Diffusion Coefficient Apparatus Essay Example for Free

Diffusion Coefficient Apparatus Essay General Start-up Procedure: ïÆ'Ëœ Prior to running an experiment, students are advised to perform the following startup procedure. ïÆ'Ëœ Fill the water with clean (preferably filtered) water to approximately 20 mm from the top. ïÆ'Ëœ Plug the main cable to the electrical supply. Be sure that the voltage of the supply is correct to suite the equipment. ïÆ'Ëœ Switch on the main power on the control panel. ïÆ'Ëœ Adjust the set-point value on the temperature controller to 500C. Warning!! Do not set the temperature controller beyond 700C. Switch on the heater. Observe the water temperature heats up to 50 0C and remain constant. The equipment is now ready for experiment. Priming procedure for capillary Tube: Before using the capillary tube in an experiment using acetone, students are advised to clean the inside of the tube. ïÆ'Ëœ Prepare a weak solution of detergent. ïÆ'Ëœ Use the Hirschman pipette to fill the tube with the solution. Tapping the of side of the tube may be necessary if the solution is trapped and does not flow down. ïÆ'Ëœ Turn the tube upside-down and shake. Empty the tube. ïÆ'Ëœ Repeat steps 2 to 3 with acetone. ïÆ'Ëœ The tube is now ready for student experiment. General Shut-down Procedure: ïÆ'Ëœ After the completion of an experiment, students are advised to shut down the equipment as follows: ïÆ'Ëœ Switch off the heater and air pump. ïÆ'Ëœ Adjust the set-point value of the temperature controller to approximately 5 degree below the room temperature. ïÆ'Ëœ Allow the water to cool down until it is safe to touch. Open the drain valve and empty the water tank. ïÆ'Ëœ Detach the flexible tubing and clean the capillary tube for next use. (Refer to priming procedure) ïÆ'Ëœ Switch off the main power. Unplug the main cable if the equipment will not be used for a long period. EXPERIMENT OBJECTIVE: To determine gas diffusion coefficient of acetone using the established Winkelmann’s method. Procedure: 1. Perform the start-up procedure. 2. Partially fill the capillary tube with acetone to a depth of about 35 mm. 3. Carefully insert the capillary tube through the fitting on the top of the water bath cover. Do not over-tighten the fitting. 4. Observe the initial level of acetone through the telescope. Record the level of acetone. 5. Connect the flexible tubing from the air pump line to one end of the capillary tube. Switch on the air pump. 6. After 30 minutes, switch off the air pump. Disconnect the flexible tubing and close the two capillary tubes ends with the cap provided. Observe and record the level of acetone. 7. Repeat steps 4 to 6 at 30 minutes intervals. ANALYSIS DISCUSSION: Plot t/ (L-L0) against (L-L0).Determine gas diffusivity, D from the obtained slope, S. Compare the experimental value with the theoretical value that can be predicted from empirical equations (e.g. modified Maxwell’s equation by Gilliland).

Analysis of Columbia’s Final Mission Essay -- Case Study, Case Analys

Putting yourself in the shoes of the managers or engineers in the case (Ron Dittemore, Linda Ham, Don McCormack, Rodney Rocha, Pamela Madera, Calvin Schomburg), consider the following questions? †¢ What prior assumptions and beliefs shaped the way that you thought and behaved during the Columbia mission? †¢ What pressures affected your behavior? Where did these pressures originate? †¢ In what ways did the culture impact your actions? †¢ If you were in that person’s shoes during the Columbia mission, would you have behaved differently? Why or why not? a) Rodney Rocha Rodney Rocha is a NASA engineer and co-chair of Debris Assessment Team (DTS). When possibility of wing damage appeared he requested an additional imagery to obtain more information in order to evaluate the damage. This demonstrates that he actually tried to resolve the issue. However, due to absence of clear organizational responsibilities in NASA those images were never received. Since foam issue was there for years and risk for the flights was estimated as low management decided not to proceed with this request. After learning of management decision Rocha wrote an e-mail there he stated that foam damage could carry grave hazard and have to be addressed. At the same time this e-mail was not send to the management team. Organizational culture at NASA could be described as highly bureaucratic with operations under standard procedures only. Low-end employees like Rocha are afraid to bring any safety-related issues to the management due to delay of the mission. They can be punished for bringing â€Å"bad news†. This type of relationship makes it impossible for two-way communication between engineers and managers, which are crucial for decision-making in complex env... ... Integration, accepted risk of foam problem based on previous observations. She preferred one-way communication and did not pay attention to the specialist (Rocha) opinion for requests for additional imagery. Culture at NASA was converted over time to a culture that combines bureaucratic, cost efficiency and schedule efficiency of the flights. This culture of production reinforced the decisions to continue flights rather than delay while a thorough hazard analysis was conducted. Managers were so focused on reaching their schedule targets that the foam insulation problem did not induce them to shift their attention to safety. It appears that at NASA managers overrule engineers when the organization was under budget and time pressure. In my opinion, high-level managers should avoid making important decisions based on beliefs and instead rely on specialist’s opinion.

