate authority on an airplane – what they say goes.
Your boarding pass has a lot of hidden information.
Much of the text on your boarding pass probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to you at first glance, but it actually includes a wealth of interesting – and potentially sensitive – information.
The first two letters before the flight number refer to the airline. The numerical portion of your flight number is actually a clue as to what direction you’ll be flying in — odd-numbered flights fly south while even numbers fly west, according to Gizmodo.
Meanwhile, the six-character segment of text on your boarding pass is your booking reference or passenger name record. This little code actually can be used online to look up everything from your destination to your age and credit card information.
The tray tables are oftentimes the dirtiest things on an airplane.
The tray table at your plane seat is probably one of the dirtiest things on your flight. They’re only cleaned “about once a day, usually when the aircraft RONs (remains overnight,” active flight attendant Sara Keagle told HuffPost.
Flight attendants recommend bringing sanitizing wipes with you to wipe down your space, as passengers do everything from drool to change dirty diapers on those tables.  
 
 
Your flight attendant could probably deliver your baby.
Flight attendants aren’t just waiters in the sky – they have some serious credentials. Training to be a flight attendant involves a host of technical and safety know-how.  
As flight attendant Carrie A. Trey told The Points Guy, “practical tests can include learning how to put out fires via simulators, diagnosing various conditions, splinting broken limbs, stopping nosebleeds, administering CPR, and yes, even baby delivery.”
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February 24, 2020

With a myriad number of smartphones available today, it’s all a game of different designs, features, cameras, display quality, performance, battery life and numerous other things that consumers are looking for. However, what goes on beneath these mobile computing machines is equally important because if you’re knowledgeable in this aspect, then you can come close to making a purchasing decision less excruciating down the road.
Looking Inside A Smartphone
1. Display

