Материал: Андрианова English Thesaurus of Student-Physicist 2013

Conduction of electrical signals by neurons

The most remarkable use of electrical phenomena in living organisms is found in the nervous system of animals. Specialized cells in the body called neurons forma complex network that receives, processes, and transmits information from one part of the body to another. The center of this network is located in the brain, which has the ability to store and analyze information. On the basis of this information, the nervous system controls parts of the body.

The nervous system is highly complex and consists of about 1010 interconnected neurons. Some aspects of the nervous system are well known. Over the p 45 years, the method of signal propagation through the nervous system has been established. The messages transmitted by neurons are voltage pulses called action potentials. When a neuron receives a strong enough stimulus, it produces identical voltage pulses that are actively propagated along its structure. The strength of the stimulus is conveyed by the number of pulses produced. When the pulses reach the end of the neuron, they activate either muscle cells or other neurons. There is a "firing threshold" for neurons: action potentials propagate along a neuron only if the stimulus is sufficiently strong.

1.Where do we use electric circuits?

2.What is emf?

3.Resistors in series or in parallel. What does it mean?

4.What rules are called Kirchhoff's rules?

5.What elements do RC-circuits contain?

6.What devices are used for electrical safety?

7.What is the most remarkable use of electrical phenomena in living organisms?

Exercises

1. Rearrange the letters in the anagrams to form equivalents for the Russian words:

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2. Match the words in A with the words in B to form word combinations:

3.Fill in the gaps with the missing words from the list: equivalent resistor, neurons, time constant, circuit breaker, emf

1.If we neglect the internal resistance of the battery, the potential drop across the battery (the terminal voltage) equals the _____ of the battery.

2.The _____ has the same effect on the circuit because it results in the same current in the circuit as the two resistors.

3.It's important to note that a capacitor charges very slowly in a circuit with a long _____, whereas it charges very rapidly in a circuit with a short time constant.

4.The wire and _____ are carefully selected to meet the current demands of a circuit.

5._____ can be divided into three classes: sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons.

UNIT 19

MAGNETISM

Read the following texts. Study the thesaurus on fig. 19, answer the questions after the texts

In terms of applications, magnetism is one of the most important fields in physics. Large electromagnets are used to pick up heavy loads. Magnets are used in such devices as meters, and loudspeakers. Magnetic tapes and disks are used routinely in soundand video-recording equipment and to store computer data. Intense magnetic fields are used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices to explore the human body

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with better resolution and greater safety than x-rays can provide. Giant superconducting magnets are used in the cyclotrons that guide particles into targets at nearly the speed of light, and magnetic bottles hold antimatter, possibly the key to future space propulsion systems.

Magnetism is closely linked with electricity. Magnetic fields affect moving charges, and moving charges produce magnetic fields. Changing magnetic fields can even create electric fields. These phenomena signify an underlying unity of electricity and magnetism, which James Clerk Maxwell first described in the 19th century. The ultimate source of any magnetic field is electric current.

Magnets

Most people have had experience with some form of magnet. You are most likely familiar with the common iron horseshoe magnet that can pick up iron-containing objects such as paper clips and nails. In the discussion that follows, we assume the magnet has the shape of a bar. Iron objects are most strongly attracted to either end of such a bar magnet, called its poles. One end is called the north pole and the other the south pole. The names come from the behavior of a magnet in the presence of Earth's magnetic field. If a bar magnet is suspended from its midpoint by a piece of string so that it can swing freely in a horizontal plane, it will rotate until its north pole points to the north and its south pole points to the south. The same idea is used to construct a simple compass. Magnetic poles also exert attractive or repulsive forces on each other similar to the electrical forces between charged objects. In fact, simple experiments with two bar magnets show that like poles repel each other and unlike poles attract each other.

Although the force between opposite magnetic poles is similar to the force between positive and negative electric charges, there is an important difference: positive and negative electric charges can exist in isolation of each other; north and south poles don't. No matter how many times a permanent magnet is cut, each piece always has a north pole and a south pole. There is some theoretical basis for the speculation that magnetic monopoles (isolated north or south poles) exist in nature, and the attempt to detect them is currently an active experimental field of investigation.

