How Things Work Encyclopedia

Bits and bytes

weird or what?

Sharing data Bluetooth is named after
King Harald Blåtand I of
When you send an email Denmark. He united Danish
or a message on your cell tribes into one kingdom. The
phone, how does it know inventors felt that was what
where to go? In fact, it is
passed around a huge Bluetooth does—it unites
different devices into
one system.

series of computers that

are connected to each

other by wires or radio. How far?

Without a wire Bluetooth can connect up to eight
gadgets at the same time as long as
Wireless systems, such as Bluetooth, they are within about 30 ft (10 m)
allow two or more electronic gadgets of each other. Bluetooth can operate
to transmit data without plugging them over greater distances if a more
powerful transmitter is used.

into each other. Wireless technology is

very effective over short distances, but

it cannot transmit very far.

Radio
wave

Answer Volume key Using Bluetooth, you
key can transfer music,
speech, and videos
between gadgets, as
well as send
instructions. There is a
Bluetooth-operated
robot, for example.

Ear hook How does it work?
Just like TVs and FM radios, a wireless system
Microphone uses radio waves. It chops up data into
manageable pieces and transmits that data in
A Bluetooth headset allows wearers to answer their separate chunks as radio waves. The receiving
phones without actually holding it. That’s useful if device, such as a phone or computer, picks up the
you are carrying things or driving a car. radio signals and puts the data back together.

100
What is the world’s fastest home Internet connection speed?

What are computer networks? Sharing data

Towns and cities are joined together by a network Networks
of roads. Computers are also linked together by
networks. The scale of a network can be as small There are many different
types of network used to
as a home computer and printer or as big link computers:
as hundreds of computers
used in an office. PAN Personal Area Network
Used for single-user

devices.

Local Area Network

LAN Joins small groups of

computers, like an office.

Most homes connect to Campus Area Network
the internet through a
telephone or cable-TV CAN Links university campus

socket. From there, LANs into one network.
data can be sent to
other rooms by a hub. Telephone Metropolitan Area
exchange
Telephone or MAN Network Connects all
cable socket The majority of
computer networks the networks in a city.
What are hubs and routers? connect with each
A hub sends information to other using telephone Wide Area Network A
every device connected to it. lines. When you
They are mainly used in send an email it WAN network that covers a large
homes and small networks. may have to travel
Routers allow large numbers along hundreds of area, like the Internet.
of computers to communicate miles of telephone
and direct data between wires and through Global Area Network A
networks. several networks to
reach its destination. GAN future network of wireless

computer networks.

Antenna

What is a server? Wireless routers send and receive data
Computer networks rely on servers to access and store through their antennae. The router then
information. There are different types of server. Businesses directs the data to exactly the right
often use a file server to back up documents every day so that computer. Hubs have to try every device
work isn’t lost. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers are used on the network to get the right one.
for sending and receiving files. Mail servers are used to store
millions of emails for company networks. 101

40 gigabits per second—it can download a DVD in 2 seconds!

Bits and bytes Cell phones

Early cell phones Spread out across the world is a network
weighed about of tall metal towers, called base stations.
1½ lb (800 g). When you make a call from your cell,
the call travels to the nearest base
Today's phones station, which sends it on an incredibly
weigh as little as fast journey to the phone of your
1½ oz (40 g). friend. It only takes seconds to
connect to your friend’s phone.
Early phones
In the 1980s phones were
as big as a brick, about
six times the size of
phones today.

In addition to making phone calls, the
iPhone can act as an iPod music player

with a fast Internet connection.

Mobile cells Microwave
Cell phones work within a network of link
cells. Each cell is covered by a base
station. You can only make a call if you
are close enough to a base station.

Base station Optical fibers
In the countryside, base stations in cables
cover larger areas than in cities.
This is because there are
fewer people living in
rural areas, so fewer
people use the
network.

Cell phone Base station SEA

1 A cell phone 2 The base station Optical fibers
in cables
converts sound receives the waves
into radio waves. and sends them to Switching 3 The switching center sends the waves to another
It sends out these a switching center. center
waves to the switching center, either as microwaves or through
nearest base Base station
station. optical fibers in cables under the ground or sea.

102
What does SIM stand for?

What does it do? X-ray of a cell Cell phones

Cell phones have lots of weird or what? phone A SIM card
good features and some holds personal
bad ones. Every minute all over the account details

Make calls, send texts, world 1,000 people buy a and stores
make video clips, and phone numbers
take photos. cell phone for the first time.
and images.
Play music, download There are more than three
video clips, and watch
television programs. billion cell phones in the

Find directions, get train world and more are
schedules, and download
listings of what's going on. made each day.

Phones create waste, since Cell phones
they can take hundreds of use lithium-
years to break down. ion batteries
that give
roughly
seven hours
of talk time.

Base What's inside?
station Inside every cell phone
there is an antenna to
Switching send and receive calls
center and messages, an electric
circuit board to run the
Base station phone, a loudspeaker, a
microphone, and a battery
4 The switching center 5 This base Cell phone
to provide power.
sends the waves to station sends the Future phones
New types of phone are Watch phones
another base station. waves to another developed all the time.
These watch phones will It will be hard to lose a
phone. be available soon. Phone watch phone if you're wearing it!
handsets may not even
Text messages be used in the future if
travel in the scientists make phones
same way as small enough to put in a
sound waves. your head or your ear.
Billions of
text messages
are sent
every day.

