A startup business EZ-learn Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

A startup business EZ-learn - Essay Example This essay discusses that the country’s pre-school educational policies are reflective of the fact that the country has the potential need of products that could integrate efforts to enhance pre-school education and ease learning for kids. Furthermore, a vast majority of UK parents are working; they need easy tools and quick products for learning of little kids. EZ-learn products facilitate learning through activity and play. EZ-learn has adopted a flat structural design for its operations; which is based on five teams; management, product conception and development, marketing, human resource and finance & accounting. The company has identified its strengths, weaknesses along with the opportunities and threats existing in the industry. The target market comprises of teachers and parents. The competitive environment is severe as there are so many educational toy firms and learning centers. However, EZ-learn positions itself over two important dimensions; first it identify its p roducts as learning tools and secondly it categorize them as best gift items for kids. The marketing objective of EZ-learn aligns with the marketing mix of Snap-learn. It entails the key 4P strategies. The product strategy addresses the potential need by focusing 3 main areas of quality, functionality and intangible values which are responsible for strong brand development. Pricing strategy focus value pricing and set depth of sales incentives offered. Distribution strategy uses in/direct placement of Snap-learn. For direct distribution EZ-learn uses e-business strategies (online order placement) and for indirect distribution the company has collaborated with SMYTHS retailers. Communication and selling direct marketing efforts for designing promotional campaign; which uses social media networks to transform buzz marketing and below the line activities to stimulate purchase response from the target market. It offers sales incentives for a limited period. As the report proceeds, it en tails EZ-learn’s financial statements. They identify the numeric worth of EZ-learn. The operations, logistics, human resource and e-business strategies are also elaborated with detail. Finally the report ends with recommendations to the management and illustration of references and pictures of the products. Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 Contents 3 INTRODUCTION TO EZ-LEARN 5 PRODUCT 5 STRATEGIC POSITIONING & EZ-LEARN STRUCTURE 6 Point of Parity, POP: 6 Point of Differentiation, POD: 6 COMPANY STRUCTURE 7 SWOT & PESTEL ANALYSIS 9 POTENCY 9 ACHILLES' HEEL 9 OPPORTUNITY 9 THREATS 9 MARKET & COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS 10 FINANCIALS (CASH FLOW FORECAST 12 CASH FLOW STATEMENT 12 Income Statement 13 VALUATION TECHNIQUES 14 Net Present Value 14 Average Return on Investment 15 INTERNAL RATE OF RETURN 15 FINANCIAL RATIOS 15 MARKETING AND SALES 16 Promotions: 18 OPERATIONS / LOGISTICS/HUMAN RESOURCES/EBUSINESS STRATEGIES 19 OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION 20 RECOMMENDATIONS TO MANAGEMENT 20 Bibliog raphy 22 Kaplan, R, & Atkinson, A 1998, ‘Advanced management accounting’, Prentice Hall, vol. 3, pp. 798. 22 Kieso, D, & Weygandt, J 2004, Intermediate Accounting. John Wiley & Sons, New York 22 Mason, C 2001, ‘What Do Investors Look For In A Business Plan?’, International Small Business Journal. Available from: [Accessed 20 March 2012] 22 APPENDIX 23 SALES GRAPH 23 NET INCOME OF THE COMPANY 24 INTRODUCTION TO EZ-LEARN EZ-learn is a company that is aimed to provide easy learning opportunities to mums’, mentors or even caretakers of a toddler or a preschooler. We aim to â€Å"simplify learning method† for little kids by developing new techniques and by coordinating elderly way of learning. Our vision and mission for EZ-learn is: EZ-learn is

Investment Appraisal Report Example

Investment Appraisal Report Example Re: Investment in Kingfisher Plc Following our conversation earlier, I have prepared a report into Kingfisher Plc to help you with your investment decision. I have split this report into two sections, to help you analyse the company’s financial management practices and also to determine what represents a fair price for the company’s shares. As we discussed earlier, when making any investment it is vital to consider the financial management policies and practices of the company. These include what the company invests in; how these investments perform; how the company raises funds to invest; and how the company treats its profits. As such, the first part of this section will address these four sections in turn, and how these affect the performance of the company. The second section will address the fair value of the shares of the company. This is because, whilst the company may perform well, if the shares are purchased for more than a fair value, based on the company’s ability to earn, they may not provide a good return to an investor. I hope this report will be of interest to you, please let me know if you have any questions about any aspects. Part A)  Financial Management Investments Kingfisher’s primary investment over the past five years has been in tangible assets, such as property, plant and equipment, which have made up over fifty percent of total assets over the past five years. The majority of the remaining assets are composed of goodwill, with small amounts devoted to pension plans, financial derivatives and other intangible assets. This can be seen in the table below: Table of non current asset values for Kingfisher Group Plc (all in  £ millions) Assets 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Property, Plant and Equipment 3041 2781 3032 3265 3211 3698 Goodwill 2652 2455 2463 2559 2552 2532 Other Assets 309 146 289 354 380 532 (Source: Kingfisher, 2008) The main trend in the assets of Kingfisher has been a steady rise in the value of property, plant and equipment as well as other assets. The main change in the other assets is a rise in the level of post employment benefits; deferred tax assets; and derivative financial instruments, which were not on the balance sheet in 2003 but have a total value of over  £200 million in 2008. In addition, the drop in all values from 2003 to 2004 is a result of the disposal of the Chartwell Land property portfolio, which resulted in a reduction in the value of all asset classes due to the transfer of goodwill associated with the property sold. From 2004 onwards, the company has engaged in a significant expansion program based on organic growth and the opening of new stores. This has naturally increased the value of the total property, plant and equipment; with a small drop in 2007 where