An unmagnetized piece of iron can be magnetized by stroking it with a magnet. Magnetism can also be induced in iron (and other materials) by other means. For example, if a piece of unmagnetized iron is placed near a strong permanent magnet, the piece of iron eventually becomes

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magnetized. The process can be accelerated by heating and then cooling the iron.

Naturally occurring magnetic materials such as magnetite are magnetized in this way because they have been subjected to Earth's magnetic field for long periods of time. The extent to which a piece of material retains its magnetism depends on whether it is classified as magnetically hard or soft. Soft magnetic materials, such as iron, are easily magnetized, but also tend to lose their magnetism easily. In contrast, hard magnetic materials, such as cobalt and nickel, are difficult to magnetize, but tend to retain their magnetism.

Forensic scientists use a technique similar to find fingerprints at a crime scene. One way to find latent, or invisible, prints is by sprinkling a powder of iron dust on a surface. The iron adheres to any perspiration or body oils that are present and can be spread around on the surface with a magnetic brush that never comes into contact with the powder or the surface.

Earth’s magnetic field

A small bar magnet is said to have north and south poles, but it's more accurate to say it has a "north-seeking" pole and a "south-seeking" pole. By these expressions, we mean that if such a magnet is used as a compass, one end will "seek," or point to, the geographic North Pole of Earth and the other end will "seek," or point to, the geographic South Pole of Earth. We conclude that the geographic North Pole of Earth corresponds to a magnetic south pole, and the geographic South Pole of Earth corresponds to a magnetic north pole.

If a compass needle is suspended in bearings that allow it to rotate in the vertical plane as well as in the horizontal plane, the needle is horizontal with respect to Earth's surface only near the equator. As the device is moved northward, the needle rotates so that it points more and more toward the surface of Earth. The angle between the direction of the magnetic field and the horizontal is called the dip angle.

There is some evidence that the strength of a planet's magnetic field is related to the planet's rate of rotation. For example, Jupiter rotates faster than Earth, and recent space probes indicate that Jupiter's magnetic field is stronger than Earth's, even though Jupiter lacks an iron core. Venus, on the other hand, rotates more slowly than Earth, and its magnetic field is weaker. Investigation into the cause of Earth's magnetism continues.

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Magnetic fields

Experiments show, that a stationary charged particle doesn't interact with a static magnetic field. When a charged particle is moving through a magnetic field, however, a magnetic force acts on it. This force has its maximum value when the charge moves in a direction perpendicular to the magnetic field lines, decreases in value at other angles, and becomes zero when the particle moves along the field lines. This is quite different from the electric force, which exerts a force on a charged particle whether it's moving or at rest. Further, the electric force is directed parallel to the electric field while the magnetic force on a moving charge is directed perpendicular to the magnetic field.

The SI unit of magnetic field is the tesla (T), also called the weber (Wb) per square meter. To determine the direction of the magnetic force, we employ the right-hand rule.

If a magnetic field exerts a force on a single charged particle when it moves through a magnetic field, it should be no surprise that magnetic forces are exerted on a current-carrying wire. This follows from the fact that the current is a collection of many charged particles in motion; hence, the resultant force on the wire is due to the sum of the individual forces on the charged particles. The force on the particles is transmitted to the "bulk" of the wire through collisions with the atoms making up the wire.

During a lecture demonstration in 1819, the Danish scientist Hans Oersted (1777-1851) found that an electric current in a wire deflected a nearby compass needle. This momentous discovery, linking a magnetic field with an electric current for the first time, was the beginning of our understanding of the origin of magnetism.

A simple experiment first carried out by Oersted in 1820 clearly demonstrates that a current-carrying conductor produces a magnetic field. In this experiment, several compass needles are placed in a horizontal plane near a long vertical wire. When there is no current in the wire, all needles point in the same direction (that of Earth's field), as one would expect. However, when the wire carries a strong, steady current, the needles all deflect in directions tangent to the circle. These observations show that the direction of magnetic field В is consistent with the following convenient rule, right-hand rule number: Point the thumb of your right hand along a wire in the direction of positive current. Your fingers then naturally curl in the direction of the magnetic field B.

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