Man finds hidden gold mine on his new property, realizes buying the land was a huge mistake. When buying a huge property, someone would think the owner's first move is to walk around and take notice of what's on his new land. Well, Christopher Warnless couldn't really do that since his property spread over 16.5 hectares of woodland. However, during one of his strolls, he would soon realize his purchase was a terrible mistake. When Christopher began looking around his new property, he had no idea that it also included the entrance of a tunnel. His curious nature had the best of him, but it was what made him regret buying the property. What was wrong with it? Thinking that the entrance led to a treasure, Christopher was eager to go inside the tunnel and search for it. However, he would never forget the terrible moments he spent inside the tunnel. Those memories haunt him to this day. As Christopher walked towards the odd entrance, he was perplexed because when he bought the property, nobody told him of this place. From the entrance, it looked as if it was an abandoned mine. His curiosity was peaked. Was Chris actually looking at the entrance of a gold mine? He rushed back home to get a flashlight and began his discovery. What he didn't know was that wasn't a good idea, in fact, the realtor told him on the phone not to go inside the tunnel. But the new owner didn't listen to him and he no regrets it. The realtor recalled during the phone conversation that there were more entrances scattered across Chris' property, but advised no to enter them. He wasn't sure if these tunnels were safe. But Chris could only think of Indiana Jones and these kinds of adventures. When we bought the house, nobody ever told us about the fact that the estate had a lot of mines on it. We just sort of stumbled upon the gold mine one day and that was it, recalled Chris in an interview later on. Now he wishes he had thought twice about entering that mine. When I first saw it, I was so excited that I almost fell over myself. The only thing that I could think about was Indiana Jones and Underground Railroads, Chris said. As he shined his flashlight over the walls, he was sure he would find a treasure inside the tunnel, so he walked deeper inside. Chris saw that the walls were sparkly, realizing he was actually walking into a gold mine, his gold mine. As Chris was considering his newly found treasure embedded into the walls, he realized he walked deep into the tunnel and still couldn't see the end of it. Then, he realizes he was not alone in that mine. Then, out of the blue, he heard some noises in the tunnel. Thinking someone was inside, Chris followed the noise, deeper into the mine.  He only heard his echo. All alone, so deep into the mine, Chris had a strange feeling. He recalls the ambient temperature also seemed to suddenly drop all around me at this point, and I felt an even stronger negative presence ahead in the tunnel. Was he imagining things? After going 150 feet deep into the tunnel, Chris decided to call it a day and get back out. As he turned towards the entrance, he saw the daylight shine back at him. It was a peaceful afternoon until Chris saw the chains from the tunnel move as if they had a life of their own. As soon as the chains swung, with no wind making the move like that, Chris freaked out and ran back home. He then called to learn more about the property and see if what he experienced was only in his imagination. When we went to ask about the place, we were finally told that the estate had actually been home to quite a lot of mining sites. A lot of mining was done in these hills at the turn of the century, and there are a lot of little mines that are scattered across the hills, said Chris. He spoke with the agent who promised they would send someone to inspect the tunnel. Then, something even more strange happened. Chris was then contacted by Mr. Ruddle, who was with the real estate agency that he previously called. Together, they went to the cave to check the sparkly walls. That's when Chris learned that it was indeed a gold mine, where miners haven't finished their work. Why did they abandon the mine? Did they too sense something was off about that place? Chris didn't the mine was haunted, so he decided to take his flashlight and advance 600 feet into the mine. There, he found a door and as he opened it, he realized he was looking at a pile of rubble. Only it wasn't really rubble. By the looks of the junk, it seemed as if someone had used that secret room as a living quarter. Chris saw a makeshift bed spread among other things. As he held the flashlight, he took a look at the walls, where he saw some scratches. They looked like they were done by fingernails. And then, he saw a message on the other side of a wall. The message was difficult to decipher and as soon as Chris felt another rush of cold air and a metallic noise reaching him, he knew he had to run back home. As crazy as it sounded, Christopher knew that the mine wasn't abandoned for no reason. All the negative vibes inside and the noises led him to the answer, the gold mine was haunted. To get rid of whatever haunted the mine, Chris found out on Google that he had to face it. Chris grabbed the camera and mustered enough courage to face whatever was in the mine. Reaching the entrance, he began taking these photos. Going deeper, all of a sudden, the chains began swinging rhythmically. His courage left him and Chris couldn't take it any longer. Chris realized this paranormal activity was too spooky for him and decided to just sell the property, no matter what. He even let his mother take care of the sale, not wishing to stay on that land a second more. Was Christopher a witness to paranormal activity or was someone really living inside the mine? We'll never know it.


Can you improve your quality of sleep, de-stress, enhance your focus and boost your mood with a pair of headphones? Oh, come on. Well, my guest today says yes. In just a minute, I'll speak with Dr. Daniel Cartledge. Dr. Cartledge is an interventional pain physician at the National Pain Institute in Delray Beach, Florida. Along with his brother, Dr. Richard Cartledge, he invented and patented Zen headphones. These special earbuds are designed to actually stimulate the vagus nerve, which you've heard me talk about in my books.  Today we're going to talk about the science behind Zen and how your brain relates to your overall health. So Dr. Cartledge, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. Alright, so as a fellow medical device inventor, what the heck led you to create medical devices in the first place? Well I was actually, in my pain practice, I was actually using an auricular acupuncture procedure to help with chronic pain. And that was actually part of the inspiration for tapping into the vagus nerve and creating this product. So for our listeners, what's an auricle? What's auricular? So auricular is in the ear. So we are tapping into the vagus nerve, which is a cranial nerve. It's a tenth cranial nerve and there is a branch in the ear. So our device uses patented earbuds that actually stimulate the vagus nerve at the level of the ear. So basically you're wearing earbuds like the ones I have in. And so the vagus nerve runs by the ear, is part of the ear. I mean, how did you figure this out from your acupuncture practice? So actually the device was actually auricular acupuncture that was tapping into not just the vagus nerve but other nerves, other locations on the ear as well. And I brought up this, I discussed this product with my brother who's a physician as well as an inventor. And we basically looked into the science. How is this helping people, putting these needles in the ear and stimulating them with electricity? And we found out that this seemed to be related to the vagus nerve. And we found some very, very interesting studies. There was a study that was actually an implanted vagus nerve stimulation. It was actually surgically implanted in the body. And this was to treat seizures, to treat epileptics, seizure disorder. And it was very interesting because after the study, these patients were supposed to come back to get these devices ex-planted out of the body. And a lot of them hesitated. They didn't want to have these devices taken out. And the reason for that was they felt good, they felt euphoric, they felt relaxed from it. And again, this was from implanted vagus nerve stimulation. So that led us to look into the vagus nerve as being this basically center messenger in the ear that could help people relax, feel good, focus, and all the other benefits of vagal nerve stimulation. So that was really a turning point. It was actually my brother who discovered that study. And that helped lead us to the vagus nerve. And that's what we focused on with Zen by Nirvana. Interesting. Your brother is a cardiac surgeon. He's chief of cardiac surgery at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. So this is fun. So how do two brothers who are experts in different areas, what's it like to work together? What's the process like? Well, it's fun. You know, he's my older brother, definitely more experienced than myself. And he actually had a lot of experience with medical patents. I believe he has actually over 100 medical patents to his name. So he's always been an inventor, really knew how to work around the whole patenting process. So he was my go-to for this. And it was convenient that it happened to me and my brother as well. So really appreciated his experience with medical patents and all that research that goes behind it. So what you're saying is, since he's not here, is that you're the genius behind all this and he's just the workhorse. Is that right? Right. You won't say that on this show, right? You won't be very happy. No, we won't say that at all. Okay, so before we get into actually zen and how that happens, so why is your brain so important in so many aspects in your health that you're trying to tap into? Okay. Well, you know, great question. I mean, the biggest nerve basically is responsible for really, really stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. So there's the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is the fight or flight, okay? Cortisol is released and epinephrine neurotransmitters that really give you energized, pumped up, and also maybe are somewhat anxiety-provoking, whereas the sympathetic nervous system, which the vagus nerve stimulates and balances is basically the rest that digest the relaxation. So basically we are balancing the nervous system and promoting relaxation by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system through the vagus nerve. So are you saying that over the last, I don't know, 20, 30 years that this balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic systems have been all screwed up? Well, I'll tell you, I think that as we age, there's a little more chaos in our bodies, you know, through and through. And, you know, it's just part of the aging process where we probably balance out a much more sympathetic than parasympathetic activity over time. You know, it's just part of, you know, unfortunately, what happens to our bodies as we age.  It's nice having something that can balance you out, help you relax, you know, without drugs, without any chemicals, you know, basically we're tapping into the body using electricity.   I think that it's really hard to say. You're saying as a generational thing, have things changed? Are there more neurological disease processes now than before? It's hard to say because I think people are more likely to be treated in general now.  