the company disposed of some of its less profitable stores. This balance in assets is largely expected because Kingfisher is a retail group, operating stores such as BQ, Screwfix, Castorama, and Brico Depot. As such, the group’s main source of income comes from sales from these stores; hence these stores are the most valuable asset the group owns. In addition, the company maintains a diverse portfolio of businesses across the UK, France and other countries including the Republic of Ireland, Poland, Italy, Spain, Turkey and China. In order to operate in these countries, the group needs to own assets such as stores, offices, and distribution networks. This further increases the percentage of total assets which will be taken up by property, plant and equipment. With regards to the level of goodwill, this became quite high prior to 2003, but has stayed quite constant over the period of the study. This indicates that a significant proportion of the business’ assets have been purchased for more than their book value. This is possibly how the group has managed to obtain such a large portfolio of businesses, and particularly how it has managed to ensure that all of its businesses are in the top three of the domestic markets. However, over the period of the study, the group has not experienced a significant increase or decrease in the level of goodwill, which implies that it has not significantly expanded its portfolio through acquisitions, and the majority of the increase in the value of the total assets has come through organic growth or purchases at close to book value. This is slightly complicated by the group’s goodwill policy, which makes an assessment of the ability of acquired businesses to generate cash each year, and amort ises the level of goodwill to compensate. As such, it is possible that the group has invested a significant amount in buying new businesses, and the value of the goodwill from these businesses has since fallen. However, the annual reports mention that new stores are being opened, not bought, which implies that the group’s expansion policy is to open new stores, rather than acquire existing ones from competitors. Investment appraisal Investment appraisal is generally done on a per project basis, with a company projecting the cashflows, both positive and negative, associated with a project; and then calculating whether the net cashflow will be positive or negative, and by how much. This value can be calculated based on either the absolute value of the cashflows, or on the discounted value of the cashflows which takes into account the fact that cashflows occurring in later years will be less valuable due to inflation and other factors (Knott, 2004). However, when considering an investment in Kingfisher, this methodology is not appropriate, as the company is a continuous operation with no definite start or end point. Indeed, all the new stores the company opens are intended to remain operational for the foreseeable future, hence making it very difficult to calculate their rates of return and net present values. Whilst the company will undoubtedly have an internal method for doing this, perhaps taking the cashflows f or the first five years of operations, this method is not detailed in the annual reports. Nor does Kingfisher reveal details of the exact costs of the investment into stores or their cashflows in the annual reports, thus making it impossible to attempt such an analysis with the available data. As such, it is necessary to analyse the performance of Kingfisher’s overall business, from the point of view of an investor looking to buy shares. As such, the initial purchase of the shares represents the initial investment, and the return made on these shares can be taken to be the future cashflows for the purposes of the analysis. On this basis, it is necessary to look at the annual returns provided by Kingfisher, as well as the change in the value of the shares (Lumby, 1994). Kingfisher annual share price from May 2003 to May 2008 Date Closing Price 27/05/2003 257.25 27/05/2004 285.5 27/05/2005 259 26/05/2006 235.75 25/05/2007 252.75 27/05/2008 138.1 (Source: Yahoo Finance, 2008) Kingfisher earnings per share from 2003 to 2008 Year Earnings per share 2003 16.4 2004 17.4 2005 20.8 2006 12.2 2007 11.8 2008 11.7 (Source: Kingfisher, 2008) As can be seen from these graphs above, Kingfisher’s share price and earnings per share have both fallen over the period of the study. As such, one share purchased for 257 pence in 2003 would be worth just 138 pence in 2008, and the total dividend earnings per share would be just 90 pence. As such, the total return from an investment of 257 pence would be only 228 pence. This implies that an investment in Kingfisher over the past three years would have performed very poorly, with a return of -12.7% over five years, even without considering discount factors and net present values. Indeed, given that the positive cashflows have occurred after the negative cashflows, any investment in Kingfisher would have a negative net positive value for any positive discount factor. In addition, the earnings per share have fallen from 2003 to 2008. Within the period of the study, earnings per share rose from 2003 to 2005, before falling sharply between 2005 and 2006 and then remaining relatively constant. This fall is specifically mentioned in Kingfisher’s 2006 annual report as being due to a significant fall in profits from the UK market, which was driven by â€Å"rising energy costs, higher taxes and pension contributions and [consumer] confidence has been affected by a weaker housing market† (Kingfisher, 2008). This implies that Kingfisher’s investments in the UK have performed poorly over the past three years, and indeed the 2008 annual report shows that the UK investments have further weakened against the background of the global â€Å"credit crunch†. Whilst the credit crunch has affected all markets around the world, Kingfisher specifically points out that the high level of debt in the UK has created even more problems for consu mers, who have less money to spend as their debt payments have risen. As such, Kingfisher’s investments in the UK, which account for around 47% of the group’s total revenue, are unlikely to improve their performance in the near future. Sources of funding Kingfisher main sources of funding All in  £ millions 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total long term debt 1528 744.9 828.3 1255.5 1432 1620 Total equity 4463 4407 4387.3 4320.4 4421 4724 (Source: Kingfisher, 2008) Kingfisher is strongly dependent on equity as a source of funding, with total shareholder’s equity making up at least three times as much of the funding as long term debt. Short term debt has been excluded from these calculations, partly