The New how Things Work: Everyday Technology ExplainedThe New How Things Work updates the original with informative coverage of the objects and ideas that are changing our everyday lives, from DVDs and MP3 music files to plasma screen televisions and wireless internet technology. While most of us are curious about the inner workings of gadgets and machines, we often feel intimidated in our efforts to really understand them. The New How Things Work, a fascinating and clearly written and illustrated volume, uses anecdotal information to help readers understand the mechanisms and principals behind technological wonders, painlessly folding in the basic scientific principles that make each of them work. With chapters including Home, Buildings and Building, Power and Energy, Transportation, Entertainment, Manufacturing, and Tools of Medicine, the book covers every important technological category, focusing on familiar items such as clocks and locks, planes and trains, elevators and escalators, and the not-so-familiar-"smart" clothes and buildings, laser surgery, and DNA manipulation. Like David Macaulay's classic The Way Things Work and Bill Bryson's recent bestseller, A Short History of Nearly Everything, this eminently browsable book presents ideas and concepts in clear, concise language. The text, which is organized into stand-alone spreads, is lavishly illustrated with more than 400 photographs, technical drawings, diagrams, and sidebar concepts that visually reinforce the science explained in the text. National Geographic's The New How Things Work is a comprehensive reference that will satisfy the curious and educate the perplexed. If you are curious about everyday gadgets, machines, tools, even industrial and medical processes, you'll find the answers you've always wanted in The New How Things Work. |
Contents
RUNNING THE HOUSE | 15 |
INTRODUCTION 16 Cooking Without Guesswork | 16 |
Refrigerators | 18 |
Copyright | |
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atoms batteries beam binary blades camera carrier wave cell central processing unit chemical coal coil color compact disc Computer Printers computerized converted cool create cylinder devices diesel drive driveshaft electric motor electromagnetic electronic energy engine equipment fabric farms Fiber Optic Cables film fish flow force fuel gears glass heat high-speed Hydrofoils hydroponics INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION inside Internet jet engine laser Left lenses lever lift light load machine Maglev maglev train magnetic field materials mechanical metal mirror monitor moving oxygen paper piston plants plastic Precision Agriculture pressure produce propeller radio waves relies Right robot roller rotating rotor sails satellites scramjet screen sends sensors ship shuttle signals sound speed steam steam locomotive steel stored superconducting surface Synthetic Fibers tank telephone thread track train transistors transmitted tube turbine weft wheels wind wings wire yarn