First How Things Work

Encyclopedia
 REVISED EDITION
Contents
Project editor Olivia Stanford
Editor Radhika Haswani
Senior designer Nidhi Mehra
US Senior editor Shannon Beatty
US Editor Lindsay Walter-Greaney
DTP designer Dheeraj Singh
Picture researcher Sumedha Chopra
Jacket co-ordinator Isobel Walsh
Jacket designer Kartik Gera
Managing editors Laura Gilbert, Alka Thakur Hazarika
Managing art editors Diane Peyton Jones, Romi Chakraborty
Producer Inderjit Bhullar
Pre-production producer Sophie Chatellier
Delhi team head Malavika Talukder
Creative director Helen Senior
Publishing director Sarah Larter

Consultant Jack Challoner

ORIGINAL EDITION
Senior editors Carrie Love, Penny Smith Technology
Senior designer Rachael Grady
Design team Lauren Rosier, Pamela Shiels, 4–5 Inventions
Karen Hood, Hedi Gutt, Mary Sandberg, Sadie Thomas, 6–7 Better by design
Claire Patane, Laura Roberts-Jensen, and Poppy Joslin
Editorial team Lorrie Mack, Elinor Greenwood, Alexander Cox, 8–9 Early inventions
Fleur Star, Caroline Bingham, Wendy Horobin, and Ben Morgan
Consultant Roger Bridgman
10–11 Modern technology
Publishing manager Bridget Giles 12–13 Technology all around us
Art director Rachael Foster

This American Edition, 2019

First American Edition, 2010
Hard at work
Published in the United States by DK Publishing 14–15 Simple machines
1450 Broadway, Suite 801, New York, NY 10018
16–17 Using levers
Copyright © 2010, 2019 Dorling Kindersley Limited 18–19 On the work site
DK, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC
19 20 21 22 23 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20–21 Moving stuff
001–280455–July/2019

All rights reserved. Getting around

Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced 22–23 Getting around
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means 24–25 Wheels and axles
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without
the prior written permission of the copyright owner. 26–27 Pedal power
Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited. 28–29 Holding the road
A catalog record for this book 30–31 Crank it up
is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4654-4349-6 32–33 Engines of fire
DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
34–35 Race cars
for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. 36–37 Up to speed
For details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets,
1450 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10018
38–39 Powering up
[email protected] 40–41 Trains and tracks
Printed and bound in China

A WORLD OF IDEAS:
SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW

www.dk.com
2
There is a question at the bottom of each page...
Gases and liquids 106–107 Radio and TV
42–43 Gases and liquids 108–109 Bar codes
44–45 How fluids work 110–111 The Internet
46–47 Float that boat 112–113 Search engines
48–49 Floating balloons 114–115 Robots
50–51 Roller coaster
52–53 How do planes fly? Cutting-edge technology
54–55 Blast off! 116–119 The future
120–121 Anytime soon?
What is energy?
56–57 What is energy? Reference section
58–59 It’s electric! 122–123 True or false?
60–61 The power of magnets 124–125 Quiz
62–63 Power plants 126–127 What am I?
64–65 Fossil fuels 128–129 Where in the world?
66–67 Renewable energy 130–133 Glossary
68–69 What’s cooking? 134–135 Index
70–71 Keeping cool 136 Acknowledgments
72–73 Energy efficiency
About this book
Light and sound The pages of this book have special features that
74–75 Light and sound will show you how to get your hands on as much
76–77 Now you see it... information as possible! Look out for these:
78–79 Light and bubbles Gases and liquids Gases and liquids The Picture detective
Gases and Picture detective

quiz will get you searching

80–81 Mirror, rorriM
Scientists call
water molecules Look through the Gases

liquids
H2O (H stands
for hydrogen
and liquids pages and
and O stands see if you can identify

through each section for

for oxygen).
Gas molecule
the picture clues below.
Liquid

82–83 Lenses
Air and water are Liquids always take on the

the answers.
shape of their container. The
important examples of molecules in a liquid are closer
two types of substance— together than in a gas, and have less
energy to move around. Special
gases and liquids. They

84–85 How light works

Gas forces hold the liquid molecules
behave in different ways. Air is a gas. The molecules together. It is very difficult to
in a gas have a lot of energy squash a liquid into a
and are always moving and smaller space.
Water molecule
What’s a molecule?
Turn and learn buttons
colliding. This movement means
Liquids and gases are made they will fill up any container you

86–87 Fireworks
of molecules. Molecules are so put them in. If there is no container,
tiny you can’t see them with the they will spread out as far as possible.

tell you which pages to

naked eye. Molecules are made of Because there is a lot of empty
even tinier particles called atoms. space between gas molecules,
Everything in the universe is gases can be squashed into

88–89 Measuring sound

made of atoms. small spaces.

turn to in order to find more

information on each subject.
90–91 How ears hear
92–93 Electric guitar Feel the breeze
You can feel air molecules
moving when the wind blows.
Carbon dioxide

Oxygen
Carbon
Oxygen
Air molecules
Air is made up of lots of different
atoms bonded together in units
called molecules. The main
molecules in air are nitrogen,
Hydrogen
Oxygen
Water molecules
Water molecules are
made of two hydrogen
atoms bonded to one
oxygen atom. Water
Turn
and learn
How ships float:
pp. 46–47
Every page is
Wind is simply air molecules oxygen, and carbon dioxide. molecules are so

color-coded to show
How
being pushed by a force we sticky, they clump
Oxygen Nitrogen airplanes fly:
call pressure. together to form drops.
pp. 52–53

Digital world you which section it is in.

42 43
What do we call materials in which the atoms do not move around? Solids—the atoms in a solid only vibrate in a fixed position.

94–95 Chips and codes Digital world

Who invented
radio? Radio and TV A neon lamp sent
light into holes in
a spinning disk.
First TV
The scientific research for televisions
began in the late 1800s. John Logie
TV inventor
Radio and TV

In 1928, Baird
demonstrated the first

96–97 Inside a computer

Guglielmo Marconi is
credited with building Baird’s televisor was the first working TV transmission across
the first radio system. It’s hard to imagine life without TV. A rotating disk transformed light
from a scene into lines forming a
the Atlantic, and the
first television program
In 1901, he transmitted
radio signals across radio or TV. We use them for moving image. for the BBC in the UK.
the Atlantic Ocean. information and entertainment.

98–99 Binary code There are millions of programs,

How do radios work? Transmission today
First called a wireless, the radio
but how do they get to our Television stations
doesn’t need wires to connect the Baird’s
televisor transmit programs
transmitter and receiver. radios and TVs? through electrical waves.

100–101 Sharing data ird or what?

Speech and music are turned
into electrical signals by a What’s inside? Television pictures are
created by cameras,
microphone in a radio studio. The main parts of a

we
Images on the mostly in studios.
radio are an antenna, televisor were
The electrical signals from the a circuit board with a grainy. The Programs are sent
speech and music travel through mechanical out from the studio over
tuner and amplifier, system was soon

102–103 Cell phones

wires to a radio transmitter. The light coming through the wires as electrical waves
and a loudspeaker. replaced with a spinning disk lit up a scene and or microwaves.
better quality created a moving image. The red

These buttons
The radio transmitter sends electronic system. light from the neon lamp made Waves can be sent up to
out radio waves from the
radio station.
Digital radio the image appear red. satellites in space and
When you listen to a digital radio, there is little then sent back to Earth.

Traditional radio sets pick up or no interference, for example, from hissing LCD TV

104–105 Digital photography

noises. Digital transmitters send out sound codes Satellite dishes can
the radio waves and turn them LCD (liquid crystal display) screens are used in TVs,

give extra weird

back into speech and music. pick up the microwaves
that are all mixed up together. The interference calculators, and watches. LCD screens, and more and send them to TVs
can’t affect the codes much, and your radio will recent OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screens, along a cable.
usually be able to understand them. are made up of millions of tiny squares called pixels.
Digital transmission Antenna A TV turns the waves
Digital radios also use a transmitter, into the pictures and
If you look sound that make up

and wonderful
but the waves they use are different The antenna is
usually at the very closely a TV program.
to those from a traditional radio. back of the radio. at an LCD TV
It picks up the screen, you
radio waves. can see
the pixels.
or wha
ird t?
Color we

facts.
squares There are
Pixels contain roughly 1.6 billion
blue, red, and television sets in the world!
Digital radios use codes
made of lots of ones
Inside the radio
green color. The That’s one TV for every
is a tuner and
and zeros. They are
a computer chip combination of four people on
transmitted over a large
band of radio waves.
that decodes
different colors in the planet.
the waves and
converts them the pixels form the
into sound. images we see.

106 107
What does LCD stand for? Liquid-crystal display.

... check here for the answer.

3
Technology

Inventions Accidental ideas

Inventions can
happen by accident.
When chemist John
Any new idea or product that Wesley Hyatt was
trying to find a
has been created by a person material for billiard
can be called an invention. balls, he spilled a
liquid that dried into
Inventions change the way a tough, flexible film.
people live their lives—they This “celluloid”
was later used as
can make things safer, easier, camera film.
faster, or cheaper.
Knowing your stuff
Technology is the science of how things work. The
inventors of the shoes shown in this drawing knew
that a coiled spring is a source of stored energy.
They used this technology to make power shoes.

Expensive origins
Some of the things
in everyday use were
developed for space
programs. Smoke
detectors, for example,
were first used on the
Skylab space station.
“Discovery consists of seeing what everybo
dy has seen and...
Telephone Electric lightbulb

Refractometer
Faraday’s
induction ring Cathode
ray tube

Wheel

Eyeglasses

4
When was the first pair of shoes invented?
 Inventions

I can find a use for that! Inventors

Some inventions end up very Inventors are creative
different from what was planned. people. The Italian
Scientist Dr. Spencer Silver invented artist and scientist
a glue that wasn’t sticky enough, Leonardo da Vinci
so he thought it was useless. But was an avid inventor.
his coworker Art Fry used it to He designed hundreds
stick bookmarks into his hymnal. of machines, including
The bookmarks wouldn’t fall out, airplanes, pumps,
but they could be moved around. and cannons, that Leonardo da Vinci sketched a design
for a helicopter 500 years before the
And so the sticky note was born! were centuries ahead first successful plane flight.
of their time.

The first military helicopter,

designed by Igor Sikorsky,
took to the skies in the 1940s.

How long does an

invention take?
An invention has to begin with an
idea. It can sometimes take hundreds
of years before the science, technology,
or materials are advanced enough
to make the idea work. The idea for
a helicopter may have come from
China as far back as 400 bce.
o d y e lse has though
t nob t.”
... thinking wha
—Albert Szent-Györgyi

Wimhurst voltage
Microscope
generator
Tea maker

Camera

Electric
guitar

bce. People in Mesopotamia made the first leather shoes in 1500

5
Technology

Better
Eddystone Lighthouse, also
known as Smeaton’s Tower

New and improved

Design engineer John

by design Smeaton didn’t invent

lighthouses, but he did
design a new shape for them.
The curved tower was wider
at the base than the top, and
Anyone can be an inventor. could stand up to storms.
Many successful inventions
came from engineers who used
their knowledge of materials John
base Smeato
d n
on t his de
(such as iron) to try new things. of a
he s
h
n oa ape
sign
k tre
e.

That was my idea!

If someone thinks their idea is
good, they can patent it. Patents
are official documents that
describe the idea and show who
US inventor Thomas Edison
patented an amazing
came up with it, so no one else
1,093 inventions. can steal it and say it’s theirs.

From that...
Since the telephone was invented in
1876, people have changed its design
to make it better. Early telephones
were large and boxy. Making a
call may have involved winding
a handle or turning a dial.

6
Who is often called the “father of the cell phone”?
 Better by design
Meet an engineer
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a 19th-century
British engineer who designed bridges, tunnels,
ships, and even an entire railroad. He worked
a lot with iron and knew it could be used in
ways that had never been tried before.

Will it sell?
Inventions can succeed or
fail depending on whether
Brunel’s Royal Albert or not people want them.
Railway Bridge was
built in 1859. It’s the Sneakers were a success!
only one of its kind.
Can you imagine playing
a sport in any other shoes?
Making a difference LEGO® was a success!
The way something looks These plastic bricks are one
can be just as important of the best-selling toys in
the world.
as how it works. The first
Apple iMac’s colorful Microwave ovens were a
success! They completely
design made it stand out changed the way many
among other computers, people cook.
so more people bought it. Sinclair C5 was a
failure. Not many people
wanted to buy a battery-
powered tricycle.

... to this!
Today’s cell phones are small by
comparison, and they can do much
more than just make phone calls.
You don’t even need to
use your hands to call a
friend on some of them.
What will
they think
of next?

The American engineer and inventor Martin Cooper.

7
Technology

Early inventions
Some discoveries and inventions seem so
basic it’s hard to imagine life without them.
Yet, someone had to be the first to
create fire, wheels, shoes, and paper.
c. 7000 bce
For the first time, people
knew how to start a fire.
Later, they would learn to use
fire in metalwork to create tools. c. 2000 bce
Spoked wheels were
lighter and more useful
c. 3500 bce c. 2500 bce than solid ones. Two-
The first wheel was Early welding involved wheeled chariots could
made from solid wood. hammering heated metal move very fast.
Experts think it was parts together until they
invented in Mesopotamia fused. As a result, all kinds of
(modern-day Iraq). metal objects could be made.

7000 bce 2250 bce

c. 3000 bce
Reed pens and brushes
were used by the ancient
Egyptians for drawing symbols c. 1700 bce
on papyrus (which was used Evidence of early plumbing (drains and pipes)
before the invention of paper). can be found among the ruins of the Palace
c. 6500 bce of Knossos, on the island of Crete.
Before mirrors were
made, people would see c. 6000 bce
their reflections in pools The ancient Egyptians
of still water. The first used bundles of
mirrors were created papyrus reeds to c. 4000 bce
from highly polished make reed boats. Wooden plows were pulled
obsidian, a type They used the boats by animals to cut and turn
of volcanic stone. for trade. soil for farming.

8
What does the “c.” in “c. 6000” mean?
 Early inventions

c. 500 bce
The Greek abacus was a table
with counters that people used
to make calculations. Today’s
familiar abacus with rods and
c. 1000 bce beads was invented in China
The earliest underfloor heating system almost 2,000 years later. c. 300 bce
was found in modern-day Alaska. The Chinese
The Romans invented their own system discovered that a free-
in Europe about 500 years later. moving magnet will
point north—and so
the compass was born.
c. 1000 bce
The first magnets
were simply lumps of
magnetite, a naturally c. 50 bce
occurring magnetic Paper was invented
mineral. Most in China more than
modern magnets 2,000 years ago, but
are synthetic. the invention was kept
a secret for 700 years.

1200 bce 100 bce

c. 1500 bce c. 640 bce c. 200 bce c. 20 bce

Most early peoples wore The earliest coins were The Archimedes Although glass-making had
sandals, but in Mesopotamia used in ancient Greece, screw is named been around for more than
people crafted leather India, and China. after the Greek 2,000 years, the invention
shoes to protect Before this, goods scientist Archimedes, of glass-blowing in Syria
their feet. would be exchanged who explained that made it possible to create
for other items. water can travel glass items in many shapes.
upward along a
turning screw.

c. 1200 bce
The first ships were built by
Phoenicians and Greeks to carry
large amounts of cargo for trade.

It stands for “circa,” which means “approximately.”

9
Technology

Modern technology
Today, the phrase “modern technology” is usually used to
mean computers. But a few hundred years ago, steam power
and mechanical presses were new and exciting technology.

1826
The first photographic image was
1436 1565 taken by Joseph Niépce in France. He
The first books Historians think had to leave his camera still for 8 hours!
were copied by the first pencil was
hand. Gutenberg’s
movable type and
invented by Conrad
Gesner in Germany.
1608
Dutchman
printing press Hans Lipperhay
made it possible invented the
for books to be telescope—
produced more although some
quickly. people think
his children
made one
while playing!

1400 1500 1600 1700 1800

Important ideas
An invention can lead to
so many others that it
changes the world.
The first machines and
factories used to mass-
1700s produce goods led to the 1829
Stephenson’s Rocket
Industrial Revolution.
pulled the first successful
For the first time, people
1764 steam train. It reached
James Hargreaves’ a top speed of about
1800s could safely harness the spinning jenny 28 mph (45 kph).
power of electricity. made thread for cloth
faster than ever before.
The microprocessor
1970s
made computers
smaller and started
1769
James Watt’s improved
the Information Age. steam engine was used to
power all kinds of machines.

10
Why was the printing press so important?
 Modern technology
1903 1977
The first powered The first personal computers
flight took place were large, chunky machines
in the US. The that had very little memory
plane, the compared to today’s models.
Wright Flyer,
was made of
wood and cloth.

1878 1957
The lightbulb was The Soviet Union’s
invented around the same Sputnik 1 was the first
time in two different man-made space satellite.

1876 countries—by Thomas

Edison in the US and
Alexander Graham Bell Joseph Swan in Britain.
got the first patent for
a telephone, although
others nearly beat
him to it.

1926 2012
The televisor was the first kind 3-D printers have made
of television. It was replaced by it possible to manufacture
electronic television in the 1930s. solid objects from
digital information.

1900 2000

WWW
1885
Karl Benz made the first
gas-powered car in
1990
The invention of the World Wide Web
Germany. By 1896, there
meant that anyone could get information
were 130 Benz cars
from across the world over the Internet.
on the roads.

1998
1895 The first handheld
German scientist Wilhelm e-book reader could
Röntgen (accidentally) store 10 books or
discovered the X-ray. 4,000 pages.
1979
This year saw
the first public
1938 cell-phone
Laszlo and Georg Biró’s system, in Japan. 2010
ballpoint pen had fast- The iPad®, a type
drying ink and didn’t need of touchscreen, mobile
to be refilled very often. computer with a built-in
battery, is one of the
most popular tablets.

iPad® mini

More books were made, so knowledge and ideas could spread more easily.
11
Technology

Technology all around us

g y i s yo
The use of science to create new n olo ur
h
and better machines and ways of

ec

fa
Turn

Which t

vor
doing things is called technology. and learn

it e ?
Every day you use technology in Space travel:
pp. 54–55
one of its many different forms. Robots:
Here are a few of them. pp. 114–115

Mechanical
Mechanical technology is the design,
production, and use of machines, such
as wind-up clocks and other appliances
that do not use electrical, electronic,
or computer technology.

Chemical
technology is
used to make Chemical
plastics and
refine crude oil.
Using the science of chemistry to turn raw
materials into more useful things, such as
plastics, cosmetics, or medicine, is called
chemical technology.

Electrical
Technology that deals with electrical
circuits and equipment is known as electrical
technology. It is commonly used in the design
and construction of electronic gadgets, such as
cell phones and televisions, and power grids.