because short term debt appears to be used only to settle any cashflow issues, and partly because prior to the 2006 accounts short term debt was not declared separately from trade payables. As such, it would be impossible to compare short term debt across the entire period. It is worth point out that the decrease in debt from 2003 to 2004 is largely due to the sale of the Chartwell Land property portfolio mentioned above. The proceeds of this sale were largely used to reduce the level of long term borrowings, thus resulting in a significant drop between 2003 and 2004. However, following this sale, when the debt to equity ratio fell to just 0.17, the amount of debt has risen steadily, to the point where it reached 0.34 in 2008, the same level as in 2003. This rise has been accompanied by a small rise in the level of shareholder equity, but not to the extent that the total asset value has risen as seen in the investments section above. This implies that the store expansion and refurbishment programs mentioned throughout the Kingfisher annual reports during the period of the study have been funded largely by debt. This has caused the company’s debt to equity ratio to rise quite significantly over the period of the study, which has more than doubled the debt to equity ratio. This significant increase in the debt to equity ratio could be a cause for concern, as it potentially places a higher debt burden on the company which must be serviced from profits. As such, if the company’s fortunes continue to suffer due to the effects of the credit crunch, the company may have difficulty paying its debts and may suffer liquidity problems. However, in the 2008 financial statements the net finance costs on the debt are just  £62 million, whilst the operating profit is  £453 million. As such, the company can cover its interest more than seven times from profits, which means that this rise in the level of debt is not currently a significant concern. Of course, running counter to this is the fact that the global credit crunch is expected to increase the effective rates of borrowing, which could increase the interest payments as well as reducing the long term levels of consumer spending. As such, it is possible that the credit crunch will continue to reduce K ingfisher’s profits whilst increasing the interest cost, thus potentially creating financial troubles in the next few years. This potential issue is compounded by the fact that the company capitalised  £1 million of borrowing costs in 2007, and a further  £3 million in 2008, which may indicate issues in paying these loans out of profit. The major sources of debt finance for the business at the current time are medium term notes and other fixed term debt, which make up  £1,436 million of the debt. These have been placed on markets in the UK, Eurozone and United States and have raised capital at a net cost of between 4.1% and 6.9%. As such, the company has relied on non convertible loans raised on public markets. The majority of the remainder is made up of non secured bank loans. This indicates that, even if the company should encounter financial difficulties, it will not necessarily lose any of its property or have its equity diluted by convertible loans. Treatment of profits and dividend policy Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Dividend per share (pence) 9.5 9.65 10.65 10.65 10.65 7.25 Earnings per share (pence) 16.4 17.4 20.8 12.2 11.8 11.7 (Source: Kingfisher, 2008) From 2003 to 2005, Kingfisher’s dividend grew by a reasonable amount, although this was not proportional to the increase in earnings per share over the period. This indicates that Kingfisher was using partly using the increase in earnings to boost the dividend, but mainly using it to build up the volume of reserves, pay back debt, and expand the company. As a result of this, the company allowed its earnings per share to rise by more than the level of the dividend. Following the decline in the UK market from 2005 to 2006, and the subsequent fall in the earnings per share for the company, Kingfisher attempted to maintain its dividend at 10.65 pence per share in spite of the fact that this left very little retained earnings. However, in 2008, following a significant fall in the share price, the dividend yield has also fallen to 7.25 pence in spite of the earnings per share remaining at the same level as in previous years. This implies that the company is now encountering difficul ties maintaining its dividend yield at this level, and thus is having to drop its dividend in order to accumulate further reserves. Unfortunately, there is no detail in the Kingfisher accounts around exactly why this reserve is being built up. However, it is interesting to note that the reserves have now been built up to the  £2.2 billion mark, after being maintained at around the  £1.9 billion mark for the period from 2005 to 2007. This may indicate that the company feels that the tough trading conditions will continue for some time, and hence there may be a need to retain more earnings to help cover interest payments in the future. Another potential explanation is that, as a retail company owning a significant amount of property, plant and equipment; Kingfisher has a significant level exposure to the property market in both the UK and France. As such, the company may feel that, with the property markets in the UK and France showing signs of weakness due to the credit crunch, there may soon be a need to revalue the property portfolio in each of these countries. Therefore, the reduced dividend and increase re serve may be an attempt to boost the equity and net asset value of the company in order to protect the value of the company against such a fall. However, the balance sheet tends to reveal a different potential explanation. The rise of  £300 million in the value of the reserves of the company has occurred at the same time as a  £300 million rise in the value of the inventory held by the company. This could be due to the fact that cost price inflation is significantly boosting the cost of inventory and the price of sales, and hence has increased the value of the inventory held by the company. However, the annual report indicates that cost price inflation for the company was just 4% over the previous year. As such, this cost price inflation is unlikely to have created a  £300 million rise in the value of inventory, which is a 20% rise in the total value of inventory. This implies that the rise in the value of the inventory is for another reason, potentially due to a lack of sales or by overbuying of replacement inventory. As such, this does not indicate that the company is making the best use of its profits, nor that it is efficiently pursuing a goal of maximising value for its