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Category:Subject:Internet

es:Categoría:Internet fr:Catégorie:Internet ja:Category:インターネット ko:분류:인터넷 pl:Kategoria:Internet pt:Categoria:Internet

title: Category:Subject:Internet


text:
User:Codycarroll

Hi Cody - I am going to move the material on communication from the front page to the chapter itself. The front page of the book is getting a bit cluttered. Also, you should think about using the Big Five as one of the sources of information for personality and communication. It is much more robust than the MBTI. The MBTI has a lot more appeal because it has been around longer (the Big Five is about 15 years old), but because the science behind the Big Five is better, it will likely overtake the MBTI in the next few years. Regards - Gerardo.ok 21:09, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Codycarroll


text:
Managing Groups and Teams/How can managers deal with difficult team members?

Introduction
Imagine for a moment that you have been selected to lead an elite team tasked with the lofty goal of solving world hunger. This team is made up of highly skilled and competent individuals who are ready to solve this problem. The group starts off with a motivational speech from the President and then they go directly into an NGT session, followed by round robin brainstorming. Just as the group brainstorming gets underway one of the group members begins interrupting and poking fun at other peoples’ ideas. At first people respond with a courtesy laugh, but before long they are agitated and ready to leave. Whether or not the “Bad Apple” knows it or not he or she has just dismantled the world hunger dream team.

According to Lori Howard (2004), bad apples can be appropriately labeled “de-jellers” who are very difficult to work with. The name as it implies works to dissolve a team rather than bind it together. In this paper we review the behavior of a negative team member and its powerful detrimental influences on the team. These de-jellers are people who persistently exhibit one or more of the following behaviors: withholding effort from the group, expressing negative affect, or violating important interpersonal norms, thereby impairing group functioning. Once defined, we transition to detailing the psychological states of the teammates, how those psychological states lead to defensive behavioral reactions (e.g. outbursts, mood maintenance, withdrawal), and finally, how these various manifestations of defensiveness influence important team dynamics (e.g. cooperation, creativity). Finally, we discuss key actions that might reduce the negative impact of the bad apple or even help the bad apple become an effective team member.

We focus on instances where constructive responses are non-beneficial or unresponsive and negative behavior persists day after day. A bad apple violates norms of equity, positive affect, and appropriate social functioning.

Bad Apple Types
When the performance of an individual is in question, the team first makes an attributional judgment. Attribution theory suggests that the team will attempt to determine whether the poor performance is internal or external in nature (Taggar and Neubert, 2004). External behaviors are those deemed to be caused by the environment the team is functioning in, or beyond the control of the team members. Example of failures likely to be deemed external are the computer system crashing just prior to an important client meeting, resulting in critical data being lost or the boss denying access to a critical resource for budgetary reasons. Teams do not generally react negatively toward failures labeled as an External locus attribution. In fact pro-social behavior may result.

In the event of an internal attribution, the reaction of the team requires an additional distinction. In this case the team must decide (albeit internally) if the failure is a result of lack of conscientiousness, or a lack of cognitive ability (Taggar and Neubert, 2004).

Withholders of effort or slackers shirk their responsibilities to the group and free ride off the efforts of others. Behavioral examples of withholding effort consist largely of not doing something – of not completing tasks or contributing adequate time, not taking on risks or responsibilities, or not disclosing aptitudes in the hope that others will compensate (Felps, Mitchell, Byington, 2004).

The incompetent team member is one who causes a drop in team performance as a result of their lack of knowledge or skill.

An interpersonal deviant exhibits behaviors that are recognized as violations of social norms. According to Merton’s Strain Theory (Merton 1968), culture defines things people should want (i.e. goals and the means of obtaining them). Deviance occurs when there is a discrepancy between the goal and the means of obtaining it. The strain that is created causes people to engage in deviant behavior.

A dissenter may continually express a negative mood or attitude. This person refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to the team. The member negatively affects the emotion, mood and attitudes, and continually annoys the rest in the team. The often use of ‘but’ is typical symptom a de-jeller exhibits. A dissenter is independent-minded and often speaks/thinks for himself. However, a dissenter can be creative, and risk-taker.

A bad apple impacts motivation, creativity, and learning of the team. In addition, the team loses on the integrative processes of cooperation and conflict.