So, it's actually a relatively new specialty. So, what did people do in the 40s and 50s? You know, were they more stoic? Did they just accept the fact, you know, when I'm older, I have arthritis, I have back problems, I have more pain. You know, we definitely seem to be a society now that wants to fix things, you know, and fix them very quickly. We don't want to deal with anything, anything that hurts. You know, we want to change that. We want to find a treatment plan. So, I think maybe, you know, are there more neurologic processes going on or are we just being treated more commonly and more frequently? You know, that's the question in general. Gotcha. So, one of the things that I've written about is that the vagus nerve is a two-way street from the brain down to the gut and various organs like the heart, which I was originally interested in. But it's also a street from the gut and the gut microbiome up to the brain. So, are you are you stimulating both directions or how? Take me into the science of how vagal nerve stimulation works. Sure. So, again, you know, we're we're stimulating the vagus nerve at the ear level. So, we think that there is both an afferent and efferent effects from this. So, it seems since this is a cranial nerve, you know, there's a direct connection to the brain that's stimulating the vagus nerve at this level of the ear is actually sending a signal and helping to increase feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain, acetylcholine, serotonin and help you relax, help you feel better, increase the mood overall. Now, acetylcholine, that's helping one neuron talk to another neuron, right? And obviously, a lot of the dementia drugs are based on manipulating acetylcholine in one way or another. Are you seeing that people can think more clearly? Does it affect memory or what's the what? What, at least, is the anecdotal experience with this? Yes, something something that we hear very, very frequently. And I find this myself when using Zen by Nirvana is an improvement in focus. If I have to do something mundane that I've been putting off because it's it's not fun, it's boring, it's tedious. I use the device and it really helps me focus. It almost, you know, takes away the background noise from life, if you will, and helps me focus on my tax tax tax, excuse me, at hand. And there have been there are a lot of studies going on, right? Some past studies and some current studies going on right now with using vagal nerve stimulation for treating dementia, even treating Alzheimer dementia as well. So again, we have not done these studies with with our device, but there are vagal nerve simulations going on to treat dementia. So it's interesting that you mentioned the acetylcholine because you're right, that is a information processing neurotransmitter and that does relate to memory and thoughts and and all our mental processing. So that's that's something that we'll see a lot more of in the future as these studies come out and really see, you know, what kind of benefits are coming out for using vagal nerve stimulation to treat dementia and Alzheimer's. So why shouldn't I just go out and get myself a vagus nerve stimulator implanted in my neck? Instead of putting a couple of earbuds in my ear.  You know, look, there are some vagal nerve implanted devices. There's there's one to treat depression. There's one to treat a seizure disorder. There's one for weight loss as well. And these have been very effective, very, very effective treatments for people. But again, it's surgery. Anytime there's surgery, there's a risk. So we're offering, again, a consumer device that is really no different than putting earbuds in your ear and listening to music. You know, again, we're not we're not crossing the skin. This is transcutaneous. So OK, so take me through what's going on. So you're not putting earbuds in your ear and you're listening to soothing music that is going to make you kind of zone out and feel bliss and happiness. So there are actually three different ways to use Zen by Nirvana. For one, you can use it without music. So again, there's two earbuds. It's the left ear above that actually stimulates the vagus nerve. OK, both earbuds have speakers for listening to music. So you have a couple of different options. There is there is a mode that will that doesn't use music. You don't have to use music at all. We're basically we have some preset waveform patterns that you can use. There's four different choices and that would be without music again. There's another. There's a sync mode where basically you can listen to the music of your choice on your iPhone itunes or Pandora or Spotify. And the signal to the vagus nerve will actually sink to the music. OK, so it'll be different depending on the song and depending of the genre of music that you're listening to. And there's another mode called ambient mode that we wanted for people that go to public music venues like concerts. And there's actually a speaker that will pick up the ambient music and and sync that signal to the vagus nerve stimulation. So you have you have some choices, basically. Wow. So all right, now help me through this. So if I'm listening to Aerosmith, you're saying that your device might actually be able to call me down, syncing with with Aerosmith? Absolutely, yes. So, you know, Aerosmith will probably give you some good signal as well.  So but, you know, it's also a tasting. I mean, some people want to relax. They want the music itself to be very relaxing, you know, classical piano music, which obviously is not going to give you as much stimulation as the Aerosmith. But, you know, the combination of the relaxing piano music with this with this vagal nerve stimulation could be absolutely enjoyable and make you feel good. All right. So you said weight loss. And I know my listeners and viewers perked up and said weight loss. Tell me more, please. So, you know, there is an implanted device for weight loss. And again, we haven't tested our unit for weight loss. We're not going to make any of those claims. But they're definitely the vagus nerve, as you know, really affects a lot of body systems. I mean, heart, lungs and digestive system. So with this device, they're really tapping into the digestive synchronization of the vagus nerve. You know, the the the relation between, excuse me, the relations between the vagus nerve and the digestive system to increase the feeling of satiety and decrease appetite. Now, this is not your area of expertise, but I'll throw it out there. Any any evidence of vagal nerve stimulation affecting heart rate variability? Yes. So great question. And I figured from your cardiothoracic surgery background, you'd be asking about this. Oh, you've been studying for the test. Come on. Right. I've been studying for the test. So, you know, there definitely have been a lot of studies that show that vagal nerve stimulation, especially at the oracle, do you promote slowing down of the heart rate, heart rate variability, you know, which a lot of times is occurs when people are calmer. People are feeling more relaxed. OK. And that's actually with your with the oracle stimulation, not some implantable device, right? Correct. So these were auricular studies that were done. Yes. That showed heart rate variability. All right. Dumb question. Why not stimulate both ears? Well, you know, this is a consumer device and the right side, the right vagus nerve has a more direct link to cardiac function. And again, so as a consumer device, we were really tapping into the vagus nerves, ability to relax, make people feel good, improve their mood and help their sleep. So we're not, you know, we're not we're not we're not promoting this as any kind of cardiac treatment. So we're sticking to the left side of vagus nerve, the left ear only. So as a consumer device, do you have to get FDA clearance or you can go right ahead and use this? Whatever. As a consumer device, we do not have to get FDA clearance for this. Gotcha. OK. All right. Now, this is fascinating. So how how long to take you guys to actually develop this? How did, you know, the Zen come about as a consumer? Tell me the whole story. Sure, I'll give you the story. So my brother and I founded the company in 2014 and our first prototypes were done actually in for 2016. We first showed we actually the company is called Nirvana. Then we we've actually changed it to Nirvana and the device was called Nirvana as well. So Nirvana at that time launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, 2016, and we actually won best product in the health and digital wellness. Congratulations. So we're thank you. So we're very excited about that. We got a lot of a lot of PR times international media attention, you know, when we launched. So it was very, very exciting. And then basically just as past 2009 end of 2019, actually in October, we came out with our second generation. So our first generation was was a little a little bit of boxy looking and maybe looked a little dated, wasn't as high tech as we wanted to be. But it worked and people really loved it, you know, and our new device, which is now called Zen. And again, our company went from Nirvana to Nirvana. This is very sleek. It's app based with Bluetooth. It has a rechargeable battery. The sound quality of the earbuds is much, much better than our generation one. And it's also a stronger signal. So we feel that we've come out with a really much, much better product. So we're very excited. All right. So tell me, tell me how this, how do you use this thing? What does it look like? Show us. Sure. OK, I will show you talk us through as well. So so this is the this is the device right here. OK, this is the generator and then have the and it looks like a skinny hockey puck, a skinny hockey puck. Yeah, exactly. All right. And I'm actually going to I don't know if you can see the illumination there. Yeah, well, it's very, very exotic looking, exotic looking, right? And then it's connected to these earbuds. So this is this is the generator, the generator. And there's really only one button on the generator, the on off switch. Everything else is everything else is done through the phone, through the app. OK, all right. And then have these two earbuds. So the the left earbud, this is the active stimulator earbud has white. It's labeled, of course, left ear and then right ear. So only the only the left earbud is actually stimulating the vagus nerve. Both of these, of course, have speakers. So you're listening to OK. So can you can you feel this stimulating the nerve? I mean, are you getting electric shock therapy? Help me through this. So this is not this is not as severe as like ECT, but, you know, you can you can increase or decrease the actual signal. And most people will start very low in the beginning. Since I've been using this for a long time, I use it on the max on the max stimulation pretty much every time I use it. Well, listening to Aerosmith, right? Yeah. Yes, this is the Aerosmith. Basically, at the lower settings, it almost feels like ants crawling. Ah, OK. And then as you get stronger, you feel more of a, you know, pulsing, stronger stimulation in the ear. So, you know, it's a problem. I mean, we have a lot of people who are audiophiles and, you know, music aficionados. And they like to they like to really feel a strong signal. And a lot of people actually love the sensation.  And it's you're really feeling the beat, you know, with that synchronization of the vagal nerve stimulation to the music. You know, it really adds another dimension to the music as well. So, again, for our audience, many people on your specialty use TENS devices and that uses a little electrical current. Is that the sort of current sensation people are going to feel in their ear or is that weight loss? No, actually, it could be compared to a TENS unit simulation. Absolutely. You know, of course, it feels different.  Right. Whereas this is so localized to the the oracle. But yes, it could feel like that, almost like a little tingling, you know, again, ants crawling, kind of tingling sensation.  