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Before going on a guided tour, please
note: |
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Only links in bold and
red lead to pages of the guided tour! |
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"Guided Tour" pages are not frequently
updated. A link to the actual page is always provided. |
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"Jumping" inside a Hypersript by direct
links always produces the "condensed" version with small pictures.
Activate the menu ("Up" arrow on the bottom) in order to obtain
full-size pictures. |
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Before you start it is advisable to
have a quick look at the general structure of the Hyperscripts and the possible
benefits as we see them. The following links will get you there. |
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General structure. |
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Motivation and possibilities. |
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The modules found in the guided tour
are regular modules of various Hyperscripts, amended with some explanations.
English Moduls have been preferred; but some are in German - sorry. |
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Lets get started by looking at a
typical page of the "Backbone I", the "hard
core" of what has to be learned. |
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The link leads to a
typical page of the "Defects in
Crystals" Hyperscript. A few specifics of the page structure will
be pointed out. |
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Here is another example of an
early page from the "MatSci
I" Hyperscript (in German) with a lot
of links to all kinds of other documents. |
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An
uncommented example from the
Semiconductor Hyperscript with lots of equations. |
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Next, some examples of "Backbone II" pages.
These pages are typically too detailed for the advanced section; they may be
included into the lecture or serve as a base for self-study and term
papers. |
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The first link leads to the first page of a particularly difficult subject
in the context of "Defects in Crystals" |
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The second link leads to a page in the
"Electronic Materials" Hyperscript where one of the
fundamental laws of junctions is derived in a
simple, if somewhat unorthodox way. |
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Animations, Videos and Sound are
often seen as the decisive element of "Multimedia" in learning. |
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Surprisingly perhaps, not many issues in austere
Materials Science seem to call for these elements. There was virtually no topic
were the use of sound suggested itself as
something that would be helpful to get a specific point across. One sound
example that does not meet this criteria, however, can be found in the context
of "Steel and Smiths" in the
"MatSci I" Hyperscript. |
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Videos, while
certainly helpful for many subjects, are still awkward to include; this may
change with time.
One example is given in "MatSci
I" Hyperscript, but again it must be realized that it is not
overly helpful for learning the subject matter. |
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Animations
can be rather helpful for students to learn certain subjects. In the second
phase of the construction of these Hyperscripts, many more animations will be
provided. Here is an example dealing with
Diffusion mechanisms from the
"Defects in Crystals" Hyperscript. |
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Another (as yet oversimplified) example
demonstrates a
critical issue for grain boundaries, again in
the "Defects in Crystals" Hyperscript. |
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One more example: The
movement of an edge dislocation through a
crystal from the "Defects in Crystals"
Hyperscript. This is a rather simple animation as far as the graphics are
concerned, but with an important advantage: it is physically correct. |
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This example serves to illustrate a
not-so-surprising finding: Animations with "perfect" graphics tend to
be somewhat incorrect in what they show. After all, the person who did it most
likely was not the professor, but a computer expert who did not understand the
subject too well. |
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Examples
for his statement can be found in an exercise page. |
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Materials Science is
interdisciplinary and, somewhat in contrast to e.g. Math and Physics, deals
mostly with "real life" issues. Products of modern materials science
are everywhere in modern society and it is easy to transgress from almost any
topic coming up in a lecture to some side-issue of some interest in this
context. In traditional lectures, however, there is neither time nor material
to really carry out such a transgression. This is different for Hyperscripts as
the examples will show. |
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Products of "modern" materials science
also dominated the life of ancient society to large extent. It is a shame that
the history of metals, particularly of iron and steel, is hardly ever covered
in the teaching of history. It is covered, however, in the "Defects
in Crystals" Hyperscript (and, via links, in other too). You may
start a long, sometimes subjective, and sometimes surprising tour clicking on
Damascene technique. Together with the
History
of Steel and the "Magical Sword" modules, these three
pages always make the top ten list. |
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Another side-issue, in this case rather short,
are cleanrooms in the context of the
"Electronic Materials" Hyperscript. |
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Feynman contents that worrying about
the history and philosophy of science is a typical middle age disease; he is
probably right. Students are not particularly interested in this issue - but
they like to be diverted every now and then while seriously working with tough
stuff. Why should we not slyly use this weakness by infusing a little sense of
history and so on, by sprinkling the Hyperscripts with some short excursions
into the matter at adequate points? |
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First, a
short philosophical treatise from the
"Defects in Crystals" Hyperscript with some food for
thought. |
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An unexpected view into the of recent history,
provided by the friendly
SONY advertising department and found in the
"Electronic Materials" Hyperscript. |
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The Hyperscripts contain many biographies. Here
is a more unusual
one from the "MatSci I" Hyperscript
(which even leads on to a follow-up page where the author can indulge in his
favorite pastime of ridiculing pompous newspaper feuilleton writers). |
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One of several
historical pages from the "MatSci
I" Hyperscript |
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A good way to find more pages like that is to
click at "Index"
entries that look somewhat out of context with regard to serious Materials
Science. |
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Materials Science, on occasion, can
be funny or entertaining. Here are a few examples: |
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All newspaper, at least in Germany, can be relied
on to mix up
"Silicon" and "Silicone"
(not to mention Silica). If you want to find out what is what, search the net
for "Silicone" (or activate the link to the "MatSci
I" Hyperscript and take it from there)! |
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Units, as we know are trivial -
but somehow difficult. What we might be less familiar with is their
creative use for the manipulations of
politicians (who usually proudly explain that they never
understood math and never needed it, too) and some
very peculiar reason why the Americans and
British still have peculiar units. |
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There is a lot of interesting lore about
making swords
(especially of the magic kind), where the special ingredients like dragon blood
or chicken shit (this is a good one!)still
relate somehow to Materials Science. Examples are given in the MatSci
I Hyperscript (you should now be able to find it yourself). Whereas
chicken shit went out of style some time ago,
bullshit has survived in this context until
today as proved in the Defects in Crystals Hyperscript. |
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A good way to find more pages like that is to
click at "Index"
entries that look somewhat out of context with regard to serious Materials
Science. |
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© H. Föll