Typical Responses to Negative Members
Across disparate literatures, the same reactions to negative behavior crop up again and again under different labels. We believe that these reactions can be parsimoniously collapsed into three classes of teammate response – motivational intervention, rejection, and defensiveness. The responses differ in their aims - e.g. towards either changing the negative person’s behavior (motivational intervention), removing negative people (rejection), or protecting one's own self (defensiveness).

The team typically tends to ‘reject’ the bad apple. However, motivational intervention can be applied to change negative behavior (Orcutt, 1973). Influence tactics include confrontations, punishments, withholding of resources, and demands for apologies (Felps, Mitchell, Byington, 2004). If the team member responds to any of these tactics, the problem ceases to exist. If however motivational intervention does not work, the remaining options for the team are rejection or defensiveness.

The simplest response to deal with an incompetent is to rearrange the team in a way that the responsibilities of the incompetent do not overlap with their weak skill set. However, another common response can initiate what Manzoni and Barsoux (1998) have labeled “The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome”.

Manzoni and Barsoux (1998) define The “Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome” in terms of a boss and subordinate relationship, but it can easily be extrapolated to the team setting. It begins often with good interactions between the boss and subordinate, however, there is one triggering event such as a late report or a sub par presentation. This leads the boss to question the effectiveness (competence) of the subordinate. The boss then gives more specific instructions to the subordinate, more carefully supervises him, and dedicates more time to determining courses of action (in essence, doing the job of the subordinate). The Subordinate, sensing this lack of confidence, withdraws from the boss and from the job. He may also react by taking on more difficult projects that are out of reach in an attempt to wow the boss. The boss interprets the overreaching as additional bad judgment. Even if the subordinate is successful in task completion, the boss may write it off as luck. The boss increases intervention, and more openly shows his frustration and lack of confidence, hence causing the employee to become even more despondent (Manzoni and Barsoux, 1998). The Set-Up-To-Fail syndrome is both self enforcing, and self defeating. And the intentions of the boss are warped into a negative feedback loop resulting in the de-motivation of the subordinate. In a team setting, scrutiny of the team can feel like ganging up to the incompetent team member, who will in turn withdraw, thereby increasing the frustration of team members.

Merton suggests the following five modes of adaptation to strain caused by a negative member: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. The axes of Merton’s deviance typology are cultural goals and institutional means with conformity being defined as accepting both, retreatism rejecting both and innovation and ritualism being a combination of the two. Rebellion, a most recognizable strain seen in case of an interpersonal deviant, actually creates its own space outside the typology as a mode that uses new goals and means.

Diffusion of the negative effect is "unintentional, uncontrollable and largely inaccessible" (Felps, Mitchell, Byington, 2004). The negative effect often leads to a defensive response emotion - exploding - a typical reaction to attack a frustrating person (the dissenter).

An extreme response to a bad apple could be to simply kick the member off of the team, or fire the individual. Such solutions are not always possible, and can often be quite expensive in terms of lost time for a project.

In summary, typical externally directed responses include acting against the negative member to restore feelings of autonomy, identity, self-esteem, and well-being. Internally directed responses involve taking steps to change one’s own moods, emotions, or appraisals.

General Recommendations
We recommend a general four step solution that can be applied to any type of bad apple on the team. We also list the specific solutions for each individual type of bad apple in the later part of this paper.

Our general solution is detailed as follows

Step 1: Confront the Problem, Head On
It is important not to fall victim to one of the classic team dysfunctions, Fear of conflict (Lencioni, 2002). The problem within the team must be dealt with, the earlier the better. If left alone, it will only fester, causing greater distraction to the team.

It may be that the offender is not even aware of their negative behavioral patterns. By merely pointing them out, the path to positive change is initiated.

The confrontation should be arranged in a neutral location and not one where the problem has occurred (i.e. the team meeting room). It is better to not have the confrontation directly after a behavior has occurred, as the confrontation may derail the rest of the meeting. Furthermore, for a team, the whole team should be present for the confrontation. Studies have shown that individuals will go easy on problem members because they feel the burden of responsibility (Liden, Wayne and Kraimer, 2001). If necessary, the confrontation can be initiated by an individual with formal authority, but the presence of others will solidify the commitment of the Bad Apple to any resultant corrective actions.

Step 2: Point Out the Behaviors That Are Causing Problems for the Team
It is up to the team to first make the Bad Apple aware of their negative behavior. It is important to focus on behaviors of the person, and not degrade into personal attacks. It is useful to use the formula suggested by Whetton and Cameron (1995):

"I have a problem. When you do X, Y results, and I feel Z."