But yeah, absolutely. It could be compared to a TENS unit signal. OK, so now we're in the ear. You've got it hooked up. How do you use it? How long do you use it? Do you use it? I'll just throw out some examples. If you're going to do something that requires a lot of mental concentration, do you use it? If you want to go to sleep, do you use it? Do you want to feel happy? Do you use it? And so how do we do it? Right. So so we're recommending two 15 minute sessions a day. OK. And we have a lot of people that actually will use it right before they go to bed to sleep better, wake up feeling more refreshed. Again, people like myself that use it to get a task, you know, sometimes to get a mundane task done because it makes me feel good. It makes the task more enjoyable and it helps me focus. And so people use it differently. You know, we also have a lot of people that are using it. A lot of athletes are using it after they work out to help them recover. You know, they say it feels better. They're they're feeling less pain, less soreness. And it's helping to relax them as well after their workouts. So this is kind of an interesting, you know, another another interesting use for athletics, post recovery, post workout recovery. And are there I take it this isn't pseudo science. This is there's actual studies that say this happens. Absolutely. There are there are tons of studies on vagal nerve stimulation and it's even there's studies on, you know, besides just this this wellness chapter that we're working on as a consumer product, there's been studies for, again, treating dementia, memory loss from Alzheimer's disease. There's also been a lot of studies that have shown vagal nerve stimulation to be very promising for post traumatic stress disorder. They're even studying treating autism as well. And just just a lot of different things. You know, again, some of the things we talked about weight loss, of course, seizure disorder, there's also a lot of rheumatologic studies as well, where they're they believe that the vagal nerve stimulation is decreasing inflammation in the body. And they're they're doing studies with patients with rheumatoid arthritis. So it's really really tons of studies that that have been done and tons of studies that will be going on in the future. It's very interesting, really encompassing a lot of different, a lot of different medical issues. Huh. All right.  I can tell you our listeners, I would guarantee I've never heard about this. So where can my audience learn about you and your work? Sure. Our website is nuvanallife.com. Neuvanallife.com. And we're on Twitter and Facebook. And there's a lot of articles. I'm sorry. Oh, Instagram as well. Ah, yeah. So it's Neu. Neuvanallife.com is the website.  They have to go directly through the websites. Gotcha. Okay. So if they type that in on Amazon, that's not you. That's not us. Exactly. All right. Well, you know, this has been this has been great fun. And hopefully you'll hopefully you'll send one out and I'll give it a try and give me a shout out. I'll make sure we send one to you. Absolutely. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Really, really enjoyed it. I watched some of your podcasts are fantastic. I'm definitely learning about diet. Oh, very good. Very one of the things that I shouldn't be eating. So Well, maybe you can, I'm not going to say this, but maybe you can put the earbud in and eat lectins all you want. I didn't say that, people. All right. So it's time for our audience question. Annabelle bentos on YouTube wrote in and asked, Dr. Gundry, what is your opinion about homemade kombucha? So, you know, homemade kombucha is a great idea. But please, please, please watch the sugar content. I've had some patients bring me their homemade kombucha and it's like having root beer soda. It is so sweet. The object of the game is to have the fermentation process use up all the sugar in your kombucha. That's why I've said before, when you go to the stores or the health food stores, please look at the label and look at the sugar content because some of them are sweetened to be a sugary beverage. And that's really not what you're looking for. But great question. Yeah, make your own. All right. So that's all we got time for Dr. Cartlett. Great to have you. And we'll see you. And we'll see you next week on the Dr. Gundry podcast. Before you go, I just wanted to remind you that you can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you.


Okay good morning to everyone and so you have heard about our virtual laboratory efforts and we hope that you all of you will actually use that very fruitfully and pass it on to your students and the idea of course is that eventually the students must benefit and in that sense we are all partners and I hope you can take it forward. So my session is mostly about how to use simulation in teaching in particular teaching electronics and so we will be using a simulation platform called SQL which has been developed at IIT Bombay and so but if you are already used to some other simulation tool that is fine it is not so much the which simulator you use it is how you use it so that is really the idea. How many of you are teaching electronics courses all of you? How many of you have taught the topic of let us let us take a few topics and let us begin with the topic of resonance how many of you have taught resonance RLC resonance everybody has taught RLC resonance okay. So this is we will just use it as an example as to see how simulation can be used effectively to improve the understanding the students have of few topics. So let us take a very simple RLC circuit are you all you are using simulation tools like Peace Pies or Matlab and so on alright. So you are all familiar with the simulation packages and simulation is often used because things get too complicated for our mind but it can also be used extremely effectively for teaching purposes. So let us start with a simple RLC circuit okay. So let us just take this oldest source as 1 angle 0 alright. So let us say you have taught this topic you have taught the students about resonance resonance frequency quality bandwidth etc and now we are trying to reinforce their ideas with the help of some simulation tools okay ideally you could do this whole thing in the lab but it does not happen because it takes too much effort so it is very good to do that with simulation tools alright. So what how would you what is the first thing you will demonstrate with the simulation tool see that. So okay let us have some values for this L and C 1 million D 1 micropirate right okay. So what is the first thing you would like to demonstrate with this circuit frequency response and you would like to show them that the frequency the response peaks at the resonance frequency given by 1 over 2 pi square root L C can somebody calculate this for me anybody has a calculator these days your mobiles also have calculators can somebody calculate this number I am trying to do this in a sort of live mode because then you can do the same thing. So I will treat you for this for this purpose as a class of students and so when you teach the students will be doing this calculations for you. So can you somebody give me this number anybody has a mobile or a calculator okay approximately so 1 million D 1 micropirate 1 over 2 pi 10 is to square root of 10 is to 50 hertz it sounds too low to be there is a difference there is a problem with the order of magnitude the number is correct alright let us see what is square root of 10 is to 9 5 kilowatts that is right it should be about 5 kilowatts okay square root 10 is about 3 right 3 and 2 pi is about 6 so this turns out to be about 5 kilowatts alright okay so let us let us do this and actually show that the frequency is 5 kilowatts in the evening session you will I hope most of you will come for this session all this in the evening in that you will actually learn to use this circuit simulation package and you can do this example yourself. So let us quickly make up this circuit I will tell you in more detail how to use the similar right now I am just sort of doing it for you so essentially you need to pick up components place them on your canvas okay we have got R L and C in place what do we know what else do we need we need a voltage source okay and we need something called ground okay ground actually is required for any circuit simulator to work because that gives us the reference voltages that defines the reference that defines the voltages with respect to a particular node so let us say we have a ground as well then just make the connections simple alright if you can do the same if you are using piece by already you can do the same thing with piece by the simulation tool is really not an issue the issue is what you do with it alright okay what is the next step values okay so let me make this amplitude as 1 and frequency we are going to vary say it does not matter let me make this okay let me make it as 1 ohm right now and later we see if you can change that L 1 mic a milli handy C 1 micro farad alright so now our circuit is ready in this particular simulator you need to inform the simulator as to what you want to record okay so that is done by let me also name these components I named these as R L C and D S now let us include some output variables and what is the output variable you would like to look at is basically the response in this case is the current right so and the current is the same through all of them so we can look at the current through any of these things let me choose the register and there is an output AC variable called I 1 AC okay of the register so let me put that here so that is my output variable alright so now the description of this circuit is complete and now I can go back go to the so-called solve section now we have defined the circuit now we need to tell the simulator what it is that you want to do you want to do a transient analysis AC simulation DC simulation and so on that is done by define defining a solve block so in this case we were interested in AC simulation frequency domain response so let's make that AC simulation alright in AC simulation one thing we are going to do is to vary the frequency right we are expecting a frequency cutoff frequency of 5 kHz so we should vary the frequency from let's say 10 Hz to 100 kHz so that we can see a peak so that is done by a statement called vary frequency if you have any questions please stop me at any time okay now you see that there is something called vary type and that says linear whenever you change frequency it should always be changed in logarithmic question otherwise it gets compressed otherwise all the points will get concentrated towards the high frequency okay so let me put and let me make this a number of the number of points fairly large 500 alright now we are going to change the frequency from 10 Hz to 100 kHz logarithmically with 500 points so that defines this particular what next we need to define an output file and that is done by the output block and we need to select some output variables now since our input our output variable is AC type of variable we can select phase or magnitude as output to be written to a file okay as you make the changes on the right hand side things will change also in the sentiment okay so with that our description is now complete and we can now run this program one more thing we can do is we can display these properties on the canvas just take a minute okay so that we know what is what so we have an R of 1 ohm we have an L of 1 milli and we have a C of 1 micro can you see all of can you all see can you all see okay alright better now okay or and these things are dynamic so suppose I change a property of this inductor that will reflect in the label okay so now we are ready to run the program if you run the program the if the program is successful you will see a message here at the bottom called program completed and the menu will automatically shift to this graphs the middle one okay because that is what the user will typically like to do so then select the output file select an x axis the middle one is the x axis the right one is the y axis y axis we will choose the magnitude of the current okay and then let's graph now this is not fitting in in your this is a laptop so the resolution is not is a slight problem this window should really be fitting into your into your center window but can you see the reasons right this is of course not the best way of doing it because whenever there is a frequency involved you should always use the lock scale so let's do that now there is a frequency response is it 5 kilo Hertz it is 5 kilo this is 1000 Hertz 10,000 Hertz and so let's expand that part so that you can see better all right now you can see better so this is about 5 kilo Hertz okay so this if you are teaching students and if you show such an example the students immediately get in their head that there is such a thing called peak and resonance and so on and soon after you cover the theory they immediately understand try to connect to what you're doing in class what else would you like to show them what happens if I change the value of R for example if I make R if I make R go from one right now it is one ohm suppose I make it two ohms what will happen to that what will happen to the curve we all know that the resonance frequency itself will not change one or else see that is independent of but