Learned Something New

Yesterday was one of those days where our flight was delayed due to one of the more unusual issues.  Usually, we have planes run late due to weather, ice fogs, fog, or something similar but yesterday it was labeled as "maintenance".

I called the airline to discover they hadn't properly put their Navajo Caravans to bed the night before so when the temperature really dropped, the electronics got messed up.

They had to fix systems such as the auto pilot and other things in order to come pick us up.  I knew that if you don't plug your car in during super cold weather, the battery might loose power or the oil might get too thick but I never thought about electric circuits.

In the process of learning this, I realized I have the basis of a great lesson based on temperatures and the relation to the effectiveness of electronics.  I discovered that certain companies set electronics to work between certain temperatures such as Apple which sets their iPhones, etc to work well between 32 and 95 degrees F while Samsung sets their electronics to function best between -4 and 122 degrees F.

I figure I can have students research these tolerances for various electronics from different manufactures to create graphs based on those tolerances.  From the graph, they can provide a written paragraph explaining which manufacturer they recommend.  This is very appropriate for us since temperatures regularly drop to the -20 F range and colder.

In addition, I just discovered that the effective range depends on if it commercial, industrial, or military based with military based having the best spread for temperature range.  I'm also sure with a bit more research they could find graphs showing more of a degree by degree connection with effective operation of the electronics. 

Furthermore, since most of these items operate off of battery power, the project could include a section on the temperature range of effective use for batteries.  In cold weather, we have to wrap the car batteries in a battery blanket so it stays warm over night and the battery does not loose it charge.  For up here, we have to get the heavy duty batteries designed for the low temperatures. 

So many possibilities and my students can actually relate to this because they have to start a ATV or snow machine in cold weather and its a challenge.  Many throw blankets over their machines while others use a hair dryer to warm everything up.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.