12
How does nanotechnology get its name?
 Technology all around us
Digital
In digital technology, information is
recorded using combinations of 0 and
1 to represent words and pictures. This
system allows huge amounts of data
to be squeezed into tiny spaces.

Biotechnology
This term refers to technology that is
based on biology—the study of living
things. Biotechnology is commonly used in
agriculture and food production. Genetic
engineering is one kind of biotechnology.

Medical
Anything (such as a tool, machine,
process, or substance) that is used to
diagnose, observe, treat, cure, or prevent
people’s illnesses or injuries comes under
the heading of medical technology.

Information
The study, design, and use of
electronic information systems is When you log on to
known as information technology. a computer, you use
information technology.
The term covers machines such as
computers (hardware) and the
programs they run (software).

Sunscreen
Antibacterial
Nanotechnology silver bandage

Modern science can create materials

and simple machines much too small for NO
NA
you to see under a normal microscope. SU
N
This nanotechnology is used in products
such as special sunscreens and textiles. SPF

Odor-
resistant socks

From the Greek word “nano,” which originally meant “dwarf.”

13
Hard at work

Simple Class 1 lever

In class 1 levers, the fulcrum is in
the middle. The force you apply

machines
at one end can be magnified at
the other end.

It’s hard to hit a nail into wood with Solid part

Magnified
force

your hand, but much easier with a

hammer. Tools, such as this one, are Fixed point
Load

Force you
called simple machines. They help apply Fulcrum

people work faster and better.

Class 2 lever
In class 2 levers, the fulcrum is at
A small movement from your hand one end and your hands apply a
travels down the handle to the head. force at the other end. This creates
As the head moves, it stores energy.
a magnified force in the middle.
Magnified force
Force you
apply

Load
When the head hits the nail, the
stored energy is released as a
large force that can split wood.

Fulcrum

Feel the force

Tools, levers, and pulleys are all simple machines. Class 3 lever
They increase the size of the force you apply, so you A class 3 lever reduces the force
can perform a job with less effort. When you use a applied between the load and
hammer, you need to move the handle only a small fulcrum. They are used in tweezers
amount to give the head enough energy to push the and other tools that pick up small,
nail through wood. delicate objects.
Reduced
force
Levers move loads Force you
Levers are simple machines with a solid part that apply
turns around a fixed point, called the fulcrum. They
help magnify or reduce a force. There are three
Load
different types of lever: class 1, class 2, and class 3. Fulcrum

14
What is a force?
 Simple machines
Pulley power
Pulleys are used to lift heavy Picture detective
Fulcrum loads. A pulley is a length of rope Look through the Hard
wrapped around one or more at work pages and see
wheels. Adding wheels to the if you can identify the
pulley system creates more lifting picture clues below.
force—but you have to pull the
rope farther to lift the load.

Wheel
A pair of scissors is made of two class 1
levers. You apply force with your fingers,
and this force is magnified at the blades,
giving them the power they need to cut
through paper or other materials.

Pulling on the The weight

end of the rope of the load
will shorten is distributed
the rope that’s between the
wrapped around two lengths
the pulley and of rope.
lift the weight.

Fulcrum
Rope
A wheelbarrow is a class 2 lever. It
magnifies the weak force from your
arms to pick up the heavy load.

Load Load

Fulcrum Pulley with

Pulley with
single wheel multiple wheels

Turn and
learn
Cranes:
The fulcrum in this pair of chopsticks
is at the point where the girl holds pp. 18–19
them. Her fingers apply the force Conveyors:
that opens and closes the chopsticks
to pick up food. pp. 20–21

The power that makes things move or stop. Simply, a push or a pull.
15
Hard at work

Using levers Levers at home

These are all compound
levers—tools made up
Every time you open a door, ride a of more than one lever.
bike, or even bend your arm, you are
Nutcrackers are a pair
using levers. Many of the objects we of class 2 levers that are
joined at the fulcrum.
use every day depend on leverage to
magnify forces and make tasks easier. Tweezers are made up
of two class 3 levers. They
reduce the force you apply.

Magnifying forces Pliers comprise of two class

The amount by which a lever magnifies a force 1 levers. They magnify the
depends on how far the force you apply and the force applied on the handles.
force the lever produces are from the fulcrum.

Force you apply Force you apply Force you apply

Force from lever

Force from lever Force from lever

Fulcrum Fulcrum Fulcrum

If the force you apply is the same distance If the force you apply is twice as far from If the force you apply is three times as
from the fulcrum as the force the lever the fulcrum as the force the lever produces, far from the fulcrum as the force the lever
produces, the two forces are equal. the lever doubles the force. produces, the lever triples the force.

Force you apply

Crowbar
One of the simplest kinds
of lever is the crowbar, which Force from lever
is a class 1 lever. You use a Force
crowbar to pry very heavy from lever

objects off the ground. The

longer the crowbar is, the
Load
more the force is magnified at
the other end. However, you
Fulcrum
have to move the long end
Moving the crowbar a long way
of the crowbar much farther provides enough force to lift the
than the short end will move. heavy rock a short distance.

16
What class of lever do bottle openers and tongs fall under?
 Using levers
Human body
Your arms and legs can act
as levers. When you stand
on tiptoes, your lower leg
works like a class 2 lever.
The powerful calf muscle
pulls up your heel, lifting your Force you
apply
body weight (the load), while
your toes form the fulcrum.
Load
Fulcrum

Fishing rod
When you use a fishing rod to
cast a line, the rod works like a
class 3 lever. Your hand applies
a powerful force near the base
of the rod to create a smaller
Force you
apply force at the tip of the rod.
Although the force is weaker,
the tip moves much farther
and faster than your hands,
Load
magnifying the speed.
The rod also works as a class 3 lever
Fulcrum when you haul in a fish.

Seesaw
A seesaw is a class 1 lever. You use the force
of your body weight to move the seesaw. If two
people of equal weight sit at equal distance from
the fulcrum, their weight will balance. But if one
of them sits farther from the fulcrum, their weight
is magnified and the seesaw tips over.

A small child could balance the

weight of an elephant by sitting
far enough away from the fulcrum.

Force you apply

Fulcrum

Bottle openers are class 2 levers. Tongs are class 3 compound levers.
17
Hard at work

On the
The long arm
of the crane is
called the jib.

work site The crane’s

operator sits
inside a
Digging dirt, lifting loads— small cab. A wheeled cart
runs along tracks
there’s lots of heavy work to in the jib to move
the load outward.
do on a construction site, and A slew ring
allows the top of
lots of large machinery to do the crane to turn
around in a circle.
it. Yet most of these machines
use fairly simple science to Tower

do their jobs.

Why don’t cranes fall over?

Hydraulic ram
Tower cranes pick up and move the
massive blocks of concrete and steel
used to construct large buildings. A
huge concrete “counterweight” on the
rear arm of the crane balances the load
carried by the main arm (jib). This
stops the crane from toppling over.

Large weights must be lifted close to

the main tower, while small weights
can be picked up at the end of the jib.

Jib

20 tons

Counterweight

Tower 20 tons 10 tons 7 tons

Each of these loads is balanced, but the
crane could not pick up all three at once.

18
What is a crane’s first job when it arrives at a construction site?
 On the work site
Pulleys in action
Cranes lift objects with a hook and
pulley. A steel cable is looped around
pulley wheels on the hook and
jib, and wound in by a motor
in the crane’s rear arm.
Each loop of cable
magnifies the crane’s
lifting force.

Diggers
Diggers use a set of connected levers to
scoop earth out of the ground. The levers
are joined like the parts of a human arm, Hydraulic cranes
the bucket forming the “hand.” They are Mobile cranes, such as those on fire engines,
moved by hydraulic rams— are hydraulic cranes. Like diggers, they use
metal tubes that extend as hydraulic rams to apply the force needed
oil is pumped into them. to lift loads. By varying the size of the metal
tubes in the rams, the hydraulic system can
produce huge lifting forces—enough to raise
bridges, trains, and even entire buildings.

Like pulleys and

levers, hydraulic rams
can magnify forces.

Boom
When the bucket
is pushed inward,
its sharp teeth dig Slew ring
into the ground to
scoop out dirt.

The slew ring at the

base of the arm
allows the arm to
rotate (turn around).

Bucket

It builds itself, adding one section at a time to its tower.

19
Hard at work

Moving stuff
From airports and factories to stores and offices,
conveyors are used in all kinds of places to make
it easier to move loads from one point to another. A gravity conveyor
seen from above

Move along
The simplest type of conveyor is a gravity conveyor. It
is made up of lots of rollers or wheels in a frame. As each
roller or wheel turns, the load gets shifted to the next.

Luggage and other cargo are moved on

The motor is hidden
conveyors behind the scenes at an airport. The drive pulley, connected to away under the bed
an electric motor, does the work. to take up less room.

Up, down, and sideways

Belt conveyors can move loads up,
down, and sideways. The load sits
on a belt that turns around rollers,
called pulleys. The drive pulley is
connected to a motor, which
makes it rotate. The motor turns very fast—
1,750 times a minute! A
speed reducer is added
so the drive pulley will
Chain Sprocket not turn so quickly.
20
When was the first escalator used?
 Moving stuff
Going up! How to drive
It’s not just boxes that are
The parts that make a
moved around on conveyors—
conveyor belt turn are
people are too. Escalators are
called the conveyor drive.
moving staircases, with each
Sprockets and chains are
separate step connected to
part of this. The chain sits
a conveyor belt.
in the gaps between the
sprocket’s teeth so it doesn’t
An escalator can carry more The handrail is
also turned by the slip. When the motor
than 10,000 people in an hour.
motor so you can sprocket turns, the chain
hold on safely.
moves and turns the drive
pulley sprocket.
The steps are connected to
two belts. Wheels near the
top of each step follow the
drive belt, which is turned
by the motor. Sprocket

Drive pulley

Electric
motor
The steps flatten out at
the top and bottom of
the escalator so you don’t
trip getting on and off.

Inner rail
Sprocket

Drive belt

The belt loops all the way

around the bed and pulleys.

Bed Guide wheels

at the bottom
of each step roll
Tail pulley
along the inner
rail to keep the
steps stable.
To stop the belt
from sagging, The tail pulley
it is sometimes tucked is turned by
around small rollers the moving belt.
called return idlers.

The first working model was made in the US in 1895 and used as a fairground ride!
21
Getting around

Getting around = Energy

We can all use our legs for getting Energy sources
To move or do any kind of
around, but they’re a bit slow and work you need energy. We get
won’t take us far without making us energy from our food; vehicles
use fuel or electricity.
tired. What we need is something that
can get us from one place to another
fast—a vehicle of some sort.

But what does

it take to get Energy-rich oil
a car racing One of the best sources
along a road? of energy is oil. When
oil is burned, it releases
lots of energy.

Types of fuel
Vehicles can get their
energy from many
different types of fuel.
Gas is made from
crude oil. Most cars
run on gas burned
in the engine.
Diesel is also made
from crude oil. It
D produces more
energy than gas.
Turn
Electricity can be
and learn used to power some
cars but is mainly
How bicycles used by trains.
work: pp. 26–27
Solar energy
Car engines: comes from the sun.
pp. 32–33 It can be stored for
use by cars.

22
What moves faster than anything else in the universe?
 Getting around
Picture detective
Force Movement Look through the Getting
around pages and see if
you can identify the picture
Getting going On the move clues below.
Once you have enough With its engine turned
energy, you can use it to off, friction will slow
create forces that will help a vehicle to a stop.
you move. Forces are To keep it moving,
simply pushes or pulls. the engine must keep
turning the wheels.

PUSH

Speeding up
Increasing the speed at
which an engine turns
the wheels will make the
vehicle go faster. This
PULL
is usually done by
increasing the flow
of fuel to the engine.

Wheels turn by
using opposing
forces. As the tire
pushes back against
the road, the road
pushes the wheel Brakes work
forward. by pushing
pads or discs
against the
wheels.

Friction Slowing down

Friction is a force that stops Brakes have pads made
things from moving by of high-friction materials;
pulling them in the other pressing the pads against
direction. Without its gripping the wheels slows the vehicle
action, you wouldn’t be able down to a stop.
to walk or drive anywhere.

Light.
23
Getting around

Wheels and axles

An axle is a simple rod that connects two
wheels. For nearly 6,000 years, the wheel
and axle have made it easy to move objects.
Friction Fixed axle
Friction is the force created A fixed axle can be found on simple
when two surfaces touch. carts. The axle is attached to the cart
As you slide an object, you and the wheels turn independently,
create a lot of friction. When allowing the cart to move. Wheel
you roll it on wheels, you
create less.

Pushing this box is The axle

hard work. The large does not
area of the box in turn.
contact with the floor
creates sliding friction.

A lot of friction
Some friction is
created as the wheel
turns against the axle.

Put the box on wheels

and it gets easier.
The wheels turn and
change sliding friction
into the less forceful,
rolling friction.
Carts have big wheels so
Less friction they don’t get stuck on
bumpy roads. The large
wheel provides extra grip.

Wheels of history The first use Bicycles,

Historians believe the very first of wheels which allow
and an axle us to create
wheels were used 7,000 years was on our own
ago by potters to make pots. horse-drawn power, have
chariots been popular
Later, the wheel was used to around for nearly
help move and transport objects. 3500 bce. 200 years.

24
What is the largest wheel in the world?
 Wheels and axles

Spoke support Outer rim Spoke

Other wheels
The little rods that connect the outer rim Wheels don’t just move
to the inner hub of the wheel are called you or your belongings.
spokes. They make the wheel lighter,
yet strong enough to take the weight.
They have a diverse
They also spread the weight evenly range of uses.
and transfer power from the axle. A steering wheel is the
Hub fifth wheel on a car and
helps guide it.

Rolling axle Gears use interlocking

Modern cars and vehicles “teeth” to transfer
use a rolling axle system. movement and power.
The wheels turn The axle is connected to
Gears Pulleys and levers use
with the axle. the engine and helps turn
wheels to help move
Axle the wheels. heavy objects.

The engine turns a rod known Waterwheels create

as the driveshaft. This uses mechanical energy when a
gears to transfer the engine’s
river’s current turns them.
power into the axle.
Driveshaft

The turning
force created by
the axle moves
the wheel. eird or` what?
w The tweel is a
brand-new car wheel that
doesn’t need a tire. Instead, it
uses flexible spokes, which bend
with the bumps on the road.
The tweel will never get
a flat like a tire.

In “two-wheel drive” cars, one axle

powers just two wheels. “Four-wheel
drive” cars are powered by both
axles, moving all four wheels.

With the After a few The modern-

invention of early designs, day wheel is
the engine, the motor car a high-tech
bigger vehicles was built and device. Racing
needed bigger its wheels cars use special
wheels to help were covered wheels for
move heavy with air-filled, different racing
cargo. rubber tires. conditions.

The High Roller, a Ferris wheel in Las Vegas, stands 550 ft (167.6 m) tall.
25
Getting around

The history of bikes

Pedal power
A bicycle is a lean, mean
travel machine. Bikes are
The dandy horse (1817) was the
first type of bike and had no pedals so efficient they can
at all. Riders had to push forward
with their feet until they came to turn 90 percent of
a downhill slope.
the energy you put
into pedaling into
forward motion.

The velocipede (1863) had pedals Get in gear

that were fixed to its wheels and had Bike gears are cogs (wheels
no gears. This meant the wheel turned with teeth) that are linked by
once for every turn of the pedal. It took
huge effort to travel fast.
a chain. Using different gears
makes pedaling easier or faster.
Bikes can have up to 30 gears.
When a small gear
at the front wheel is
connected to a large
gear at the back, the
bike is in low gear.
This turns the wheel
slowly but forcefully,
so is ideal for
High Wheelers (1872) got around traveling uphill.
the problem of fixed pedals by having
a huge front wheel. They were faster
but also dangerous—it was a long
fall down from the saddle.

When a large gear at the front wheel is

The safety bicycle (around 1884) connected to a small gear at the back, the bike
was the original name for a bicycle is in high gear. The wheel will turn several times
with gears. It had the same basic for each rotation of the pedals. This is ideal for
design as those used today. speeding along on flat land or racing downhill.

26
The main picture shows a BMX bike. What does BMX stand for?
 Pedal power
Brakes work when you squeeze
the brake lever on the handlebars.
It pulls a cable that’s connected to
Bike types
brake shoes on either side of the front
Handlebars are used to wheel. The rubber shoes grip onto the
control the front wheel. Moving wheel like a clamp. This creates friction
the handlebars lets you change against the wheel, slowing it down.
direction and also helps you
keep your balance as you cycle
along. Handlebars are levers,
and the longer they are, the
easier they are to turn.

Utility bikes are used for everyday

cycling. A chain guard stops the oily
chain from getting your clothes dirty,
and bags can sit safely in the basket.
Frames of most modern
bikes are the “diamond”
kind—a shape made
up of two triangles of
hollow steel, which is
light but strong.

Mountain bikes have

a strong frame and
wide tires for extra
grip on rough ground.

Pedals turn the up-and-down

motion of your legs into the
circular movement of the wheels. Track-racing bikes are designed for
speed. The rider must bend low to hold
the handlebars, making a streamlined
shape. They have no brakes!

ird or what?
we
Tires have patterns
called treads that
increase friction between
the bike wheel and the
The world’s longest
road surface, so the bike true bicycle (one with
is easy to control and just two wheels) was
keeps a good grip, even
in rainy conditions. built in the Netherlands
in 2002. It was 92 ft Recumbent bikes have frames that
(28 m) long! make the rider lean back in their seat.
Wheels have spokes Some have covers, too. They can be
that carry the weight tricky to ride, but can go very fast.
of the bike and the rider.

Bicycle Motocross, a cycling sport in which BMX bicycles are used for racing and stunt riding.
27
Getting around

Holding
the road
Why do trucks and tractors
need such big wheels? It’s
to help them get a grip on
slippery surfaces and move
easily while pulling loads.

Sticking to the surface

Heavy vehicles need big tires to help spread
the weight of the trucks and their loads.
The tires move the vehicle using friction.
As the tires press down and backward on
the road, the road pushes the vehicle forward.

Losing your grip Tractors overcome this

problem by having
This car’s wheels can’t get wide tires with
enough grip to move on a deep treads
that provide
muddy road. Mud is wet, a better grip.
slimy, and does not have any
snags or bumps to provide
friction. Also, the car’s small Tractor
and smooth wheels do not
provide enough surface area to
reduce the pressure of the car’s
heavy weight on the The sloping ridges
push mud out from
ground. You’re stuck! Car under the tire.

28
How big is the world’s largest tire?
 Holding the road
Monster trucks
What do you get if you put
the body of a pickup truck on a
bus axle? A monster truck! Add
some tractor wheels and a good
suspension system, and you
can bounce over anything.