shareholders. Part B) Fair Value When attempting to assess whether the current share price of Kingfisher Plc represents a fair value for the company, it is necessary to look both as the share price and the market capitalisation; which is the total market value of all the shares. This price is determined by the shares traded on a stock market where brokers buy and sell shares on behalf of their clients. For Kingfisher, the stock market is the London Stock Exchange, and Yahoo Finance (2008) quotes the current share price of the company as 128.2 pence. In addition, the 2008 annual report states there are 2,361 million shares outstanding. This gives the company a total market capitalisation of  £3.027 million as of the 18th August. One potential method of calculating the fair value of the company is through the net asset value of the company. This is because, provided the company can sell all its assets and pay off all its liabilities at their book value, it will realise its net asset value in cash. In addition, in theory the shareholders own a share of the net assets of the company equal to their share of the market capitalisation. Therefore, if the market capitalisation of the company was equal to the net asset value of the company, the share price would be at a fair value. For Kingfisher, the net asset value in the 2008 financial statements is  £4,724 million. This implies that a fair value for the market capitalisation would also be  £4,724 million, which is around 56% higher than the current value of the shares. This would further imply that a fair share price for the company would be 200 pence. However, this method is somewhat flawed because it assumes that all assets can be sold for fair value and al l liabilities can be settled at fair value. In reality, the only time when all assets and liabilities will be sold is if the business is wound up under bankruptcy or liquidity problems. As such, assets are most likely to be auctioned off by the creditors and shareholders are unlikely to receive a fair value for them. Indeed, assets such as inventory are often sold at less than ten per cent of their market value. As such, this method is likely to be unreliable, particularly for a business with such a large volume of inventory (Lumby, 1994). Another method of calculating the potential fair value of a company is to use the value of net earnings and compare this value to the historical price / earnings ratio to work out what the current fair price should be for the shares. Based on this method, the average price / earnings ratio of Kingfisher has been 16.18 over the past five year period. Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Average Earnings per share (pence) 16.4 17.4 20.8 12.2 11.8 11.7 15.05 Share price (pence) 257.25 285.5 259 235.75 252.75 138.1 238.0583 Price / Earnings Ratio 15.68598 16.408046 12.45192 19.32377 21.41949 11.80342 16.1821 Applying this to the earnings per share over the past year of 11.7 gives an estimate of the fair value of the share price of 189.33 pence: this is 47% higher than the market value of the shares. As such, this also implies that the current market value of the shares is too low. However, valuing the company on this basis is also flawed, in that it assumes that the company will maintain its past performance, and that the past performance of the shares has been efficient. Indeed, for Kingfisher this is arguably even less of a relevant method by which to judge the shares, as Kingfisher is currently suffering significant problems in its main UK market. Therefore, attempting to value the company based on its past valuations assumes that the company is still performing as it did in the past, something which is arguably not the case. In addition, with many predicting that the Kingfisher’s UK market will continue to shrink, it is possible that the company’s ability to generate ea rnings will be further impaired, and its earnings per share ratio will fall below its average (Lumby, 1994). As such, and given that there is significant uncertainty over the future value of Kingfisher’s assets and liabilities as well as the ability of the company to generate earnings, it is difficult to come up with an analytical method for calculating the fair value of the company. Therefore it is necessary to use the efficient market hypothesis when attempting to value the company. This hypothesis is based on the view that the market produces the fair value of the shares of the company using all available information. As such, the market should already have priced in the potential for Kingfisher’s properties to decrease in value and the potential for the company to be unable to make as much money in the future. This is based on the argument that the market as a whole has access to all the information available, and also has experience in reading and judging signals regarding the value of a company. As such, if Kingfisher were currently trading at too high a price, people wo uld sell the shares until the value moved to a fair value. In contrast, were the company currently trading at too cheap a price, participants in the market would buy the shares until the value was driven up to a fair price. As such, the efficient market hypothesis implies that the current fair price for the Kingfisher shares is the price at which they are currently traded on the open market. Therefore, the fair price of the shares is 128.2 pence. However, the efficient market hypothesis is based on markets only being able to act on available information. As such, it is possible that there is a fundamental problem with Kingfisher which will affect the share price but which is not included in the publicly available information. In addition, the market price for the shares can be driven by factors such as investment banks buying up shares, or takeover rumours. Therefore, in the short term the market value of shares may not reflect their fair value, as the market may not have all the information or may be being driven by other factors. However, in the long term, the professional analysts who are employed by many of the banks and investment funds which buy and sell shares will be best able to value the share s, and hence the best estimate of the fair value of the shares is their current market value: 128.2 pence. References Kingfisher (2008) Kingfisher Plc. http://www.kingfisher.co.uk/ Accessed 16th August 2008. Knott, G. (2004) Financial Management. Palgrave MacMillan. Lumby, S. (1994) Investment Appraisal and Financing Decisions. Thomson Learning. Turner, G. (2008) The Credit Crunch: Housing Bubbles, Globalisation and the Worldwide Economic Crisis. Pluto Press. Yahoo Finance (2008) Kingfisher Share Price Chart. http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=KGF.Lt=5y Accessed 18th August 2008.