Where X is the specific negative behavior, Y is the observable consequences, and Z are the feelings associated with the response. For instance – “John, when you come late to the meeting [behavior], we have less time to meet as a team [consequence], and I worry that we won’t be able to finish this project in the allotted time [feelings].” This will work better than, “John, you’re always late to the meetings and it messes the whole project up. We’re never going to finish on time!” which will likely result in defensive behaviors.

A dialogue should result. Furthermore, the confrontation initiators should examine their own behaviors to see if they are contributing to the problem. Examples of this include denying training to an incompetent for budgetary reasons, scheduling meetings at inconvenient times for the late arriver, or overloading the slacker with work.

Step 3: Determine Solution and Success Measures
Once the negative behavior has been exposed, it is time to determine the solution. It is important to involve the Bad Apple in the determination of the solution. This will enhance the commitment process. Robert Cialdini (2001) states that, “People align with their clear commitments. Make [them] active, public, and voluntary”. The solutions to each Bad Apple Archetype depend on the situation, and any laundry list of problems and solutions wouldn’t do justice to the complexity of the modern team environment. The solutions must be determined in the team setting.

Equally important to determining the solution is deciding how to measure success. At what point is the problem considered resolved? Like the solution, the success measures should be developed and agreed upon by both the offender and the rest of the team. The measures of success should be objective and easily observable (Blanchard and Lorber, 1984).

Step 4: Accountability
If there is no improvement reduction of the negative behavior, punitive consequences must be initiated. A recent study showed that it is not appropriate for a single team member to be responsible for determining the appropriate punishment for the bad apple. The determination should be made by either the entire rest of the team, or an individual with formal authority. If an individual is responsible for the punishment, they are likely to reduce the severity of the punishment because the responsibility is not diffused. The same research indicates that this tendency is eliminated when the individual making the decision has formal authority over the team (Liden and Kraimer, 2001).

Specific Issues When Dealing with Specific Bad Apple Archetypes
We suggest the following specific steps be added on to the above listed general solution when dealing with negative team members. Each specific type of bad apple discussed in this paper has a requirement that needs to be individually addressed.

The key task when dealing with an underperformer is to determine whether the lack of progress is due to lack of conscientiousness or lack of cognitive ability. It makes no sense to motivate an ignorant team member or to train a slacker.

 * Slacker : First the team should attempt to determine the source of lack of conscientiousness. The team should consider if the demotivation is a result of internal team dynamics, as set forth in the “Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome” or some external factor. If the team decides that the lack of conscientiousness may be the result of the team dynamics, then the confrontation should focus on the rest of the team as well as the slacker. If the lacking effort is a function of matters external to the team, such as family life, or competing priorities, the team can only address those issues directly and attempt to motivate the slacker via general influence tactics. If the team has the power to remove the slacker, it may choose to do so in the accountability phase of the solution. If not, then steps can then be taken to escalate the situation to the point where dismissal or removal can occur.

 * Incompetent : In the case of the conscientious team member who lacks cognitive ability, additional training should be provided if appropriate, thereby strengthening team cohesiveness and commitment. It is especially true for the case of incompetence, that the offender is paradoxically unaware of their ignorance, and may even perceive their abilities to be above average (Kruger and Dunning, 1999).  The skills required to recognize good work are often the very skills the incompetent individual lacks. Alternately, assignments maybe re-arranged to make the best possible use of the existing skill-set of the incompetent. This is useful when performed in conjunction with additional training.

 * Interpersonal deviant : This type of bad apple is one of the most difficult types to deal with because they make people feel so uncomfortable by their direct violation of normally accepted behaviors. Hence, in addition to confronting the individual, you have to appeal to what Sykes and Matza (1957) term a “higher loyalty” as part of their neutralization theory. The basic idea is to appeal to something that matters to them in an effort to change their behavior. In most cases, social pressure will not work, because they have no trouble violating social norms. The secret is finding out what principles are important to them (e.g. friendship) and applying those in such a way to curb rebellion.