Subscriber Identity Module. 103

Bits and bytes

Digital photography Hands on
Ask an adult if
Digital cameras allow you to capture a you can you use a digital

moment in time, such as blowing out your camera to take a photo of
birthday candles. They are also used in something in your home.

Use software on your

space exploration and medical science. computer to change
the image.

Lens Shutter Viewfinder

Flash
When it is too dark to take a photo, a built-in
flash briefly lights up the scene.

Snap away!

Digital cameras vary in size, from a
small camera on a cell phone to a
large professional studio camera.
People usually own a compact
camera like this one.

From light to a digital file Light is made up of three primary
So how does a camera actually take a photo? colors: red, green, and blue. These
It’s a simple process that requires the following colors make up all other colors.
in order to work: light, a shutter, a lens, a All three combined make white light.
sensor, and a memory card.

The sensor is a
grid of millions
of pixels.

1 Light is reflected off a scene. 2 The sensor is covered in tiny 3 The signals travel to the
The camera’s shutter opens, squares, called pixels. Each pixel camera’s memory system,
so this light can pass through measures the amount of red, green, where they are stored on
the lens to a sensor inside the camera. or blue light that hit it. They turn this into the memory card.
electrical signals.
104
How many pixels are in a megapixel?

View, focus, take! Digital photography

Some digital cameras have Seeing an image
a viewfinder to allow Images shown on a
photographers to see what
they want to photograph. digital camera
Other cameras just have a screen are made up
screen on the back of the
camera for composing a shot. of thousands of
tiny pixels. When
you look at all the

pixels together
they make a complete

image.

The most exciting
thing about taking
digital photos is
viewing them! You
can download images
by inserting a memory
card into a computer
or through a cable
attaching a camera to
a computer.

Battery Memory card The dial allows Editing and playing with photos
the user to Digital photos can be edited and changed
choose different in special computer programs. You can
settings such as play with an image, make it black-and-
the flash or white, or you can fix red-eye. Try out the
close-up shots. examples below.

Most digital cameras Images are stored on removable
use rechargeable memory cards until you download
batteries. them onto your computer.

Saving memories Convert to black-and-white Play around with fun effects
Old-fashioned film cameras store images directly
onto plastic film, whereas digital cameras record Happy birthday!
photos on a memory card. Memory cards are
measured in megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB) Fix red-eye Add text to an image
and vary in size, from a small 512 MB to a large
32 GB! They are likely to get bigger in the future. 105

One million.

Bits and bytes Radio and TV

Who invented radio? It’s hard to imagine life without
Guglielmo Marconi is radio or TV. We use both for
credited with building information and entertainment.
the first radio system. There are millions of programs,
In 1901, he transmitted but how do they get to our radios
radio signals across the and TVs?
Atlantic Ocean.
What’s inside?
How do radios work? The main parts of a
radio are an antenna,
First called a wireless, the radio a circuit board with a
didn’t need wires to connect tuner and amplifier,
the transmitter and receiver. and a loudspeaker.

Speech and music are turned into Digital radio
electrical signals by a microphone
in a radio studio. When you listen to a digital radio there
is little or no interference, such as hissing
The electrical signals from the noises. Digital transmitters send out
speech and music travel through sound codes all mixed up together so
wires to a radio transmitter. that interference can’t affect them much
and your radio will usually be able to
The radio transmitter
sends out radio waves understand them.
from the radio station.
Tucked behind
Traditional radio sets pick up the radio is the
the radio waves and turn them antenna. This picks
back into speech and music. up radio waves.

Digital transmission
Digital radios also use a transmitter,
but the waves they use are different
from those of a traditional radio.

Digital radios use codes Inside the radio
made from lots of ones is a tuner and a
and zeros. They are computer chip that
transmitted over a large decodes the waves
band of radio waves. and converts them
into sound.
What does LCD stand for?
106

A neon lamp First TV Radio and TV
sent light into
holes in a The scientific research for televisions TV inventor
spinning disk. began in the late 1800s. Baird’s John Logie Baird
televisor was the first ever TV to work. demonstrated
the first television
A rotating disk transformed light broadcasts
from a scene into lines in 1929.
forming a moving
image. Transmission today

Baird’s Television stations
televisor transmit programs
through electrical waves.
Label
Television pictures are
Images on the The light coming through the spinning created by cameras in
televisor were disk lit up a scene and made a moving TV studios.
image. The red light from the neon
grainy. The lamp made the image appear red. Programs are sent out from
mechanical system the TV studio over wires
was soon replaced or microwaves.
with a better quality
electronic system. Programs can be sent up to
satellites in space and then
LCD TV sent back to Earth.

LCD screens have been used since the 1970s in Satellite dishes can pick up
calculators and watches, but only recently for the microwaves and send
TVs. A modern LCD TV screen is made up of them to TVs along a cable.
millions of tiny squares called pixels.
A TV turns the waves into
If you look the pictures and sound that
very closely make up a TV program.
at an LCD
TV screen weird or what?
you can see
the pixels. There are roughly 1.5
billion television sets
Color in the world. That’s
squares one TV for every four
Pixels contain people on the planet.
blue, red, and
green. When the 107
pixels are turned
on or off the
colors merge,
forming pictures.

Liquid-crystal display.

