Gadgetory

chances are likely that many of you have heard the term radar before so many movies contain a scene where someone looks over in distress and says captain the ship's radar is picking up an unidentified object headed in our direction while examples including aircraft pilots may be the most readily available to some of us the definition of radar actually allows for pretty well any device which detects and tracks the speed size or movement of objects all radars operate by using a similar technique of sending pulses of radio waves to illuminate potential objects these radar pulses are either dispersed or reflected back by the objects they contact which is then detected by a receiver received data is then calculated in one of many complex fashions to determine varying statistics about the detected object it wasn't until somewhere around the 1940s during World War two that military science figured out how to use the Doppler effect for more accurate detection you know the Doppler effect that thing you've heard of in school anyway before this point in time multiple radar units were necessary for calculating an object's speed and travel direction which was accomplished by comparing signal return times at different points over several instances than coordinating the data to determine a bogies trajectory but by also measuring the variances in a returned signal caused by interaction with the moving object engineers discovered that they were able to determine an object's velocity more quickly precisely and with smaller individual units that could employ microwaves instead of radio waves this eventually led to the Doppler based weather systems you may have heard about on the local news another cliche movie scene you might have encountered is the one where the guy says sir they're jamming our radar signal that's not just Hollywood nonsense though radar jamming is done by broadcasting another radar signal on the same frequency which overwhelms the enemy's detector it's kind of like trying to see fireflies in front of a spotlight radar interference can also happen accidentally when radar systems on the same frequency are located too closely together another common problem with radar functionality has to do with signal variations or noise which can result from naturally existing external conditions like thermal radiation or from internal conditions such as a result of the signal amplification process radar can also be physically blocked by things like buildings or hills or mountains or even the curvature of the earth which is one reason why planes will sometimes fly a low to the ground to avoid radar detection even though radar technologies and the problems which plague them are not exactly the newest kids on the block that doesn't mean they don't have the right stuff our abilities to monitor things in increasingly sophisticated ways is constantly leading to improvements we can see in our daily lives such as better abilities to track live weather and traffic conditions for the purposes of safety and transportation and ground penetrating radar systems which provide insight into the structure of geological areas or objects for purposes like excavation manufacturing or military information collection there is no doubt that advancements in radar technology will only continue to expand our horizons and if you're looking to expand the horizons of your mind then maybe you should look into ok guess it guess what's gonna be uh that's right lynda.com lynda.com is a great source for instructional videos on a huge range of topics like web development photography visual design business and more Plus software training for programs like Excel WordPress Photoshop and all these other ones that I don't have time to mention all their thousands of courses are taught by industry experts and the videos come with transcripts and project files if you spring for those there are beginner intermediate and advanced courses so there's always something new to learn and at least in the courses that I've taken everything is covered very thoroughly leaving no gaps in your knowledge which is exactly what will happen if you try to piece this stuff together on your own oh and they have iPhone and Android apps as well so if you're interested in learning new skills or hobbies or whatever you can go to lynda.com slash tech wiki and get a free 10-day trial and see for yourself what they have to offer without any risk to you you're welcome so that's it guys thanks for watching like or dislike this video if you must share comment subscribe do all that stuff and we'll see you next time