Smoothing out the bumps

When you hit a bump in the road,
your wheels move up and down.
This is because of the vehicle’s
suspension system. It is designed
to absorb the impact through Inside the shock absorber is a
the tires, springs, and piston that pushes against
a gas. The gas slows the
shock absorbers. piston down and turns
its energy into heat.

Cross
Tire Spring section Shock absorber

Tires Springs Shock absorbers

Tires are left slightly soft so they can There is a spring around each shock These are pumps filled with gas
squash over small bumps without absorber that reduces the impact that absorb the energy of the
moving up and down. by squeezing and stretching. wheel hitting the ground.

It is 80 ft (24 m) tall and weighs 12 tons (11 metric tons).

29
Getting around

Crank it up
Many forms of transportation use
wheels, which push against the ground
and use friction to move. But what
makes the wheels turn?

Up and down, around and around

To ride a bike, you move your legs up and down
on the pedals. The pedals turn cranks around and
around, which turn the wheels. A car’s wheels
move in a similar way.

Cylinder

Gear

Crank
Pistons
Pedal Crankshaft

Rear-wheel drive Cranks

A bike’s cranks turn a chain that
A car has pistons instead of
is connected to the back wheel, so pedals to move the cranks.
when you pedal, you are actually
powering only one wheel. Many bikes
have gears to make pedaling easier.

Types of engine A lawnmower has

only one cylinder. This
This motorcycle has two
large cylinders. Their slow
Different vehicles means only one piston up-and-down motion gives
have different goes up and down to the Harley its distinctive
turn the wheels. thumping sound.
numbers of cylinders.
Generally, the larger
the vehicle, the more
they have.

Lawnmower Harley Davidson

30
How many parts are there in an average car?
 Crank it up
Secret cylinders
There is a row of metal cylinders hidden
deep in a car’s engine. The pistons This car, like the bike,
is driven forward by
inside them pump up and down, its back wheels.
just like your feet on a bike.
Start at stage 1 in the

4
diagram to see how
The driveshaft turns
the pistons power the wheel axles
a car’s wheels. and the wheel
axles turn the wheels.

Axle
Car pistons are also Axle
attached to levers
called cranks. These

2
turn the crankshaft.

The pistons pump up

and down like legs.
Piston
Driveshaft
3
1
The crankshaft
turns the driveshaft
Gearbox through the gearbox.

Turn
Crankshaft and learn
Internal
combustion engine:
Rotation relay pp. 32–33
The pistons are connected to the
crankshaft, which, in turn, is connected to the Race cars:
driveshaft. The driveshaft is connected to the pp. 34–35
axles, and the wheels go around and around.

A Formula 1 racing car needs an This huge cargo ship is five

extremely fast and powerful stories tall. It weighs over
engine. It has 8 cylinders. 2,500 tons (2,300 metric tons)
and has 14 cylinders, each
one bigger than a person.
Formula 1 car

Emma Maersk

Around 30,000.
31
Getting around

Engines of fire
Most cars and other vehicles burn
fuel to release the energy needed
to move. This happens inside an
internal combustion engine—an What makes it burn?
Fuels such as gasoline and diesel burn
engine that is powered by lots easily. All they need are a spark and
oxygen, which is a gas found in the air.
of little fires.
Exploding with power
At normal speed, a car’s engine
lights around 50 little fires every
second. The fires make pistons
shoot up and down, with four
Recipe for fire: “strokes” for every fire—suck,
Fuel + Oxygen + A spark = Fire squeeze, bang, and blow.

Air is sucked in
through this valve. Spark plug

1 Fuel enters
the valve
2
through a Air and
fuel injector. fuel
Suck mixture Squeeze
The piston moves The valve that
down, sucking in air lets in the air at the
through a valve. A top closes, trapping
tiny squirt of fuel is everything inside.
injected into the air The piston moves
at the same time. up, squeezing the
air and fuel mixture
tightly together.

One turn of the The crankshaft

crankshaft makes the continues to turn,
piston move down. pushing the piston up.

32
What actually is fire?
 Engines of fire
The pistons are found Fuel burns inside
deep in the engine, the cylinders.
fitting snugly into These valves let air

The cylinders hollow cylinders. and fuel in and

burnt gases out.
The combustion (burning)
happens in an engine’s
cylinders. The energy
released by each tiny
explosion is directed to
the pistons, causing them Cylinder
to move up and down. This
Piston
drives the crankshaft around
and around, which turns the
wheels (see pp. 30–31).

Crankshaft

3 The spark plug

releases a
4
spark into the
mix—BANG!
Bang Blow Waste gases blow
When the piston Finally, the piston out of this valve,
reaches the top, a moves back up on the way to the
exhaust pipe.
carefully timed spark and pushes the
sets fire to the gas. burned gases out
The gas burns very of the outlet valve.
quickly, forcing the These gases leave
piston back down. the car through
the exhaust.

It’s a high-speed chemical reaction that produces heat and light.

33
Getting around

Race cars
Formula 1 cars are like normal cars in
many ways. They have gas engines,
gears, and steering wheels. However, Pit stop pressure
they are built with only one thing in At pit stops, a driver refuels and
gets new tires. This is all done in
mind, and that’s WINNING RACES! about 30 seconds. That’s about
the same amount of time as it
A technical masterpiece takes to read this paragraph!
Every bit of a Formula 1 (F1) car is light and very
strong. At its peak speed of 225 mph (360 kph),
The car’s spoilers create a downward
air flows over it with the force of a tornado, force that stops the car from flying
so it is built to be as low and streamlined away while traveling at high speeds.
as possible. Even the driver’s helmet
is part of the streamlining.

The blue arrows show

how air flows over
the car as it races.

34
What is the minimum weight of Formula 1 race car?
 Race cars

G-force The car accelerates

While driving at super-high speeds,
a Formula 1 driver experiences a pushing
force called g-force, which can be up to six
times more powerful than gravity. It can Water spills out backward.
shove a driver backward, forward, and
sideways as the car twists around the track. The car brakes
You can see g-force at work in a normal
car by watching water sloshing in a cup.

Water spills out forward.

This helmet is attached to
the seat to stop the driver’s
head from swinging around The car turns right
because of g-force.

Water spills out to the left.

Inertia The car turns left

G-force is caused by inertia. The law of inertia
says that moving objects try to travel straight
at a constant speed. When a car stops abruptly,
your body tries to keep going forward. Water spills out to the right.

Steering wheel
Because an F1 driver is
concentrating so hard
on winning a race and
because the inside of
the car is so tight, all
the controls for the car
are close to the driver’s
hand on the steering
wheel. There are
only two foot pedals—
the brake and the
accelerator.
Buttons like these fulfil all an F1 driver
needs, from traction control to drinks
dispenser—drinks are pumped by tube
straight into the driver’s mouth.

Including the driver and excluding fuel, the minimum weight is 1,630 lb (740 kg).
35
Getting around

80 90 100
Up to speed
70 110
6 0 120
Once you’re on the move, you usually
50 130 want to go as fast as you can. But what
40 140 makes sports cars really fast and tankers
30 mph
150 really slow? Speed isn’t just about
20
10 raw power—other factors are at work.

Speed, velocity, Acceleration isn’t just speeding

up. Scientists also use it to
and acceleration describe all changes in velocity,
like slowing down and even
You measure speed by dividing changing direction.
the distance traveled by the
time it takes. Speed is not
the same as velocity, which
is a measure of how fast
you are going in a
particular direction. You
feel acceleration when
you pedal your bike
really hard. Acceleration
measures how quickly
your velocity is changing.

Horsepower?
Engine power is still measured using a very old unit—the horsepower. It is
based on how many horses would be needed to provide the same amount
of pulling power. The average car engine has around 135 horsepower.

36
How fast are electric cars?
 Up to speed
Pulling power
If you have a powerful engine,
you can accelerate very fast,
which is why a sports car will
always beat a lawnmower. But
if you give a lift to an elephant,
your acceleration will suffer.
That is because it takes more
force to speed up heavy objects.

Milk tanker vs. Ariel Atom

Both have a 300 horsepower engine.
A full tanker can weigh as much
as 100 tons (110 metric tons).
The Atom weighs half a ton
(0.55 metric tons). Even though they
have the same pulling power, the
weight of the milk means the tanker
takes 35 seconds to accelerate from
0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 kph). The
Atom can do it in 2.7 seconds,
making it one of the fastest
accelerating road cars in the world.

Not such a drag

No vehicle ever made can accelerate as fast as a drag racing car, or dragster.
They can go from 0 to 330 mph (0 to 531 kph) in less than 4.5 seconds.
Dragsters use nitromethane as fuel, which provides twice as
much power as gas. The rear wheels have to be really
big to transfer the high power made by the engine.

Superfast cars
If you want to go really fast and break records, then there’s only one solution—strap a
jet engine or two to your chassis. Jet engines don’t use pistons. Instead, they suck air
through the front of the engine, use it to burn fuel, and then blast the hot exhaust out
of the back. This pushes the car forward at speeds of up to 760 mph (1,223 kph).

The Tesla Roadster can reach a speed of 130 mph (209 kph).
37
Getting around

Powering up
Most cars are powered by gasoline
engines, but there are many other
ways to power a vehicle. Today,
renewable forms of energy that don’t
depend on fossil fuels such as gas Electric car
are being used more widely. Electric cars use rechargeable
batteries instead of gas.
The batteries release energy
Solar car in the form of electricity, which
The solar panels on a solar drives a motor that runs the
Solar cars work best car use sunlight to generate car. While it is easy to charge
in very sunny places. electricity. The electricity powers such cars, it can take hours.
They tend to be flat,
and very wide or
an electric motor that turns
long to create room the wheels. Solar cars are not
for the large solar powerful, and so are usually
panels on the roof. A solar panel is
very light and streamlined. made of lots of
separate units
called cells.
The curved front and flat body
make the car streamlined, which
reduces the energy it needs to
run smoothly.

38
When did the hybrid car go on sale?
 Powering up
Biofuel
Many ordinary cars can
run on biofuels—fuels made
from plants. Biodiesel, for
Corn is mixed with water
instance, is a biofuel made and left to ferment.
from vegetable oil. In some Hydrogen power
countries, including Brazil Hydrogen-powered vehicles use
and the US, gas is diluted The sugar in it turns to alcohol, liquid hydrogen as a fuel. The
with alcohol made from corn which is added to gas.
hydrogen flows into a device called a
or sugarcane. Using biofuels fuel cell, which combines hydrogen
reduces pollution, but this can with oxygen from the air to make
harm the environment—vast water and electricity. The electricity
areas of land are used up to drives the car’s motor and wheels,
produce these fuels. just as in an electric car. The
water is released as exhaust.
Fuel tank
Battery In some hybrids, the gas engine
drives the wheels, but in others it
merely charges the batteries.
Gas engine

Hybrid car

Hybrid cars
Hybrid cars are powered by
a combination of gas and
electricity from batteries. In Electric motor
some hybrid cars, when the
car stops, the brakes capture Air car
the energy released and use The air car works a bit
it to charge the batteries. A like a balloon. High-pressure
computer switches between air is stored in an air tank.
the two forms of power to When the driver pushes the
make the best use of energy. accelerator pedal, the air is
released through a valve. This
jet of air turns the engine.

In 1917.
39
Getting around

Trains and tracks

Most countries have a railroad system
where trains travel on steel tracks. Trains
are often powered by electricity that This train’s cars tilt to
help it travel around
runs through rails or overhead wires. corners at high speed.

Engine and
generator unit
Diesel electric
Some electric trains
run on diesel fuel.
The diesel is burned
to make electricity.
This electricity
powers the motors Most freight trains
that make the are fueled by diesel.

wheels turn and

the train move.

Electric third rail

Several trains use an electrified third Train wheel
rail. The train picks up the electricity
using a device called a shoe.

Shoe
Electrified
rails are
dangerous.
You can be
killed if you step
on the third rail!

Overhead wires
There are trains that draw electricity from
overhead wires using a metal arm. The cables
carry high-voltage electricity—around 25,000 volts.

The train’s metal arm

is called a pantograph.

40
What is a maglev train?
 Trains and tracks
Signals
Signals tell the train Train travel
engineer when it is safe to Trains can transport a
move forward, when to large number of people
proceed to the next section and goods efficiently
of track, and when to stop. across long distances.
Signals use red-, yellow-,
and green-colored lights, Freight trains carry
goods and can be
just like traffic lights. more than 2 miles
(3.5 km) long.
You need wheels Wheels are
slightly cone shaped. Bullet trains in
Trains have metal wheels with Japan are the world’s
Flanges
a rim, called a flange, on the first high-speed
rail service.
inside to stop them from
slipping off the track. Usually The French TGV is
the fastest train ever
the flanges never touch the built. It can go at
rails, but if they do, you hear Rails 357 mph (575 kph).
a squealing noise. Eurostar travels
between England and
Wheel France through the
A tie is a block that centrally Channel Tunnel, which
supports the rails and placed on rail. runs under water.
holds them in place. Straight track
The Trans-Siberian
Express makes the
On the tracks longest journey—
Railroad tracks guide trains from station to station. They 5,857 miles (9,297 km).
are made of steel and usually welded together to give a The Qinghai–Tibet
smooth ride. Some rails are moveable. These are called railroad is the world’s
highest—passengers
points. They help the train switch from one track to another. need to carry oxygen.

A B
Points

The rail is
joined to ties,
Points which keep the
two rails the right
The rail sits in distance apart. Braking on ice
metal “seats”
that are bolted
Metal wheels can slip when
onto the ties. The track is laid the engineer brakes on icy rails.
on ballast made So a small amount of sand is
from broken stone.
dropped in front of them to
help them grip the rail.

A train that uses electromagnetism to lift it off the ground and move forward.
41
Gases and liquids

Gases and
liquids Gas molecule

Air and water are

important examples of
two types of substance—
gases and liquids. They Gas
behave in different ways. Air is a gas. The molecules
in a gas have a lot of energy
and are always moving and
What’s a molecule? colliding. This movement means
Liquids and gases are made they will fill up any container you
of molecules. Molecules are so put them in. If there is no container,
tiny you can’t see them with the they will spread out as far as possible.
naked eye. Molecules are made of Because there is a lot of empty
even tinier particles called atoms. space between gas molecules,
Everything in the universe is gases can be squashed into
made of atoms. small spaces.

Air molecules
Carbon dioxide Air is made up of lots of different
Feel the breeze atoms bonded together in units
You can feel air molecules Oxygen Oxygen called molecules. The main
Carbon
moving when the wind blows. molecules in air are nitrogen,
Wind is simply air molecules oxygen, and carbon dioxide.
being pushed by a force we
Oxygen Nitrogen
call pressure.

42
What do we call materials in which the atoms do not move around?
 Gases and liquids
Picture detective
Scientists call
water molecules Look through the Gases
H2O (H stands
for hydrogen
and liquids pages and
and O stands see if you can identify
for oxygen).
the picture clues below.
Liquid
Liquids always take on the
shape of their container. The
molecules in a liquid are closer
together than in a gas, and have less
energy to move around. Special
forces hold the liquid molecules
together. It is very difficult to
squash a liquid into a
smaller space.
Water molecule

Water molecules
Water molecules are Turn
Hydrogen made of two hydrogen
Oxygen
and learn
atoms bonded to one
oxygen atom. Water
How ships float:
pp. 46–47
molecules are so
How
sticky, they clump
airplanes fly:
together to form drops.
pp. 52–53

Solids—the atoms in a solid only vibrate in a fixed position.

43
Gases and liquids

How fluids work

Gases, such as air, and liquids, such
as water, are known as “fluids.” This
is because they move in a similar
way and can flow around corners Streamlined car
A car is designed to be as
and fill containers. streamlined as possible, so
air can pass smoothly over it.
Fluid motion
Fluids flow smoothly over Smooth sides mean a fluid has to travel
curved (streamlined) objects. only a short distance around an object.
This produces little or no drag.
They do not flow smoothly
over shapes that have
corners and bumps. These
slow fluids down, causing Fluid flow Smooth shape
a force called drag.

Block shapes with flat edges split the

fluid’s flow into different streams. Some
pass over an object. Some pass around
it. Others twist and turn back, creating
areas of drag known as eddies.

Block
shape
Fluid flow Eddy

Sir Isaac Newton

discovered gravity
when an apple
fell from a tree. Gravity and weight
Gravity is the force that keeps you stuck
to the ground. It also keeps the moon
in orbit around the Earth, and keeps
the Earth traveling around the sun.
Gravity is what gives you weight.
Without your weight pulling you
downward, you would simply f loat
away as if you were in space.

44
What is denser—water or air?
 How fluids work
How dense?
The weight of an object depends A pound of bricks weighs
upon its mass—the amount of the same as a pound of
oranges, but the oranges
matter it’s made of. Matter is made take up more space. The
of atoms. Substances in which the mass of the bricks is
packed into a smaller
atoms are heavy and closely packed space, so we say the
are said to be more “dense” than bricks have a higher
density than the oranges.
substances whose atoms are lighter,
and less closely packed.

Floating and sinking

An object that is free to move in a fluid will either float or sink, depending
on its density and the density of the fluid.

An object will float in air if it is less An object will float in water if it

dense than air. is less dense than water.

The gas inside the balloon is less dense Boats float because they are mainly filled
than the air around it, so it slowly rises. with air, which is less dense than water.

An object will sink in air if it is more An object will sink in water if it is more
dense than air. dense than water.

Apples are denser than air so they drop Brick molecules are very close together,
from trees. making bricks dense, and so they sink.

Water has 1,000 times the density of air.

45
Gases and liquids

Float that boat Floating beach ball

How do ships float, and why Buoyancy

When an object
do they sometimes sink? It’s weighs less than the
amount of water it
all to do with buoyancy. displaces, it floats,
or is “buoyant.” If it
Setting sail weighs more, it sinks. Sinking golf ball

A ship is very heavy, especially when

it’s loaded with crew, passengers, and
cargo. But the ship still floats because
as it pushes down, it displaces water,
and the displaced water pushes upward.
If the ship weighs less than the displaced
water, it will float (see p. 45).

The weight of the ship is

spread out across the hull.

Balancing act Gravity

While buoyancy pushes the
boat upward, gravity pulls it
downward. These two forces
balance each other out, so a
ship can float on the water.
Buoyancy

46
Which is the largest ship in the world?
 Float that boat
Safety systems Going down
Bulkheads are walls that
A ship may sink if it takes on Submarines are
divide large areas into water. To help prevent this, not like other
smaller ones in a ship. ships have safety features boats—they
such as bulkheads. If one have to be able
compartment starts to leak, to sink or float
the bulkheads stop the water on command.
Bulkheads
flooding the whole ship. They do this
by filling and
emptying their ballast
Double hull tanks with air or water.
A big ship usually
Periscope
has a double hull, The weight of
which is like a tire 1 a submarine’s
Compressed
hull helps it Valve
with an inner tube. It to go underwater, but it air tank

gives extra protection can’t sink when there is

Hull Double hull air in the ballast tanks.
if the ship collides Most of the air is let out
with rocks or icebergs. through a valve. Some air
is compressed (squashed) Interior
into a small holding tank.
Water is then pumped
into the tanks and the
sub sinks.
Ballast Water is
tank taken in
and the
sub sinks.