Bits and bytes From one code to another
The first bar code was
Bar codes invented in 1948 by Bernard
Silver. He was inspired by morse code,
Bar codes make shopping faster which uses dots and dashes to encode
and more convenient. When a letters. He extended morse code marks
scanner reads an item’s bar into the long lines of a bar code.
code—beep!—it sends a code
to a computer. The computer SALE
sends back information about
that item, including its price.

What is a bar code?

The black and white stripes of a
bar code represent a string of
numbers—a code that is unique to a
single product. Various types of bar
code exist. The type shown here is
used throughout Europe.

Where’s it from?
The first number in a bar code
tells you the country where the

product was made. Every
country has its own number:
50 means the UK, and anything

from 00 to 13 is in the US
and Canada.

Toy Box Who makes it? 5 012345
This is the code number
Manufacturer’s logo of the manufacturer who

made the product. All
products made by that
manufacturer will all have
the same four-digit code.

108 When was the first bar code used?

What’s your number? Scanner Bar codes
Each number in a bar code
is represented by two white weird or what?
stripes and two black stripes
of different widths. The long, Scientists in the US have
thin guide lines at the edges glued tiny bar codes to the
and center of the code tell the backs of bees. The bar codes
scanner to start reading. helped them to keep track
of the bees’ comings and
Right-hand guide
Center guide goings from the hive.

Left-hand guide

678917 Machine readable part Scanning
The scanners you normally find the goods
in the supermarket are known The scanner
as “omni-directional” scanners. shines a narrow
They emit laser light in a beam of light onto a
starburst pattern that can read bar code. A light sensor
the bar codes at any angle. inside the scanner measures
Human readable part the reflected light. White
If the scanner is unable to read lines reflect more light than
the bar code, the cashier can black lines, which is how it
input the numbers. tells the difference.

What is it? 2-D bar codes
This is the code for the These new bar codes are
product itself. The code scanned from top to bottom as
number for this item is well as left to right. Some of
567891. them can be read by cell
phone cameras and webcams
The check digit and take you straight
This number is used by the to a website.
scanner to check whether it
has read the data correctly. Some 2-D bar
codes, like this
Quick Response
code, can store
hundreds of
times more
information
than ordinary
bar codes.

109
On June 26, 1974, for a pack of chewing gum.

Bits and bytes

The Internet What is the Internet?
It’s simply a network that links computers
People first heard of the around the world. Try imagining it as a huge
Internet in the early 90s, but map (or spider’s web), with all the strands
it had special uses (mostly linked by different pathways.
military and educational)
Wikipedia Kodak
Facebook

before then. Now, about 1.5 craigslist
billion people use it—a quarter

of the world’s population. MySpace Hotmail

Yahoo

BBC Corbis

The World Wide Web Twitter eBay Yell
Gumtree
Applications like the World Wide Web
let you use the Internet for information, In 1998, there were 26 million unique web pages on
entertainment, and communication. People the Internet. In 2008, experts estimated that there
can even build their own website for other were over a trillion of these pages.
people to use, creating a “global village.”

INFORMATION Find out about almost GAMING People all over the
any subject that catches world play each other
your interest by entering at MMOGs—massively
a few key words in a multiplayer online
search engine. games.

SHOPPING CHATROOMS

Buy anything from a Make new friends in
vacation to a vacuum other countries and hold
cleaner without stepping real-time conversations
outside. Everyday, billions with them by logging on
of things are sold online. to a chatroom.

110 What’s Wi-Fi?

The Internet

YOU RapidShare Internet terminology
ARE HERE
Surf—To look at web ISP—Internet
YouTube pages on the Internet Service Providers
and navigate through link computers to
Adobe them. the Internet.

Google iTunes Browser—Computer URL—stands for
Amazon program that Uniform Resource
AOL connects with Locator—a complete
IBM a WWW server. web address.
Microsoft
Apple Epson Router—Device HTML—HyperText
for routing Internet Markup Language
traffic. is the language in
which web pages
Search engine— are written.
Site that holds a
database of website
addresses.

Getty Chunks of data
Ask hi5 Internet information is split into
parcels or packets before it is sent.
A packet carries a portion of the
original text and the addresses of the
computers it’s traveling between.

Press send Broken link
The transfer of data on the Internet happens when the packets
are sent to their destination. It’s called packet switching.

1 An image or 2 Binary digits 3 The router 4 The router 5 The destination
email is broken in each packet sends the tries to avoid computer sorts
into packets of represent packet to its using busy out all the
data by the computer. pieces of the picture. destination—different or broken links. packets and slots them
Each packet is packets from the same back together again.
addressed to the image may take different
destination computer. route. 111

It’s the technology that lets you access the Internet using radio waves instead of cables.

Bits and bytes http://www.search-engines

Search engines

The Internet contains a vast amount of 1 Web spiders search the
information, and finding what you’re internet for new web pages.
after can be tricky unless you know
how to look. Search engines are a Apple Highchair Pianos
useful tool, since they do all the Backtrack Iceland Quail
hard work for you. Birch Internal Rested
Clearance Jock Sage
How do search engines work? Dinner Kilt Sesame
Search engines use special robots Dinosaurs Labrador Souffle
called “spiders.” These spiders Eating Minimize Traffic
search the Internet for new pages. Fruits Orange Uniform
They target websites that have a lot of traffic Gluttonously Organic Unleaded
(people visiting them), then spread out to other Hearing Peony Vest
web pages. The search engine lists the words on
those pages and makes them into an index.