Free Glass Menagerie Essays: Symbols :: The Glass Menagerie

Symbols in The Glass Menagerie In the play, The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, Williams uses many symbols which represent many different things.   Many of the symbols used in the play try to symbolize some form of escape or difference between reality and illusion.   The first symbol, presented in the first scene, is the fire escape.   This represents the "bridge" between the illusory world of the Wingfields and the world of reality.   This "bridge" seems to be a one way excursion.   But the direction varies for each character.   For Tom, the fire escape is the way out of the world of Amanda and Laura and an entrance into a world of new dimensions.   For Laura, the fire escape is a way into her own world. A way to escape from reality.   Amanda perceives the fire escape as a way for gentlemen callers to enter their lives.   She is also trying to escape her own vacant life.   Our author, Tennessee Williams utilizes the fire escape as a literal exit from his own reality as well.   His wa y of escaping is through the play.   In Tom's opening speech, he says, "I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion."   This quote refers to Williams' own life told through the play.   Everyone in the play seeks haven from their lives, attempting to escape into an imaginary fallacy world.   In "The Glass Menagerie," Williams' fire escape portrays each of the character's need to use the fire escape as a literal exit from their own reality.   Ã‚  Ã‚   The Glass Menagerie is set in the apartment of the Wingfield family.   By description, it is a cramped place located in the city of St. Louis.   It is one of many apartments in the neighborhood.   Of the Wingfield family members, none like living in the apartment.   The only reason that traps them in their submissive dwelling is poverty.   The concept of escaping their own lives and retreating into an illusion world has entered each of the character's minds.  Ã‚   Escaping from this lifestyle, this apartment, and these relationships is a significant theme throughout the play.   These escapes are linked with the symbolic "fire escape" as well as the absent Mr. Wingfield.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Mr. Wingfield left his family for a life on the road.   "He worked for the telephone company and fell in love with long distances."   This action left Tom with all of the responsibilities in the family including taking care of his half-mad, overbearing mother, Amanda and a disabled sister, Laura.

Signal Conditioning of Thermistor

Introduction Signal conditioning of thermistor Signal conditioning means manipulating an analogue signal in such a way that it meets the requirements of the next stage for further processing. Operational amplifiers(op-amps) are commonly employed to carry out the amplification of the signal in the signal conditioning stage. The signal conditioning equipment may be required to do linear processes like amplification, attenuation, integration, differentiation, addition and subtraction.They are also required to do non-linear processes like modulation, demodulation, sampling, filtering, clipping and clamping squaring, linealizing or multiplification by another function etc. the signal conditioning or data acquisition equipment in many a situation be an excitation and amplification system for passive transducer. It may be an amplification system for active transducer. In both the applications, the transducer output is brought up to a sufficient level to make it useful for conversion, proces sing, indicating and recording.Excitation is needed for passive transducers because these transducers do not generate their own voltage or current. Therefore passive transducers like strain gauges, potentiometers, resistance thermometers, inductive and capacitive transducers required excitation from external sources. The active transducers like techno generators, thermocouples, inductive pick ups and piezo-electric crystals. The thermistor constitute one arm or more than one arm of a wheatstone bridge which is excited by an isolated DC source. The bridge can be balanced by a potentiometer and can also be calibrated for unbalanced conditions.Thermistor is a concentration of the term â€Å"Thermal Resistor†. It is essentially a semiconductor, which behaves as a resistor with a high negative temperature coefficient of resistance. That is, as the temperature of the thermistor increases, its resistance decreases. The temperature co-efficient is expressed in ohms per unit change in degree Celsius ( ° C). thermistors with high temperature co-efficient of resistance are more sensitive to temperature change and are therefore well suited to temperature measurement and control.CONTENTS  ¦OBJECTIVE  ¦EXPLAINATION 1. WHEATSTONE BRIDGE 2. THERMISTOR 3. OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER 4. INSTRUMENTATION AMPLIFIER  ¦METHODOLOGY  ¦SCOPE 1. Wheatstone bridge: Whetstone bridge is the most accurate method available for measuring resistances and is popular for laboratory use. The circuit diagram of typical Wheatstone bridge is given in figure Rx is the unknown resistance to be measured; R, R2 and R^ are resistors of known resistance and the resistance of R2 is adjustable.If the ratio of the two resistances in the known leg (R2 / R) is equal to the ratio of the two in the unknown leg (Rx / R3), then the voltage between the two midpoints (B and D) will be zero and no current will flow through the galvanometer Vg. R2 is varied until this condition is reached. The direction of the current indicates whether R2 is too high or too low. Detecting