The steel hull is full of Air flows

air, which is very light into the
and keeps the ship afloat. ballast tanks.
2 When the sub is
underwater, air
is pumped back
into the ballast tanks
until the density of
the sub matches that
of the water around
it. The sub can stay at
one level as it moves
That sinking feeling through the water.
The air inside a ship’s Water is
hull makes the ship less forced out.
Air fills the
dense than the water When it’s time tanks and
around it. If the ship hits 3 to surface, more the sub rises.
a rock and rips a hole in air is pumped
into the tanks, pushing
its hull, water pours in out the water. Once it’s
and replaces the air. This at the surface, air is
sucked in to fill the ballast
makes the ship denser This ship is taking on water tanks and the sub floats.
and it sinks. and has started to sink.

Water is forced out.

A ship called Pioneering Spirit. It is 1,253 ft (382 m) long and 407 ft (124 m) wide. 47
Gases and liquids

Floating balloons An airship can rise to more than

6,500 ft (2,000 m). By comparison,
Why do some balloons rise up into a passenger jet normally cruises at
around 30,000 ft (10,000 m).
the air while others drop to the
floor? To understand this,
you have to look at the
gases inside them.

b alloons a
a r ty r
e
P

fill

He
ed w

Helium
ith hel

This balloon is filled

with a gas called
helium. Helium is less
dense than air, so this Heavy air
i u

balloon floats. When a balloon is

m

filled with a gas that

g

is less dense than air,

a

it floats. When it is Helium facts

s.

filled with a gas that

is denser than air, it sinks. Helium gas has no smell.
It makes up about seven
percent of natural gas.

Deep-sea divers
breathe in a mixture
At parties, helium CO2 of helium and oxygen.
balloons are tied
down so they
don’t float away! Carbon dioxide Helium boils at a
very low temperature—
When you blow up a balloon with -452 ˚F (-233 ˚C) and
your breath, the air inside contains turns to gas.
more carbon dioxide than the air
Helium, found in stars,
outside. It is also under more is named after the Greek
pressure. As a result, the air inside word for the sun—helios.
the balloon is denser than the
surrounding air, causing Liquid helium is colorless
and very cold. It helps
the balloon to sink. launch space rockets.

48
What is the only element to be discovered in space before it was found on the Earth?
 Floating balloons

Flying ships of air How airships rise and fall

An airship is known as a lighter-than-air Airship Airship
Helium
(LTA) craft. Airships have a main, helium- rising falling
filled balloon and two other large internal
balloons, called ballonets. To control how
high an airship floats, the ballonets take
in or release air. Ballonets Air expelled Air inflating Air taken
deflate to through ballonets in, filling the
go higher air valves ballonets

To rise, the ballonets are To descend back to Earth,

closed and deflated. The the ballonets are filled with
helium makes the airship air, which is dense, making
float upward. the airship sink.

How hot-air balloons work A flap at the top of

the balloon allows
Hot-air balloons float upward when hot air to escape and
the air inside them is heated. This controls how quickly
the balloon sinks.
gives the air molecules more energy The balloon
and they move farther apart, which holds the hot
air. Its shape Fabric panels are sewn
makes the air less dense. makes it hard together sideways and
for the hot air lengthwise to give the
to escape. balloon strength.

Cold air weighs Hot air is Skirt

more because less dense Burners use propane
its molecules because its gas to produce a hot
are closer molecules are Propane tanks flame, which heats the
together. farther apart. air inside the balloon.

Helium.
49
Gases and liquids

Roller coaster
These rip-roaring rides are
powered by gravity. They
slingshot thrill-seeking Some older roller coasters run on intricate
wooden scaffolding.
passengers along at
breathtaking speeds. Over the top
At the top of a hill, coaster
There is maximum
potential energy at cars have high potential
Going up... the top of the hill. energy. This becomes
As the roller coaster goes kinetic energy (the
up the first, tallest hill energy of motion) as
(called the lift hill), it’s the coaster rolls
gradually building up down the slope.
potential energy (the
energy stored in an
object as a result
The cars gain
of its position). speed as they roll
Rushing down a steep
down the hill.
slope can make you
feel almost weightless,
which may be very
uncomfortable!

Chain reaction
Roller coaster cars don’t
have motors. They’re
pulled to the top of the
first hill by a chain
connected to a motor
at the top.

50
Where was the world’s first roller coaster?
 Roller coaster

Wheeeeeeee! Bendable metal

Shoulder
harness
The tracks and supports
Lots of different things
of most roller coasters are
affect the way you feel
made from hollow steel.
when you’re rushing
This can be shaped into
around a roller coaster.
loops and corkscrews.
Pushing against seat
Seat pushing back on you
Weight (gravity)

Safety first
All riders are protected by
a safety harness. Brakes are
built into the track, not the
cars. These are used at the end
of the ride, or in emergencies.
At the bottom of a loop your
seat pushes against you as you
push down on it, making
you feel heavy. At the Cars lose momentum
top, gravity pulls you throughout the ride, so the
away from your seat, so hills have to get smaller.
you feel weightless.

There is maximum
kinetic energy at the
bottom of the hill.

Staying on track Ultimate experience

Roller coaster cars are clamped securely to Thrill seekers in Florida can enjoy the
the rails by three sets of wheels. Load wheels Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster. It’s very
sit on top of the tracks, upstop wheels run short and powerful, so it can pivot like a
along the bottom of the tracks, and guide skateboard and climb straight uphill.
wheels run along
the sides. Passengers can choose
the music they hear
while they’re terrified.
Steel track
Load wheels

Guide wheels

Upstop wheels

The very first roller coaster was an elaborate ice slide built in Russia during the 1600s.
51
Gases and liquids

How do planes fly?

Huge, heavy machines seem to defy gravity by staying up
in the air! Yet airplanes fly around the world every day. This
is because they can create the forces needed to fly.

The forces of flight

There are four forces acting on airplanes:
thrust, drag, lift, and weight. A pilot can change Cockpit
all of these except weight. In level flight at a
constant speed, all four forces must balance.
Engine

Thrusting forward
Planes need to create
thrust to move forward
through the air. This
plane has a propeller Thrust
to create thrust. As
the propeller turns,
Propeller
it draws air past the
blades, which pulls
the plane forward.

A bumpy ride
Level of plane
Just like boats bounce
over waves, planes
can bounce up and The biggest jumbo
down in the air. The world’s largest plane is the
This happens when Airbus A380. At 240 ft (73 m)
pockets of air move long, this jumbo jet can carry up
at different speeds, to 853 passengers. It’s 10 times
creating “turbulence.” longer than the four-seater
It can be caused by Cessna 400.
Cooler air Warmer air rises
faster, “bumping” strong winds, storms,
the plane upward. or when cold and Cessna 400
warm air meet.
Airbus A380

52
What was the first airplane to stay in the air successfully?
 How do planes fly?

Lifting up What does that bit do?

Lift is the opposite Every part of a plane has a
As the plane
force to weight. A job to do, from the streamlined
moves, the wing
divides the air, plane creates most nose to the tail fin that keeps
creating an area
of its lift with its wings. the plane steady in the sky.
of low pressure
above the wing Flaps that come down from the
Lift
and an area of
wings are used to increase lift
higher pressure
below it.
during takeoff and landing.
The difference in air
pressure below and above
the wing is what creates
lift—the force that makes
Airflow the airplane fly.

Ailerons on the back edge of the

Aileron Tail fin wings are used to “roll” the plane,
to make it turn or keep it level.

Fuselage

Elevator Rudder
Wing Flap A rudder in the plane’s tail
turns the plane left or right.

Drag
Weight

Dragging back
Drag is the opposite force to
Weighing down thrust—it slows down things.
Weight is caused by Imagine trailing your hand in
gravity pulling down water as you sail along in a
on an object. Everything boat. You can feel the water Elevators in the tail move up and
has weight, even air. push back, or drag, against down to balance the position of
your hand. Air has the same the nose, keeping the plane level.
effect on planes (and anything
else that moves). A plane’s
smooth surface and streamlined
shape help reduce drag.

The Wright Flyer. On its first outing in 1903, it flew for 12 seconds!
53
Gases and liquids

Nose cone
Blast off!
Space is the final frontier. So far,
we have explored only a tiny part
Soyuz spacecraft (inside casing) of our galaxy, and this has been
very difficult, dangerous, and
expensive to do.
Third stage

What makes rockets go?

Most rockets need two different chemicals—a fuel and
an oxidizer. When they’re mixed together, they cause
a fierce but smooth burn—this is funneled downward,
propelling the rocket upward. Clamps hold it down
while the power builds, so it doesn’t go head over tail
and crash. At the words “blast off ”, the clamps are
Second stage
removed and the rocket is on its way. The rocket
shown here is a Soyuz rocket. It takes people to
the International Space Station (ISS).
First stage
(booster rockets)
Thrust

The Soyuz descent module slows

Gravity

down as it falls through Earth’s

atmosphere, and a parachute
slows it even more, so that the
astronauts inside can land safely.

54
When was the first liquid-fueled rocket made?
 Blast off!
Space journey The ISS is a
After rockets are launched, they use huge laboratory in
space used for
amounts of fuel to get into Earth’s orbit. scientific research.
The Soyuz rocket is made of different parts, It orbits the Earth
at an altitude of
or “stages.” As one stage runs out of fuel, 250 miles (400 km).
it falls away so that the rest of the rocket
does not have to carry its weight.

Or
bit

2 3
Second stage
First stage falls away
(booster rockets) and spacecraft
falls away. casing falls off.
Third stage
falls away 4
and spacecraft
enters orbit.

Rocket blasts off

1 from launchpad.

Soyuz spacecraft
docks with ISS. 5
Descent module
parachutes 8
to ground.

Soyuz spacecraft
separates from ISS. 6

Space junk
Experts believe there are more than
7 300,000 objects orbiting the Earth—
pieces from satellites, bags of trash,
Spacecraft and dropped tools.
separates into
orbital, service,
and descent
modules.

In March 1926, by Dr. Robert H. Goddard in Massachusetts.

55
What is energy?

What is energy?
Energy is what makes everything happen. It is involved in
every action we make. It powers your muscles, runs your
car, and lights your home. Without energy you could not
ride a bike, watch television, or fly in an airplane.

Different types of energy

Energy can’t be made or destroyed. It just changes from one
type to another. Here are some of the main types of energy.

Light
It is a form of energy we can see.
Like X-rays and radio waves, it
is also electromagnetic energy. It
travels at an extremely high speed.

Internal energy An object’s atoms

vibrate more
It is the energy of atoms or rapidly when the
molecules vibrating. The hotter object gets hotter.
an object is, the faster the
particles move. A transfer of
internal energy is called heat.

Nuclear energy
It is stored in atoms. Nuclear energy
is used to run power plants that
generate electricity.

Electromagnetic energy
It is carried by X-rays, radio
waves, and microwaves.

56
How big is an atom?
 What is energy?
Picture detective
Look through the What
is energy? pages and
see if you can identify
the picture clues below.

Gravitational energy
It is the stored energy in an object that has been
lifted but is not allowed to fall. Turbines in dams
can turn gravitational energy into electrical energy.

Kinetic energy
It is the energy a moving object has. The
faster a car moves, the more
kinetic energy it has.

Electrical energy
Electrical energy can
travel easily through
wires. It is the energy
we use to power
devices in our homes.

Turn
and learn
Power plants:
pp. 62–63
Gravity:
pp. 44–45

About 0.000000004 in (0.0000001 mm) in diameter.

57
What is energy?

It’s electric!
If you flip a switch to make something
work, it probably runs on electricity.
Most of the energy we use every Plugs have
day is electrical. metal prongs
or wha that connect

eird t? with the power

w supply wired
into the wall.
Inside the mains cables
What is electricity? in your home, electrons
Electricity is very convenient: It
move in one direction, and
can power a huge range of devices—
then the other, 60 times
from lights to washing machines.
Inside a metal wire, an electric every second. This is called
current is simply the movement “alternating current”.
BEWARE:
of tiny particles called electrons. electrical charge!

You should never put your finger

or an object (other than a plug)
Electricity passes freely into a socket—as you may get an
Starting small from the socket to the electric shock.
lamp through the wiring.
Electrons ca

Electrons are found in atoms—

the particles of which everything
is made. In metals, electrons
are free from their atoms.
rr y

Atom
an
ele

ric
ct

Electrons
al
cha
Flow o

rge.
f elec

When you
turn on a lamp,
trici

electric current
ty

flows through the

Electric current is simply the wire to the bulb,
movement of electric charge. lighting it up.
Electrons carry electric
charge, and in a wire, the
electrons are free to move.

58
Who made the first battery?
 It’s electric!
Simple circuit
An LED (light emitting diode) flashlight works using a Electricity
simple electric circuit. Electric current flows from one When we talk about
end of the batteries through the LED and back to the electricity, we use
other end of the batteries to complete the circuit. some important terms.
When the switch is in the
“off” position, the circuit is Conductors are
broken and the LED does materials that allow
not light.
electricity to flow
through them easily.
Broken
circuit
Circuits are paths
that electric currents
can flow along.

V Voltage is a measure
of electrical strength.

A
Plastic
case
Ampere is a basic unit
of electric current.

Current is the flow

Off On of electricity through
Batteries a conductor.
Breaking the
circuit turns off
the flashlight.
Power towers
Electricity travels from power
Slide switch
plants along thick cables, often
strung between big metal towers. The
cables carry very high voltages of
When the switch slides electricity—enough to kill a person
to “on,” the circuit is
complete and current
who comes into contact with them.
flows all the way to the Off
bulb, which lights up.

Metal switch contacts

Metal spring

Flow of current from

the batteries and Birds don’t complete a circuit
along the metal wire when they sit on an electric
wire, so they can perch on
cables without being harmed.

An Italian named Alessandro Volta made the first battery in 1800.

59
What is energy?

The power of magnets

Magnets create an invisible force known as
magnetism that repels and attracts certain
substances, such as iron. Electricity and
magnetism have a close relationship.
Iron filings reveal the magnetic field around a magnet.
Can you field the force?
A magnetic field is the space
around a magnet where its Poles
force can be felt. The field
is strongest at the poles, N S N S
and becomes weaker with
increasing distance.
Opposite poles attract

Magnetic Earth Magnets have two points where their field

The Earth’s central core has S S is strongest, known as poles. Each magnet
has a north and south pole. These can
a strong magnetic field—it attract and repel other magnets. Similar
poles repel and opposites attract.
acts as a huge magnet. Its Similar poles repel
poles are close to the actual
North and South Poles. Super magnets
Although they aren’t These are really strong
in the same place as the magnets. They can be
geographical poles, they are natural magnets or
very close. Over the Earth’s electromagnets.
lifetime, the magnetic poles
have switched around The maglev train uses
a few times. an electromagnet.
N

S
A compass uses a magnet as a
“needle.” The needle is attracted
and points to the magnetic north pole.

60
Which elements are attracted to magnets?
 The power of magnets
Electromagnets
Electric currents produce Everyday magnets
magnetic fields—and magnetic Magnets are used in many everyday items, such as these.
fields can be used to produce
Audio speakers use Credit cards use a
electricity. An iron bar can electromagnets to make magnetic strip to store
become magnetic when an sound vibrations. your information.
electric wire is wound around it
in a coil. A moving magnet can Some handbags Central locking in
also make an electric current in close with magnetic a car uses a series of
a coil of wire. Electromagnetic clasps. electromagnets to lock up.
generators are used to create
electricity at power plants.

Wheel power
A simple example of an electromagnetic generator is
a bicycle dynamo. It uses the kinetic energy produced
by the spinning wheel to turn the magnet past a coil
of wire. The movement of the magnetic field produces
enough electricity to light a bicycle light.

Electric current runs

up the wire to power
the lightbulb.

Wheel
spins

The wheel has to keep

turning for the dynamo
to light the bulb.

The dynamo turns

as the wheel spins.

ird or what
The magnet we Lodestone is ?
rotates.
a naturally occurring magnet,
thought to be made when
Iron core
lightning strikes. In 500 bce,
Thales of Miletus noticed it
was magnetic because the
Coil of insulated iron nails in his sandals
wire surrounds stuck to it.
the iron core.

The insulated wire stops the

current from taking a shortcut
Electrical output from loop to loop, and keeps
it flowing around the core.

Iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), and cobalt (Co) are all attracted to magnets.
61
What is energy?

Power plants
Most of the electricity that powers
our homes, schools, factories, and
businesses is generated in power
plants. In most power plants, high-
pressure steam turns huge machines Vast quantities of coal being loaded on
a conveyor belt in Shanghai, China.

called generators.
Burn, burn, burn
Most power plants burn fossil fuels such
as coal, oil, or natural gas. These are formed over
millions of years as plant and plankton remains
are subjected to heat and pressure. When fossil
Smoke and hot fuels are burned, they produce lots of heat, and
gases escape from lots of a gas called carbon dioxide.
the chimney.

The turbines produce

electricity by turning a
The steam drives magnet inside a large
Heat from burning coil of wire.
the turbine.
coal turns water Flow of steam
in the pipe into
steam. Ash collects
underneath.

Cooling
water out

Pump

The steam
passes into
a condenser. Pump brings
in cooling
water.
Crushed coal
Ash
and hot air
As the steam
condenses to
water, it collects
in this tank. Cold water
in the pipe cools
the steam so
it condenses.
Flow of water

62
Which country uses the most electricity in the world?
 Power plants

Handle with care Green power

Nuclear power plants create energy by splitting Burning fossil fuels
uranium atoms, which release heat. The heat boils water harms the environment.
to produce steam, which powers the generators that
make electricity. Spent nuclear fuel remains dangerously
There are less harmful
radioactive for thousands of years—and accidents energy sources that
can spread radioactivity into the environment. can be used to generate
On April 26, 1986, at electricity.
1:23 a.m., Reactor Four
at Chernobyl Nuclear Solar power comes from
Power Plant in Ukraine the sun. In theory, it could
exploded. Here, an provide all our energy.
inspector checks the
reactor’s deserted Hydroelectric power
control room more is generated by turbines
than 20 years later.
turned by water falling
through a dam.
Wind power is generated
by air flowing through wind
Turn turbines. Lots of turbines
and learn together make a wind farm.

Transformer
Renewable Tidal power uses the
“steps up” energy: energy of the tides as
the voltage. pp. 66–67 seawater rises and falls.