Bundle
Binary
Bicycle
Biceps
Banana

4 A user types 2 Search engine lists the
in a word. words on each page the
spiders find.
bicycle
3 Search engine BicByiccylcCelheibldarGregnoao’sdin-bqsiukaelsity bicycles MwBiwacsywsci.lvbeeikbseaasvrZgi1na2g9isn.cosonmbikes
keeps an index of all
the words it finds. Children’s bikes
New and used bicycles for children
www.NandUbikes3000.com

BGwuowyowdb.r-cqahnuedaalpnibteyiwkbebsiicfcoyyrcuclle9es9s.caotmcheap prices

5 Search engine 6 Search
checks its index to find engine lists these
any relevant pages. pages for the user in
matter of seconds.

112 Where did the search engine Google get its name?

Search engines

Web Images Videos Maps News Shopping Mail More

Meta data Search terms
Websites often have key
words (meta data) embedded Working with the Internet
in them. Businesses make sure involves lots of special
their web pages contain these words and expressions.
words in the title and subtitle
of a web page. Web-page Web browsers access
designers can also highlight the Internet. Firefox and
certain words to make sure Safari are web browsers.
search engines pick them up.
http:// will appear in
Complex searches Searches front of most Internet
If you type in an exact quote, a addresses you open.
question, or a few key words, a airplanes
search engine will look for these http stands for Hypertext
words within web pages. These British airplanes Transfer Protocol, an
are literal searches, so they look information-transfer system.
for your exact wording. You need British airplanes, 1940s
to be clear, or you won’t find the Bookmarks give you
information you want. British airplanes, 1940s, used in WW2 quick access to your
favorite sites.

History facilities list
recently accessed sites so
you can go back to them.

Tags are key labels given
to bookmarks or files so
you can find them fast.

If a website has lots of visitors, it’s Top of the list weird or what?
more likely to come first in a list. Companies try to make
sure that their web page If a business doesn’t
comes at the top of all the want to be listed in
search-engine lists. They searches, it can build a
do this by putting key robot-exclusion protocol into
words on the site, or by its website so search
paying search engines spiders will ignore
to put an ad for their
company on the first page. the page.

The word “googol,” which stands for the number 1 with 100 zeros after it. 113

Bits and bytes The robot vacuum Home help
cleaner is powered by A robot vacuum
Robots rechargeable batteries. cleaner moves around
a room on its own,
Robots are machines that work sucking up dust. To
for us. Most robots work in find its way, the robot
factories, but some do jobs at sends out sound
home. Some look like machines, waves. These bounce
but others look like humans. off walls, tables, and
chairs so the robot
knows where they are.

Cars are
made by robots on
a production line. The
robots are controlled by
computers and powered by
motors. The computers turn
the robots’ motors on
and off to make the

robots move.

Robot workers A robot arm
has joints like your arm.
Industrial robots Instead of a hand, it has a
are connected to the tool called an end effector. This
ground. They have an means the robot can do work
arm with a tool on the such as pick up metal panels or
end for doing jobs such tighten screws. Effectors often
as packing boxes or have built-in pressure sensors
welding metal. so the robot knows how

hard to hold things.

114
How smart is the most intelligent robot?

Robots

Swarm robotics Formica—actual size

A new kind of robots, called Power switch
swarm robots, work together Microcontroller
on a task. Some swarm Infrared receiver

robots attach Charging
themselves to prongs
each other to
make one Formica robot
machine.
Motor This mini robot
Others work like
ants, completing Wheel uses infrared
Light light to “talk”
projects as a to other robots
team.
Token detector Battery on its team.
When ants work together, Infrared emitter
they can move a heavy apple. It can be

programmed to

perform different

tasks, such as moving

tokens toward a light.

1 2 3I saw a token 1 I saw a token 60
Tokens second ago
seconds ago Abandon search;

return to charger

Formica robot Charger
Charger
Light Charger
Light Light
The Formica robots drive around looking
for tokens to push toward the light. When one robot meets another, it tells The robots haven’t seen a token for
it how long ago it saw a token. a while, so they return to the charger.

Bomb squad Kismet robot head
A remote-controlled robot can go This robot reacts to its
to places that are too dangerous human carer like a
for humans. It has a steel claw baby. It can
that can carry away a bomb. look happy,
sad, or
frightened.
When it is
left alone
for too long, it
looks lonely. When it is
overwhelmed by lots of
movement in front of it,
it closes its eyes and sleeps.

About as smart as an insect. 115

In the future Computerized rooms
The rooms of the future will be fully
Near future? automated. Computers will monitor your
daily routines, so the house computer can
The future seems like years adapt and keep the house fully stocked,
away, but it is actually just energy efficient, and neat.
around the corner. Some
fantastical gadgets are already
in prototype stage and could
be in our lives very soon.

The house of the future

The house of the future will be weird or what?
watching you. It will wake you

up, run you a bath, and even The fridge of the future Computers will turn
prepare breakfast without being could also do your shopping. lights on and make
asked. Even the chores will be It will keep track of what food sure your favorite TV
done for you. you are eating and will order
more online. All you’ll have show is recorded.
Xanadu Homes
The Xanadu House was designed and to do is get hungry
and eat.

built in Florida. It was the pioneer for

ade from a specifuture houses, with hi-tech energy-
al plassaving designs and automated rooms.
alls are m tic foam.Computers will sense radio
wtags in clothes and objects to
Roof andkeep track of everything.
The plastic (polyurethane)
foam traps heat and lowers
energy bills. It is also quick
and easy to build with.

