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Description
This programme extends the course unit material to show the methods and techniques used by control engineers and goes on to look at the similarities between engineering control systems and other ty...pes of control systems. The programme is introduced by Dr Peter Zorkoczy who discusses engineering control with reference to a steel rolling mill. Dr Jeremy Bray describes the national economy and discusses the possibilities and limitations of applying engineering methods to this system. The programme ends with a treatment of the control of an eco-system by Professor Mlaynard Smith, Dean of Biological Sciences at Sussex University.
This programme extends the course unit material to show the methods and techniques used by control engineers and goes on to look at the similarities between engineering control systems and other ty...pes of control systems. The programme is introduced by Dr Peter Zorkoczy who discusses engineering control with reference to a steel rolling mill. Dr Jeremy Bray describes the national economy and discusses the possibilities and limitations of applying engineering methods to this system. The programme ends with a treatment of the control of an eco-system by Professor Mlaynard Smith, Dean of Biological Sciences at Sussex University.
| Module code and title: | T100, The man-made world: a foundation course |
|---|---|
| Item code: | T100; 16 |
| First transmission date: | 07-05-1972 |
| Published: | 1972 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:22:05 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | David Nelson |
| Contributors: | Jeremy Bray; John Maynard Smith; Peter Zorkoczy |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Control engineers; Control systems; Eco-system; Methods; National economy; Steel rollong mill; Techniques |
| Footage description: | Peter Zorkoczy introduces the unit. He tells how the programme will approach the problem of control systems. Zorkoczy takes up the engineers approach to control systems. He provides commentary to a diagram, of a temperature control system. Zorkoczy looks at the control of the speed of rotation of successive pairs of rollers in the hot-rolling of steel process. A diagram of the process is used as an aid. Shots of the final stages of the steel hotrolling process. Zorkoczy discusses the cost and savings of application of these control techniques in the steel industry. Zorkoczy introduces Dr. Jeremy Bray. Jeremy Bray with a graph showing changes in a number of variables over the period 1955-70 in the national economy. He discusses the use of control mechanisms for predicting and controlling the economy. Consumption, prices and exports are the variables used as examples. Bray discusses the use and effectiveness of these measures since 1945. Bray discusses the prediction of unemployment in Britain for the years 1965-1970 with the aid of a graph showing actual and practical figures. Bray with diagram of an economic control model. He discusses how far the economy can be controlled with present control instruments. Zorkoczy introduces Prof. John Maynard Smith. Maynard Smith takes up the "balance of nature" as an example of a natural control system. With the aid of a graph, he discusses the 'Canadian game cycle', the oscillations in the hare and lynx populations. Maynard Smith takes up the possibility of making a natural control system (or a model of one) in the laboratory. Shot of a paramecium being eaten by a didynium. Shot of paramecium/didynium control graph showing the oscillations in population. Maynard Smith discusses breakdowns in ecosystems and uses as an example the introduction of the prickly pear - opuntia to Australia. To control the prickly pear a moth, captoblastis, whose caterpillar feeds on the prickly pear was introduced. Shot of captoblastis caterpillar. Maynard Smith describes a laboratory model of an eco-system on which paramecium and didynium live in a controlled system. The model is shown. Zorkoczy sums up Prof. Maynard Smith. Shot of a bird sitting on a branch. |
| Master spool number: | 6LT/70432 |
| Production number: | 00521_2534 |
| Videofinder number: | 2160 |
| Available to public: | no |