 * Dissenter : If a dissenter leads to relation conflict, the manager needs to address it by the above mentioned general solution. However, a dissenter is beneficial for the team if he leads to task conflict. At first, other team members may consider the dissenter to be a nuisance, but eventually the group recognizes that his questions and negative viewpoints often avert problems and help the group make more sound decisions. The dissenter needs to be engaged to channel his/her strengths. A manager needs to draw out his/her ideas, listen to the questions, and provide information to understand their position. According to Whetton and Cameron (1995), aggressive or harsh behaviors sometimes observed in interpersonal confrontations often reflect the frustrations of people who have good intentions, but are unskilled in handling intense, emotional experiences. Coaching may be essential to help the dissenter present ideas in ways appropriate to the company. An effective communicator – to listen and bounce ideas- might be the key resolution to work with a dissenter. Mentoring can be used to set clear expectations, and control impulse responses.

Interpersonal deviants differ from dissenters in that dissenters are actually expressing negative behavior that can be channeled to a positive purpose, while rebellious interpersonal deviants seek to change the system and are not receptive to having their energies channeled. In both instances you can make the parties aware of their behaviors in an effort to bring them into line. However, the difference in response to behavior identification is the dissenter may actually accept to constructive feedback and change while the interpersonal deviant may cease the behavior, but not really change their overall course.

Conclusion
Before the world hunger dream team disbands you suggest taking a 15 minute stretch break. You turn to Joe (the bad apple) who is sitting next to you and ask him if he would like a cup of coffee. He accepts and on the way to the coffee shop you have a nice social chat. Once you have coffee cups in hand you confront Joe on his disruptive behavior. You explain specifically that his interruptions and fun poking are causing division in the team. After a brief negotiation you agree that there will be no more interrupting and Joe agrees to structure his comments so as to avoid being condescending. Then you ask his permission to hold him accountable on these items. Joe agrees and you thank him for being willing to adjust his behavior. Once you arrive back in the meeting room you suggest the group review the team contract so everyone is clear on the ground rules. That was a close call, but thanks to your ability to recognize negative behavior and address it promptly the world hunger dream team still has a shot at accomplishing their goal.


text:
Talk:Managing Groups and Teams/How can managers deal with difficult team members?

Hi all - I moved the content of the chapter from the front page to the chapter to de-clutter the front page. I kept everything in there, making no changes. Hope this is ok. Gerardo.ok 21:17, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

 * OK NOW I GET IT!!!!

Sorry About the confusion. - --Jeremyfoland 03:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Hey Jeremy - This is looking good. Nice. Gerardo.ok 13:04, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

About this Wiki

 * This Wiki was prepared as a requirement for the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, Teams and Technology Class, MGP295. The Authors are:
 * Jeremy Foland
 * Jeremy Foland is a 2nd year Student at the UCD GSM. He currently works at NEC Electronics, America in Roseville, CA.

 * Sonali Kimsen
 * Sonali Kimsen is a Third Year Student at the UCD GSM. She is currently employed by Intel Corp.

 * Greg McCulloch
 * With the completion of this assignment, Greg will complete his studies at the UCD GSM, and plans to continue employment at Adventist Health.

 * Alex Urlando
 * Like Greg, this project will be Alex's last. We wish him luck in his position as VP of Operations for Bodpod.


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MIPS Assembly/System Instructions

This page is going to discuss some of the more advanced MIPS instructions that might not be used in every-day programming tasks.

syscall allows you to call upon the basic system functions. To use syscall, first set $v0 with the code of the function you want to call, then use syscall. The exact codes available may depend on the specific system used, but the following are examples of common system calls.

Example: printing the number 12 li $a0, 12→;loads the number we want printed, 12 in this case, into the first argument register li $v0, 1→;stores the code for the print integer call into $v0 syscall→;Executes system call

title: MIPS Assembly/System Instructions


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A-level Physics/Cosmology/Stars and Galaxies

The universe consists of millions of stars, which are grouped together as galaxies.

Stars
Stars, like our Sun, are giant hydrogen fusion reactors, producing huge amounts of energy for millions of years.

The birth of a star
Stars begin their life in interstellar gas clouds, where the particles attract each other by gravitational forces. These gas clouds consist mainly of hydrogen and helium, though more recent stars will contain heavier elements produced from older, and now dead, stars.

The gravitational attraction increases as the mass becomes heavier. A protostar is now formed, which is a local concentration of atoms that are large enough to form a star, and begins to increase in temperature, since the lost gravitational potential energy is converted to thermal kinetic energy.

Once the temperature reaches about $$10^{6} K$$, the core is hot enough for hydrogen fusion to occur. The star, over time, stabilizes its temperature, where the rate of energy released at its surface matches the rate of energy produced in its core, and stabilizes its size, where the outward pressure from the thermal reactions matches the gravitational attraction inwards.