the bandwidths or the sharpness or the quality will change so bandwidth is given by for this circuit it is given by R over L so if you increase the resistor the bandwidth will increase by a factor of 2 and the quality is given by the resonance frequency by the bandwidths so in effect the bandwidth will increase then the quality will decrease so in other words the sharpness will decrease in other words the circuit will become less selective so let's see if that happens I'll go back to the circuit editor okay so I have changed this R to 2 and now let me run the program again and let's replot okay so actually the data is there but it has got sort of over most of it is overlapping here so you can't really see so let's expand this part see what we get okay now it's clear that now can you see the quality is the sharpness has decreased all right so that is of course you do see a problem here that these problems the points actually not enough so we need to increase the number of points see right now you have a data point here and your data point here but you would really like to have some more points in between okay so let's increase that number and repeat this simulation okay now it's looking better okay so it's so this these kinds of things are just no they will depend on the problem how many number of points is enough and so on and of course you can get a visual sort of feedback from the plot that you see all right so that is just one part of resonance circuits okay and this is what we mostly teach in our classes right a lot of hidden things which we teach but they don't quite come out what else can you see in this circuit which will improve the understanding of the student can you check on the bandwidth we have the data we can see what the bandwidth is right so let's do that so what is the expected bandwidth and what is the bandwidth we are actually getting so with two ohms our bandwidth is r over l and in terms of hertz I think we will have to how much 2k this is two ohms l is 1 milli henry 2k will get divided by 2pi right so 2k by about about 300 hertz okay so 300 hertz means if you are plotting the frequency response like this okay this whole thing is 300 hertz right so we should have 5 kilo hertz minus about 150 hertz 5k minus 150 hertz and 5k plus 150 hertz so that is those are our 3db points so that is where the response should turn out to be 1 hour square root 2 times I max 1 hour square root 2 is about 0.7 and I max in this case is what is I max I max is 1 divided by 2 2 ohms right so 1 this is 1 angle 0 volts so this will turn out to be about 0.7 by 2 0.35 okay so when the current becomes 0.35 ampere the frequency should be about 5 minus 5k minus 1 so 5 minus 0.3.85 4.85 kilo hertz and 5.15 kilo hertz okay so let us let's check this let's check whether this is actually happening and all these things are you know things that you can do in class live absolutely no problem and that gives us gives us a lot of confidence so I have expanded this frequency so what is the peak that we expect 0.35 ampere sorry not 0.35 0.5 ampere right so you can see this is 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 so it is indeed 0.5 that's one thing you can definitely point out and it is at 5 kilo hertz as we expect the frequency now our interest is the 1 over square root 2 point the 3db point and that is at 0.35 right so 0.35 so these are the points that we are interested in okay so we can expand this further and see what we get so 4.8, 4.9, 4.85 okay so that's roughly what we expected it to be and this on this side 0.35 so about 5.2 okay alright so of course we made a very rough calculation if you do it precisely then you will get better but certainly the order is correct okay what else would you like to see show your students yeah Xc and Xn that's right so first Xc and Xm we cannot actually show the impedance itself but we can show in a simulation setup we can show the phase of the current so what will the phase look like angle of y so we know that if omega is small 1 over j omega c dominates is large and if omega is large then j omega c j omega l dominates right so then the current in this case the first case the current is the phasor will go as 1 over 1 angle 0 by 1 over 1 by j omega c so that will have a phase of 90 degrees j omega c so this has a phase of 90 degrees and the other extreme in case 2 you will have 1 over j omega l and that is a phase of minus 90 degrees and the phase of course at resonance is exactly 0 right so that is something that we can show so let's look at the phase of the current okay so again let's make the x axis lock axis so that you can see it better alright so that is very clear low frequencies the phase is 90 degrees at resonance which is somewhere here the phase should be exactly 0 and at high frequencies the phase is minus 90 minus 50 minus 100 so minus 90 okay so that is something that you can show and of course as you change the resistance value this will become sharper less sharper alright what else would you like to show the students transient analysis yeah that is something you can show we will do that later what else but in the frequency domain itself there is so much more information that you can show that is sharpness that we already see okay what about these voltages vr vl this also actually has a lot of information okay so we know that as so our current is 1 angle 0 by r okay so what is going to happen to vr let's look at the phasor diagram so this is your imaginary axis real axis this is your source voltage right okay now at resonance of course the source voltage and this resistance vr is going to be the same and at any other point this is the vr is either going to lag or it is going to lead up to 90 degrees okay so now in this particular situation let's take this particular case this is your vr this is vs and in this case your vc is minus j by omega c okay vl will lead right vl will lead this and vc will lag right and the resultant of these two will essentially add up to add up with vr and then give you vs alright so this phasor diagram of course we cannot show with the simulation tool but we can look at how vr v is vc and vl change with frequency okay alright and at a given frequency you can the student will have access to the angles and magnitudes of all of these quantities so that he or she can sketch the phasor diagram okay so what about vc itself what will how will that change suppose I plot magnitude of vc as a function of frequency this is my frequency so how will this change as a frequency becomes very small magnitude is going to become 0 as a frequency becomes very small the magnitude is going to become vs right as the magnitude all of this if the if omega is small this 1 over j omega c is going to be very large and all of this will essentially just drop across the alright so we already have two data points at very low frequencies we have vc equal to vs at very high frequencies we have vc equal to 0 what about f0 that is the part that many students have not understood in my experience okay so now let us deal with that part what is what is what happens at f0 greater than vs how much greater quality factor that is right okay now this is these are things that I find the students do not quite understand but if you show them a plot like the one that we are going to see they will immediately remember this all their life so vc at resonance is equal to vl at resonance and it is equal to q times vs this is very well known result very easy to derive nice result and q is in our case what is q q is omega 0 by bandwidth and in our case the omega 0 is 1 over 2 pi 1 over square root let us not worry about this 2 pi 1 over square root we will see divided by r over l okay so this is going to be 1 over r square root l by c that is the quality factor and let us calculate it in our case 1 over r r is 2 ohms l is 1 milli and c is 1 micro so 1 over 2 1 milli by 1 micro square root 10 times 10 right so this is about square root 10 is about 3 right 3 by 2 1.5 so about 15 right so actually if you look at this plot this is if this is vs this is going to be much larger than vs at f0 so if you plot it versus you will get something like this suddenly it shoots up at and then it becomes at some point it becomes 0 okay alright this is very very important point people do not realize that there are such huge voltages at resonance across capacitor and the inductor let us look at this so to do this we need to add some more variables to our circuit okay and that is done by using some more additional elements okay let me just name this node okay let me tell you what I am doing I have got these voltmeters okay each one of these is actually connected to this point but the connections are not being shown otherwise it will look very messy so they are being assigned the same names so that the connections are there internally but not shown explicitly in the circuit diagram okay so and also let me add the variables that those are those go with this so one of these voltmeters is actually connected here this is connected here this is connected here so now we need to add output variables which is a voltage of this voltage of that and voltage of that and that will give us vrvcl vl and vc oh no this actually this will not do it this one does not have AC part so let me what I will do I will just open an existing circuit so that it saves us some time this is the one I wanted so this circuit is ready made and it is already made up let me change the values suitably like we have okay this measures the resistor voltage that measures the inductance voltage and that measures the capacitor voltage and all these variables are already defined as the output variable you can see that here vrac is defined as the output voltage of this element and so on let us run this okay so now I am plotting vr okay let us plot actually all of this together see what we get or let us just plot the inductance first or what we are looking at capacitor right capacitor okay now it should be very clear okay so this is one at low frequencies equal to vs then at resonance which is somewhere here becomes 16 times we said 15 but that was approximate so it becomes about what we expected and then finally when the voltage becomes when the frequency becomes large it will go to so this is some this is a figure which is extremely informative and it is something that can stick in the students mind very well all right what happens if I change the resistance to 5 ohms okay what will happen to that figure so it was 2 ohms now I made it 5 ohms what will happen to that figure okay this point will obviously not change at very low frequencies this point will obviously not change at resonance now the quality is better or worse resistance has increased the quality has decreased and therefore you will not get quite as high as 15 or 16 we will get some so if you do the all these things in class there is a very good chance that the students will sort of remember it you know without studying the topic further it is there is an excellent chance of that happening so you can see that the sharpness has decreased and the magnitude has come down okay what about vl vl should do just the opposite vl if the frequency is very small then vl should be small 0 frequency is large then the entire voltage is going to come across the resistance is going to be 1 and in between at resonance it will go through a peak so it should do like this something like that so let us just take it out that is exactly what happens so omega very small j omega l is small the voltage is 0 finally it will become 1 at omega increases considerably and at resonance it will go through q times the vs okay all right what about phase okay suppose I want to plot the phase of vl for example angle of vl what will that do very high frequencies the angle should be what happens at very high frequency very low frequencies this is like a short circuit and the capacitance actually will dominate the capacitance impedance is minus j omega c it will be much larger than r so the phase of this current will be let us work it out I cannot do all of this in my head so I will be one angle 0 approximately minus j by omega c right so it will be minus it will be plus j omega c that is i and your vl is the current times the impedance so what is the phase is minus 180 or 180 depending on how you look at it okay so let us check this so in short we are