zero current can be done to extremely high accuracy (see galvanometer). Therefore, if R, R2 and R3 are known to high precision, then Rx can be measured to high precision.Very small changes in Rx disrupt the balance and are readily detected. At the point of balance, the ratio of R2 / R = Rx / R3 Therefore, Alternatively, if R, R2, and R3 are known, but R2 is not adjustable, the voltage difference across or current flow through the meter can be used to calculate the value of Rx, using Kirchoff s Circuit laws (also known as Kirchhoff s rules). This setup is frequently used in strain gauge and resistance thermometer measurements, as it is usually faster to read a voltage level off a meter than to adjust a resistance to zero the voltage.In practical Wheatstone bridge, at least one of the resistance is made adjustable, to permit balancing. When the bridge is balanced, the unknown resistance (normally connected at Rx) may b e determined from the setting of the adjustable resistor, which is called a standard resistor because it is a precision device having very small tolerance. Rx= (R2/R1). R3 APPLICATION OF WHEATSTONE BRIDGE: A Wheatstone bridge may be used to measure the DC resistance of various types of wire, either for the purpose of quality control of the wire itself or of some assembly in which it is used.For example, the resistance of motor winding, transformers, solenoids, relay coils and resistance of thermistor, RTD also can be measured. PRINCIPLE Resistance of thermistor changes with change in temperature. Resistance of thermistor decreases with increase in temperature while resistance of thermistor increases with decrease in temperature. It is a thermally sensitive resistor. FORMULA:- Rti = Rt2Exp[ p (1 / T1 – 1 / T2) ] Where,RT]= resistance of thermistor at absolute temp. Tl °k RT2= resistance of thermistor at absolute temp. T2 °k P= a constant depending upon the material of the thermistor (Typically between 3500 °k to 4500 °k)CONSTRUCTION:- Thermistors are composed of sintered mixture of metallic oxides such as Manganese, Nickel, Cobalt, Copper, Iron and Uranium. They are available in a variety of sizes and shapes. They may be in the form of beads, roads and discs. WORKING:- A thermistor change in electrical resistance due to a corresponding temperature change is evident whether the thermistor's body temperature is changes as result of conduction or radiation from the surrounding environment or due to self heating brought about by power dissipation within the device. THEORY:- .Thermistor is a concentration of the term ‘Thermal Resistor†. It is essentially a semiconductor which behaves as a resistor with a high negative temperature coefficient of resistance. That is, as the temperature of the thermistor increases, its resistance decreases. The temperature co-efficient is expressed in ohms per unit change in degree celcius ( ° C). thermisto rs with high temperature co-efficient of resistance are more sensitive to temperature change and are therefore well suited to temperature measurement and control. Thermistors are available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.However, thermistor beads sealed in the tips of glass rods are most commonly used because they are relatively easy to mount TYPES OF THERMISTOR:- 1]PTC 2]NTC NTC (Negative Temperature Coefficient) It implies that the resistance of thermistor decreases with increases in its temperature. These thermistors can detect changes in temperature, which could not be observed with RTD's or Thermocouple circuits. NTC type thermistors mostly used in industry. Resistance of thermistor is used in industry is 2. 2 k Q. for temperature 30 °C. It's cost near about Rs. 10-15 SPECIFICATION:- *Range(? ): 50-300 *Accuracy : ± 1 *Resolution: 0. 01 ? C *Scale: Non-Linear *Thermister Constant: 4000? K OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIRES: One type of amplifier, which finds its way into almost a ll points of measurement and instrumentation system, is the operational amplifier. The word operational indicates that the amplifier can perform mathematical operations like inversion addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, integration and differentiation etc. Properties of ideal operational amplifier are: 1. It should have an infinite input impedance. 2. It should have zero output impedance. 3.It should have an infinite gain (gain of the order of 105 to 109) 4. It should have flat response over a wide frequency range. The operational amplifier consists of a very high gain amplifier with a negative > feedback. The gain of operational amplifier with negative feedback is determined by feedback components and not by the internal amplifier circuitry. APPLICATIONS OF OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIER: Some of the important applications of an op-amp are: 1. Amplifiers 2. Active filters 3. Arithmetic circuits 4. Log and antilog amplifiers 5. Voltage comparators 6. Waveform generators 7.Precis ion rectifiers 8. Multipliers 9. Timers 10. Multivibrators 11. Regulated power supplies Operational amplifier characteristics: 1. Input offset voltage : The input offset voltage is defined as the voltage that must be applied to the input terminals to drive the output to zero. This is about 2mV for 741 amplifier. It should be understand thet the offset voltage changes with temperature. 2. Input offset current: just as a voltage offset may be required across the input to make the output voltage zero, so a net current may be required between the inputs to zero the output voltage.This current is called input offset current. This is equal to the difference between the two input currents. 