The star is now a main sequence star, and will produce energy from hydrogen for many millions of years. Note that since more massive stars "burn" hydrogen at a much faster rate, they have much shorter life spans than less massive stars.

Nuclear Fusion within stars
Stars consist mainly of hydrogen, which is used for the fusion reactions that produce almost all of their energy. In this process four hydrogen nuclei fuse to form a helium nucleus. However, this does not happen directly, and actually happens in stages:

 * Two protons fuse to form a deuterium nucleus, and releases a neutrino and a positron.
 * $$\ ^1 _1H + \ ^1 _1H \rightarrow \ ^2 _1H + v + \ ^0 _{1}e$$

 * The deuterium nucleus fuses with another proton, and produces a helium-3 nucleus.
 * $$\ ^1 _1H + \ ^2 _1H \rightarrow \ ^3 _2He$$

 * Two helium-3 nuclei fuse to produce the helium-4 nucleus. Two protons are released.
 * $$\ ^3 _2He + \ ^3 _2He \rightarrow \ ^4 _2He + 2^1 _1H$$

Energy released
The energy released can be calculated by $$E = mc^2$$, where $$m$$ is the mass deficit i.e. the difference in mass between the daughter nuclei and parent nuclei. In the case of fusion, the total mass of parent nuclei is always larger than that of the daughter nuclides.

Red giants
Once most of the hydrogen in the star has run out, the star will be unable to maintain equilibrium. The core of helium will contract and hydrogen burning will continue in a shell surrounding the core. Since gravitational potential energy is lost when the core contracts, the thermal kinetic energy will increase. This increase causes the star itself to expand. The star is no longer a main sequence star, but is a red giant.

Helium burning within a red giant
Since the temperature of the core of the red giant increases, "helium burning" will occur when the temperature reaches about 100 million K. Like "hydrogen burning", "helium burning" happens in stages:

 * Two helium nuclei fuse to form a beryllium nucleus
 * $$2He \rightarrow Be$$

 * Another helium nucleus fuses with the beryllium nucleus to produce a carbon nucleus and a gamma photon.
 * $$Be + He \rightarrow C + \gamma$$

 * Yet another helium nucleus fuses with the carbon nucleus to form an oxygen nucleus and another gamma photon.
 * $$C +He \rightarrow O + \gamma$$

Further fusion reaction in red giants
More massive red giants that are more than 3 times the mass of the Sun can reach higher temperatures and fusion of heavier elements can occur:

 * At 600 million K, "carbon burning" occurs, producing neon and magnesium nuclei.
 * At 1 billion K, "neon burning" occurs, producing oxygen and magnesium nuclei.
 * At 1.5 billion K, "oxygen burning" occurs, producing silicon nuclei.
 * At 3 billion K, "silicon burning" occurs, with the production of iron nuclei.

After iron, nuclear fusion does not produce any energy, so the thermonuclear reactions cease. Elements heavier than iron are created in supernovae because the require a net input of energy from the surroundings, unlike the fusion of the smaller elements.

The death of a star
Once the temperature in the core is too low for the next thermonuclear reaction to begin, the star will become unstable. What happens next in the life cycle of a star depends on the Chandrasekhar limit, which is equal to 1.4 times the solar mass.

Stars with masses less than the Chandrasekhar limit
When the star is unstable, it will shed the outer layers of gas, which results in a planetary nebula (only called that because they were once thought to resemble planets, but they have nothing to do with planets). The core itself will shrink and become more dense, and reach a density so great, that one teaspoonful will have a mass of many tonnes. The core will stop shrinking once the fermi pressure of electrons that are packed very closely prevents any further collapse. The dense, but dim, star is now a white dwarf. There is no further energy in the core, and the white dwarf will gradually radiate it all away and cool down eventually reaching the same temperature as the surrounding space. At this point it is called a 'Black Dwarf'. It is thought that the Universe is just old enough for White Dwarfs to have formed and cooled down to Black Dwarfs, although none have yet been detected.

Stars with masses greater than the Chandrasekhar limit
For stars that are greater than 1.4 solar masses, the Fermi pressure of electrons is too weak to prevent the gravitational collapse. In the space of a few seconds, the electrons are crushed against the protons to form neutrons, and the core now has a very immense pressure, and therefore, a very high temperature. Elements with atomic numbers higher than iron are produced during this collapse. When the collapse of the core suddenly halts, it causes an explosion due to the immense outward pressure. This explosion is called a supernova. The remaining cloud of dust may eventually form a group of new stars.