116
When was the first Xanadu House built?

Life recorder Near future?
Every year computer chips get smaller and
store more information. Imagine a wearable Future foods
gadget, such as a necklace, that can store Foods of the future could be
everything that happens in your life. The modified to give the human
Momenta neck-worn PC would work like an airplane’s black- body the right balance of
box, which records every moment of a flight. Photo albums nutrients. Genetically
will be a thing of the past, as your happy moments are modified (GM) crops could
recorded and stored. also hold the key to help
farmers around the world to
Sensors touching the The camera is activated grow in poor soil conditions,
skin could detect pulse by an increase in your so nations suffering from
and medical data, so heart rate. So all your drought could grow enough
the necklace could call exciting and funny food to survive and prosper.
for help in a medical moments are captured.
emergency. GM technology is very expensive and there
A large memory are concerns that crops could be harmful.
The Xanadu House used allows long
computers to run it—from recording times, Eye contact
an auto-chef in the kitchen so you don’t The contact lens of the
to a talking security miss anything. future will do more than
computer. improve your vision. It will
Communication have tiny projectors that will
pole beam information directly
into your eye. So, 3-D movies,
navigation aids, and in-eye
data will be available at the
blink of an eye.

The thin lenses
will use solar
power so they
are always
charged.

The Xanadu House was a popular tourist attraction for over
10 years. After years of neglect, it was demolished in 2005.

The first experimental Xanadu House was built in Wisconsin in 1979. 117

In the future The hydrogen bus

Commuter shoes Soon, polluting buses will be a thing
of the past. DaimlerChrysler has
Powered shoes will allow people developed a bus that runs on liquid
to travel faster than walking. hydrogen and oxygen. The only
Just pull the wheels down and by-product released into the
tiny, powerful, electric motors atmosphere is water vapor.
will take you to work.

Wireless sensors in the shoes communicate with each other so
they work together, keeping you going in the right direction.

The Embrio concept The BitCar

This motorized unicycle will be The scientists at the Massachusetts
able to transport two riders. Institute of Technology (MIT)
Sensors, gyroscopes, and computer are developing the BitCar.
assistance keep it balanced, and It will use satellites
it uses clean fuel cell technology. and cameras to help
you navigate, and
Riders sit in Acceleration is is stackable to save
the saddle like controlled on space. It will also use
a modern-day the handlebar. clean fuel cell technology.
motorcycle.

Riders have Stabilizers Pick up a BitCar from
to lean from engage at low the side of the road then
side to side drive and drop it off at
to steer. speeds. your destination.

118 How far is the Moon from the Earth?

Space vacations Near future?

In the near future space will become the Destination Moon By 2020, scientists are
ultimate luxury vacation destination. Soon, planning to revisit the Moon with a new craft called
space planes will fly to the edge of space, and Orion. Humans last set foot on its surface in 1972.
for a couple of minutes, give vacationers In the near future, there could be a spaceport and
amazing views of the Earth, as well as even hotels on the Moon.
a taste of floating in zero-g.

Virgin Galactic will soon be
offering suborbital flights
that give a taste of space.

The ISS orbits Earth every The International
90 minutes and can be Space Station
seen by 90 percent of the The International Space Station
world’s population. (ISS) is the only place in space
where humans can live. In the
near future, space hotels could

be orbiting Earth.

The first part of the ISS
was launched in 1998.
By 2010, the finished
station will be the size of
a football field.

Space vacation At the moment there
So far there has are only three working
only been one space Space Shuttles. They
tourist. Dennis are going to be retired
Tito paid millions in 2010.
of dollars to spend
a week on board 119
the ISS.

Dennis Tito

The average distance of the Moon from Earth is 239,200 miles (384,955 km).

In the future

Not-so-near future powitanie
bohnojloaur
The distant future offers many halo
fantastic possibilities. Scientists merhaba
could upgrade our brains,
invent computer doctors who hälsningar

hi
hallo

can heal at the touch of a ciao

button, and discover how to hello

copy the way the Sun works. Learn a new
language in minutes
Brain upgrade
To upgrade a computer, new computer chips, by plugging it into
your brain!

memory boards, and software are plugged in and

loaded. The brain of the future could be

upgraded in a similar way. The first plug-in

modules could offer better memory, reactions, or

language skills. Even entertainment could be

tuned in, with 3-D shows and even smell-o-vision.

When the rain falls and Clothes may even change Smart clothes
temperature drops, clothes will color to match other
become watertight and thick. No more taking sweaters off in
clothes and accessories. the future. Smart clothes could
change their properties in
response to changes in the
weather. A shirt could allow
air through when it’s hot,
but become watertight in rain,
and even bulletproof in an
emergency! Clothes will be
woven from smart, adaptive
molecules that are controlled
by electric or magnetic fields.

