← Back to lettersYou would surely like to know the fundamentals of these altimeters that are completely unknown to the engineers of Earth. Indeed: aeronautical engineering specialists and geophysics experts have developed a wide range of instruments on your planet capable of determining the altitude at which an aircraft, vehicle, or any device is located; taking as a reference a base or conventional height level: zero. In some cases, you use what you call BAROMETRIC ALTIMETERS, whose differential type measurements are based on the decrease of atmospheric pressure with altitude. For this purpose, the instruments are equipped with different types of pressure transducers, from classical diaphragm capsules and rarefied gas to the very modern "SOLIONES" that many Spanish engineers still do not know about (valves similar to vacuum diodes where the latter has been replaced by an electrolyte) apart from detectors of the "capacitive" type (sensitive plate capacitor), piezoelectric, mercury, variable reluctance, etc. Any expert in physical sciences can adapt this height measurement system if they desire a certain degree of precision. For this, Earth technicians have used other more efficient methods. Thus, what are called PULSE ALTIMETERS are based on the same technique as radar. (by measuring the reflection time or echo of a series of electromagnetic pulses of centimeter or decimeter wavelength after being "reflected" off the terrain located beneath the aircraft. Or FM ALTIMETERS which, after emitting a modulated carrier beam, reflect off the topography of the terrain and return to the aircraft's receiver, measure the altitude based on the received frequency. However, any specialist in terrestrial electronics will make serious objections about these systems whose measurements can be distorted by certain topographical features or by the presence of radio-electrical interference. Nevertheless, the equipment designed by you presents undeniable advantages except for the impossibility of reducing the dimensions of these instruments even when using miniaturized circuits from modern molecular electronic techniques. We, on UMMO, have always preferred to use telemetry systems that evaluate altitude based on the value of "g" (the constant of gravitational acceleration). As you know, the value of "g" is not actually constant as it varies depending on the measurement point relative to the center of the planet considered and also varies from one celestial body to another. Thus, on the UMMO planet, its value at the "universal" reference height is 11.882 meters/second² while on the surface of Earth, it reaches about 9.8 m/sec². A traveler ascending with a rocket at a constant speed will always observe a slow reduction in the value of "g" which they will feel as a loss of weight. Our accelerometers or gravimeters capable of measuring the value of "g", and hence the level or height, are based on a technique completely unknown to the scientists of your planet.
Our exploration in the technological field of the Earth has tested a series of equipment almost always used by geophysics specialists under the name of gravimeters. Thus, the classical PENDULUM gravimeters, those with SPRING BALANCE, those with PRESSURIZED GAS, and gravity drop accelerometers. Almost all require stable conditions that make them inoperative aboard moving vehicles. Otherwise, there would be errors of many gals (we use the c.g.s. unit of acceleration 1 GAL = 1 cm/sec²).
Apart from the geodetic gravimeters whose reading range reaches [for example, the one by WORDEN] (5000 milligals), the rest of the devices are only capable of detecting small differences in the value of "g." For many XEE (We call 1 XEE = 60 XII or rotation periods of the planet (length of day = 30.97 hours) (Translator’s note: In other texts we have 30.92)), our technicians have been forced to design instruments based on the gravitational function. The need to include such measuring instruments within vehicles whose propulsion and control equipment was, every xii, more compact, required solving simultaneously two problems:
A) Reduce such instruments so that they fit in a volume on the order of 0.6 thousandths of ENMOO cubes (a few small cubic millimeters).
B) Obtain precise measurements that, translated into terrestrial units, could be evaluated in hundred-thousandths of a GAL.
We will describe one of these OXOEEOIADUU (GRAVITATIONAL FIELD METER) which, among other applications, are integrated into the UULUEWAA (spheres of dimensions identical to a terrestrial walnut and capable of moving at any height, equipped with photo-phono-detector organs).
The total volume reached by this instrument does not exceed 29 cubic millimeters, and its design presents more topological-type problems than of any other kind. Almost all its elements had to be integrated into a tiny boron crystal (stable isotope with atomic weight 11). It is certain that Earth specialists, even if they are not yet at a sufficient technological level to face all the problems posed by its construction, can draw inspiration from it to make similar projects.
Let us look at a diagram of its operation:
IMAGE 3 - Very symbolic diagram of an OXOEOIADUU gravimeter cell used by UMMO engineers. The indicative notes have been annotated according to the text and the instructions of DEI 98, son of DEI 97.
The basic cell is formed by a cylindrical enclosure ( ) (S977-S1) (capillary with a caliber of 9 microns) vertically perforated in a miniaturized module of crystallized, chemically pure, and dehydrated BORON. The inside of the cylindrical capillary enclosure does not contain a single gas molecule, and its walls are maintained strongly polarized with a negative electrostatic charge (see image three).
In the upper area, a thermostable spherical enclosure (S977-S11) contains an infinitesimal quantity of rarefied gas formed by ionized molecules of MERCURY THIOCYANATE (S977-S2) (SCN) (with 2 Hg atoms bearing negative charges(-)) ( ) (S977-S3).
A discriminating cell sequentially selects ( ) (S977-S12) isolated THIOCYANATE molecules by releasing them at the extreme upper level of the capillary ( ) (S977-S4). The molecule, released with zero kinetic energy, begins a free-fall process (S977-S13) inside the capillary (whose axis remains vertical, tangent to the force lines of the gravitational field).
The molecule (S977-S5) never adheres to the capillary walls because of the strong repulsion that the electrostatic field, generated by the negative charge distribution (-), exerts on said molecule.
In a nearby environment (S977-S6) (spherical cavity carved in boron crystal), a magnetic dipole (microscopic elliptical plate made of a chrome and iron alloy (S977-S7)) is forced to rotate at a constant angular velocity ω of about 60 radians per second. The dipole is suspended ( ) (S977-S8) in a liquid mass that fills the cavity (diameter 0.74 mm (lipid emulsion). This results in a very weak rotating magnetic field that is sufficient to be detected by a transducer (( ) (S977-S9) of bismuth (field value in ( ) (S977-S9) H=0.00002 Oersted (S977 original image) (S977-Alt image redrawn by an unknown author). When the ionized MERCURY THIOCYANATE molecule descends, it generates a weak magnetic field, Hp, which disrupts the rotating field created by the previous dipole. This disruption is a function of the instantaneous speed of the analyzed molecule at each point in its trajectory. Furthermore, the instantaneous molecular speed will in turn depend on the value of 'g' (acceleration due to gravity).
The disturbance is detected and measured even if its differential level is on the order of one quintillionth (Note: 10^-18) of a milliersted. A small XANMOO (you call it computer (S977-S10)) receives three channels of information ( ) (S977-S14) information by electrical means of the detected magnetic field. information by optical means (glass filament) on the rotational speed of the dipole. information by electrical means on the accelerations of the vehicle on which the OXOEEOIADUU is installed. This last information is very important to neutralize errors due to forces other than GRAVITATION acting on the TIOCIANATE molecule (S977-S16). The (S977-S10) integrator computer sends directly via the channel ( ) (S977-S15) information about altitude.
Lettre Ummite#781