How Things Work

Machinery and technology surround us in everyday life. The latest televisions, telephones, and cars may be easy to use, but it often seems impossibly hard to understand how they actually work. With this book, you can learn what lies beneath the outer coverings of an amazing wide range of things. Look closely into the workings of machines such as computers, vehicles, and audio equipment, and structures such as oil rigs. You will find out how all these things work, often by discovering the scientific principles that make them possible.Learn by discoveryHow Things Work investigates all kinds of questions about machines and lets you discover the answers. This book contains many exciting experiments in which you build things. Lots of them are machines or devices that actually work, such as a working battery and microphone, and even a simple working computer. Others are models that demonstrate the inner mechanisms of things such as a television set and an escalator. There are also interactive experiments, such as sending a message on a home-made fax machine and using your own computer program.Linking words and picturesAll the experiments and activities are photographed step-by-step, so you can perform them easily, confident of the result. The materials are inexpensive and easy to obtain. Clear, lively text explains what to do as well as the principles that make things work.Practical and fun, this is a book to inspire all the family to gain fresh insights into many things, from aircraft and aqualungs to musical instruments and metal detectors.