The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an international organization. On 8th August 1967, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines formed the ASEAN. At that time, communism was growing in Vietnam, and these five countries were also facing problems inside their own countries. In this background, these five countries created ASEAN as a show of common display of cooperation. In short, the purpose of the organization is political and economic cooperation. The organization is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia.
There had been an earlier organization called the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA). It was an international organization of Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. These three countries had formed ASA in 1961. It was named because all the countries in it are a part of Southeast Asia.
In 1976, the ASEAN countries held a conference in Bali. After this, these countries started closer economic cooperation. But, by the mid-1980s, the activities of the ASEAN had slowed down. By 1991, Thailand proposed a free trade area. The ASEAN countries meet every year to talk about many matters.
Originally there were only five members of the ASEAN. Brunei Darussalam joined the ASEAN on 7 January 1984. Vietnam joined the ASEAN on 28 July 1995. Laos and Myanmar joined the ASEAN on 23 July 1997. Cambodia became a member on 30th April 1999. East Timor is the only Southeast Asian country that is not a member of ASEAN. However both East Timor and Papua New Guinea (which is not considered geographically a part of Southeast Asia) are observers of ASEAN and wish to become full members of ASEAN.
Some information about ASEAN countries is as follows:
The ASEAN countries had created an ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). 27 countries are members of the ASEAN Regional Forum. The leaders of these countries meet and talk about various matters, especially security and economic cooperation. The current members in the ARF are: Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Australia, Canada, the People's Republic of China, the European Union, India, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, East Timor, United States, and Sri Lanka.
The ASEAN holds a meeting every year. The meeting lasts for 3 days, and the members discuss many things.
Electric motor
An electric motor changes electrical energy into mechanical movement. A dynamo or an electric generator does the reverse: it changes mechanical movement into electric energy. Most electric motors work by using the force of magnetism. Electrostatic motors have also been used.
Machines using electric motors include: fans, washing machines, fridges, pumps, and vacuum cleaners.
Let's start by looking at the overall plan of a simple two-pole DC electric motor. A simple motor has six parts:
• Armature or rotor
• Commutator
• Brushes
• Axle
• Field magnet
• DC power supply of some sort
An electric motor is all about magnets and magnetism: A motor uses magnets to create motion. If you have ever played with magnets you know about the fundamental law of all magnets: Opposites attract and likes repel. So if you have two bar magnets with their ends marked "north" and "south," then the north end of one magnet will attract the south end of the other. On the other hand, the north end of one magnet will repel the north end of the other (and similarly, south will repel south). Inside an electric motor, these attracting and repelling forces create rotational motion.
To understand how electric motors work, the key is to understand how electromagnets work. An electromagnet is the basis of an electric motor.
Electric motors are boardly classified in to two different categories i.e. DC (direct current) and AC (Alternating current). With in these categories there are numerous types, each offering unique abilities that suit them well for best applications.
In 1821, Michael Faraday made the first electric motor. It worked using the force of magnetism.
He created a simple electromagnet by taking a nail and a wire, wrapping about 100 loops of wire around the nail and connected it to a battery. With this he had a simple electromagnet with north and south pole. In the middle of the nail he had made a hole and put a spindle into the hole so that the nail could rotate. He then took a horseshoe-shaped magnet and placed the wire wrapped nail in the middle.
He connected the wire of the north pole to the negative pole of the battery and the wire of the south pole to the positive pole. The basic law of magnetism told him what would happen: the north end of the electromagnet would repel the north end of the horseshoe-shaped magnet and would attract the south pole. The same happened on the other side of the nail, with the result that the nail turned.
Faraday was not happy with the result of the electromotor, because the motor turned only once. He changed the polarity of the battery and the wire wrapped nail again turned just once. If he changed the polarity every time, when the north pole of the wire wrapped nail is opposite to the south pole of the horseshoe-shaped magnet, then he would have the result he was looking for. The wire wrapped nail would turn and turn around the spindle (as long as the battery is not empty).
Explosive material
Explosives are chemical compounds that cause explosions; they flare up and burst with a loud sound. Explosive material has many special characteristics: it is a chemically unstable material, it changes its form very fast and, while changing its form, it explodes by bursting and making loud sounds.
There are two types of explosives: low explosives and high explosives. This classification depends on their rate of explosion. Low explosives "conflagrate" (= burn very fast). High explosives "detonate" (= explode with bursts). A low explosive is a material, which burns very fast, but does not explode generally. For exploding them, people mix them with high explosives. Sometimes, even a low explosive may detonate. A high explosive bursts and explodes very fast. High explosives produce more pressure than low explosives but low explosives are more safe to use. People use low explosives in fuses, rocket engines and fireworks, and high explosives in mining and demolition (destroying old bridges and buildings). Military weapons use high explosives.
Gunpowder and ammonium nitrate are low explosives.
High explosives may belong to different groups: primary explosives and secondary explosives. Primary explosives are very unstable and rapidly react to shock, friction, and heat. Any shock, friction, or heat makes primary explosives to burn or blast fast. Secondary explosives are much more safe to use and do not react very fast to shock, friction, and heat. Any shock, friction, or heat may burn such explosives, but not make them to burst and blast. Some people call secondary explosives as base explosives. Some people also tell about another group of explosives. These are tertiary explosives. These explosives do not react to shock, friction, and heat. For explosion, tertiary explosives may need a mixture with secondary explosives.
Primary explosives are used as "detonators": that is, to cause the secondary explosives to explode. Mercury fulminate, picric acid, lead azide, nitroglycerine and iodine nitride are examples of primary explosives. TNT, dynamite, hexogen, HMX and Torpex are examples of secondary explosives.
While sending explosives from one place to another, the packs containing different types of explosives may have different types of markings on the boxes. The United Nations has advised use of such markings. Some examples are:
UNICEF