Neutron stars
The core within the supernova remains, and is composed entirely of neutrons, since electrons have been forced into the nucleus. Their density is so great, that the Earth at the same density would be only a few hundred meters in diameter. This leftover core is called a neutron star, because of the fact it is made of nothing other than neutrons.

Pulsars
Most stars have their own angular velocity, or rate of spin. When a star decreases in size rapidly, it will spin faster, because angular momentum is conserved. This is similar to the way an ice-skater can spin faster if she holds her arms closer to her body. Often, this is what happens when the core of a supernova shrinks to form a neutron star. The rate of rotation increases massively, and this results in a pulsar. We call it this because on Earth we detect them as regular radio pulses, with periods sometimes in the millisecond range. The regularity and short periods of these pulses led scientists to believe that aliens were trying to communicate with us, although the pulses are now known to come from the magnetic field of a spinning neutron star.

Like all stars, pulsars have their own magnetic field. As the rate of rotation of a star increases, the magnetic field strength around it also increases. The moving magnetic field creates an intense electric field. This intense electric field accelerates electrons and creates an intense beam of radiation at both magnetic poles. Because magnetic north and the axis of rotation aren't perfectly lined up, just like on Earth, it's possible for the beam of radiation to pass through the Earth and reach us, producing the observed pulses of radiation.

Black holes
If a neutron star is greater than approximately 3 solar masses, it will collapse further to an infinitely small point, called a singularity, and will become infinitely dense. The gravitational field strength at a few kilometres from the singularity is so intense that even light cannot escape, and the star is now a black hole (light is affected by gravity despite the fact that photons have no mass, this is explained by Einstein's general theory of relativity). Since nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (also explained by relativity), anything that falls into a black hole is lost forever.

Quasars
A quasar is a source of radiation which is very luminous, brighter than many galaxies. They vary in brightness with periods of a few days or months and because an object cannot change luminosity faster than the time it takes light to travel from one end to the other, they are thought to be relatively small objects, only a few light-days or light-months in diameter. Quasars have been calculated from their red shift to be very distant, as far away as 18 billion light-years, and the only explanation for them is that they are radiation emitted by matter as it falls into a black hole, as the gravitational potential energy of the matter is lost.

Measuring the distance to stars
To measure the distance of stars from Earth, several methods have been devised.

Parallax
We can measure the angle of parallax a star makes as it appears to move across the background of distant stars when the Earth moves from two extreme points in its orbit. We assume that the distant stars are stationary. The diagram shows what is meant by the parallax of a star:

From this angle, we can find the distance in parsecs by:

$$\text{distance} = \frac{1}{\text{parallax}}$$.

Therefore, the smaller the angle of parallax, the further away the star is from Earth, and when a star has a parallax of 1 arc second ($$\frac{1}{3600}th$$ of a degree) we say that it is one parsec away. One parsec is approximately equal to $$3 \times 10^{16}$$ m, or 3.26 light-years.

Intensity of light
Once, it was thought that all stars were exactly the same brightness, but some appeared dimmer than others because they were further away. We now know that stars can individually vary in brightness, but the magnitude system is still used.

Apparent magnitude
The visible stars were separated into 6 classes depending on their perceived brightness. The brightest stars were classed as magnitude 1, and the dimmest stars visible with the naked eye were classed magnitude 6. It was then found that a difference in magnitude actually represented a ratio of 2.5 in intensity, since the human eye works on a logarithmic scale. That means that a magnitude 1 star was $$2.5^{5} = 100$$ times more intense than a magnitude 6 star. The ratio of intensities of two stars can be found from their apparent magnitude by:

 * $$\frac{I_1}{I_2} = 2.5^{m_2 - m_1}$$

Today, with telescopes, we can measure stars with apparent magnitudes ranging from approximately +25 to -25, where smaller is brighter. We calculate it from the measured value of intensity, using the formula:

 * $$m = - 2.5 \log \ I + constant$$

where m is the apparent magnitude and I is the intensity.

Absolute magnitude
The apparent magnitude of a star gives us no information of its true intensity, only the intensity of light that reaches us. That means a very distant star could be more intense than a nearer one, but it would appear dimmer from Earth. The absolute magnitude of a star is the apparent magnitude it would have if it was at a distance of 10 parsecs. The absolute magnitude is given by the equation:

 * $$M = m - 5 \log ( \frac{d}{10} )$$

Where d is the distance of the star in parsecs.