120
When did the first Zeppelin airship take to the skies?

Fusion power Not-so-near future
One day we’ll run out of
oil, gas, and coal and need Auto-Doc
another way to make power. The
answer is in the stars. Stars make a lot This sounds like something
of energy, so if we could make our own from a TV show, but in
mini-star on Earth we could make almost the future the Auto-Doc
unlimited energy. That’s exactly what a machine could keep you
fusion reactor does. There are experimental in good health.
reactors around today, but no one’s
managed to get them to make much Sensors will
power yet. But where does star fuel analyze your
come from? It’s just hydrogen, breath and
which is all around us blood, or scan
your body.
in water.
After diagnosis,
the Auto-Doc
may be able to
prescribe drugs
or make pills.

Return of the airship
Popular in the first half of the 20th century, airships
could be seen in our future skies. Powered by clean
solar energy and helped by the wind, these giants of
the sky won’t need to refuel. Although they will be
slower than a plane, they will be able
to lift heavy loads, making
them perfect for cargo
flights, or they may
be luxury hotels
in the clouds.

Without needing to refuel,
the airship of the future
could take you around the
world in one nonstop trip.

The first Zeppelin airship flew in 1900. 121

Reference section convex When an object curves

Glossary outward, like the back of a spoon,
it is convex.

accelerate To go faster. When binary code A code made up coolant A liquid or gas that cools

a moving object’s velocity (speed) of the digits 1 and 0. Digital things down.
increases, it is accelerating. technology (computers) converts
all letters and numbers into current The flow of electricity
aerodynamics The study of binary. For example, the letter
A can be coded as 01000001. from one place to another.
the way gases move (especially
air), and the way things move bit The smallest unit of memory data Another word for
in air (such as airplanes).
used by a computer. The word “information,” especially
amplifier Something that “bit” is short for “binary digit.” digital information.

increases the power of an electrical buoyancy How well an object decibel A unit that can be used
signal without changing its shape.
can float in a liquid or a gas. to describe how loud sound is.
amplitude The height of a
byte A group of eight bits. density The weight of a solid,
wave, such as a sound wave, from
its peak (top) to its trough (bottom). carbon emissions Gases liquid, or gas in relation to its size.
The bigger the amplitude, the more A dense material has lots of atoms
energy a wave has. A sound wave containing carbon that are packed closely together. Less dense
with a large amplitude is loud. released into the air, especially objects float in more dense fluids.
when fuel is burned. They may Wood can float in water because
atom The smallest particle of cause global warming. it is less dense than water.

a particular element. circuit A loop that an electric digital Describes a machine that

biofuel Fuel made by or from current travels around. works by using numbers. Digital
watches display the time in numbers
living things. Wood, alcohol concave When an object curves rather than on a dial. Digital
made from corn, and technology, such as computers,
biogas made from inward, like a bowl, it is concave. stores data in binary code.
garbage are
all biofuels. conductor A material that lets displacement The amount of

electricity or heat pass through. fluid (a liquid or gas) that is moved
Metals are conductors. by an object placed in the fluid.
An egg dropped into a glass of
water will displace some water.
The amount of water displaced
has the same volume as the egg.

122
What is g-force?

download To copy files from fluid A liquid or a gas. The Glossary

the Internet to your computer. atoms in a fluid can move freely geothermal power Power
to fill space.
drag A force that slows an object that comes from natural heat
force A push or a pull. within the earth.
down as it moves through air or
water. The faster the object moves, Gravity is the force gravity A force that pulls
the more drag there is. that keeps you on
the ground. objects toward each other.
efficiency How much of a The pull of Earth on an
fossil fuels object is called its weight.
machine’s energy is turned into
useful work. An energy-efficient Fuels that come horsepower A unit
light bulb turns more of its energy from the earth and
into light than a normal one. are the remains of used to measure a
living things. Coal, oil, machine’s power. It was
electromagnet A magnet and gas are all fossil fuels. first used to describe how
They are not renewable powerful a steam engine was
created by a flow of electricity sources of energy. compared to a horse.
through a coil.
friction A force that makes hydraulic A hydraulic machine
electron A tiny particle inside
things slow down. When two solids has pipes filled with fluid.
an atom. It carries a negative rub against each other, or when a Hydraulics help increase forces such
electrical charge. solid moves through liquid or gas, as lifting, pulling, or pushing so a
it causes friction. machine can work more efficiently.
element A chemical element is
fulcrum The point, or pivot, hydroelectric power
a substance that cannot be broken
down into any other substances. that a lever turns on. Electricity that is made using the
The atoms in an element are all of power of water, such as using a
one kind—they all have the same gearwheel A wheel with flowing stream to turn a turbine.
number of protons.
“teeth” around the outside that
energy The ability to do things can connect to and turn another
gearwheel. A toothed wheel
(such as walk or move an object). that connects to a chain is
Something that can supply energy called a sprocket.
is called a power source.

fiber-optic cables Flexible

tube containing thin, bendable
glass fibers that carry information
in the form of light waves.