3. Input bias current: It is defined as the mean of the two input currents required to make the output voltage zero. 4. Slew rate: it is the highest rate at which the output can change, it is expressed in terms of v/jiS. 5. Unity gain frequency: in many cases, specifications include the frequency respons e including unity gain frequency. This is the frequency at which the open loop gain of the amplifier becomes unity. The low frequency gain is about 20,000 and falls to unity at about 1MHz. he amplifier is said to have a 1 MHz gain bandwidth produt. 6. Common mode rejection ratio (CMMR): it is defined as the ratio of differential gain to common mode gain. CMRR is infinite for ideal op-amp. Thus the output voltage corresponding to the common mode noise is zero. IDEAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OP-AMP: 1. Gain is maximum. 2. Input impedence should be infinite. 3. Output impedence should be zero. 4. CMRR should be infinite. 5. Bandwidth should be infinite. TYPICAL VALUES OF OP- AMP: 1. Input offset voltage:  ± 6mV. 2. Input offset current:  ±200nAmp 3. Input bias current:  ±7nAmp 4.Differential input resistance/impedence: 2m CI 5. Input impedence for 741 (FET op-amp): 1000 G Q 6. Output impedence: 75 Q. 7. Gain: 2 lakhs 8. Output voltage swing: 26Vpp 9. Supply current: 2. 8 mAmp APPLICATI ONS:- 1. It is used in lab and medical purpose. 2. PTC type thermistors are used to protect the motor from overheating. 3. It gives very accurate reading at high temperature. 4. For measurement of level pressure, flow of the liquid, composition of gases, thermal conductivity and vaccum measurement. UA741 General-purpose single operational amplifier UA741 General-purpose single operational amplifierFeatures * Large input voltage range * No latch-up * High gain * Short-circuit protection * No frequency compensation required * Same pin configuration as the UA709 Applications * Summing amplifiers * Voltage followers * Integrators * Active filters * Function generators Description The UA741 is a high performance monolithic operational amplifier constructed on a single silicon chip. It is intended for a wide range of analog applications. N DIP8 (plastic package) D SO-8 (plasticmicropackage) Pin connections (top view) 2 – Inverting input 3 – Non-inverting input 4 – VCC - 5 – Offset null 2 6 – Output 7 -Vcc+ – N. C. The high gain and wide range of operating voltages provide superior performances in integrator, summing amplifier and general feedback applications. The internal compensation network (6 dB/octave) ensures stability in closed- loop circuits. 1/11 www. st. com Schematic diagram 1 Schematic diagram UA741 Figure 1. Schematic diagram Absolute maximum ratings and operating conditions 2 Absolute maximum ratings and operating conditions Table 1. Absolute maximum ratings Symbol| Parameter| Value| Unit| Vcc| Supply voltage|  ±22| V| Vid| Differential input voltage|  ±30| V| Vi| Input voltage|  ±15| V| Output short-circuit duration| Infinite| | Rthja| Thermal resistance junction to ambient SO-8 DIP8| 125 85|  °C/W| Rthjc| Thermal resistance junction to case SO-8 DIP8| 40 41 |  °C/W| ESD| HBM: human body model(1) DIP package SO package| 500 400| V| | MM: machine model(2)| 100| V| | CDM: charged device model(3)| 1. 5| kV| Tstg| Storage temperature range| -65 to +150|  °C| 1. Human body model: a 100 pF capacitor is charged to the specified voltage, then discharged through a 1. 5kfl! resistor between two pins of the device. This is done for all couples of connected pin combinations while the other pins are floating. . Machine model: a 200 pF capacitor is charged to the specified voltage, then discharged directly between two pins of the device with no external series resistor (internal resistor < 5 n). This is done for all couples of connected pin combinations while the other pins are floating. UA741 3. Charged device model: all pins and the package are charged together to the specified voltage and then discharged directly to the ground through only one pin. This is done for all pins. 4. 4. INSTRUMENTATION AMPLIFIER: The low level signal output of electrical transducers often need to be mplified before further processing. This is done by the use of instrumentation amplifier. The important features of instrumentation amplifier are as follows. 1. Selectable gain with high gain accuracy and gain linearity. 2. Differential input capability with high gain common mode rejection. 3. High stability of gain with low temperature co-efficient. 4. low DC offset and drift errors referred to input. 5. low output impedance. The input amplifiers A[ and A2 act as input buffers with unity gain for common mode signals ecm and with a gain of (1+2R2/Ri) for differential signals.A high input impedance is ensured by the non-inverting configuration in which they operate. The common mode (cm) rejection is achieved by the following stage which is connected as a differential amplifier. The optimum common mode rejection can be obtained by adjusting R6 or R7 ensuring that Ei – Ei R4 R6 The amplifier A3 can also be made to have some nominal gain for the whole amplifier by an appropriate selection or R4, R5, R6 and R7. The drift errors of the second stage add to the product of the drift errors of t he first amplifier and first stage gain.Hence, it is necessary that the gain in the first stage be enough to prevent the overall drift performance from being significantly affected by the drift in the second stage. The drift problem of instrumentation amplifier can be improved if amplifiers Ai and A2 have offset voltages, which tends to track the temperature. The gain of an instrumentation amplifier can be varied by changing R{ alone. A high gain