The Milky Way
The galaxy we are in is called the Milky Way. It is a spiral galaxy and is thin, but lens like, in thickness. It has a radius of 100 000 light-years, and is about 2000 light-years thick giving it a profile somewhat like a CD. At its centre is a large ball of older stars called the Galactic Bulge at the centre of which is a super massive black hole. The Milky way contains between 200 and 400 billion stars and an estimated 2 trillion planets. The Milky Way has a number of spiral arms (between 2 and 6, the exact number is not yet known) which are regions of star formation.


text:
Category:Featured ingredient candidate

Modules that have been nominated to be the Featured ingredient on the main Cookbook page. See Cookbook:Policy for featured ingredient criteria.

__HIDDENCAT__

title: Category:Featured ingredient candidate


text: Template:Assembly Languages

title: Template:Assembly Languages


text:
General Relativity/Stoke's theorem

Stokes' Theorem states that if there is an n-dimensional orientable manifold $$\mathcal{M}$$ with boundary $$\partial\mathcal{M}$$, and if there is a form $$\omega$$ (with compact support) defined on the manifold, then the following is true:

$$\int_{\mathcal{M}}d\omega = \int_{\partial\mathcal{M}}\omega$$

title: General Relativity/Stoke's theorem


text:
Do-It-Yourself/Upgrading your car audio

Introduction
Unless you have a very expensive car, your car probably came with a sub-par stereo system. It probably distorts at louder volumes and does not have the bass and clarity that you desire. The purpose of this manual is to describe what steps need to be taken to upgrade your car's sound system.

Target audience of this wikibook
This manual assumes that the reader knows nothing or little about this subject. The majority of advice given in this manual applies to common cars available in North America, such as American, Japanese, and German vehicles. The information may or may not be applicable to vehicles sold on other continents or by other manufacturers, such as Indian or Chinese manufacturers, as the author has no familiarity with them. The information also may not be applicable to very old vehicles. It would be helpful to one's understanding if s/he had knowledge of basic woodworking, fiberglass, and/or electronic components.

The Head Unit
The head unit is the actual stereo itself. It is the main part of the entire sound system and is probably the only part that you as the listener will interact with.

Why replace the head unit?
You may want to replace your head unit for several reasons:
 * it may not have all the features you want, for example it may not be able to play MP3s
 * it may be low quality, for example CDs may skip, or the sound clarity may be low
 * it may not be able to provide enough power to the speakers
 * The aesthetic features may not be ample

How to replace the head unit
The first step in replacing the head unit is obviously to pick out a new one. They may be purchased in stores which cater specifically to car audio, or they may be purchased in stores such as Best Buy or Circuit city. Another option is eBay. There is much debate about which brand is the best to buy, and if you ask ten different people you will probably get ten different answers. Some people advocate a single brand which they have had good experience with, while other people claim that the brand is not very important. It is up to you to decide which model to buy, after having done sufficient research on it on the internet. A good place to research is to look for reviews written about the model you are interested in, or visit audio-related forums.

The next step is to remove your factory head unit. This will probably involve unscrewing a portion of your dash, and while it's not rocket science it can be challenging on some vehicles. For example, most Ford vehicles have four small holes on each corner of the stock head unit. Using special pins that you can purchase at any car audio or parts store for about 7 bucks, makes this removal extremely simple, but without them it becomes fairly difficult. Every vehicle is different and a single manual cannot provide step by step instructions for every vehicle, but you should be able to find the appropriate instructions on the internet. After the dash has been removed, you have access to the head unit. Unscrew the screws holding the head unit, and pull it out, disconnecting the wires that connect it to your car's power supply and antenna.

Next you need to put your new head unit in. This requires some extra equipment. First, you need a mounting bracket. Your new head unit may not be the exact same size as your old one (1985-1995 era Ford cars [Tempo, Escort, etc] have stock head units the same size as aftermarket ones), and the screw holes may not be in the right places. A mounting bracket is necessary to mount the new head unit in place, and cover the extra space if the new head unit is smaller than the old one. Secondly, you will need a wiring harness. A wiring harness connects your new head unit to your vehicle's power supply. Thirdly you will also probably need an antenna adapter. The store which sells you your head unit will probably know which wiring harness and which antenna adapter your vehicle requires. If they do not a car audio store should be able to help you.

Finally, put your dash back together and you are done.