Ford Pinto

In 1968 Lee Iacocca and the Ford Motor Company wanted to produce a inexpensive vehicle to appeal to the first time buyers market. Mr. Iacocca philosophy was for consumers to remember Ford as the very first vehicle that they owned so that when it was time for them to invest in another vehicle it would be a Ford. But, in order for Ford to develop a inexpensive vehicle to fit the philosophy of Lee Iacocca, they had to cut corners. Unfortunately, the one corner they cut was the placement of the fuel tank, causing catastrophic failure in rear end collisions resulting in loss of life, serious injury, or burned out vehicles. Daniel Boyce, author of The Ford Pinto Cade Information, cuts to the chase, â€Å"The Ford Pinto is known to be one of the most dangerous cars produced in automotive history due to several serious design flaws† (Boyce). This is a crucial statement that can affect the reputation of a company and have serious consequences financially. If it was my ultimate decision to either engage in a recall or to settle the cases in which injury occurred I would have to choose the decision to recall. Not only would that decision be the correct ethical decision in my mind, it would be a decision, one that would have been very costly, that would have saved the reputation of Ford Motor Company and would have paid off with future sales. There are two different stakeholders in this situation. The first and most important in my opinion would be the consumer, those buying the Ford Pinto. The second stakeholder would be the investors, stockholders, of Ford Motor Company. My decision to recall the Pinto, spending $11 per vehicle for a total of $121 million, would be to benefit the life of those that had purchased the vehicle. Those individuals that had put trust in the Ford Motor Company to develop a safe and reliable product have more value than that of a dollar figure. Though my decision to recall might not sit right with the investors of Ford Motor Company, in my opinion it is the moral and ethical decision that could pay off financially in the future. Pay the $121 million now, fix the 11 million Pinot’s that are out on the streets, establish a reputation of doing what is right for the safety and well being of your consumers, and the sales of your future vehicles would drastically improve. To have a reputation that Ford cares more about the bottom line than the consumers that purchase their products, that human life has no value, can be detrimental to the future sales of Ford products. With my decision to recall obviously the immediate inancial impact of Ford Motor Company would be significant, $121 million to be exact. In my opinion, this initial investment of fixing the Pinto will bring bigger profits to Ford Motor Company in the future. Andrew Bouman wrote an article regarding the Ford Pinto and addressed future car sales, â€Å"When people are purchasing vehicles now days they still think back to the ford pinto and think that hopefully this same issue isn't going to happen with this car. This has affected the sales of F ord vehicles† (Bouman, 2009)†. Other car manufactures have had safety issues and the company chose to fix the problem, putting human life in front of the bottom line. This philosophy has been successful for other automobile manufactures, a philosophy Ford should have followed. Bouman goes on to say, â€Å"If ford would have thought about their future they definitely would have spent the money to fix each one of the vehicles and then their sales would be doing a lot better today and they would not have lost as much money† (Bouman, 2009). The question Ford Motor Company had to deal with was; does the human life have a value? Their decision to place a $200,000 figure for each individual that was negatively affected by the Pinto tells me that Ford placed a dollar value on human life. Michael Zimmerman writes, â€Å"The intrinsic value of something is said to be the value that that thing has â€Å"in itself,† or â€Å"for its own sake,† or â€Å"as such,† or â€Å"in its own right† (Zimmerman, 2002). We are talking life; a value in itself, a value for its own sake, and a value in its own right. Ford was talking value of life that would affect them, Ford motor Company, not the life of the consumer. The instrumental value is the value of the object, and in this situation the object is the human life. Ford Motor Company valued the human life at $200,000; this dollar figure was a life value that benefitted Ford Motor Company, not those that purchased Ford Motor Company products. But does human value have a monetary price associated with it? In my opinion no; there is no dollar figure that can be substituted for life. But life does have a value, a purpose, a stake, but it is just not financially connected. I think that with human life the intrinsic and instrumental values are connected, not separated. The human life has value in itself, has value for the individual; but it also has a value as an object, it has a purpose and stake what happens within the future, it just doesn’t have a dollar figure attached to it. Stanley Riukas explains, in an article discussing intrinsic and instrumental value, inherent and instrumental values are inseparably connected, that they are strictly parallel as regards their quantity, quality and other characteristics, that they are reversible, and that their richness determines the richness of human life† (Riukas). The richness of human life places the instrumental value upon it. In conclusion, the decision I would have made in regards to the defective design of Ford Motor Company’s Pinto would have been drastically different than that of Lee Iacocc a. I would have placed the value of human life over the value of the company. In my opinion this decision would have financially benefited Ford Motor Company in the future. A reputation of doing what is best for the consumer rather than what is best for the company has a direct impact on the success of the company in the future, Making the initial investment of $121 million would have gone farther that having the reputation of putting life second and the thought of unreliable vehicles manufactured by Ford Motor Company in the minds of all consumers. References Andrew Bouman. (October 14, 2009). The Ford Pinto. In Ezine Articles. Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Ford-Pinto;id=3044629. Daniel Boyce. (n.d.). The Ford Pinto Case Information. In The Ford Pinto Case. Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://fordpintoethics.webs.com/. Stanley Riukas. (n.d.). Inherent and Instrumental Values in Ethics. In The Paideia Project On-Line. Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Valu/ValuRiuk.htm. Zimmerman, Michael J. (October 22, 2002). Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Value. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition). Retrieved July 7, 2013, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/value-intrinsic-extrinsic/#WhaHasIntVal.