The force of gravity on an object. 123

Reference section magnetic field The area neutron Inside an atom’s nucleus

inertia The resistance of an around a magnet where other are neutrons and protons. Neutrons
magnets are attracted or repelled. have no electrical charge.
object to a change in movement.
An object that is stationary (not magnify To make bigger. nuclear energy Power that
moving) will try to stay still, and
an object that is already moving mass How much substance an comes from the energy released
will try to keep moving in a straight by the atoms of certain elements.
line and not change direction. object has.
nucleus An atom is made up
insulator A material that does metadata Information (such as
of a nucleus and electrons. The
not let electricity or heat pass key words) in a computer file that nucleus is made up of neutrons
through it easily. Wood and describes the content. For example, and protons.
plastic are insulators. a file of a picture might have
metadata that tells you how big it orbit The path an object in space
internal combustion engine is or when the picture was taken.
takes around another. For example,
An engine that burns fuel inside molecule Two or more atoms the Earth orbits the Sun.
the engine to create power.
joined together. A water molecule patent An official record of an
kinetic energy The energy is made up of three atoms—two
hydrogen atoms and one oxygen invention that registers who made
an object has when it moves. The atom. it so no one else can claim they did.
faster it moves, the more kinetic
energy it has. momentum When an object photovoltaic panels Panels

LCD This stands for “liquid is moving it has momentum. The that collect solar energy (sunlight)
heavier the object is and the faster and turn it into electricity.
crystal display.” LCD screens it moves, the more momentum it
display pictures or numbers by has. The more momentum it has, the pixel A small colored square
applying an electric voltage to harder it is to stop it from moving.
liquids that act like crystals. that makes up part of a picture
motherboard The main circuit on a computer or TV screen.
lens An object that bends light
board of a computer or other large potential energy The energy
rays to make an image. electronic gadget.
stored in an object that is raised
lever A simple machine made nanotechnology Technology above the ground. It changes
into kinetic energy when the
up of a bar moving on a fulcrum. that can build things from atoms object falls.
Using a lever magnifies or reduces and molecules—the very smallest
a force to make a job easier. parts of an object or material. prism A triangular glass block
Seesaws, wheelbarrows, and
tweezers are all levers. used to split light into visible colors.

124
What are turbines?

Glossary

proton Inside an atom’s nucleus

are neutrons and protons. Protons
have a positive electrical charge.

pulley A wheel that has a rope

around it used to move a load.

reflection When light waves solar power Power that comes velocity Speed in a particular

bounce off a surface (such as a directly from the Sun. direction.
mirror) and change direction,
they are reflected.

refraction When light waves solution One substance voltage The force that makes

travel through a transparent object dissolved in another. electrons move in an electric
(such as a window or glass prism), current.
the light bends. This is refraction. streamlined A streamlined
wave An up-and-down or back-
renewable energy Power that object has smooth curves so that
air or water flows over it with as and-forth movement that carries
comes from the Sun, wind, water, little resistance as possible. energy from one place to another.
or geothermal sources. Unlike fossil
fuels, it will never run out. technology The science of how weight The pull of gravity on an

resistance A force that pushes things work. object gives the object weight. It is
not the same as mass. On Earth,
against movement and slows down thermostat A device that an object has mass and weight.
a moving object. In electricity, In outer space, where there is no
resistance measures the voltage controls temperature, for example, gravity, the object’s mass stays the
needed to give a particular current. on a heating system or a boiler. same, but it has no weight.

satellite A natural or man-made thrust A force that moves zero-g Zero gravity is a feeling

object that moves around a planet. something forward. Engines of weightlessness. If something
The Moon is Earth’s natural provide thrust for planes and cars. has no gravity pulling it toward
satellite. Man-made satellites the ground, it floats freely, like an
circle the Earth and send back transistor A part in an electric astronaut in outer space.
information on things like weather.
circuit that controls the flow of
electricity.

Machines with blades that turn when gas (such as air) or liquid flows past them. 125

Reference section

Index conveyor 20-21, 62 flight 11, 48-49, 52-53, 121
cranes 18, 19 fluids 42-43, 44-45
Aabacus 9 crowbar 16 food 68, 69, 70, 117
air 32, 34, 39, 42, 45, cylinder 30-31, 33 Formula 1 car 25, 30, 34-35
46, 47, 48, 49, 52, 88 fossil fuels 38, 62, 64-65
airplane 11, 52-53, Dda Vinci, Leonardo 5 freezer 70
dam 57, 63, 67 friction 23, 24, 27, 28, 30
89 density 45, 47 Fry, Art 5
airship 48-49, 121 diesel 22, 32, 40 fuel 22, 23, 32, 33, 38-39,
Archimedes screw 9 digger 19 40, 54, 55
Auto-Doc 121 drag 44, 52, 53
axle 24-25, 26, 27, 31 dragster 37 Ggas 29, 42, 62, 65
gasoline 11, 22, 32, 34, 38, 39
Bbar codes 108-109 Eears 90-91 gears 25, 26
battery 38, 39, 58, 59, 73, echo 75, 91 geothermal energy 63, 67
103, 105 Edison, Thomas 6, 11 g-force 35, 50
Bell, Alexander Graham 11 electric guitar 92-93 gravity 44, 46, 50-51
bicycle 24, 26-27, 30, 36, 61 electricity 10, 12, 22, 38, 39, 40, 57,
binary code 98-99 Hhammer 14
biofuel 39, 63, 67 58-59, 60, 62-68, 70, 86, 92, 93 heat 29, 56, 68, 69,
boats 8, 31, 46-47 electromagnet 6, 10, 60, 61 70, 76
brakes 23, 27, 35, 41, 51 electromagnetic radiation 74 helicopter 5
Brunel, Isambard Kingdom 7 electrons 58 helium 48, 49
bubbles 78-79 energy 22, 50, 56-73 horsepower 36, 37
buoyancy 46-47 energy efficiency 64, 72-73, 116-117 hot-air balloon 49
byte 94 engine 10, 23, 25, 31, 32-33, 34, 36, Hyatt, John Wesley 4
hydraulics 19
Ccamera 10, 76, 83, 104, 105, 37, 39 hydroelectric power 63, 67
117 escalator 21 hydrogen 42, 43, 118, 121
camera film 4 eyes 76, 77, 82, 83, 117
car 11, 25, 28, 30-31, 32, 34-35, 37, Iinertia 35
Ffiber-optic cables 98 International Space Station 119
38-39, 57, 81, 83, 118 fire 8, 32, 33 Internet 11, 110-111, 112-113
carbon dioxide 42, 48 fireworks 86-87
cell phone 7, 11, 73, 76, 102-103 fishing rod 17 Llasers 83, 99
celluloid 4 flashlight 59 lawnmower 30, 36
chariot 8, 24 Lego 7
chopsticks 15 lenses 82-83
coal 62, 65 levers 14-15, 16-17, 19, 25, 27
color 74, 76, 77, 78, 85, 87 light 11, 22-23, 56, 58, 74-85, 99, 104
compass 9, 60
computer 7, 11, 73, 94, 96-97,