Biomass, such as wood

chips, is made from plant
matter, which releases
energy when it is burned.
Power towers are huge
Stretched between steel towers. They Geothermal energy is
towers, cables carry have extra wires heat from underground.
electrical power across running along the top Hot rocks are less deep in
large distances. to ground lightning. some places than others.

Substations reduce
voltage and send power Electricity is wired to
in different directions. power points in your
home. It connects
with equipment
through a plug.
Local grid

On the way…
All over the world,
rows of towers march
across the landscape. They
support the aluminum cables
that carry electricity from
power plants to homes Cables below
ground
and offices.
China.
63
What is energy?

Fossil fuels Saving energy

There are various
ways in which you
Most of the energy we use comes can save energy.
from burning fossil fuels, but they Grow your own fruit and
vegetables. Try to eat food
won’t last forever. Also, burning that is produced locally.

these fuels causes global warming, So you don’t waste

heat, ask your parents
so it is important to use less energy to make sure your home
is insulated.
and use other sources. Save gas by walking
when you can instead
of asking for a ride.

Oil and gas Turn off your television

We get oil by drilling under and computer. Don’t leave
the ground—from dry land or them on standby!
the ocean floor. Today, oil makes
up 33 percent of all energy use— Turn off lights when you
leave a room, and use
for electricity generation, as fuel energy-saving lightbulbs.
for heating, and as gasoline for
cars. These uses release carbon
Dry laundry outside
dioxide and other pollutants into instead of using a dryer.
the air. Experts think oil reserves
A drilling rig at sea extracts oil. will eventually run out.

Coal energy Compressed lignite

Excavated from the turns into coal.
ground through deep
mines or open pits, coal
provides 40 percent
of the energy for
electricity generation.
Coal was made long
ago, and like other
fossil fuels, new coal
won’t form quickly.
Burning coal releases
carbon into the air,
resulting in pollution. Decaying plants Compressed peat
form peat. becomes lignite.

Peat is the earliest stage

in the formation of coal. Coal
64
How much oil can the largest oil rig store?
 Fossil fuels

Saving the Earth

When you reuse or
recycle something,
less energy is spent on
making new products.
So, less fossil fuel
is used and fewer
polluting gases are
released. This is how
recycling products,
such as paper and
plastic, can reduce
global warning.

Factories release a lot of carbon dioxide,

which gets trapped inside our atmosphere. It’s getting hotter
Global warming is the
gradual rise in the temperature
of the Earth’s atmosphere and
surface. The atmosphere contains
“greenhouse gases,” which trap
heat and keep the Earth warm.
Burning fossil fuels releases extra
Universal symbol for recycling
greenhouse gases, making the
Earth hotter. This harmful effect
is called global warming.

Underground gas
Natural gas is also a fossil fuel.
It comes from coal beds, marshes,
bogs, and oil reserves. Although it
is perhaps the cleanest fossil fuel,
natural gas can easily leak into
the atmosphere, adding to global
warming. Natural gas is likely
to run out in about 100 years.
At the moment, it provides
22 percent of our energy.

This Gas Oil Separation Plant in

Saudi Arabia burns off excess natural
gas that cannot be sent to the refinery.

The Hibernia platform in the Atlantic Ocean can hold 1.3 million barrels of crude oil.
65
What is energy?

Renewable energy Turn

and learn
Energy-efficient
Fossil fuels will eventually run out, homes:
pp. 72–73
but certain sources of energy are
renewable, which means we can go on
Anemometer
producing energy from them forever. Low-speed
shaft
Gear box Controller

The wind
blows the
blades
around.

Generator
Brake

10
0p
Wind farms are where lots of turbines
are installed in a field or in the ocean. Blade High-speed
shaft

eop
le c
Electricity is wired
to power points in
your home.

ou
ld
fit
on
Substations divide
on
power so it can travel
in different directions. Local grid
eb
lad

Cables carry
high currents
e.

between towers.
Wind power
Wind turbines use the power of moving
Taller towers
The transformer
air currents to spin their propellers. These generate more
sends alternating are huge fanlike blades on top of a tall electricity
currents into tower. As they spin, generators inside because wind
power lines. moves faster
the turbines make electricity, which is the higher
distributed via underground cables. above the
ground you go.

The electricity travels underground Underground

to a transformer station.
66
When was the first geothermal plant built?
 Renewable energy
Hydroelectric power
A fifth of the world’s electricity comes
from hydroelectric power plants. Usually,
a dam is built to trap a river and create a
lake. The water is released at a controlled
rate and allowed to flow through a spinning
turbine, which drives an electricity generator.

The spillway of a dam is used

to control the flow of water.

Solar energy
Huge panels are put on the roofs of
Water from a buildings to capture energy from the
reservoir flows sun and convert it into electricity.
down a pipe to
a turbine.
The stronger the sunlight,
the more electricity
Electricity they make.
generator

Turbine

When sunlight lands Solar panel

Geothermal energy on a cell, electrons Photovoltaic cell
The Earth’s crust is a hot are pushed from
one layer to the
place! Some rocks can be other, creating an
as hot as 1,800 ºF (1,000 ºC). electric current. Pure silicon isn’t a good conductor
Geothermal energy uses the of electricity. Each cell contains silicon
doped (made impure) with phosphorus,
heat from these rocks to which produces free electrons.
generate electricity and
Silicon mixed with boron makes “holes”
heat water. where electrons are missing in the cell.
Biofuels
Biofuels come from fast-growing crops,
such as corn, sugarcane, and palm oil.
These fuels can add to or replace fossil
fuels, such as diesel or gasoline. Biofuel
One of the biggest production has been criticized for taking
geothermal areas in up land that could be used to grow food.
the world is Iceland.
People can swim next
to this geothermal plant
in Iceland since the
water is so warm.

The first plant was built in 1904 in Ladarello, Italy.

67
What is energy?

What’s cooking?
The stove is probably the most important
piece of equipment in the kitchen. Thanks to
the stove, you don’t have to eat your food raw.

The oven
Heat is a Inside an electric oven are large coils of
form of energy. wire called heating elements. These get
It comes from hot when electricity travels through them.
the movement They are controlled by a thermostat,
of atoms and which keeps the temperature
molecules. inside constant.
The faster the
molecules move On a burner, the
around, the element is in direct
contact with the
higher the saucepan, which
temperature. passes the heat
on to the food.
Dial controlling
the thermostat

When the element inside

the broiler gets hot, it
loses heat through “heat
radiation.” The radiation Some ovens have a
travels in straight lines, fan that blows the air
heating everything in its around and keeps the
path—including the food. whole oven at the
same temperature.
Food cooks faster
A hot element also in a fan oven.
heats the air that comes
into contact with it. The
air circulates inside the
oven, heating the food.
When the air gets too
hot, the thermostat
turns off the heating
elements. It turns
them back on again
when the oven cools.

68
Can you put ice cream in an oven without melting it?
 What’s cooking?
Heat’s effect on food
Heating food makes the atoms and the molecules
that make up the food jiggle around more rapidly.
This extra energy is what causes changes to food.

Cooking eggs Baking bread Sweet treats

Egg whites and yolks are A bread mixture includes flour, Many candies are made
made of long, stringy protein water, and yeast. Yeast consists by simply adding sugar
molecules dissolved in water. of millions of tiny organisms to water and heating the
(fungi). Flour releases stretchy mixture to very high
gluten when it mixes with water. temperatures.

+ + +
Protein
molecule

Each individual molecule Yeast is inactive until it comes As you cook it, the water
is twisted and curled up. into contact with warm water. boils away, leaving a much
When you add heat, the When the bread mix is left in stronger solution of sugar.
molecules uncurl and a warm place, the yeast starts Very strong solutions make
start to link together. feeding on the sugars in the flour hard toffee or hard candy.
and releases carbon dioxide.
Water
boils out
of the
sugar

Gas is
Chains
released
of protein
unravel
and join

The molecules form a The gumlike gluten fills If you stir the mixture as it
mesh that traps the water with thousands of gas bubbles, cools, it forms crystals. This
they floated in. The egg and the bread rises. Cooking is how you make fudge. To
is now cooked. traps the bubbles in the bread. make toffee, you leave it
to set without stirring.

The chains
form a mesh.

Yes, if you make baked Alaska—ice cream covered in meringue.

69
What is energy?

Keeping cool
We keep food cool so it stays fresh,
and we keep liquids cool so they’re
refreshing to drink. Electricity Eggs are usually stored
in the refrigerator door,
which is a few degrees
makes all this possible. warmer than the shelves.

45 ºF Some foods don’t need Room temperature

(7 ºC) to be chilled to stay fresh. Dry foods, such as beans Lettuce and other salad
and above
and pasta, keep very well vegetables go in the door,
or in a drawer at the
at room temperature. bottom of the fridge.
Root vegetables, such
as potatoes, don’t need
refrigeration, but they
keep best in a cool
place rather than
a warm one.

Fridge
32–45 ºF
(0–7 ºC)
The temperature inside
a refrigerator is cold
enough to slow down Cool coil
the growth of bacteria A pump compresses
(germs) in our food, so it refrigerant gases,
stays fresh longer. Dairy heating and turning
products, meat, and them into a liquid.
fish should always The hot liquid
be stored here. evaporates, which
cools it and turns
it back into a gas.
Some treats and Freezer The cool gas absorbs
32 ºF desserts are served frozen.
(0 ºC)
Freezers are cold enough heat as it passes
and below to make your skin freeze! through long coiled
Bacteria can’t multiply pipes set into the
in these temperatures, fridge walls.
so food stays fresh for Cold gas cools the
months or even years. fridge contents.
Most foods are thawed
or warmed before
you eat them.

70
How quickly do bacteria grow at room temperature?
 Keeping cool
Adjustable
temperature control

Liquid
evaporates

Compressor

Control
electronics

Compressor
compresses the gas.

In just four hours, one bacterium can turn into more than 1,000!
71
What is energy?

Energy efficiency
Every home needs energy, most of which comes from
fossil fuels. It’s important not to waste energy because fossil
fuels will run out one day. Also, burning these fuels releases
carbon dioxide into the air, adding to global warming.

Eco-living The windcatcher

channels air into
Triple-pane windows have
three panes of glass with a
Sustainable homes are the house, providing layer of air between them.
designed to be better for the ventilation. The The air stops heat from
aluminum tubing escaping, so you need less
environment. They have lots reflects light inside. energy to warm the house.
of features that save energy
and water. They produce
fewer carbon emissions and
are also cheaper to run.

The “Lighthouse” is
built with materials
that absorb heat
during the day and
give it out at night.

The outside of the

roof is covered in
photovoltaic and
solar panels. These A biomass boiler burns wood
generate electricity pellets for heating rooms and
for the whole house. hot water during the winter.
72
What are carbon emissions?
 Energy efficiency
In your home
We can all do things to Batteries
make our homes more energy Every household uses
efficient. A lot of energy is batteries to power all
used to heat a house. Ask kinds of things—but
your parents to insulate your batteries eventually
attic to help keep in heat. You
can also insulate walls and
run out. So how should
floors, plug gaps around you get rid of them?
doors and windows, and Change old batteries
install storm windows. right away. Batteries
contain chemicals that may
Thermograms are leak and ruin the gadget.
pictures that show
hot things as white Don’t throw your
and yellow, and batteries in the trash.
cold things as blue. Recycle them instead—it’s
The hottest part Insulating an attic
better for the environment.
of this house is its
windows, because
heat is escaping Turn Batteries should never
through them. be thrown onto a fire—
and learn they may explode.
Saving energy:
When rain hits the roof, pp. 64–65
it collects in a gutter and Renewable
runs down a pipe into a
recycling tank. The water is energy:
used in a washing machine. pp. 66–67

When things break

However energy efficient you are, electrical
goods will eventually need to be replaced.
But some items are simply too dangerous to
throw away. Old fridges contain gases that
are harmful if they leak. The safest way to
get rid of a broken fridge is to contact a
disposal specialist to take it away.
Make a difference
If you get a new computer or
cell phone but there’s nothing
wrong with the old one, donate
the old one to charity. Go online
Broken
fridges to find charities, schools, and
must be groups that can make use of
carefully taken
apart so they your unwanted equipment.
don’t release
harmful gases.

Gases containing carbon that are released into the air and may cause global warming.
73
Light and sound

Light and sound

We learn most of what we know about
the world by seeing and hearing. We need
light to be able to see, and sound around
us to hear. Both reach us by traveling
in waves.
A glass prism splits light into colors.
toms give out lo
ts
White light ’sa of
n
There is a range, or spectrum,

lig
es
of colors of light—from red
What is light?

h
Th

t.
to blue. When all the colors
are mixed together, the result Light is a type of energy
looks white. Sunlight is “white called electromagnetic radiation.
light”—but a glass prism will “Electromagnetic” means it’s made
separate the colors. Each color up of electrical and magnetic energy,
bends at a different angle as and “radiation” means it spreads
the light passes through the out from a source. Electromagnetic
prism, allowing us to see radiation comes from particles that
the individual colors. carry an electric charge—especially
electrons in the atoms that make
up everything around us.

The speed of light

Light travels in waves, a bit like waves that travel through water. Light doesn’t always behave like a
It travels faster than anything else in the universe—an amazing wave. Sometimes it behaves like it’s
made up of particles, so it spreads
186,000 miles per second (300,000 km per second)! It takes just out more like a spray of water from
eight minutes for light from the sun to reach the Earth. a hose than waves in the ocean.

74
What is refraction?
 Light and sound
Secrets of sound Picture detective
When something vibrates, it Look through the Light
squeezes and stretches the air and sound pages and
around it, sending out waves see if you can identify
that we hear as sound. the picture clues below.

Echolocation
Some animals use sound
to find their way around.
This is called echolocation.
Bats send out high-pitched
squeaks that bounce off their
surroundings. If their echo
comes back quickly, it means
there’s something nearby.

Cymbals
create large
waves, which
make a loud
sound!

The speed of sound

Sound travels slower than light—about 1,220 ft per second
(about 340 m per second) in air. Its speed changes depending
on what the waves are traveling through. They can
move four times faster in water than in air.
Turn
and learn
Visible light:
pp. 76–77
How ears hear:
pp. 90–91

Refraction is when light waves bend, such as in a prism.

75
Light and sound

Now you see it…

Light waves (or electromagnetic Blue
waves) are all different lengths.
The range of wavelengths Cyan

we can see is called the visible

spectrum. But there are other Green

types of electromagnetic
Red
radiation, with longer or shorter
wavelengths, that we cannot see. Light of many colors
Visible light is made up of waves of
... and now you don’t different lengths. Each length appears
Our eyes can see only light waves of as a separate color. For example, red
certain lengths—if they’re longer or shorter, waves are long and blue rays are short.
they’re invisible. You may know some of the Light contains an endless number of
other forms of electromagnetic radiation, such colors. The only limit is on how well
as X-rays or microwaves. Although they are your eye and brain can distinguish
invisible, we make use of them every day. one wavelength from another.

Radio waves Microwaves Infrared waves

Radio waves carry sound and Microwaves are used to carry cell Infrared waves carry heat. The
images through the air. Radios, phone calls, and also to heat food in waves can be seen through night-
televisions, and walkie-talkies all microwave ovens. Atoms in food absorb vision goggles or special cameras
use radio waves. The longest radio microwave energy and heat up. Some designed to detect heat rather than
waves can be 100,000 times longer foods, such as those containing water, light. When you get near anything
than the shortest ones. heat up more than others. hot, you feel infrared rays.
76
What is white light?
 Now you see it...

Colored or transparent
Some materials absorb some
colors of light and reflect
Visible spectrum
others, so they appear
colored. Other materials
are “transparent”—they let
light pass through them.

I can see a rainbow

When it is raining and the sun is behind you,
you may see a rainbow. Sunlight is a mixture of A diamond is transparent.
But light bends as it passes
all the colors of visible light. Each color bends by through it, like in a prism or a
a different amount as it enters a raindrop, bounces raindrop. It also bounces off the
many faces inside and outside.
off the back, and bends again as it leaves. So you The result is a sparkly effect,
see a different color from each drop. with colors and flashes of light.

Visible Ultraviolet (UV) rays X-rays Gamma rays

Light sources, such Ultraviolet waves come straight from X-ray waves pass through Gamma rays can bore through
as the sun, produce the sun. Some UV waves can burn most things, but not solid objects and kill living cells.
visible light. We your skin and, over time, cause bones, teeth, or metal. Doctors use them in radiotherapy
see objects because wrinkles and cancer. That’s why you When doctors want to destroy cancer cells. Gamma
visible light bounces should cover up and use sunscreen to look at your bones, rays are also released when
off them. when you go outside in the sunlight. they take X-ray pictures. nuclear bombs explode.

All the colors of visible light appearing together.

77
Light and sound

Light and bubbles

When light hits the surface of a bubble,
it reflects off both the outside and the
inside of its skin, producing the effect
of swirling, shimmering colors.

Bubble colors
Bubbles are formed when air is trapped inside
a thin layer of soapy water. You can see its
colors when light waves reflect from the
layer’s outer and inner surfaces back to
your eyes. The thickness of the bubble
determines the the kind of colors you
see. As some parts of the bubble are thicker
than others, you see many colors at once.

hands on
These bubbles are on the surface of a soap-and-water solution.
Make your
own bubble solution by Color secrets
mixing half a cup of dish The colors you see on a bubble change as it
soap with four cups of water gets thinner due to evaporation. In fact, you can
and four tablespoons tell how thick a bubble is by the colors it reflects.
of glycerine. The blue parts of bubbles are thickest and the
black parts are thinnest. Bubbles start to turn
black when they are about to burst.

78
What happens when you blow soap bubbles in cold weather?
 Light and bubbles
Tiny planets
The patterns on a bubble look
a little like the patterns of
clouds around a planet. Both
are films of fluid, so they act
in a similar way. This is why
some scientists use bubbles as
model planets—they study
the surface patterns to
discover how storms and
hurricanes develop.

The colors on the surface of A storm has been

a soap bubble appear to swirl raging on the planet
around like a storm on a planet. Jupiter for 300 years.

Bubble shapes
The water molecules in bubble solution hold
tightly to one another, constantly pulling
together. This means that bubbles always
take up the smallest surface area possible.

When soap solution is stretched When the solution is stretched

across a bubble wand, the smallest around a pocket of air, the smallest
surface it can form is a flat plane. surface it can make is a ball.

Bursting bubbles
Soap bubbles burst when they touch
If two bubbles meet in midair, When three bubbles meet, they
they shrink their surface area share three walls. The point at anything that’s dry (such as a finger),
by forming a shared, flat which these walls meet always or when the water in them evaporates.
wall between them. measures 120 degrees.

The water in them turns to ice—so they freeze.

79
Light and sound

Mirror, rorriM
Fairground mirrors are made
to be curved (with concave and
convex surfaces) to make people’s
faces and bodies look odd.