expecting the phase to go from plus minus 180 to 0 at high frequencies okay okay so that is exactly what happens 180 here and finally it is 0 whether 180 is it 180 or minus 180 how did how should we choose it is very simple at resonance what is the phase of this j omega l at resonance what is the phase of i r the current 0 j omega l times i that is plus 90 degrees okay so at resonance which is at 5 k somewhere here the phase will be exactly 90 degrees all these things you can bring out in class if you are showing an example like this okay so this is not really about teaching resonance as such but how to use a simulation tool to improve the students understanding so let us take some other example not related to resonance but something else let us say diodes you would have all done examples like this in your courses okay so there is a simple diode circuit two diodes this is my input voltage and this is my output voltage let us take some numbers for these let us say this is two volts let us say this is 1 k 0.5 k okay and let us say that this diode voltage diodes have a drop of 0.7 volts when they conduct like we typically do all right so the student is asked what would you ask the student to do in this case we will ask you to ask him to do several things one plot plot v o versus v i that is always the step number one and then once we once the student has got this then we will we can ask him or her to plot no the output voltage if the input is sinusoidal or triangle then what happens and so on but the the key really is this v o versus v i all right so d1 conducts if v in is greater than 2.7 d2 conducts if v in is less than 0.7 minus 0.7 so we mark these points let us say this is over 1 volt 1 minus 1 volt plus 1 2 and so on okay so we mark these points 2.7 let me extend this 2.7 is somewhere here minus 0.7 all right in between neither this diode conducts nor this diode conducts and of course there is no voltage drop across this resistor and in v o will be equal to v in and so that is the first thing that we can so there you between these two points we will have a straight line which goes to the origin all right beyond this what happens then when d1 starts conducting you then write this current i d1 is equal to v in minus 2.7 by r0 plus r1 etc right and then you calculate this v o all right so what it will do is essentially it will cause a change in slope at this point so the slope was 1 earlier and at this point the slope will change similarly similar things will happen here and the slope will change all right so that is roughly what the students should see if you actually simulate this circuit and or if you go to the lab and hook up this circuit what is the slope r1 divided by r1 plus r0 right so how much this slope r2 divided by so it is 0.5 by 2.5 right 1 by 5 okay so if we look at the craft carefully we should be able to see all of these details so let us do this I will use a very simple diode model here which has got a large off resistance and a small on resistance so let us make a make the on resistance 1 mili ohm and off resistance let us say 10 mega ohms very small very large okay and then we will copy this into another diode okay now we need resistors okay and also we need a voltage source okay and at a DC voltage source and of course I need a ground okay now in this for this source the input source we can actually use a AC source because then we will be able to see all that result as well so let us call that AC alright now we can quickly do the wiring now these are things you can either assign as a homework to the students or you can just do it in class because really it does not take much time and if there is a problem with time you can always make up these yourself and just run the examples in the print in front of the students in class so this was 2k okay let me also write these values here so for our reference so let me call this D1 all this D2 and these things have got a parameter called the on voltage on so we will put that as 0.7 volts now this AC source alright one question is this is so this is our V in and this is our V out so we need something to measure this output voltage naming the nodes is not really important or not really required but often like to do it because what else okay we need to set this voltage at 2 volts that is it yeah and this input voltage we can let this go from minus 5 volts to plus 5 volts so an amplitude of 5 volts and a frequency we can frequency really does not matter because we are only going to look at it as a sort of low frequency DC circuit so let me make the amplitude 5 and let me make the frequency that is a 50 hertz alright so let me make up alright what all do we want to see that is the next thing we need to worry about what would you like to see definitely we would like to see this input voltage output voltage what else would you like to see simulation the good thing is you can see a lot of things lab it is not always possible to see away so what is from the students perspective or to from the point of his understanding what would be a good thing to see in this circuit apart from diode conduction so the student would like to see when exactly this diode starts conducting when exactly this starts conducting because that is the basis of our calculation so it is good to see this diode current so let us add all these variables one is the input voltage here P1 output voltage diode current okay and let me name these things okay so that is it alright so now the next step is what you want to do with this circuit okay and what we want to do with this circuit is now this is a time varying source so we should only do a transient simulation not a DC simulation okay so let us go back to solve blocks add a solve block and change that to transient okay as soon as you change it to transient the you will need to be you will need to fill up these details like what is the starting time what is the ending time what is the delta t t and let us simulate for just two cycles which is 40 milliseconds because the frequency is 50 hertz delta the constants a constant let's say a small number like 0.01 m 0.01 millisecond and in transient simulation you need to choose a method you will learn more about this when you read the manual and so on so let me choose the backward Euler method okay we have a very simple linear problem not linear problem but with a very simple problem with a simple diode model so there should not be a problem with convergence and so on then we have an output block and output block we will include the variables vs v out id1 and id2 that should do it okay so the program has completed and I hope it things are things have worked so first thing we would like to see is what is the output what is the output voltage as a function of that is the input voltage that is the output voltage let us see what that looks like okay so that is indeed what you would expect let's check this out so this is minus 0.7 right this is 0 minus 1 so minus 1 minus 0.7 2 3 2.7 and that is a slope of 1 that you can get out from the axis and then this slope what is this slope it should be 1 by 5 is it 1 by 5 1 by 3 so in other words if I go 3 here okay the axis are different let me expand it okay so in other words if I go from 1 by 3 right okay if I go from 3 to 3.3 I should go by 0.1 there right so is that happening 3 to 3.3 and from here to here is 0.1 1 by 3 okay similarly the other slope should be 1 by 5 that is the other slope so if I go from here to here that's I should go here from there to there by 1 so this is 0.5 and this is well let's it should be 1 by 1.5 you can verify that so you can show all these things in class alright so that is not all we would also like to see the diode currents that's very important let me plot the diode current ID 1 versus VS and that is what we would expect that the diode 1 starts conducting at 2.7 and otherwise is 0 diode 2 will start conducting at minus 0.7 and then it is then it conducts at that point 0 minus 1 so this is minus 0.7 so all of these things if the students actually sees these in the class definitely as a as a good impact on the student and things stay in the mind because the picture is always worth a lot alright what else would we can we see now since we have this since we have a time varying source we can actually see the time varying output so this is an input AC source so we should be able to see some clipping kind of thing so let's look at things with respect to time so that's the this is when the slope is 1 and then the input and output should be exactly equal and this is where the slope is 1 by 3 and 1 by 5 diode currents that's the diode currents so this is where diode 2 is conducting and that is where diode 1 is conducting and you can of course look at these things together with the input voltage and so on to make sense of it okay what else do you teach in basic electronics Thevenin circuits let's look at a Thevenin circuit example all right let's look at Thevenin requirement problem I see many familiar faces in the audience I have seen you before I have seen you before I have seen some other people okay so we want to reduce this circuit in to this form let's take some number 10 volts 2 ohms 6 ohms okay a very simple circuit actually you can show many more complicated circuits but the point is how do you use a simulation tool to show this Thevenin equivalent resistance any idea you use p-spires before right so normally the simulation packages will not give you the Thevenin and Thevenin voltage or resistance directly so how do you go about it okay so the answer is very simple all right so so this circuit and this circuit are the same and now suppose I connect a voltage source here okay an external voltage source called v0 right and I look at this current i0 and suppose I plot v0 versus i0 what will that give me that will give me a straight line let's see let's see what the equation is very simple v0 is v Thevenin plus i0 times rth if I have my signs are correct yeah okay i0 itself is v0 minus vth no wait wait wait wait that is not what I want I want v0 versus i0 so this is it right so v0 versus i0 is a straight line v0 versus i0 x intercept equal will be equal to y intercept will be v y intercept will be vth yeah when i0 is 0 okay and when v0 is 0 minus vth by rth right okay somewhere here vth by rth okay so I should get a straight line which looks like this okay let me do better than that let me plot it against this current let's say i prime so this is vth minus i prime times rth okay so in this case I will get o versus i prime so now the only thing or the only difference is the direction of the current is defined like that so now the y intercept is the same x intercept is positive did I make a mistake u equal to x right so now the same straight line except it is a mirror image of that one alright so in other words we can get from this figure v Thevenin immediately just look at this number and what is actually this thing called is nothing but the short circuit current or the Norton right Norton equivalent okay so in our case in this example if I plot this if I make a plot like this what should I get for vth in this example 2 by 8 2.5 so I should get a vth of 2.5 and I should get a Norton current or a short circuit current of 10 by 6 and from these of course I can get the resistance 10 by 6 is 1.67 ampere and of course the Thevenin resistance in this case it is just 2 parallel 6 which is 1.5 ohms and that should be also equal to this ratio 2 by 8 into 10 divided by 10 by 6 is the same thing okay so several ways of looking at it so but the key is if you are using a simulator then you can produce a plot like this and from this this plot has got all the information that you need about the Thevenin circuit so let us do this simple problem okay so that is the circuit we are looking at this is 6 ohms and this is 10 volts okay and the output variables that we would like to see is the current through this source but I want to define it like this so let me just put an ammeter there okay and we are going to look at this voltage as a function of this this current so let me put those as that output variable this voltage here and this current here okay so very simple circuit so let me go to the solve blocks these are DC simulation and we are going to vary a parameter what parameter are we going to vary in this we are going to vary the input voltage so we can get many