98-99, 100, 101, 116, 117, 120

126

light bulb 11, 58, 59, 61, 84, 85 rainbow 77 Index
lighthouse 6 refrigerator 70-71, 73, 116
renewable energy 63, 66-67, 72 Televisor 11
Mmagnets 9, 60-61, 93 robots 114-115 thrust 52
microprocessor 10, 96 roller coaster 50-51 tires 25, 27, 28, 29, 34
microwaves 56, 57, 107 tractor 28
mirror 8, 80-81 Sscissors 15, 16 train 10, 40-41, 60
molecules 42, 43, 68 seesaw 17 turbine 62, 63, 66
monster truck 29 shock absorber 29 tweezers 14, 16
motor 20, 21, 38, 39, 50 shoes 4, 7, 9, 118
motorcycle 30, 118 silicon chip 94-95 Uultraviolet rays 77
Silver, Dr. Spence 5
Nnitrogen 42 Sinclair C5 7 Wwater 35, 43, 45, 46,
nuclear energy 56, 63 smart clothes 120 47, 53, 79, 81
nutcrackers 16 Smeaton, John 6 wheel 4-5, 8, 23, 24-25,
smoke detector 4 26, 27, 30, 31, 51
Ooil 19, 22, 62, 64 solar power 22, 38, 63, 67 wheelbarrow 14, 15
oscilloscope 89 sonic boom 89 wind 42, 63, 66
oven 68 sound 74-75, 88-91, 92 Wright Flyer 11
oxygen 32, 39, 42, 43, 118 space rocket 54-55
Space Shuttle 55, 119 XX-rays 11, 56, 77
Ppaper 9 speed 36-37
patent 6 spinning jenny 9
pen 8, 11 spring 4, 29
pencil 10 sprocket 20, 21
periscope 81 Sputnik 1 11
photography 10, 104-105 steam engine 10
piston 29, 30, 31, 32-33 steam train 10
plow 8 sticky note 4
potential (stored) energy 4, 50 streamlining 27, 34, 44, 53
power masts 59, 63, 66 submarine 47, 81
power plants 62-63 Sun 22, 38, 56, 62, 67, 74, 77
prism 74, 77
pulley 15, 19, 20, 21, 25 Ttanker 37
telephone 6-7, 11
Rradio 100, 106 telescope 10, 81, 83
radio waves 56, 76, television 11, 76, 100, 107
100, 106

127

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Dallas and John Heaton / Free Agents Limited 41cra (tweezers); Karl Grupe / Photonica 117cra; Darrell Gulin

(Bullet train); HO / Reuters 47tr; Hulton-Deutsch 105cla (camera screen), 105tc (pixel insert); Alexander

Collection 7cra (Sinclair C5), 7tc, 26cla, 26tl, 107tr; Hafemann / iStock Exclusive 63cra (wind power); Bruce

ImageShop 2cra; ION / amanaimages 93bl; The Irish Hands 40cra; Tim Hawley / Photographer’s Choice 113bl;

Image Collection 65cla; Simon Jarratt 43br, 63cra (solar Chris Hondros 4cra (camera film.); Lyn Hughes 43

power), 67cra (solar power); Mark A. Johnson 63cr (tidal (background), 45l (sky background); Hulton Archive 4tr,

power); Jose Luis Pelaez, Inc. 77br; Karl-Josef 10cb; Janicek 73cra (battery); Brian Kennedy / Flickr 40bl;

Hildenbrand / DPA 113cra (search engine browser); Kulka Keystone / Stringer / Hulton Archive 52c; Bruce Laurance /

/ zefa 13cra (sheep); Patrick Lane / Somos Images 98l; The Image Bank 76bl; Romilly Lockyer / The Image Bank

Larry Lee Photography 65cra (insert); Larry Lee 48-49 42 (clouds background); Vincenzo Lombardo /

(main image); Lester Lefkowitz 32ca; Leng / Leng 64cr Photographer’s Choice 16cra (door handle); Steve

(laundry); Ted Levine 32cla (diver); Barry Lewis 53cra, McAlister 22cra, 113crb (document); Ian Mckinnell 4cra

65clb (flames); Yang Liu 57cr, 62tr; Gerd Ludwig 63cla; (pool ball); Ian Mckinnell / Photographer’s Choice 13crb;