When you want to see yourself,

you look in a mirror. Mirrors
reflect up to 95 percent of
the light that hits them, while
ordinary glass reflects only
eight percent. How is
this possible?
Reflective
silver layer
Working layers (atoms shown
When light hits a magnified)
mirror, it bounces Backing Glass
straight back in the
direction it came
from. You see an exact
reflection in modern
mirrors because they’re
made from glass that has
several layers of metal and chemicals
applied to the back. These give the
mirror strength and stability and
make sure it gives a clear reflection.
Convex mirror

Silver service
One of the best materials
for creating reflections
is silver. It forms a flat, Concave Taking a curve
smooth surface similar to Curved mirrors give
the face of a large crystal. weird reflections and make
Polished silver reflects light
well and gives a sharp
you look very fat or thin.
image. On its own, though, Concave mirrors dip in—
silver tarnishes in air, so to they make things look larger
make mirrors, it’s applied Convex
but you see a smaller area
directly to glass, then other
layers are added on the reflected. Convex mirrors
Magnified silver crystals back for protection. bulge out—they make
things look smaller,
but you see more.
80
When was the silvered-glass mirror invented?
 Mirror, mirror
Ancient images
In the Middle Ages, The world of mirrors
mirrors were made from Even when you can’t
polished stone, silver, see them, there are
bronze, or copper. These mirrors everywhere!
were very dark, and
the metals became dull Light-enhancing mirrors hung
in wealthy homes for thousands
and discolored, so they of years. Before electricity was
produced spotty images. invented, they reflected candlelight.
Magnifying mirrors have a
or wha small, concave surface. They’re
eird t? designed to help in applying
w We all go
makeup or examining facial skin.

through life without Dental mirrors help the

dentist see all the hidden places
ever really seeing our inside your mouth. They’re small
own faces—we can and have handles.
only ever see a
Rearview mirrors are often convex
reflection of it. to show a larger area. They’re used
on bicycles, cars, and trucks so
drivers can see things behind the car.
Car headlights and flashlights
both have mirrors behind their
bulbs to make their beams
stronger and straighter.
Sunglasses sometimes have
one-way mirror lenses. These are
slightly see-through, so you can
see the world, but other people
just see mirrors.
Reflector telescopes have mirrors
set inside them to help gather and
focus light.
Mirror

Hide and seek Military uses

Periscopes use Complex periscopes
mirrors to bend in submarines allow
light so people Light
the crew to see the
can see around ocean’s surface when
corners. A simple they’re underneath it.
periscope is a tube Periscopes are also
with angled mirrors used in tanks and
set parallel to each gun turrets.
other at each end. Spectators use mini periscopes
Mirror to watch a golf tournament.

It was invented in 1835, in Germany, by a chemist named Justus von Leibig.

81
Light and sound

Lenses
Lenses are used to bend light
to form an image. You have a lens
in each eye, while telescopes and
microscopes use lenses to help us
see things that are either too far
away or too small to be visible.

What is a lens?
A lens is a transparent object
Lens that allows light to pass through
it. Lenses can be curved on one
Iris or both sides. Lenses that curve
Pupil
inward are called concave.
Lenses that curve outward
are called convex.

Convex lenses bend rays of light together

and bring them to a point called the focus,
or focal point. The lens in your eye is convex.

Rays of light

Focal
point

Convex lens

Concave lenses spread the rays of light apart.

Rays of light

Concave lens

82
Which is the biggest glass telescope lens?
 Lenses
How do your eyes work?
Looking for lenses
When you look at an object, the hands on You’ll find lenses in all
light from it travels in straight
lines to the lens of your eye. Make a sorts of objects.
The lens focuses the light simple water lens. Put
Magnifying glasses are
upside down onto the retina a piece of clear plastic over a simple convex lenses that
at the back of your eye. Cells magazine page and drip water make things look bigger.
in the retina turn the image onto it. Now look at the
into an electrical message—a letters through the “lens.” Telescopes contain lenses
that allow us to see things
set of nerve signals. This travels Do they look bigger? that are very far away.
to your brain, which interprets
these signals and perceives Microscopes make things
the object the right way up. Eye What you see that are too small for our
Lens (lies eyes to see look bigger.
Brain behind iris)

Video projectors magnify

images and direct them to
a screen.

Electrical Upside-down Retina

Some cameras have
message image (back of eye)
a number of lenses to
produce different effects.
That’s better!
If someone is nearsighted, distant objects look blurred. This
Pupil shrinks in
is because the lens focuses light in front of the retina instead bright light
of on it. If farsighted, nearby objects are blurred because
light focuses behind the retina. Glasses or contact lenses
help the eye focus light in the right place.
Iris Muscles
Nearsightedness Farsightedness
Bright light around iris
Before Light focuses in Before Light focuses contract
front of retina behind the retina Pupil expands
in dim light

Muscles
Dim light around
Lens Instant reaction iris relax

Nearsighted people can focus on things Farsighted people can focus on things
There are muscles in the eye
that are close but not those at a distance. that are at a distance but not on close that help the lens change shape
Concave lenses lengthen the light’s path objects. Convex lenses help shorten so you can change focus quickly
through the eye. the light’s path.
to look at things that are near or
After After
far away. Other muscles around
the iris control how much light
enters the eye. Your pupils get
bigger to allow more light in and
A concave lens spreads out A convex lens bends the rays help you see in dim conditions.
the light before it hits the eye. together in front of the eye.

The 40-in (1-m) lens in the Yerkes telescope, Wisconsin.

83
Light and sound

How light works

X-ray of
an energy-
efficient bulb

For thousands of years, the only lighting

available was fire, oil lamps, candles— Wires inside
the fitting
and later, gas lamps. Modern-day electric carry electricity
to electrodes.
lights are more convenient and safe.
Transformer
Basic bulbs Energy-saving compact
fluorescent lamps (CFLs)
boosts the
voltage of
Old-style incandescent lightbulbs have no filaments. the electricity
contain a small coil, or filament, Instead, electricity supply.
causes a vapor (gas)
made from tungsten—a strong in the glass tube to give
Tungsten
metal that can get incredibly off invisible ultraviolet
electrodes
(UV) light. This makes
hot without melting. When an substances called release
electric current passes though the “phosphors” glow red, electrons
green, and blue—mixed from electric
tungsten coil, it gets so hot that it current.
together, these colors
glows, and it’s this glow that give the illusion of white Gas
provides us with light. light. CFLs remain cool, molecules
last longer, and use inside the
less energy than glass tube
LEDs can be used for signs and incandescent lightbulbs. give off
outdoor display screens. They invisible
give off a very bright light and LED bulb ultraviolet
come in lots of different colors. light.

Small and bright

Tiny pieces of semiconductor material called
light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are used to produce
light in all kinds of devices—and increasingly
in lamps, too. They produce light by passing
electricity through a special material that gives
off light of one particular color.
Lead connecting to
electricity supply

84
How many bulbs are used to light the Empire State Building in New York City?
 How light works
Mixing colors
or wha
White light is a mixture of the countless
eird t?
colors of the spectrum. But our eyes work w
in a way that means that the mix of just Every square
red, green, and blue light looks white. centimeter of the
If you direct a ray of light through a sun’s surface emits
prism, it splits into different colors. A as much light as a
mixture of two colors produces either 15,000 watt bulb!
magenta pink, yellow, or cyan blue.
The area where
red, green, and
blue mix together
appears white.

Lasers
Lasers are devices that emit thin, powerful light
beams. The light waves in a laser are all the same
wavelength and line up exactly. This makes laser
beams so intense they can cut through metal.
Lasers are used in surgery, CD players,
surveying, and industries.

Laser surgery
Lasers are used for
many types of surgery.
The light’s energy is
used to burn through
tissue without cutting
it with a scalpel. Lasers
are also used to shatter
kidney stones and
shape cavities for
Lasers are used to treat eye problems fillings in dentistry.
such as nearsightedness.
Lasers can be used in light
shows and displays.

The Empire State Building uses 3,194,547 bulbs.

85
Light and sound

Fireworks
Fireworks are packets of 3, 2, 1, liftoff!
Light the fuse and stand far
chemicals that explode into back! The flame travels up into
bursts of color and noise when the firework where it quickly
sets fire to gunpowder inside.
lit. A fuse ensures the explosion
6. Explosion!
is delayed. The chemicals inside
the firework explode,
releasing their energy
Bamboo casing as light, heat, and
sound. Bang!

The arrows were

shot into the air.

First fireworks
It’s thought that the first fireworks were 5. Stars
used in China more than 2,000 years ago. The gunpowder is mixed
with stars—chemical
They were made from bamboo and used mixtures that produce
in religious ceremonies and to celebrate flashes of color.
the New Year. Fire-arrows, like the one
4. Gunpowder
shown above, were rocketlike weapons Explosive gunpowder
that developed from fireworks. is stored in a chamber
inside the firework.

3. Propellant
Inside the cardboard case,
gunpowder burns quickly
to shoot the rocket skyward.

2. Fuse
Fuse paper contains chemicals
that burn steadily to allow
a person time to stand
High tech displays back after lighting.
Firework displays are often run by computers.
The computer sends an electric spark down 1. Launch tube
a wire to light each fuse. It makes fireworks In big displays, fireworks are
put inside metal tubes to set
launch in the right order and explode at them at the correct angles.
their highest points in the sky. These stay on the ground.

86
What is the firework called the Catherine Wheel named after?
 Fireworks

Rainbow of color
Fireworks contain
metallic salts—these
make fireworks explode
in different colors.
Purple is made from
strontium salts
Sr Cu
and copper.

Firework patterns Red comes from

When fireworks explode, they create different lithium salts.
Li
patterns in the sky. Here are six to look out
for next time you go to a display of fireworks.
Orange flashes
are created by
Ca
calcium salts.

Yellow color comes

from sodium
Ring shell—a Palm trees—stars move up Chrysanthemum—a Na
bright, expanding as a “trunk,” then spread pattern that leaves
compounds.
ring of stars. out as “branches.” long trails of stars.
Green lights are made
using barium
Ba
compounds.

Blue flashes come

Serpentine—many Fish—a swarm of Willow—star trails from copper
Cu
stars that zigzag stars moving randomly fall nearly all the compounds.
outward as they fall. across the sky. way to the ground.

An instrument of torture!
87
Light and sound

Measuring sound Sound waves

Sound waves spread
out in all directions
All the sounds we hear are made up of from where they
waves that travel through the air to our are made. As a wave
moves through the air,
ears. We can record the waves to see the air molecules are
their shapes. Different sounds make squeezed together and
then stretched apart.
waves of different shapes.
What is sound?
Sound is made up of waves of vibrations moving through the
air. Any object that vibrates (moves quickly back and forth)
can make a sound, just like this drum.

Hitting the drum skin with

drum sticks makes it vibrate.
Sou
nd
wa
ve
s

The skin of a drum is

stretched very tight.

hands on
When you hit a drum, its skin
vibrates up and down. Sometimes
you can even see the skin moving.
As the skin vibrates, it pushes and Hold one
pulls on the air around it, making
the air vibrate, too. end of a rubber band
on the edge of a table. Stretch
out the other end and then
pluck the rubber band. Can
you see vibrations and hear
the sound they make?

88
Can you hear sound in outer space?
 Measuring sound
We can pick up sound with a
Flatter sound
microphone. Inside it is a thin
metal plate that vibrates when
waves have a small Decibel levels
amplitude. They
a sound wave hits it. The Microphone
sound quiet.
The loudness of any
microphone turns sound is measured from
the pattern of the Crest (top
vibrations into of wave)
a standard distance of
an electrical 3 ft (1m) and in units
signal.
called decibels (dB).

Leaves rustling
Loud sounds form
taller waves, which
30 dB
have a large amplitude.

“
Speaking

Oscilloscope Trough (bottom 60 dB

of wave)
What sound looks like Vacuum cleaner
Sound waves can be shown on a machine called
an oscilloscope. The height of a wave is called its
70 dB
amplitude. The crests show where air is squeezed
and the troughs show where air is stretched. Busy traffic
80 dB
Baby crying
Slower than light
Sound waves travel slower 85 dB 85 dB
than light. You can tell this
during a thunderstorm. First Pneumatic drill
you see the lightning, then 125 dB Listening to
you hear the thunder, perhaps sounds of
85 dB and
several seconds later. Yet, they
Jet engine above for a
happen at the same time.
A loud, explosive storm 140 dB long time
can damage
your ears.

Frequency and pitch Sonic boom

Frequency is the number Sound waves travel
of crests on a sound wave through air at about 745 mph
that pass by each second. (1,200 kph). When
High-frequency sounds, a plane travels faster
such as bird song, sound than the speed of sound,
high-pitched. Sounds it creates sonic boom—a
with low frequency, like “shock wave” that makes
thunder, are low-pitched. High-frequency sound waves a very loud noise.

No. There’s no sound because there’s no air for sound waves to travel through.
89
Light and sound

How ears hear

Sound travels in waves. When these
waves reach your ears, they’re Earwax
carried to your brain, which tells is
The stapes bone in

pro
your middle ear is
you what sound you’re hearing— the smallest bone
in your body.
your friend’s voice, for

duced
example, or the pop Outer ear

of a bursting balloon.

in th
ee
Ear, ear, ear
rc

a
Your ears have three parts—the outer
ana
ear is the part you see. Your eardrum, l.
which separates the outer ear from the
middle ear, picks up sound vibration and
Sound w
passes it onto the three tiny bones of the aves
middle ear. The inner ear contains bone, This tunnel in the
outer ear is called
liquid, and tiny hairs, which turn the the ear canal.
vibrations into signals to the brain.
The part of your ears

rd or what?
that’s on the outside

w ei of your head helps

“catch” sound waves.
The strange folds in
Headphones let you People often suffer hearing your ears help you
hear one sound while
blocking out others.
loss (deafness) when they get figure out when
old. But if you listen to very loud sounds are behind
or above you.
music all the time, or sit too near
the speakers at rock concerts,
your hearing could be
damaged forever.

Better than one

Ears are really very
smart—they not only
identify sounds, but
can also tell how far
Sounds reach one ear away they are, and
before the other, which
helps your brain figure
from which direction
out where they are. they’re coming.
90
Are there any sounds we can’t hear?
 How ears hear
All change
When a sound enters your
ears, it vibrates inside. The
vibration is picked up by Hello Echoes happen when
liquid in the inner ear, which sound waves bounce
Hello
vibrates slightly, causing tiny off one surface onto
another and another
hairs to move. Cells at the and another, getting
base of these hairs transform weaker every time
they hit your ears.
the vibration into electrical
impulses that travel along
nerve pathways to your brain. In an echo-free chamber, all the
surfaces are lined with fiberglass Repeating sound
wedges that absorb sound.
Sometimes you hear a sound
once, then over and over again,
getting fainter every time. This
Middle ear is called an echo. You can hear
Inner ear echoes in small spaces with hard
walls, such as wells, or where
there are lots of hard surfaces
all around—in a canyon,
cave, or mountain range.
The cochlea is a
Ear fluid-filled, shell-shaped
drum organ in the inner ear Helping ear
that senses sound
vibration.
Hearing can get damaged
or worn out. If any sound
gets through, a hearing aid
The eustachian tube leads
from your ear to the back will make it louder. Cochlear
of your nose and throat. implants do more than this—
they stimulate nerves in the
Whispering walls cochlea, so
Sometimes, a hard, curved surface causes sound to behave in they can help
strange ways. Visitors to the dam at the Barossa Reservoir in those who are
South Australia can whisper at one end, and someone at the totally deaf.
other end—over 460 ft (140 m) away—can hear them clearly.
This is because the curve causes the sound waves to bounce
in a series of jumps that run all along the length of the wall. Cochlear implants are
suitable for children.

ft (140 m)
Distance of over 460

Yes—some sounds have such high frequency we can’t hear them, but dogs, snakes, and bats can.
91
Light and sound

Electric guitar Plectrum

When you pluck the strings You can pluck the strings with
of a traditional (acoustic) your fingers or a plectrum.

guitar, the sound is magnified

in the guitar’s hollow body. Frets show
the musician where
to place her fingers to
An electric guitar’s body is change the note.

solid, but it still makes a Six or twelve

very loud noise! metal strings
are each tuned
to a different note.

1 Pluck the strings

Play an electric guitar
without a pickup. The The neck carries
strings vibrate, but the the fingerboard and
sound they make is as supports the strings.

quiet as a whisper.
The bridge has a
The solid body is
saddle that lifts the
made from a single
strings clear of the
piece of wood.
pickup so they
can vibrate easily.

Pickups detect
An amplifier boosts the vibrations of
the electrical signals to the strings. 2 What picks up
make the sound loud.
the sound?
A pickup has magnets
with wire wrapped around
them. A magnet has a
magnetic field around
it. When strings vibrate,
they change the pattern
of the magnetic field,
creating electricity, which
is transferred through
the coil to the amplifier.
92
What is an amp?
 Electric guitar

3 Amplified
The electrical signal travels from
the pickup along a wire to the amplifier. MAGNETIC FIELD
The amplifier strengthens the signal.
A built-in loudspeaker then blasts
Guitar
out the electric guitar sound. string Magnet in pickup

Close-up view
Signals travel
of a pickup
to amplifier

Machine heads are like Volume and tone

screws and can be twisted control knobs
Coil of wire
to tighten or loosen the
strings for tuning.

MAGNETIC FIELD

Pickups convert
vibrations from
the strings into
electrical signals.

The electrical current, or

signal, from the pickup travels
through wires to the controls,
then onward to the amplifier. Coil of wire in pickup

or wha Different electric guitars

eird t? Guitars come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. The
w
The electric guitar was shape of an electric guitar does not affect its sound.
first championed by jazz
Semi-acoustic guitars are a Double-headed guitars
musicians. They loved the mix of electric and acoustic, let musicians switch sounds
way this loud instrument with hollow bodies. without switching guitars.
let them be heard above
the noise of a Bass guitars only have four Custom guitars are
strings and play the lower whatever shape or size
brass band. a musician prefers.
notes in a piece of music.

An amp is a single unit in which amplifier and loudspeaker are usually built.
93
Digital world

Chips and codes

Digital technology relies on the
microchip, which contains electrical
circuits, and on binary codes, which
instruct the hardware. Both work
together to run electronic devices.
What’s inside?
Silicon chips A silicon chip contains
The world of electronics changed forever when, in 1961, millions of transistors (things
inventor Robert Noyce created the silicon computer that control the flow of an
chip—a circuit cut into a piece of silicon. Silicon was electric current) and other
chosen because it’s a good semiconductor— tiny electronic parts that are
it can keep the flow of electricity going all connected to one another.
or make it stop.

A silicon chip can be

very small—less than
1⁄
Ever heard
10 sq in (1 sq cm)
and about 1⁄100 in of silicon?
(0.5 mm) thick. Silicon and
Sa oxygen make
nd up sand. Once
co pure silicon is
ve separated from
r so sand, it can be
ve used to make
r ha
Lump of silicon
microchips.
lf t
he
E ar t
h’s
sur
fa ce.