accuracy can be obtained by using precision metal film resistors for all the resistance. Figure shows a simplified differential instrumentation amplifier using a transducer bridge.A resistive transducer, thermistor, whose resistance changes as a function of some physical quantity such as temperature is connected in one arm of the bridge and is denoted by (Rr  ± A R), where RT is the resistance of the thermistor and delta R is the change in the Generally, resistors Ra, Rb and Rc are selected so that they are equal in value to the transduce r resistance RT at some reference condition. The bridge is balanced initially at a desired reference condition. However, as the temperature changes, the resistance of the thermistor also changes causing the bridge to unbalance (Va 4- Vb).The output voltage of the bridge can be expressed as a function of the change in the resistance of the thermistor. Let the change in resistance of the thermistor be delta R. since Rb and Rc are fixed resistors, the voltage Vb is constant. However, voltage Va varies as a function of the change in thermistor resistance. Therefore The negative sign in this equation indicates that Va

Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath Essay

Canterbury Tales is a story written by Geoffrey Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer was satirical with most of the characters in Canterbury Tales. The story tells about the journey of a group of pilgrims to Canterbury to the shrine of Thomas a Becket and the stories they tell along the way. The pilgrims are in a competition to see who can tell the best story. The host of the Tabard is in charge of the competition and giving a complimentary dinner to the winner with the best story. Each one of the pilgrims stories reveal a little about them, their personalities and their morals. The pilgrims include people like Chaucer himself, a Knight, a Prioress, a Monk, a Franklin, a Parson, the Wife of Bath and others. Most of the satires of these characters would be the same today as it was back then. For example, the Wife of Bath’s satire would remain the same today, but her occupation would be similar to that of the actress, Joan Collins; both have given out advice due to all of their experience and resolved issues with women in relationships. In the same way that Joan Collins gives advice to women, the Wife of Bath gave advice to women. Joan Collins is a British actress and author who normally plays an adulterous woman in movies and television shows. She writes books giving tips to love and life. Joan’s books include Love & Desire & Hate, The Joan Collins Beauty Book, and Joan’s Way: The Art of Living Well. The Wife of Bath is a slightly satirical character in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The Wife of Bath tells a story in Chaucer’s story; it tells of a Knight who was told to find the thing that women most desire. The Knight found the answer to be that women want to have sovereignty over their husbands and lovers. At the end of her tale, the Wife of Bath asked Christ to send women husbands who are â€Å"meek and young and fresh in bed,† (page 150). She wanted women to be able to have complete control over their husbands. The Wife of Bath places a curse on husbands who refuse to be controlled by their wives. Also, the two ladies, the Wife of Bath and Joan Collins, both have the same amount of experience in relationships and marriage. Even though she was married five times, Joan wrote in her autobiography that she â€Å"recounted entanglements with numerous Hollywood stars, near-stars, and others,† (â€Å"Joan Collins†). Like Joan Collins, the Wife of Bath married multiple times and gained wealth from all the marriages. The only difference between the two people, Joan and the Wife of Bath, is that Joan divorced her husbands and the Wife of Bath’s husbands died. So the Wife of Bath was widowed while Joan Collins was divorced. Among the many husbands that they had, Joan Collins and the Wife of Bath were two highly listened to ladies. Like the Wife of Bath stated, â€Å"[she] believes that having experience is the greatest authority, and since she has been married five times, she certainly considers herself an authority on the remedies of love.† (â€Å"Wife of Bath†). Even though neither woman had a long and lasting marriage, they gave out advice on relationship and love. Joan viewed love as something you have to work on because marriage is hard work and does not come easily. The Wife of Bath’s view was always for the woman to have the upper hand in a marriage. She believed they should be in control of their husband or lover at all times. She also stated that if a husband cannot confine to the will of his wife he should be cursed to death. The Wife of Bath’s satire in Canterbury Tales can be easily seen remaining today, due to all the similarities between Joan Collins and the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath was never a great role model for anyone to look up to but people listened to her anyways. All five of her marriages led people to believe that she knew what she was talking about. As she was back then, the Wife of Bath would still be the same person. She would still be a wealthy, flashy woman who did not have the best of luck with men. All in all, whether it is in the future or past, the Wife of Bath’s satire can exist. She was someone who liked to stand out and draw attention to herself. She loves superiority and control over other people, especially her husbands and lovers. Today, the Wife of Bath’s satire would be somewhat identical to the actress and author, Joan Collins. Completely as she was then, the Wife of Bath would exist today.