points okay so let me just call this some name PS so element is VS parameter is VDC values let us say we want to go from what should we choose this range V Thevenin is 2.5 so definitely this V Thevenin should be more than let us see well let us just go from some number to some number and if we do not get enough of this then we will change that output block so that should be you know solve this so our x axis should be I0 okay y axis should be V0 okay this happens sometimes when I make mistakes so we have made a mistake somewhere the mistake is actually I should be varying the output the voltage of this source and not this source okay this is a constant so that I made that mistake and we do have this so this is our x axis these are y axis right and let me just blow up this part so that so the short circuit current and the open circuit voltage which is the same as the Thevenin voltage this is the same as Vth by Rth let us read out these values so what is the open circuit voltage this is our 00 2. I think we should get 2.67 is it you should get 2.5 it should be exactly 2.5 so this 2.5 and the short circuit current is should be 1.67 1.5 1.6 1.7 so 1.67 if you want to plot this in more I mean read it more accurately you can always blow up this part now you can see that this is 1.667 okay okay so we are we are getting exactly what we wanted 1.6 what is the next thing you can teach the students next thing is so we are we will get from this Thevenin resistance equal to 1.5 and 7 voltage equal to 2.5 now we can ask the student that you connect instead of this whole thing we can connect a resistance and if I connect a resistance of let us say 2.5 ohms what should this current be so that is the problem that we can pose to the students so the answer is very simple this circuit is the same as this circuit is the same as 2.5 volts here R7 in 1.5 and then this is 2.5 all right so this current then should be should be 2.5 by 4 625 should be 0.625 so this is an exercise that the student can check out so we will just quickly do this what do we do this just remove this source remove this ammeter and connector resistor here as simple as that okay what is the value of this resistance 2.5 ohms okay and let us add this output variable the current of this resistor I will figure it out later now we are running out of time but anyway that is what we can show the students you can figure out the current then that will be good okay so I just wanted to give you a little tour of the various examples that are already there you can you are welcome to use these examples and they are in several directives there is a directive called BJT circuits digital circuits diode circuits e1 e1 0 1 is the course that we teach here there are lot of circuits there electronics general some more circuits op-amp circuits for electronics power systems I guess is not relevant here solar cells so if you are teaching any course in op-amp there are lots of circuits in op-amp as well so you know what this is what is this circuit yeah this is an integrator and this is a Schmitt trigger it is a square wave generator it is square wave or triangle wave generator so let us look at some of these reasons okay if you look at this output you should see a triangle wave if you look at this output you should see a square so that is what we will see and why is it not symmetric I mean why is it why is this not symmetric around 0 it is because there is an offset voltage okay there is an offset voltage here if you make this 0 then it will also go so all these things are very easy to show in class with the help of simulation what is this some of you would be teaching this this is a simple current mirror and this is a reference current and that reference current gets mirrored on this is a very simple one and it is not a very good one because it has got a variation in the output current because of the voltage here so we plot this current as a function of this voltage it will not be quite constant so that is so let us just plot that okay so that is what so this is the reference current on the left hand side and this is the mirrored current so you can see that the mirrored current is not quite constant there are things you can do to improve this and you can make a cascode connection and so on so I will just show you quickly that as well okay so this is the so called cascode connection and if you look if you do the same thing in this one if I plot if I plot this current as a function of this voltage here then things should be it should be much more constant so let me plot all all four transistor currents and you can see that there the variation is not even visible on this here of course things go wrong because things the transistors will enter saturation but that anyway you are not supposed to operate in this region okay so the so this advantages you can bring out with the help of simulation otherwise you do all this theory and then students are not sure whether they understand or not and then they have not seen any pictures so they they go back not knowing exactly how it works there are some digital circuits you are familiar with this circuit with an up down counter simple up down binary counter there is an up there is a mode input which goes to all of these circuits and then there is mode bar input and depending on whether mode is 1 or 0 you count up or down and so on these are things which are difficult to draw on the board so instead of drawing on the board you can just show show a simulation result so that is what it looks like there is the there is the clock q0 q1 q2 q3 okay I think our time is up so we will stop here in the evening we have an extra session it is outside your schedule in which you are welcome to learn to use the simulator and then try out some circuits okay thank you


And with all the fancy introductions out of the way, welcome to the podcast, Amarie Mohan and Matt Reynolds. Welcome, Amarie. Nice to be here, Sean. Welcome, Matt. Thanks for having me in my own office. The pleasure is all mine. Now, because I'm a very well-read individual, I'm familiar with the latest in recycling advanced chemical molecular. But for all of our listeners out there, can you guys kind of, I don't know, give us some bullet points, some 30,000-foot view on exactly what it is and, I guess, sort of the differences between advanced chemical or molecular recycling? Sure. So currently, the most common system of recycling is called mechanical recycling. But what's emerging right now as a technology is what's called advanced or chemical or molecular recycling. In fact, advanced and molecular are pretty much synonymous. They mean the same thing interchangeably. Chemical recycling is sort of a subset within. But the big picture is that through advanced techniques, sometimes using meat, sometimes using solvents, various other chemical or molecular techniques, folks are able to reduce plastics or actually anything down to its basic building box. So we talk about plastic. We're talking about polymers. We're reducing them down to what would be called a monomer, like a single individual unit that can then be built back up into whatever the product might be. Now, one real great advantage of it with mechanical recycling, you tend to have what has to be downcycling. So if you have a milk carton, that's polycropylene, for instance, that might be recycled. But it won't be recycled into another milk carton. It'll most likely be recycled into, say, a swing set or a durable one, something like a decking that might be another one that's pretty frequent, because over time, it degrades. With molecular recycling, using the most basic building box, taking any material, including, let's say, ocean plastics or degraded plastics to degraded materials, you're able to basically push those down to the lowest building blocks and then build them back up to potentially upcycle to have equivalent convergent plastics or something that's been ocean plastic or anything that's been degraded can still get built back up by these scientists, essentially, to become PET, equivalent one-to-one replacement for PET. So that's great. I mean, consider uses for food contact, for instance. Years and years of mechanical recycling for given plastic, eventually, some degradation is going to occur where that plastic after recycling is not going to be suitable for food contact. But if you're able to take even lower grade plastic waste and then recreate virgin plastic food contact ready plastic out of that, then that's a wonderful silver bullet type of technology to have. And then also consider the ease of use for, I mean, there's some of these technologies are what's considered, I guess, would be mixed waste. So it could take all sorts of different kinds of waste. And the ease of use or the ease of recycling for the consumer and the more the likelihood of the consumer to successfully recycle is much greater. So that's kind of the big picture. I won't get into the weeds on the molecules there, but that's what's going on. One recent example where a brand owner, and it was Unilever, was able to use a recycled polypropylene for a food product, whereas in the past with mechanically recycled polypropylene, it was not approved for food contact, was for their Magnum ice cream tubs. Sabic is a chemical producer, and they produce the feed stock for those tubs from recycled materials done by plastic energy through pyrolysis. So they're using advanced recycling to create the building blocks for this polypropylene. And it has the same functionality and properties as a virgin polypropylene. And even one step further, which is very interesting, is for this product, there's a chocolate shell around the ice cream inside. So they had to retain that iconic feature. I've had this. This is good. It's well worth retaining. Yeah, I've had one before. So they had to make sure it had the same flexibility, and they were able to accomplish that. But they could not have used recycled polypropylene for a mechanical process. So it did open the door for recycled materials in that application. OK, cool. So then I guess with that in mind, that kind of segues in perfectly, is there potential to replace? And I'm not even going to try and pretend that I know what MRF is, but I don't know what the MRF stands for. Is that machine? Materials Recovery Facility. Materials Recovery Facility. Why is there an A? We don't know. It's MRF. We're just throwing the A thing there, so it's an acronym. I'm like a two-year-old sometimes. All right, MRF. So I understand the technology. I understand how it works. Is there potential for using that magnum as an example for this to either replace or take some of the load off of the traditional mechanical recycling, which is MRF? I think the intention is definitely to take some of the load off, at least as it scales up. Now, 50 years from now or 100 years from now, maybe that's different. But right now, it's definitely meant as a complementary technology because there's some things that mechanical recycling can do quite well. So why don't break what's not broken? So it's not an A or it's kind of what I was talking about. It would be supplemental. I could imagine a MRF or the future having an arm that was doing mechanical and an arm that was doing advanced recycling or within a given municipality, you could have both with the different materials following the streams. But right now, in terms of it scaling up, it's definitely complementary in nature. So with it being complementary for people that are attempting to do this now or is it more of a, boy, this is a great goal to have? I think it's both. There are some companies that are using molecularly recycled plastics at the moment, like Magnum. There are some technologies that are still at a stage where they're not available or they're not at scale. But there are definitely examples in the market. Another one is also done by Sabik and it's with Mars. It's their Shiba cat food pouches. And this is an interesting application because, well, it's food contact safe. But it also can withstand the high heat of the retort process. So they really made a huge step in that regard and it uses mixed waste. So you can use all kinds of plastic packaging to create, through pyrolysis, the building blacks for new plastics. So I think you kind of answered this, but is it just one way to do this, break all of this down, or is there multiple ways to go there? No, there's a lot of ways to skin this cat, molecularly skin it.  