94
How many transistors can fit on a single silicon chip?
 Chips and codes
Picture detective
Look through the Digital
Silicon wafer world pages and see if
you can identify the
How is a silicon picture clues below.
chip made?
Electronic circuit patterns
are photographed onto disks
of silicon, called wafers.
Chemicals are used to etch
the patterns into the silicon
in several layers. The wiring
that connects the circuit is
made in the same way.
Pattern to be etched on chip

Individual chips
Wafers are tested to make
sure they work. After being
checked, they are cut into
individual chips, which are
placed in protective cases.

Hundreds of chips can be

Individual chip made on a single wafer.
from wafer

Finished chip in package

Codes
Transistors on a microchip
act like switches that can
either be off (interpreted Turn and
as “zero”) or on learn
(interpreted as “one”)
when electricity passes Binary code:
through them. The one
pp. 98–99
and zero form basic The Internet:
binary codes that tell pp. 110–111
the device what to do.

Some silicon chips contain more than 10 billion transistors.

95
Digital world

Inside a computer
We use computers to do all kinds of
things—play games, watch videos,
and surf the Internet. All these things
are controlled by a microprocessor
that acts like a tiny electronic brain.
The microprocessor,
or central processing
unit (CPU), is the single
most important chip in a
A computer stores computer. This electronic circuit
programs and files is what makes all the programs
on a hard disk or a run. It is placed inside the computer.
solid state drive. These
typically store hundreds
of gigabytes of data.

Laptop computer
All the components of a
personal computer can be
built into a convenient folding Instead of a mouse, a
package the size of a book. trackpad is used to control
the cursor on screen.
Laptops use wireless By dragging a finger over
technology to interact with the trackpad and clicking
buttons, it is easy to scroll
printers, scanners, and other vertically and horizontally,
devices by radio waves. or open and close windows.

How a motherboard works

The motherboard is the main circuit
board in a computer. It connects 2 I/O controller RAM
all the main parts and passes makes the central
on instructions. processing unit CPU
(CPU) pause.

I/O Controller

1 Keyboard communicates
with motherboard via input/
output (I/O) controller. Motherboard

96
What is a netbook?
 Inside a computer

Computer talk
Many internal and external
parts come together to
make a computer work.
Memory holds data that
the CPU needs to read and
write quickly.

Secondary storage—hard
disks and solid state drives—
store programs and files.

All data on a computer is

1MB held in units called bytes.

Computer
screens
Cables connect the laptop
display any to input devices, printers,
color, by and the Internet.
combining
light from Input devices include
millions of computer mouses, joysticks,
tiny red,
green, and
and drawing tablets.
blue dots.

ird or what
Ports provide connections to
we ?
external devices. An MP3 player, Engineers have
digital camera, Internet dongle, or designed portable computers
external hard drive can be plugged
into various ports. You can also that can be worn on the
transfer your photos and videos body and controlled
using a memory card slot.
using eyeblinks.

3 CPU stops what it is doing 5 CPU tells the

and accesses memory (RAM) graphics processing
to run the keyboard driver unit (GPU) to put
built into the program. that character 6 Monitor displays
on the screen. characters on screen

4 Keyboard driver
finds out what key
was pressed and what
character this represents. Graphics processing unit

It’s a small, lightweight laptop designed for Internet access on the move.
97
Digital world

Binary code
The binary code is made up of
two digits: 1 and 0. Images, text,
and sounds can all be converted
into this code so a computer can
understand them.

A binary system—
having only two digits
or options—is also used
by Morse code (dots
and dashes) and Braille
(raised and flat dots).

Bit
A bit is a binary digit,
and can be either a 0 or
a 1. Each bit can hold
the answer to one simple
question, using 0 for “No”
and 1 for “Yes.”

Byte
A byte is made up
Binary numbering of 8 bits, and is the
Computers use binary measurement unit used
numbers because they are to describe the storage
easier to handle. In binary, capacity and transfer
the digits (read from the rate of digital systems.
right) are worth 1, 2, 4, 8,
and so on—not units, tens, 1 kilobyte is 1,000 bytes
and hundreds. In ordinary 1 megabyte is 1,000 kilobytes
numbers, “1001” is one unit, 1 gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes
no tens, no hundreds, and 1 terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes
one thousand. But in binary, 1 petabyte is 1,000 terabytes
“1001” is one 1, no 2, no 4, 1 exabyte is 1,000 petabytes
and one 8, which equals 9.
98
How many ones and zeros can a fiber-optic cable carry per second?
 Binary code
Sending numbers
Fiber-optic cables are used to
transport binary numbers from
one computer to another. An
electric current carries the
numbers as a stream of digital
data. A laser turns the current
into pulses of light that are sent
through the fiber-optic cable.
The first A cable used for
signal is sent telecommunications
down the has 100 or more
middle. optical cables inside.

Origins of binary
Inspired by ancient
Indian and Chinese A central steel
ideas, the German cable protects
mathematician the fibers.

Gottfried Leibniz first

developed the early
A second
form of the binary signal travels A polymer outer
number system in in a zigzag line. sheath keeps the fiber
the 17th century. safe from damage.

The center is made

ASCII Code: character to binary code from glass or plastic.

0 0011 0000 F 0100 0110 U 0101 0101 A third signal travels

by reflection but
1 0011 0001 G 0100 0111 V 0101 0110 doesn’t get in the
way of other signals.
2 0011 0010 H 0100 1000 W 0101 0111
3 0011 0011 I 0100 1001 X 0101 1000 Light is reflected back
into the core by glass
4 0011 0100 J 0100 1010 Y 0101 1001 or plastic cladding.
5 0011 0101 K 0100 1011 Z 0101 1010
6 0011 0110 L 0100 1100 For lower case hands on
7 0011 0111 M 0100 1101 letters “a” to “o” Using the
8 0011 1000 N 0100 1110 start with 0110, code below, you
9 0011 1001 O 0100 1111 while for “p” to
can write out your name in
A 0100 0001 P 0101 0000 “z” start with
binary code. Use uppercase
0111. The next
B 0100 0010 Q 0101 0001 four digits are
letters for the beginning letter
C 0100 0011 R 0101 0010 of your first and last name,
the same as for
D 0100 0100 S 0101 0011 and lowercase for the
upper case, so
remaining letters.
E 0100 0101 T 0101 0100 a = 0110 0001.

100 billion ones and zeros per second at almost the speed of light.
99
Digital world

Sharing data w eird or what?

Bluetooth is
named after King Harald
When you send an email Blåtand I of Denmark. He
or a message on your mobile united Danish tribes into one
kingdom. The inventors felt that
phone, how does it know was what Bluetooth does—it
where to go? In fact, it is unites different devices
into one system.
passed around a huge
series of computers that
are connected to one
Laptop computers and
another by wires or radio. smartphones connect
wirelessly to the router.
They allow people to
communicate from
Without a wire anywhere in the house.
Many devices can connect to a network
wirelessly, using radio waves. Wi-Fi
provides the most common way to
connect, but Bluetooth is also popular. It
allows devices to connect together one-to-
one, forming a “personal area network.”
Smart devices
Smart speakers can
Some people have digital be controlled by
devices at home that have voice commands.
computers inside them.
These “smart” devices are
connected to the router and
can gather information
or stream content from
the Internet.

How does it work?

Just like TVs and FM radios, a wireless
system uses radio waves. It chops up data into
Bluetooth headphones allow wearers to listen to music on manageable pieces and transmits that data in
their phone without a wire connecting them. That’s useful separate chunks as radio waves. The receiving
if you are carrying your phone in your pocket.
device, such as a phone or computer, picks up
the radio signals and puts the data back together.
100
How far can Bluetooth connect wireless devices?
 Sharing data
What are computer networks?
Towns and cities are joined together by a network of
roads. Computers and other devices are also linked
together by networks. The scale of a network can be Antenna
as small as a home computer and printer or as big
as hundreds of computers used in an office. Most devices connect to
a router using Wi-Fi, a
wireless technology
that uses radio waves
to send and receive
data. Some devices
connect by cables
plugged into the back
of the router instead.

Home network router

At the heart of a computer network is
a device called a router. It links other Networks
devices on the network to one another,
and to the Internet. It allows
There are many
devices in the home to different types of
communicate with other network used to link
devices across the world. computers.
Personal Area
PAN Networks are used
Smart televisions for single-user devices.
can display
Local Area Networks
ordinary television
can join small groups
broadcasts but
are also able to
LAN of computers, like
stream films from those in an office.
a variety of online Campus Area
providers. Networks link
CAN university campus
LANs into one network.

Metropolitan Area
MAN Networks connect all
the networks in a city.
Wide Area Networks
cover large areas across
WAN national or international
What is a server? boundaries.
Servers are computers that hold information for other
connected devices to access. Servers are particularly Global Area
Networks connect
important on the Internet. The two most important kinds GAN many WANs over a
are web servers, which store web pages and the images huge geographical area.
they contain, and mail servers, which store emails that
users can download when they log in.

About 10 m (32 ft).

101
Digital world

Cell phones
Spread out across the world is a network
Early cell
phones weighed of tall metal towers, called base stations.
about 28 oz
(800 g). When you call someone from your cell,
the call travels to the nearest base station,
which sends it on an incredibly fast
Early phones journey to the receiver’s phone. It
In the 1980s, phones
were as big as bricks— takes only a few seconds to make
far larger than the connection.
phones today. As well as making phone calls,
smartphones, such as this iPhone® 8,
can be used to play music, browse the
Internet, and take photos or videos.

Cell networks
Cell phones work within a network of cells.
Each cell is covered by a base station. You
can only make a call if you are within a Microwave
particular range of a base station. link

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

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

102
What does SIM stand for?
 Cell phones

What do they do? or wha

eird t
Cell phones have lots w Every minute, ? What’s inside?
of good features and
some bad ones. all over the world, Inside every cell there
1,000 people buy a cell phone is an antenna to send and
Make calls, send for the first time. There are receive calls and messages,
texts, make video clips, more than three billion cell an electric circuit board to
and take photos.
phones in the world and run the phone, a loudspeaker,
more are made a microphone, and a battery
Play music, download
video clips, and watch each day. to provide power.
television programs.

Find directions, get

train times, and download
listings of what’s going on.

Cells create waste

because they take hundreds
A SIM card holds
of years to break down. personal account
Cells use
lithium-ion details and stores
batteries that phone numbers
give roughly and images.
seven hours
Base of talk time.
station

Switching
center
Base station X-ray of a
cell phone
5 This base
4 The switching station sends Cell
center sends the the waves to phone
waves to another another phone.
base station. Watch phones
Smartwatches, also
called watch phones,
Text messages can be worn on your
travel over the wrist and used to
same network perform certain cell
as digitized sounds. phone functions, such as
Billions of text make and receive calls,
messages are take photos or videos,
sent every day. and show maps to help
you find your way. A Samsung Gear 3 smartwatch

Subscriber identity module.

103
Digital world

Digital photography
Digital cameras allow you to capture a hands on
moment in time, such as blowing out your
Ask an adult
birthday candles. They are also used in if you can you use a
space exploration and medical science. digital camera to take
a photo or record a
video of something
Lens Shutter Flash
in your home.
When it is too dark to
take a photo, an built-in
flash briefly lights up
the scene.

Take a pic!
Digital cameras vary in size, from
a small camera on a cell phone to
a large professional studio camera.
Many people own a compact camera
or a DSLR (digital single lens reflex)
camera like this one.
From light to a digital file
So how does a camera actually take a Light is made up of three
primary colors: red, green,
photo? It’s a simple process that needs the and blue. By combining these
following in order to work: light, a shutter, colors of light, you can create
any other color. All three
a lens, a sensor, and a memory card. combined make white light.

The sensor
is a grid of
millions
of pixels.

Light is reflected off The sensor is covered in tiny This binary coded information
1 a scene. The camera’s 2 squares, called pixels. Each pixel 3 travels to the camera’s
shutter opens so this measures the amount of red, green, memory system, where it is
light can pass through or blue light that hit it. Each pixel stored on the memory card.
the lens to a sensor is recorded using binary code It can be viewed, stored,
inside the camera. (see pp. 98–99). and edited on a computer.
104
How many pixels are in a megapixel?
 Digital photography

View, focus, take! Seeing an image

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

Viewfinder

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 the
camera to a computer.

Editing and playing with photos

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

Battery Memory card

Most digital cameras use Images are stored on

rechargeable batteries. removable memory cards.
You can download them
onto your computer.

Saving memories Convert to black and white Play around with fun effects

Old-fashioned film cameras store images directly Happy birthday!

onto plastic film, whereas digital cameras record
photos on memory cards. The space in the
memory card is measured in megabytes (MB)
and gigabytes (GB), and it can vary from just
512 MB to a massive 128 GB! Memory cards Fix red-eye Add text to an image
are likely to increase in capacity in the future.

One million.
105
Digital world
Who invented
radio?
Guglielmo Marconi is
credited with building
Radio and TV
the first radio system. It’s hard to imagine life without
In 1901, he transmitted
radio signals across radio or TV. We use them for
the Atlantic Ocean. information and entertainment.
How do radios work? There are millions of programs,
First called a wireless, the radio
doesn’t need wires to connect the
but how do they get to our
transmitter and receiver. radios and TVs?
Speech and music are turned
into electrical signals by a What’s inside?
microphone in a radio studio. The main parts of a
radio are an antenna,
The electrical signals from the a circuit board with a
speech and music travel through tuner and amplifier,
wires to a radio transmitter.
and a loudspeaker.
The radio transmitter sends
out radio waves from the
radio station.
Digital radio
When you listen to a digital radio, there is little
Traditional radio sets pick up or no interference, for example, from hissing
the radio waves and turn them noises. Digital transmitters send out sound codes
back into speech and music. that are all mixed up together. The interference
can’t affect the codes much, and your radio will
usually be able to understand them.
Digital transmission Antenna
Digital radios also use a transmitter,
but the waves they use are different The antenna is
usually at the
to those from a traditional radio. back of the radio.
It picks up the
radio waves.

Digital radios use codes

Inside the radio
made of lots of ones
is a tuner and
and zeros. They are
a computer chip
transmitted over a large
that decodes
band of radio waves.
the waves and
converts them
into sound.

106
What does LCD stand for?
 Radio and TV

A neon lamp sent First TV TV inventor

light into holes in The scientific research for televisions In 1928, Baird
a spinning disk.
began in the late 1800s. John Logie demonstrated the first
Baird’s televisor was the first working TV transmission across
TV. A rotating disk transformed light the Atlantic, and the
from a scene into lines forming a first television program
moving image. for the BBC in the UK.

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

LCD TV
Satellite dishes can
LCD (liquid crystal display) screens are used in TVs, pick up the microwaves
calculators, and watches. LCD screens, and more and send them to TVs
recent OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screens, along a cable.
are made up of millions of tiny squares called pixels. A TV turns the waves
into the pictures and
If you look sound that make up
very closely a TV program.
at an LCD TV
screen, you
can see
the pixels.

ird or what
Color we ?
squares There are
Pixels contain roughly 1.6 billion
blue, red, and television sets in the world!
green color. The That’s one TV for every
combination of four people on
different colors in the planet.
the pixels form the
images we see.

Liquid crystal display.

107
Digital world

Bar codes From one code to another

The first bar code was invented in
1948 by US academic Bernard Silver.
Bar codes make shopping faster He was inspired by Morse code, which
uses dots and dashes to encode letters.
and more convenient. A scanner He extended Morse code marks into
the long lines of a bar code.
reads an item’s bar code, and
it sends a code to a computer.
The computer sends back
information about that
S A L E
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: Anything
from 00 to 13 is in the
US and Canada, and
50 means the UK.

Who makes it?

This is the code number
of the manufacturer who
made the product. All
products made by that
manufacturer will have
To y
5 012345
o x the same four-digit code.
B
Manufacturer’s logo

108
When was the first bar code used?
 Bar codes
What’s your number?
Each number in a bar code
is represented by two white ird or what
we ?
stripes and two black stripes Scanner
of different widths. The long, Scientists in the US
thin guide lines at the edges have glued tiny bar codes
and center of the code tell the to the backs of bees. The bar
scanner to start reading. codes helped them keep
track of the bees’ comings
and goings from
Right-hand guide the hive.
Center guide
5 012345 678917

Left-hand guide

Machine readable part

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

2-D bar codes

These new bar codes are
scanned from top to bottom
as well as left to right. Some
of them can be read by
cell phone cameras and
What is it? webcams and take you
This is the code for the
product itself. The code straight to a website.
number for this item
is 567891. Some 2-D bar
codes, like this

678917
Quick Response
code, can store
The check digit hundreds of
This number is used by the times more
scanner to check whether it information
has read the data correctly. than ordinary
bar codes.

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

109
Digital world

The Internet What is the Internet?

It’s simply a network that links computers
around the world. Try imagining it as a
huge map (or spider’s web), with all the
People first found out about the strands linked by different pathways.
Internet in the early 1990s, but Wikipedia Flickr
it was used only by select groups
YouTube
(mostly military and educational)
WhatsApp
before then. Now about 3 billion
people use it—over a quarter
Blogspot Outlook
of the world’s population.
Yahoo

CNN Gmail

The World Wide Web Twitter

Applications like the World Wide Web let you use tumblr
the Internet for information, entertainment, and
communication. People can even build their own Gumtree eBay
websites for other people to use.
The Internet doesn’t just link computers
together; it also connects tablets,
smartphones, and other smart devices.

Find out about almost People all over the

any subject that catches world play one another
your interest by entering at MMOGs—massively
a few key words in a multiplayer online games.
INFORMATION search engine. GAMING

Buy anything from

SHOPPING Make new friends and SOCIAL MEDIA
connect with people
a vacation to a pen who have similar
without stepping interests from around
outside. Every day, the world through
billions of things social media channels.
are sold online.

110
What is Wi-Fi?
 The Internet
YOU
Internet terminology
ARE HERE Browsing: Looking HTML: HyperText
Pinterest at web pages on the Markup Language
Internet and navigating is the language in
through them. which web pages
are written.
ISP: Internet Service
Facebook iTunes Providers link computers Router: A device for
to the Internet. routing Internet traffic.
AOL URL: This stands for Search engine: A site
Uniform Resource Locator that holds a database
Snapchat (a complete web address). of website addresses.

Apple Flipkart
Google

Amazon
Getty
Web browsers
Bing A web browser helps you find, retrieve,
Microsoft Netflix and look at web pages on the Internet.
Most browsers can display not just words
Instagram and pictures but also videos and sounds.