Essay on An Analysis of Qualitative Research Methods

An Analysis of Qualitative Research Methods Qualitative political and historical researchers seek to analyze social or political phenomena from multiple perspectives in order to gain an in-depth understanding of their research topic, as well as insight into the broader scope of their disciplines. They accomplish these goals by using case-specific methods that are designed to generate knowledge and yet are limiting in that same area. Because of their selectively designed character, each of these methods will neither generate a multi-dimensional analysis of a given research topic, nor address the serious validity issues often associated with qualitative research. Nonetheless, they are productive approaches for evaluating the†¦show more content†¦Essentially, the method itself is a process that is tailored to accomplish specific research goals, which include generating a specific type of understanding of a given state of affairs. Depending on the type of understanding desired, researchers may adopt particular methodologi cal positions which establish how they go about studying a phenomenon (Seale, 328). The design of each of these methods is to be distinguished from quantitative models, which are usually founded on statistical and rigorous mathematical paradigms. In contrast, qualitative researchers-especially in history and political science-often engage in descriptive research, which involves broader concepts of design and less math. Harrison (2001) writes, qualitative research tends to focus on exploring, in as much detail as possible, smaller numbers of instances [than quantitative designs] or examples which are seen as being interesting or illuminating, and aims to achieve depth rather than breadth (Harrison, 74). Qualitative methods can be understood as the instruments or technology that researchers in political science and history use in their profession, just as technicians would use mechanical tools in their profession. Invariably, this type of research requires standards and helpful mechanisms that can generate depth ofShow MoreRelatedMethods of Data Analysis in Qualitative Research1580 Words   |  7 Pages15 Methods of Data Analysis in Qualitative Research Compiled by Donald Ratcliff 1. Typology - a classification system, taken from patterns, themes, or other kinds of groups of data. (Patton pp. 393,398) John Lofland Lyn Lofland Ideally, categories should be mutually exclusive and exhaustive if possible, often they aren t. Basically a list of categories. example: Lofland and Lofland s 1st edition list: acts, activities, meanings, participation, relationships, settings (in the third editionRead MoreQuantitative Vs. 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