So I mean, we just met a cat and now we're harming a cat that we love cats. We have no problem with cats. It's shooting your cat. So I mean, they can use things like enzymes and microorganisms to basically break down. Solvents are used frequently. You mentioned pyrolysis, so heat can be used. There's a term, flash jewel heating is one. But they all kind of ladder up into three major categories. And one of those is purification. One is depolymerization and one is convergence. Those are the three primary ones. We're seeing probably the most early legs with depolymerization just in terms of numbers of cases. I know another big one is Eastman does a version of this. And they work with Procter and Gamble on herbal essences. So that's a pretty big branch on a bottle that is entirely made from molecularly recycled depolymerized PET. So again, I don't know if that was coming from. I don't know if the feed stock was there. I don't know if that was PET to PET, for instance, or it could have been anything. But regardless, the end product looks identical to the existing bottle and functions the same as well. That's one example. I know there's a Korean cosmetics prestige brand that I cannot name because I would butcher the pronunciation of it. And a Terry Korean, as of yet. As of yet, I'll work on it. But that's another, Amor Pacific is the brand owner, at least, and that's another Eastman category. Honeywell has a few of its own. There's one technology, and I can't recall which of the three main categories it falls under, but they use enzymes to recycle these materials. And one very interesting application that I talked about recently or wrote about was one with a company called Lanza Tech. And they worked with L'Oreal on a prototype bottle for a personal care product, where they're actually capturing the emissions from a steel mill and using enzymes to then create, they call it a trash to treasure process, where they turn that carbon waste into new products using a biological process. So that to me is fascinating. It's still just a prototype, but they are working on other applications that are in market now. Lanza Tech, that is not L'Oreal. Although L'Oreal is working on other things as well.  So it sounds like, OK, we can get this in products that you're going to use on your hair, on your skin, things like that. Are there any other examples of ones that we can use? We know food is the biggest thing that's packaged at least in our, that we deal with food and beverage. Are there other examples of where it's making its way through contact type packaging, besides the Magnum and the Cat Food that you mentioned earlier? There is one that uses solvents. And this is Emmy in Europe. They do a ready to drink coffee product, chilled coffee product. And they're working with another company called Borealis to create the cups out of chemically recycled plastic. And they're just using 30% chemically recycled plastic. And their hope is to increase that amount as time goes on. So yes, it's another. People are starting to delve into it a little bit more. Are there other technologies or emergencies in this space that are out there, or is this kind of the top of the tip of the iceberg? Yeah, is this the tip of the iceberg? And there's more coming, or you guys know what I'm trying to say. I think as far as we know, it's just those three major classifications. And everything is done slightly differently. And it depends on the input, what the output is going to be, and different methodologies. Like we mentioned, chemical solvents and so on might be one side of things that would be really purifying of the existing plastic, whereas others might be using enzymes or microorganisms to eat away at them and then what's on the other side is then those original building blocks. So there's a lot of different ways to do it. But as far as I know, it's all within those three channels. There is one technology, and it does fall under these three categories. And I think it falls under conversion. But it's a technology that's really being touted by Professor Bruce Welth at University of Florida. It's called regenerative. Gasification. Regenerative, robust gasification. And that's kind of like the holy grail. It can take any plastic. And every output of that process can be used for something, perhaps not packaging, but for other applications. And what results from this process is called pyrolysis oil. And any kind of plastic that you want to create for packaging will be able to be made from this process. And he's now working with the Flexible Packaging Association to do trial runs at the University of Florida to kind of see they're doing it by ton of waste to see what the output is. So that's what we say every aspect. We're talking like it's every emission that comes from breaking it down, it being broken down. Like everything, like this bag is going to be completely repurposed into something else is basically what you're saying. Yes. And that's what the good doctor is working on. Yes. Meanwhile, I mentioned Honeywell earlier. Honeywell's another one, again, falling within these three categories. But instead of going strictly with the pyrolysis route, they do some of that, some of what they use. Different chemical and solvent ways about it, they call it upcycling, which is it's the accurate term. Because again, it could be garbage in that you get virgin PET or virgin material auto. And that virgin material is sensibly the same. I mean, it is virgin material. And they've got a new plant that's actually opening in Spain coming soon. So you're seeing definitely some early adopters getting on both from the brand side and from the provider side, supplier side. Do you guys think, and again, this is opinion, not a fact. This is something that will continue to roll out slowly, or do you think it will be something where it falls over the edge once it kind of catches on? Or is it something we're probably going to continue to see sort of slow rollouts of? I believe the rollouts will be slow because it requires such a huge investment for these chemical recycling plants or molecular recycling plants. So I think there is a lot of energy going into R&D, a lot of pilots, but it'll take time for these to scale up. But I think it's the future. I think it definitely has legs and it's something we'll see more of. That's awesome. Think about all these brands that have, they're scrambling to get to meet their 2025, 2030 goals and so on. This is just another tool in the toolbox when these facilities all come online. And think about the pressure it could take off of things like films and so on, that right now it's a great program to score drop-off. But what if you don't have to do that? What if that responsibility that's currently on the consumer is removed because everything goes into, let's say, mixed waste and it can be chemically recycled or... Get my terminology right. It can be molecularly recycled into something that would be equivalent to virgin. So a lot of the owner shifts there and there's a lot of reasons, a lot of very interesting parties and stakeholders that could greatly benefit from that. And I would think it would also make it easier for the consumer, which is gonna kick off all these recycling to begin with, to have one way to be able to do that. So that's a good way to kind of put a button on this discussion of, was it advanced molecular and what was... Chemical? Chemical, advanced chemical molecular recycling. So once again, thank you, Anne-Marie. Thank you, Matt and I. Sure, all the listeners at home that we love cats. We love Pete. We're very pro-cat here. And though cats are skinned, they're harmed in the making of this podcast.


We are building our dream garden. Our goal is to grow enough food that we can save thousands of dollars at the grocery store. How are we going to do that? By growing food from kitchen scraps. One week the celery's been growing. From seed and transplants. Last week we constructed these beds from milled wood and planted 280 seeds in the greenhouse. We're doing the hoogle culture method, which is a centuries old gardening technique building garden beds from decaying logs and plant debris. These beds provide long-term nutrients and moisture to plants and generate heat that can extend the season. Let's begin. Look at this girl. Ready? She's so ready to go. Let's hit the trails, Mom. Come on, have fun and find some debris for the garden beds. I think we've already found a lot of debris. My seat's going to get taken up very quick. Boom. Not only are we getting debris for our garden beds, but we are cleaning up our entire neighborhood. All of this debris is from hogging the road. What is hogging, you ask?  And I'd say there ain't any broader name than hogging. I shoddy this bed. No, we're doing it together, you f***er. Orma. She calls me the A-word and rolls her ankle. Karma, karma, karma, karma. Got it? Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma, karma. Get me my wheel, we're out. I'm fast as I thought. Yes, I know what you're thinking. You're going to save thousands of dollars of food, but we'll look at the startup here.  Not only in money, but also in time. However, these hemlock garden beds are going to last a long, long time. One of these six by six posts costs us $20. If we went to the hardware store, it would cost over $200 per board, which is not OK. So I challenge all of you, when you are doing a DIY project, renovations, try to source out milled wood. Find your local mill, support them, because you don't even understand the deals you can get. These wood chips are from a mill, because after they mill the wood, they have so many wood chips that they basically just want to give them away. Let's address the elephant in the room or the garden.  Wood chips being the first. Garden soil. Manure! Just kidding. Last year, we forgot to put this in our garden and it didn't grow that well. This year, we have green thumbs. But we accidentally ordered three times the amount, so we've got a lot of work ahead of us. Also, wanted to show you all, look.  God, you're filling the bed! Keep going, Bear and Dig! Just keep going, just keep going. Well, the garden beds are just going to get harder and harder as we get farther away from the pile of garden soil. And I am a big advocate of working smarter, not harder. This could take me all day. But this is basically... This makes our plow into a bucket, so we can literally scoop up soil, bring our winch up, and dump in the garden beds. As Jasmine pushes forward, adjusting our plow, I've got my handy-dandy shovel and fill up the first garden bed with topsoil. Unfortunately, our used UTV plow wear bar has rusted and seized the bolts. And after a difficult time removing them, we have one problem. I got the wrong conversion kit. That's so sad. I swear, I measured 55. Look, and a little small. Plot twist. There ain't no bucket. Well, I have a backup. I listened to our pack, and guess what, everyone? We finally took your advice, and we got a gorilla dump cart with four wheels. It's about time.  