An alternative is to have the store install your deck themselves. This will probably cost about $30 in the US. Some stores offer free installation on sufficiently expensive decks.

The Speakers
Factory speakers are usually of very poor quality and replacing them with aftermarket ones will result in an enormous improvement in sound quality.

Most vehicles have four speakers, but some have six, eight, or even twelve. In this author's opinion, more speakers does not necessarily amount to greater sound quality and manufacturers only put more speakers in cars so that car buyers will think "Wow, this car has 8 speakers, it must be a lot better than a car with only 4!". Four high quality speakers will produce superior sound to twelve poor ones.

Replacing the speakers is a relatively simple process. Your front speakers are probably in the front doors, or in the dash, or both if your car has more than four speakers. Removing the door speakers requires removing the door panels. if you open your door and look around it, you will notice screws holding the door panel in place. Removing all of the screws will loosen the panel. If your car has manual window cranks, you will need to remove those in order to get the door panel off. Once the door panel is off, you have access to the speaker. Remove the screws holding the speaker, disconnect the wires, and connect the wires for your new speaker. Secure your new speaker with screws, and screw the door panel back on, and you're done. You will have to unscrew other portions of your car in order to get at the speakers in the back, or speakers in your dash, or wherever else they might be in your vehicle. It is impossible for a single manual to provide detailed instructions for every single vehicle, so you will have to research on the internet if you cannot figure out how to remove the speakers.

Note that replacing only your speakers and nothing else may not necessarily result in a major improvement in sound quality. This is because your head unit may not be able to provide the necessary power to power your speakers to their full potential. A typical head unit may provide a total of 200 watts of power. When divided by 4 speakers, that is only 50 watts per speaker. If your speakers can handle a maximum of 150 watts each, then you are not using them to their potential. The way to solve this problem is to use an amplifier.

The Amplifier
An amplifier is a device which provides more power to your speakers. In some cases, replacing only the head unit and speakers will provide a sufficient improvement in sound quality to satisfy you. But other times the head unit will not provide enough power to the speakers, and an amplifier is necessary. Amplifiers range greatly in price depending on how much power they can provide. An amplifier can be found to produce from as little as 50 watts up to 4000 watts, they can often be split into more than one 'channel'. For example, if a 1000 watt amplifier is purchased, and the desire is to use it to run two speakers, the amplifier often has the capability to split the power in half and supply to each channel. Thus, the 1000 watts is suddenly split into 500 watts on the left channel and 500 watts on the right channel.

Amplifiers work by taking power directly from the vehicles battery, (12 volts DC), through a 'power line' which has a fuse (varying in capacity), directly to the amplifier. The amplifier is then grounded out through a separate wire of similar gauge to the power line, into the body or frame (or other appropriate metal area) of the car. A 'remote' wire, coming from the back of the head unit, tells the amplifier to turn on anytime that the head unit itself is powered up. For the signal, or sound energy, there is (most often) one or more 'RCA' jacks coming from the back of the head unit, which then connect directly to the amplifier. RCA wires are the same wires that you find color coded on the back of your dvd player.

The Subwoofer
A subwoofer is a large speaker intended to play all the low frequency sounds, and produce bass. If you want very deep bass that will shake your car, a subwoofer is a must. Subs come in a range of sizes, the most common being 6, 8, 10, 12, or 15 inches. MTX Audio Corp. has developed a 22 inch sub, weighing nearly 350 pounds. The power required to run a sub increases as the 'cone size' of the sub is increased. The power rating of a sub can be seen often on the package that the speaker is bought in, however, this is often the "maximum" power rating, meaning that the power advertised is the point at which the speaker will fail or sound distorted. 'RMS' power rating (root mean square), is the power that is recommended to be used for the best audio quality from your speaker, and is also found either on the package or on the speaker itself (magnet or cone). Subs require a "box" (usually wood or fiberglass in design), and an amplifier of sufficient power to sound optimal. The sub is placed into the box of the appropriate dimensions, connected to the amplifier via the 'terminals' on the voice coil of the subwoofer (which are then connected to terminals on the inside of the box, and then led outside the box via the same terminals on the other side). The sub is screwed down and/or sealed in by silicone. The box is most often placed in the cargo area of the vehicle (cars and SUV's) or behind the seats in trucks. Special boxes can be bought or crafted for a particular fit behind a seat or against a wheel well in a trunk.

title: Do-It-Yourself/Upgrading your car audio