An alarm (French: À l'arme - "To the arms") gives an audible or visual warning of a problem or condition.

Alarms include:

• burglar alarms, designed to warn of burglaries; this is often a silent alarm: the police or guards are warned without indication to the burglar, which increases the chances of catching him or her. "Silent alarm" redirects here For the album see Silent Alarm (album.
• alarm clocks can produce an alarm at a given time
• Distributed control manufacturing systems or DCSs, found in nuclear power plants, refineries and chemical facilities also generate alarms to direct the operator's attention to an important event that he or she needs to address. A distributed control system (DCS refers to a Control system usually of a Manufacturing system, Process or any kind of Dynamic system, This article is a subarticle of Nuclear power. A nuclear reactor is a device in which Nuclear chain reactions are initiated controlled A refinery is composed of a group of Chemical engineering unit processes and Unit operations used for Refining certain materials or converting
• Alarms in an Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Monitoring system, which informs the bad working state of (a particular part of the) system under monitoring.
• safety alarms, which go off if a dangerous condition occurs. Common public safety alarms include:
  • tornado sirens
  • fire alarms
    • "Multiple-alarm fire", a locally-specific measure of the severity of a fire and the fire-department reaction required. A civil defense siren (also referred to as an air raid siren, tornado siren, tsunami siren, or other outdoor warning siren and also rarely referred An automatic fire alarm system is designed to detect the unwanted presence of fire by monitoring environmental changes associated with combustion Fires are sometimes categorized as one-alarm, two-alarm, three-alarm fires, or higher
  • car alarms
  • Community Alarm or Autodialer alarm (medical alarms)
  • air raid sirens
  • tocsins — a historical method of raising an alarm

Alarms have the capability of causing a fight-or-flight response in humans; a person under this mindset will panic and either flee the perceived danger or attempt to eliminate it, often ignoring rational thought in either case. This article is about the Electronic device. For the Kim Possible episode see Car Alarm (TV Episode. An autodialer alarm, or community alarm as it is known in Britain when it is run by the County council, is an electrical An autodialer alarm, or community alarm as it is known in Britain when it is run by the County council, is an electrical A civil defense siren (also referred to as an air raid siren, tornado siren, tsunami siren, or other outdoor warning siren and also rarely referred A tocsin consists of a signal of Alarm given by the ringing of a bell, and hence any warning or danger signal The fight-or-flight response', also called the fright, fight or flight response, hyperarousal or the acute stress response, was first Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus We can characterise a person in such a state as "alarmed".

With any kind of alarm, the need exists to balance between on the one hand the danger of false alarms (called "false positives") — the signal going off in the absence of a problem — and on the other hand failing to signal an actual problem (called a "false negative"). False alarms can waste resources expensively and can even be dangerous. For example, false alarms of a fire can waste firefighter manpower, making them unavailable for a real fire, and risk injury to firefighters and others as the fire engines race to the alleged fire's location. Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous Fires that threaten civilian populations and property to rescue people from car accidents collapsed In addition, false alarms may acclimatise people to ignore alarm signals, and thus possibly to ignore an actual emergency: Aesop's fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf exemplifies this problem. Aesop (also spelled Æsop, from the Greek Αἴσωπος — Aisōpos) (620-560 BC) known only for the genre of Fables A fable is a succinct story in prose or verse that features Animals Plants inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are The Boy Who Cried Wolf, also known as The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf, is a Fable attributed to Aesop (210 in Perry's numbering system and written

Etymology

"Alarm" came from Old French 'à l'arme' = "to the weapon", telling armed men to pick up their weapons and get ready for action (because an enemy may have suddenly appeared).

See also

• Alarm management
• Burglary
• Burglar alarm
• Clock
• False alarm
• Fire alarm notification appliance
• Physical Security
• Smoke detector
• Alarm Systems of Atlanta

Alarm management is the application of Human factors (or Ergonomics as the field is referred to outside the U "Silent alarm" redirects here For the album see Silent Alarm (album. Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput, or Clock is a gene which encodes proteins regulating Circadian rhythm. A false Alarm, also called a nuisance alarm, is the Phony report of an emergency causing unnecessary panic and/or bringing resources (such as fire engines A fire alarm notification appliance is an Active fire protection component Physical security describes measures that prevent or deter Attackers from accessing a facility resource or information stored on physical media A smoke detector is a device that detects Smoke and issues an Alarm.

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