This is gonna help us so much, too, by the way. Your optimism is just infectious. And thank you to all of you who left hundreds of comments about our wheelbarrow and what it means to have a cart, because I am so sure that box just cracked. I'm so sure. This is what we need. Hey, Bella, you gonna clean that up? Gorilla, gorilla, gorilla, go, go, go. Walk the runway, girl. Crystal, fashion show. The idea with the bucket is that we won't have to break our backs in trouble. But, Crystal, whoa. Gorilla. That's mighty fine. You know, that wheelbarrow can do the splits, man. Yeah. This is a big garden. By no means do you need to start this large. You can even have a balcony and grow food on it. You don't need a ton of space to be able to grow enough food for yourself or your friends and family. It's incredible what you can do with even small square footage. So I hope that encourages you to start growing and at least give it a try. And maybe throughout this gardening series and this year as we learn and we share knowledge, you'll feel like you can do it too. It's also important to mention that over time it does become more economical. And with food prices on the rise, it's never been a better time to invest in growing your own food. Just look at these prices. As you plant your vegetables and your fruits, you can then start saving seeds. Definitely saving all of those seeds. And then it becomes a full cycle where you're now growing your own seeds and, you know, then you're collecting compost and putting that compost in your garden for nutrients. So then you can create your own little system, which is amazing. You see these old potatoes that you probably throw away? We started saving them. This is a grow bag. Six old potatoes can turn to 40 by planting them four to six inches in the soil. We love potatoes. We're saving all our food, green onions, celery, ginger, and more. This is a great place to get to. Oh yeah. All righty, that seems like a dream to move. All righty, y'all ready? Hopefully I can lift it. Oh wow. Oh no. It's really heavy. I don't think I can do it that big again. Help. This is the 32 ounce bottle bottle suited to take wherever you'd like, but more importantly for the outdoors and working out. These are double walled stainless steel, BPA free and dishwasher safe water bottles that keep your water cold up to 24 hours and your hot beverages up to 12. The reason I love it is because of the full functioning mouthpiece with the option of a straw. I like to use a straw and crystal, the handle and the storage box. You can use this to carry almost anything. Pills, vitamins, powders, tea, protein, all right in here nicely organized with that divider. Or if you have a freaking panion, you can use it as a drinking dish for them. Click on the link in the description and use code VanWive's 15 for 15% off your own bottle bottle. Thank you to Bottle Bottle for sponsoring this week's video. It's barbecue season, baby. One more bed down. Doing good. Oh gosh, I love this time of year. It smells so good when you're outside and you get real hungry. I kind of hungry. How do you season? Haven't had this since last year. Oh my gosh. This is so good. Gotta refresh this. We ate just in time because I was really losing steam and now I'm ready. Don't you mean to say you were becoming? Grastow. I was becoming grastow. Mm-hmm. It's heavy. Are you in four wheel? Yeah. I pinched my winch in. It's not so weird, eh? I pinched my winch in. I pinched my winch in a skid. Can't get it out. So the only way I could think of getting it was I was wasting a lot of time and something I have to do already. Unload the million bags of manure. Crystal ordered. Here we go. After some much needed fuel, we set our sights on finishing the garden beds and give Bella a little joy ride. Okay, that dog is too much. Honestly, like I had to stop shoveling. You just admire how adorable she is. Like they are truly just a human's best friend. She is glued to Jasmine's side right now. So cute. And Asi's just watching them go up and down and up and down. She's just sitting there, as content as could be. Oh, they're such characters. You did all the work. Ew, girl. I don't want no back five.  Oh, this is sheep poo, better known as manure, which is going to make our vegetables thrive and survive this year. And that's how we're gonna save so much money in groceries because we're gonna have so much food. When you're here. I'm taking a garden course. In my garden course. And in the first line of soil health is as above so is below. Is that how it goes? Pardon? Blame this dude. What does it say? As above so below they say. Meaning that soil health is so incredibly important and everything that you see growing out of your garden beds is a direct correlation to what is beneath it. So. I understand the quote now. Soil is very complex, very beautiful thing. It is so much more than what we typically think it is. It's incredible actually. And it provides so much benefit for the plants and making sure that you have really high quality nutrients in your bed is super important. I realized that these beds are looking quite full but given a day or two and they are gonna settle. So we are filling them to the brim but we know that they're gonna settle quite a bit with the material that's in there. She's only saying that because all day I've been saying Crystal, these beds are so full.  We're gonna stab all these bags open like Meredith Gray. Here we go. Shit, you going to med school? Here you go. Let's play Gray's Naughty right now. Ready? Scalpel please. You don't need to use your manners. Hardcore Gray's fan right here.    As the sun sets and night draws near we spread the manure across our garden beds. Adding manure improves soil health and provides key nutrients needed by growing plants. This is what a day of fun looks like and hard work. And you did most of the work. Good job. Looks like you had a good day. Fun day. Playing in the dirt. Morning. My winch is pinched still and we need the UTV today because we have pretty fine to do. Let me tell you about my best friend. Oh my God, Bear. Yes, we're in the same outfits because we're dirty. Take another beautiful day, I finally figured it out. It's amazing how light wood chips are compared to soil. This is glorious. Good thing you didn't start with wood chips. We're filling the garden with that absolute mountain of chips. And it looks so nice just to see the first pile sitting back there. It's gonna really pull it together. What? The UTV won't turn on. Nothing's even lighting up. Crystal! No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If we have to move everything with that freaking gorilla car, let me tell you, we'll be making lunch again today. UTV doesn't work. Lovely. Now what? Our shed is such a mess and full of projects that we have no idea where our jeffer cables are. But it is the weekend, which means a neighbor could be up. So fingers crossed, Crystal. She's back. No cables, no neighbor, no cables anywhere. Battery charger? You've loved the ATVA. Haven't been in here in a while. I know. Any luck? Still there. Like, still there, 10 minutes later. Look, there's a serious look on you, too. Hello. Like, who are you? The world just wants us to work harder this weekend. Time to be a UTV. For once, I can find something. And Crystal can't. Okay. Let's trickle charge this battery. Battery. It's completely dead. Okay, well, I would like to do anything but be a UTV today. What do you want to do? But I really want to see it all. We can do it. I'll do it, how about you film me? We're being crustals. We need to change our attitude. We're gonna put our heads down and we're gonna go ham, ham cheddar. You ready, Crystal? Half-babbling. You happy? It looks so good. It looks so good. Love the color, the natural material on the ground just looking so pretty against the beds. Good work. You, too. We crushed that.  There is never been a better time for hot tub than after building this garden. We deserve it. So let's do it. Fill this up for later. With the hot tub warming up for later to soothe our exhausted bodies, we pushed through to cover the final area of wood chips. We've been fueled by the excitement of completing the garden and to bring many spaces to life at the cabin this year. I don't know how we have the energy to do this right now, but here we are. No, I don't even know how to work the camera I'm so tired right now. Sorry if that was blurry. That was 100% blurry. We're planting greenery everywhere we can this year. Wow, words are hard now. It's been a long day. That's because this winter, when everything died, we were very sad. And so something like this is gonna remain and you'll see that little bit of greenery all year round, which is so nice. Where's your inspo coming from? A dental office that I passed by. I really just love their garden. It's like one of those gardens that, you know, all year round looked so beautiful. And every time I drove by, I was like, what's in there? Thank you, dentist office.  I might sound like a broken record, but it just amazes me that we don't have to pull a generator anymore to get water out of our hose. And we can water our garden with the sounds of nature. Can never get over it. It's so nice. As we find new homes for these plants to grow their roots, we got inspired to trim the garden with birch logs as a simple final touch. And after hours of hard work, we are one step closer to the garden of our dreams. Garden area is looking beautiful. So the vision here is there's gonna be a nice tall grass, nice tall seeded trees, low lying, spreading junipers. Just a copycat, eh? Just a copycat. Damn nice dentist office. Just about time to plant. Tomorrow. I am completely beat right now. And Chris is like, oh, I'm gonna get these plants in this garden. She thrives in this type of weather. Just suns out, curses out.  We deserve this. It's so nice being able to get in while it's still bright outside. That's a treat. The sun is just setting. So much for deserving a hot tub. That was a complete fail. That was lukewarm. Actually kind of cold. I can't believe you. It's not my fault.  I get in. Good morning, sugar. This is another day I've been dreaming of all winter. I am so excited to be here. The greenhouse is open. The plants are growing. They're fully stocked. And this is my ideal day. It's so humid in here. I feel like I'm in the tropics. It's actually like 35 degrees. It's really nice to see all the little baby plants coming in the way. We're strolling through the greenhouse. Of course we've made it to the seed section. We're picking up a few extra seeds that we didn't have. New things that we wanna try and experiment and grow. A few tomatoes are a couple dollars and a package of seeds is a couple dollars. And you can grow multiple plants and have dozens and dozens of tomatoes. You can't go wrong. Just getting really into it. Really into the gardening lately. You sure love planting. You're already out here. Okay, can we do a quick before and after of this greenhouse? Because I think within a few hours it's gonna look a heck of a lot better than it does right now because there's so much work to do in organizing in here.  But we are getting it so prepared that we won't have to this winter. Hopefully, if all goes as planned with our re-sauch. It's time to get this greenhouse up and running because those seeds are going to be ready within just a few weeks before we even know it. We've got quite a few sprouts. You'll be excited to see. It's growing season. Woo-hoo. Woo-hoo. I'm tired. I know. Driving to town. It's two hours of driving. That's why I'm tired. Super stoked but also a little bit slippy. Okay, well, maybe we should have hit the laundry mat but here we are. We're saving all of our food, everyone. It's literally that simple to grow back your green onions. I ate the other half. They're gonna keep on growing. Ready for- Clean, clean, clean. It smells good. It's fresh. The beds are filled. The floor he's in. Also the quickest floor we've ever laid. Yeah, that's pretty nice. Does it ever change? It brightens it up in here. Basil and parsley like to be together and they're right beside each other. Would you look at that? That's great. And gardening school is paying off, girls. So by having this greenhouse, we're able to have food sooner. But of course we did get some mature plants while we were out at the greenhouse. That way our food is going to be ready in cycles which I think is super important. In my gardening experience, everything is done all at once because I plant it all at once. But if you do it in cycles, it just makes your life a lot easier, your belly happier and your plants happier because you actually have time to take care of all of them.  We were going to be saving thousands on food due to the fact that we can grow year round. We can get an early start. We can start harvesting. And you're probably wondering why aren't we planting all of the food out in our beds? Well to be honest in Canada, it's still very cold at night and they wouldn't survive. So having the greenhouse, we're able to get an early start, planting these in, and then we probably will start moving our seedlings out there. And it just makes a nice cycle. Voila. The greenhouse is officially planted. It is 30 degrees in here. That is the highest temp we've had this year so far. I feel like I'm in the tropics. Good food coming our way.  I'm so excited to share this journey with you. And if you're not planting, I hope you are after this video. You just gave up a granny. Or a dry skin. Nevermind. You'd pick me anyways, wouldn't you? Love you, lots of back. See you Sunday. Ciao. Rrr, rrr, rrr, rrr.