Basic,Computer,Thermodynamics, computer Basic Computer Thermodynamics

Gone are those times when the companies and the organisations didn't need a hi-tech system to handle them. Owing to the considerable increase in the business sector and thus, an enormous increase in the complexity of the organisational struc ----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes a

----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and theresource box below is included. ----------------------------------------------------------Basic Computer ThermodynamicsBy Stephen BucaroThat desk in front of you and everything else around youis made up of atoms. An atom consists of electrons orbitingaround a nucleus. An atom is increadibly tiny. You couldline up 10 million of them inside a millimeter. What if wecould scale up an atom so that the nucleus was the size ofa basketball? The orbits of its electrons would then be 15miles away.From this you can understand that atoms are almost allempty space. The nucleus of the atom is composed of quarks.If you could see a quark or an electron up close, it mightappear as a tiny vibrating glow of energy. It turns outthis world, which is causing us so many problems and so muchstress, is mostly an illusion!The electrons orbit the nucleus at about the speed of light.If you could see them, they might appear as a blur. Theydo not orbit in a plane like the pictures in books. Theycreate a shell. Sometimes two or more atoms will shareelectrons, causing them to link together forming a molecule.Looking at that desk in front of you again, it looks prettysolid. Actually, unless your desk is floating in deep spacewhere the temperature is close to absolute zero, themolecules of your desk are vibrating like crazy. Picturethe molecules bouncing around and smacking into each otherlike balls on a pool table.If you have ever played pool, you're very familiar with howwhen a pool ball hits another pool ball, it transfers it'senergy to the second pool ball. When heat causes moleculesto vibrate, they transfer energy between each other in asimilar fashion. This action is called "conduction".Now picture the CPU of a computer cooking away because thedesigner wants to push too much power through a small pieceof silicon. If we don't take away that heat as fast as it'screated, that CPU will fry!The problem is usually solved by mounting a heat sink onthe CPU. Conduction causes the heat to move from the hotCPU to the cooler heat sink. Because air doesn't conductheat as well as metal, We apply a thin layer of heat sinkcompound between the CPU and the heat sink to fill in anygaps.You'll notice that a heat sink has fins on it. The finsallow the heat sink to conduct the heat to the air adjacentto the fins. The fins provide more surface area to aid inconduction. Eventually the adjacent air will get as hot asthe heat sink and conduction will cease.If we move the air away from the heat sink, it will takethe heat energy with it. A fan mounted on the heat sink isused to move the air. This method of heat transfer iscalled convection. Eventually all the air inside thecomputer case will get hot, so fans are used to blow theair out of the case of the computer.The heat has moved from the CPU, to the heat sink, to theair inside the case, to the air in the room where you'resitting at your computer desk. The room starts to get hot,and eventually the air conditioner turns on.You can view an air conditioner as a "pipe". A fan blowsthe hot air from your room through fins that transfer theheat to a liquid. The liquid is piped to fins outsidethe house. A fan blows cooler outside air past the finsto remove the heat from the liquid.The air conditioner has an evaporator valve that changesthe liquid to a gas after the heat is removed. In a gas,the molecules are further apart than in a liquid. Thiscauses it to cool down quite a bit more. The gas goesthrough the fins inside the house, picking up heat. It isthen compressed into a liquid to concentrate the heat sothe outside fins can remove the heat more efficiently. Shuttle's I.C.E. (Integrated Cooling Engine) Heat Pipeuses a very similar method to cool a CPU. The CPU has aheat sink with copper heat pipes. The heat of the CPUcauses liquid coolant inside the heat pipe to change to agas. Convection created by the pressure of the gas movesthe coolant to a second heat sink where a fan is used toblow the heat out of the computer's case. Releasing theheat causes the coolant to change back to a liquid. Gravitythen carries the coolant back to the CPU heat sink.One last method of heat transfer we haven't discussed yetis radiation. Some of the heat of the CPU and the heatsink is released as infrared radiation. Similar to light(although invisible to human eyes), the radiation strikesthe insides of the computer case, causing it to get warm.Ultimately the computer case itself acts as a heat sinkconducting heat to the outside air.This article explains the three ways - conduction,convection, and radiation - that heat is transported froma computer CPU to the air outside the computer case. Younow understand the thermodynamics of a computers and whyit is important to maintain its various components.----------------------------------------------------------Resource Box:Copyright(C) Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintainyour computer and use it more effectively to design a Website and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.comTo subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visithttp://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp---------------------------------------------------------- Article Tags: Basic Computer, Pool Ball, Heat Sink, Computer Case