Perhaps the most obvious components of a modern smartphone is its display, and while every detail you see is on the outside, it is actually an internal component of the device. Display technologies in smartphones of today come in two main types:
  • Those based on LCDs (IPS technology and its variations)
  • Those based on LEDs (AMOLED or Super AMOLED and its variations)
LCD vs LED
On an LCD-based display, there is a backlight that is shining through some polarizers, and it is shining through some filters. And by manipulating the crystal display, you can see a boatload of different colors on the other side. What this means in simple terms is that the light is not being generated by the display itself; it is being generated by the light behind the display, and only some of it is coming from the other side.
Now, on an LED-based display, the light-emitting-diodes are doing all the magic. All the pixels that you can or cannot see are being emitted by these minuscule light-emitting-diodes (also know as LEDs and they produce red, green, and blue colors).
Over here, it is the display itself that is generating the different and vibrant colors. The advantage of AMOLED or Super AMOLED displays over its IPS LCD counterparts is that when a pixel is off and you can see a black color, it is not using up any battery, which is why smartphones that feature AMOLED displays are more efficient in delivering extended periods of battery life.
With an LCD display, however, if you’re seeing black, the crystal display is being manipulated so that none of the light gets through. However, the light behind the display is still being generated meaning that the smartphone will be using small bits of the battery.
However, one drawback that we feel the need to mention is that AMOLED panels are more expensive than IPS ones, so if you see a phone with such a display and it carries a slightly higher price tag, you will know that the display is one of the many contributing factors for that price.
2. Battery
Image: Pexel
Batteries of phones normally use lithium-ion technology that are either removable or non-removable in mobile devices. With these batteries, which an important component of a smartphone, you will not have to worry about ‘calibration’ or ‘testing’ issues that were plagued with nickel-based cells. Still, this does not mean that current-generation batteries are not filled with their own issues, and users have to be very careful when handling and using volatile components like these.
3. ‘System-on-a-chip’ or SoC
Image Credits: Android Authority
The SoC is perhaps the most important component present in a smartphone, and some users might confuse it as being the processor of the device. However, it is far more than that; the SoC not only comprises up of the smartphone’s CPU, but GPU, LTE modem, display processor, video processor, and other bits of silicon that turn it into a functional ‘system’ in a phone.
While you might see phones touting different SoCs from Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung, Huawei’s own Kirin and Apple’s own developed chipsets, they are using the same system architecture from ARM. ARM functions by not only producing their own processors and GPUs but by also licensing their design and system architecture to other companies, so they are able to use their technology to make powerful and efficient SoCs.
Some companies also use architectural licenses so that they are able to make their proprietary processors for use in smartphones as long as they are compatible with ARM’s system architecture. Examples of these will be Apple’s custom-made chipsets running custom-developed Cyclone processing cores, or Qualcomm’s Kryo processors.
4. Memory and storage
Image: PhoneArena
No smartphone can function without the use of RAM and memory (system storage). First, let’s talk about the RAM; most mobile devices are shipped with LPDDR3 or LPDDR4, while some high-end smartphones are shipped with LPDDR4X RAM. ‘LP’ stands for ‘Low-Power,’ and it reduces the total voltage of these chips, making them highly efficient and giving mobile phones the extended battery life.
LPDDR4 is more efficient and powerful than LPDDR3, while LPDDR4X is the holy grail of RAM, resulting in unprecedented speeds and efficiency. LPDDR4X is more expensive to produce though, which is why you only see them in flagship smartphones. When newer generations of RAM are going to be introduced, such as LPDDR5, then you guys will see the flourishing of LPDDR4X memory in mid-ranged devices.
As for internal storage, it exists as the flash memory, ranging from 32GB, and can go all the way up to 256GB on some phones. Naturally, as the requirements of users start to rapidly increase based on the amount of storage that they use, phone manufacturers will exponentially increase the amount of RAM present in smartphones. When you fire up your device for the very first time, one thing that you’ll notice is that the advertised storage is not the same value as running on the phone.
For example, a phone featuring 64GB of storage will probably have between 53-55GB available for your personal use. Well, that’s because the smartphone’s operating system and pre-installed applications require that initial internal memory.
5. Modems
Image: Qualcomm
Since smartphones are just phones at the end of the day, they need communication components to receive and send text messages and calls. That’s where modems come in, and every SoC manufacturer has their own brand of modems, and this includes Qualcomm, Samsung, Huawei and several others.
These manufacturers are also battling it out to release the fastest and efficient category of LTE chips, so if you have come across the term Cat. 9 LTE modem, that is the fastest one out there. However, if your own cellular network does not support those level of speeds, then there’s absolutely no point of having such powerful chips present in smartphones.
Still, companies are going to do their best to make sure they produce the latest and greatest chips of their desired category.
6. Camera
Image: ifixit
All smartphones come with a rear-facing and front-shooting camera. A smartphone comprises up of three main parts:
  • The sensor (which detects light)
  • The lens (the component in which light comes through)
  • The image processor
While the megapixels on the smartphone are still an important part of the camera, it carries less importance than it did a while back. Instead, the primary limiting factor is the camera sensor of the phone and how sensitive it is when light passes through the lens.
Remember, each sensor behaves very differently in a different smartphone, so every single image or video that you capture will be a variation of contrast, color accuracy, saturation and several others compared to a different handset. Most camera apps have manual settings so you can capture an image or video based on your own settings, but most devices don’t have such an extended list of controls.
Since smartphones have small sensor sizes, they tend to perform badly in low-light areas. This is an area where camera sensor manufacturers have worked incessantly to improve considerably, but they have a long road ahead of them it appears.
7. Sensors
There are five main sensors in a smartphone that allow it to give you that functionality of a ‘touch-enabled smart device’. The names of all these sensors and their importance have been detailed below:
  1. Accelerometer: Used by apps to detect the orientation of the device and its movements, as well as allow features like shaking the phone to change music.
  2. Gyroscope: Works with the Accelerometer to detect the rotation of your phone, for features like tilting phone to play racing games or to watch a movie.
  3. Digital Compass: Helps the phone to find the North direction, for map/navigation purposes.
  4. Ambient Light Sensor: This sensor is automatically able to set the screen brightness based on the surrounding light, and helps conserve battery life. This would also explain why your smartphone’s brightness is reduced in low-light environments, so it helps to reduce the strain on your eyes.
  5. Proximity Sensor: During a call, if the device is brought near your ears, it automatically locks the screen to prevent unwanted touch commands.
Now that you have more information on the intricate things that happen inside a smartphone, you can judge your future purchase by comparing the various different components that are present in these modern day computing devices.


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