Press send
Splitting information into parcels or packets before it is sent to its
destination is called packet switching. There’s a portion of the original
text, and the addresses of the computers it’s traveling between. Broken link

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

It’s the technology that lets you access the Internet using radio waves instead of cables.
111
Digital world

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

2 Search engines list the

words on each page
the spiders find.
4 A user types
in a word. 3 It then creates an Go
od
-qu
index of all the Ch
ildr ali
ty

bicycle
en’s Bicycle bargains
bic
words it finds. Bicyc
le ba
bik
es yc
les
Massive savings on bikes
www.bikesZ129.com
rgain
s Children’s bikes
Bicycle New and used bicycles for children
www.NandUbikes3000.com
Good-quality bicycles
Buy brand new bicycles at cheap prices
www.cheapbikesforu99.com

5 The search engine 6 It lists these

checks its index to find pages for the user
any relevant pages. in a matter of seconds.

112
Where did the search engine Google get its name?
 Search engines

Web Images Videos Maps News Shopping Mail More

Metadata Search terms

Websites often have key
words (metadata) embedded Working with the
in them. Businesses make sure Internet involves
their web pages contain these lots of special words
words in the title and subtitle and expressions.
of a web page. Web page
designers can also highlight http:// will appear in
certain words to make sure front of most Internet
search engines pick them up. addresses you open.

http stands for

Hypertext Transfer

Complex searches Searches Protocol, an information-

transfer system.

If you type in an exact quote, airplanes Bookmarks give you

a question, or a few key words, a quick access to your
search engine will look for these favorite sites.
words within web pages. These British airplanes
History facilities list
are literal searches, so they look recently accessed sites
for your exact wording. You need so you can go back
to be clear, or you won’t find the British airplanes, 1940s to them.
information you want. Tags are key labels
given to bookmarks
British airplanes, 1940s, used in WW2 or files so you can
find them quickly.

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

From the word “googol” which stands for the number 1 with 100 zeros after it.
113
Digital world

Robots Home help

A robot vacuum
cleaner moves around
a room on its own,
Robots are computer-controlled sucking up dust. To
find its way, the robot
machines that do tasks without sends out sound waves.
These bounce off
the help of humans. Many robots walls, tables, and
are used for work in factories, The robot vacuum
cleaner is powered by
chairs, so the robot
knows where they are.
but some do jobs at home. rechargeable batteries.

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
An industrial robot is
connected to the ground.
It has an arm with a tool
on the end for doing jobs
such as packing boxes
or welding metal.
A robot arm has
joints, just like your arm.
Instead of a hand, it has a
tool called an end effector. This
means the robot can do work, such
as picking up metal panels or
tightening screws. Effectors often
have built-in pressure sensors so
the robot knows how hard
to hold things.

114
How smart is the most intelligent robot?
 Robots
Swarm robotics
Power switch
The result of a new approach
in robotics, swarm robots are Microcontroller
Infrared
designed to work together to receiver
perform a task. Some attach Charging
prongs
themselves to one
another to Formica—
make one actual size
machine. Motor
Others work Formica robot
like ants, Wheel This micro robot
completing Light uses infrared light
tasks as a team. Token to “talk” to other
detector Battery
robots on its team. It
can be programmed to
Infrared emitter perform different tasks,
such as moving tokens
When ants work together, toward a light.
they can move a heavy apple.

1 2 I saw a token
1 second ago
3 I saw a token
Tokens 60 seconds ago
Abandon search.
Return to charger
Charger
Charger

Charger
Formica robot
Light Light Light

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

Humanoid robots
Today, engineers are trying to make humanoid
robots—machines that look and behave
like humans. Asimo is one of
the world’s most sophisticated
humanoid robots. It can
grasp objects, walk, run,
climb stairs, and carry objects.
It is also smart enough to
Bomb squad recognize faces and gestures,
Special military teams and obey voice commands.
use remote-controlled robots
to carry away bombs and It took scientists more than two decades
other dangerous materials. to create this advanced humanoid robot.

About as smart as an insect.

115
Cutting-edge technology

The future Computerized rooms

In smart homes, all electronic
gadgets are connected to the
owner’s smartphone or tablet.
So the owner can control a
Many of the advancements we machine from anywhere.
see around us today—airplanes,
cell phones, computers—were
once thought to be impossible
dreams. But scientists keep creating
amazing things that can reshape
the world and change our lives.

This tablet computer uses a

Xanadu Houses special program through which
The Xanadu Houses were designed and it connects with, and controls,
foam.
built in Florida. They were the pioneer
electronic home appliances.
stic
for future houses, with high-tech energy- pla
a s pe c i a l
saving designs and automated rooms.
e from
mad
are
alls The plastic (polyurethane)
Computers will sense radio
tags in clothes and objects d w foam traps heat and lowers
energy bills. It is also quick
to keep track of everything.
an and easy to build with.

of
Ro

116
When was the first Xanadu House built?
 The future
Inside a new world
Virtual reality is a computer-
generated environment that
gives people the feeling
that they are actually part
of an imaginary world. They
have been used in movies,
art, video games, and even
military training exercises.

Bionic lenses
Researchers are developing contact lenses that
will let the wearer see information, news, emails,
and entertainment on a virtual screen. A basic
version of the lenses has been made successfully.
Communication pole
Scientists are now working to improve them.

or wha
eird t?
The Xanadu House used w Today,
computers to run it— smartfridges have
from an auto-chef in touchscreen displays and
the kitchen to a talking
security computer. are programmed to keep track
of your food, alert you when
supplies run low, and even
order fresh food through
the Internet.

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
Cutting-edge technology
Delivery drones The hydrogen plane
In the future, your online shopping might Airplanes powered by electric motors, such as
be delivered by drones (f lying robots). Element One (below), may become a common
Drones may also be used to deliver food sight in the future, as they don’t produce carbon
and medicines to people stranded in emissions during flight. Hydrogen planes are
earthquakes zones and other disaster areas. powered by fuel cells which combine hydrogen
with oxygen to release energy, and produce only
water vapour as a waste product.

Drones would find their own way to

your home without the need for a pilot. Self-driving cars
Cars that drive themselves have already
undergone years of successful testing, and
Maglev train could soon be a common sight on the roads.
Maglev trains f loat, or “levitate,” above Several cameras and other
the track, held in the air by magnetic forces. sensors monitor the road,
A maglev train uses much less fuel than a nearby cars, and other
normal train, and can travel much faster. obstacles, and feed
information to
a powerful
computer that
controls the car.

In a self-driving car,
you could read or sleep
while the car drives you
to your destination.

There is no friction between a maglev train

and the track, because they do not touch.

118
When did the first zeppelin airship take to the skies?
 The future
Space vacations
Space is slowly becoming the ultimate luxury vacation
destination. Vacationers pay large sums of money
to be able to glimpse amazing views of the Earth
from space, as well as experience zero gravity.

Virgin Galactic plans to

offer people suborbital
flights that give a taste
of space.

The first space tourist was Dennis Tito,

who paid millions of dollars to spend a
week on board the International Space Station.

Return of the airship

Popular in the first half of the 20th century, airships
may soon be a common sight in our skies. Powered
by clean solar energy and helped by the wind,
massive aircrafts, such as the Aeroscraft, won’t
need to refuel. Although they will be slower than
airplanes, they will be able to lift heavy
loads, making them perfect for
transporting heavy cargo.

The major advantage of

airships like the Aeroscraft
is that it can take off or
land vertically, eliminating
the need for runways.

The first zeppelin airship flew in 1900.

119
Cutting-edge technology

Anytime soon?

merhaba
hälsningar
bo

po
The distant future offers many

halo

w
nj

ita
fantastic possibilities. Scientists
ou

ha
hi

ie n
llo
could upgrade our brains, invent
computer doctors who can holar
diagnose at the touch of a
button, and discover how to
ciao
hello
copy the way the sun works.
Learn a new
language in minutes
by plugging it into
Brain upgrade your brain!

To upgrade a computer, new computer chips,

memory boards, and software are plugged in
and loaded. In the future, human brains 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 in the future may

temperature drops, smartclothes even change color to match Wearable technology
may become watertight and thick. other clothes and accessories. Innovators are trying to create
technologically advanced fabrics.
For example, smartclothes designed
for athletes might have sensors
that can monitor heart rate and
respiration. Some companies are
developing fabrics that are stronger
than polyester, as well as being
resistant to extreme heat and
explosions. There may even be
clothes with flexible displays
and built-in GPS that can project
videos, images, maps, and signs.

120
What is the term used to describe the ability of machines to think independently?
 Anytime soon?

Auto-Doc
This sounds like
something from a TV
show, but in the future the
Auto-Doc machine could
Fusion power keep you in good health.
One day we’ll run out of oil,
gas, and coal, and need another
way to make power. The answer is in
the stars. Stars make a lot of energy, so
if we could make our own mini-star on
Earth, we could make almost unlimited
energy. That’s exactly what a fusion reactor
does. There are experimental reactors
around today, but no one has managed to
get them making much power yet. Where
does star fuel come from? It’s just
hydrogen, which is all around
us in the air and in water.

Sensors will analyze your breath

and blood, or scan your body.
After diagnosis, the Auto-Doc
may be able to prescribe
drugs or make pills.

Biome cars
Cars of the future will be environmentally friendly. Completely
organic Biome cars will use special hybrid technology to release
oxygen instead of carbon dioxide. This will reduce air pollution
and greatly improve air quality. The car’s body will be made
of a material called BioFiber, specially
grown in a laboratory.

Artificial intelligence.
121
Reference section

True or false?
Can you figure out which of
these facts are real and which
are completely made up?

to radio waves.
1 An LCD TV screen is made up of millions of ti

ny squares called pixels.

s in
nd
3 A c e l l p h o n e c o n ve r t s
sou

2
In
a
law
nm
ow
er ,
thr
e ep
isto
ns g
o up a
nd dow
n to t u
rn t
he
wh
ee
ls
.

122 5: False—they are made of steel 6: True 7: True 8: False—it has a solid body
 True or false?
t or right.
e p lane lef
th
i l turn
ta
lane’s
n ap
i
a tors
v
Ele
4

m agnets are
rn ma
de
de

fro
m
Mo

lum

8 An electric guitar h
p so
f
5

ma
gnetit
6 Biome cars will rel
ease o
xyge

e
n in

.
ste
ad
of carbon dioxid
e.

as a hollow body to
a
g m
nif
y it
s sound.

ta keep well at ro
s b e ans and pas om
ch a t
s su
em ratur

d
foo
pe

ry
D

7
e.

Answers. 1: True 2: False—one piston goes up and down 3: True 4: False—the rudder does 123
Reference section

Quiz 4 What is the main arm of a crane called?

A. Trolley B. Counterweight
C. Hydraulic ram D. Jib
Test your knowledge
with these quiz questions. 5 Steel structures that support cables carrying
electricity are called…

1 What did Sir Isaac Newton discover when an apple

fell from a tree?

A: Base stations B: Towers

C: Turbines D: Power stations

6 What are the special robots used by search

A. Radio waves B. Gravity engines known as?
C. Buoyancy D. Thrust A. Worms B. Scorpions
C. Spiders D. Ladybugs

2 Brakes help vehicles do which of the following?

7 Where were smoke detectors first used?
A. Stop moving B. Change direction
C. Protect the driver D. Speed up

3 What captures energy from the sun to make

electricity from it?

A: Xanadu House B: Oil drilling rigs

C: Lighthouses D: Skylab

8 Up to how many passengers can an Airbus

A380 carry?
A: Iron rods B: Solar panels A. 1,215 B. 853
C: Magnets D: Batteries C. 746 D. 543

124
 Quiz

9 What is the name of the fixed point around which 13 Incandescent bulbs have filaments made of…
a lever’s solid part turns?
A. Pulley B. Fulcrum
C. Load D. Sprocket

10 Balloons float in the air when filled with which gas?

A: Steel B: Lead
C: Tungsten D: Silver

14 Which wireless system allows electronic gadgets to

transmit data without plugging them into each other?
A. Bluetooth B. FM Radio
C. GPS D. Morse code

15 During a race, where does a Formula 1 car refuel

A: Helium B: Oxygen and get new tires?
C: Carbon dioxide D: Nitrogen

11 How many inventions did Thomas Edison patent?

A. 500 B. 253
C. 1,093 D. 670
A. Garage B. Track
C. Port D. Pit stop
12 What creates the orange flashes in fireworks?

16 A picture that shows hot things as white and

yellow, and cold things as blue, is called...

A: Copper compounds B: Lithium salts A: Photograph B. Thermogram

C: Iron flakes D: Calcium salts C. Virtual screen D. X-ray

Answers. 1:B 2:A 3:B 4:D 5:B 6:C 7:D 8:B 9:B 10:A 11:C 12:D 13:C 14:A 15:D 16:B
125
Reference section

What am I?
Can you figure out what
is being talked about 2: I was invented
from the clue? in China more than
2,000 years ago.
Fire

High Wheeler

Cell phone

1: I am a type
of bicycle without Wheel

gears and with

pedals attached
to my wheels.

Track-racing bike

Diamond

Velocipede

Mountain bike

Biofuel

126
 What am I?

Seesaw
Coin
Pliers

3: Made of two
class 3 levers,
I reduce the force
you apply.
Scissors
Tweezers

Paper

Camera

Prism

Microscope 5: I have a simple

Coal convex lens that
makes things
look bigger.

4: I am used as
a fuel and can
be found deep
underground.

Magnifying glass
Wood

Answers. 1: Velocipede 2: Paper 3: Tweezers 4: Coal 5: Magnifying glass

127
Reference section

3: German
mathematician
Gottfried Leibniz
developed the early
version of this
coding system.

1: Inspired by 4: The design of

Morse code, US this structure in
academic Bernard England was based
Silver invented this on the shape of
in 1948. an oak tree.
2: This
structure in
New York City
is lit up by over 5: This
300,000 bulbs. instrument was
invented in 1608

Where in by Hans Lipperhay

from Holland.

the world?
Test your knowledge about
where each of these was invented
or found by matching the clues
with the pictures.

5 012345 678917
Empire State Building Bar code Lodestone Barossa Reservoir Smeaton’s Tower Shoes

128 7: Lodestone 8: Shoes 9: Trans-Siberian Express 10: Bullet train 11: Compass 12: Barossa Reservoir
 Where in the world?

9: This train
makes the world’s
longest journey
of 5,857 miles
(9,297 km).
6: In 1800, the
Italian scientist
Alessandro Volta 10: Operating
invented this. in Japan, this is
the world’s first
high-speed rail
service.

8: People from 11: The Chinese

Mesopotamia invented this after
crafted these out discovering that
of leather in a free-moving
1500 bce. magnet will
point north.

7: Discovered
by Thales of
Miletus, this naturally
occurring object is 12: If you
thought to be made whisper on one end
when lightning of this structure in
strikes.
Australia, it can be
heard clearly at
the other end.

Battery Bullet train Compass Binary code Telescope Trans-Siberian Express

Answers. 1: Bar code 2: Empire State Building 3: Binary code 4: Smeaton’s Tower 5: Telescope 6: Battery
129
Reference section

Glossary
convex When an object curves
outward, like the back of a spoon,
it is convex

coolant Liquid or gas that cools

accelerate To change velocity— binary code Code made up things down
the speed or direction. See velocity of the digits 1 and 0. Digital
technology (computers) converts
all letters and numbers into binary. current Flow of electricity from
aerodynamics Study of the one place to another
way gases move (especially For example, the letter “A” can be
air), and the way things, such coded as 01000001
as airplanes, move in air
data Another word for “information,”
bit Smallest unit of memory especially digital information

amplifier Something that makes used by a computer. The word

a sound louder by increasing the “bit” is short for “binary digit” decibel Unit that can be used to
describe how loud sound is
power of an electrical signal
buoyancy Upward force that
amplitude Height of a wave, acts on an object in liquid or density Mass of a solid, liquid,
a gas, affecting how well an or gas in relation to its size. A
such as a sound wave, from its peak
object can float dense material has lots of atoms
(highest point) to its trough (lowest
packed closely together. Less
point). The bigger the amplitude, the
byte Group of eight bits dense objects float in more dense
more energy a wave has. A sound
fluids. Wood can float in water
wave with a large amplitude is loud
because it is less dense than water
carbon emissions Gases containing
atom Smallest particle of a carbon that are released into the air,
particular element especially when fuel is burned. They digital Describes a machine that
may cause global warming works by using numbers. Digital
watches display the time in numbers
biofuel Fuel made by or from living rather than on a dial. Digital
things. Wood, alcohol made from corn, circuit Loop that an electric technology, such as computers,
and biogas made from garbage current travels around
stores data in binary code
are all biofuels
concave When an object displacement Amount of fluid
curves inward, like a bowl, (a liquid or gas) that is moved by
it is concave an object placed in the fluid. An
egg dropped into a glass of water
conductor Material that lets will displace some water. The
electricity or heat pass through. amount of water displaced has
Metals are good conductors the same volume as the egg

130
What is g-force?
 Glossary
download To copy files from the force Push or a pull. Gravity
Internet to your computer is the force that keeps you Fibre-optic cable
on the ground
drag Force that slows an object down
as it moves through air or water. The fossil fuels Fuels that come from
faster the object moves, the more drag the earth and are the remains of living
there is things. Coal, oil, and gas are all fossil
fuels. They are not renewable sources
efficiency How much of a machine’s of energy
energy is turned into useful work. An
energy-efficient lightbulb uses little friction Force that makes things horsepower Unit used to measure
energy to create a lot of light slow down. When two solids rub a machine’s power. It was first used
against each other, or when a to describe how powerful a steam
electromagnet Magnet created solid moves through liquid or gas, engine was compared to a horse
by a flow of electricity through a coil it causes friction
hydraulic Hydraulic machines have
electron Tiny particle inside an atom. fulcrum Point, or pivot, pipes filled with liquids. Hydraulics
It carries a negative electric charge that a lever turns on help increase forces such as lifting,
pulling, or pushing so a machine can
gearwheel Wheel with work more efficiently
element Chemical elements are
substances that cannot be broken down “teeth” around the outside
into any other substances. Atoms in that can connect to and turn hydroelectric power Electricity
an element are all one kind—they all another gearwheel. A toothed that is made using the power of
have the same number of protons wheel that connects to a water, such as using a flowing
chain is called a sprocket stream to turn a turbine
energy Ability to do things (such as
walk or move an object). Something geothermal power Power that
that can supply energy is called a comes from natural heat
power source within the Earth

fiber-optic cable Flexible tube gravity Force that pulls objects

containing very thin, bendy glass toward one another. The pull
fibers that carry information in the of Earth on an object is
form of light waves called its weight

fluid Liquid or a gas. The atoms in

a fluid can move freely to fill space

The force of gravity on an object.

131
Reference section
inertia Resistance of an object to a magnify To increase or make bigger neutron Inside an atom’s nucleus
change in movement. An object that is are neutrons and protons. Neutrons
stationary (not moving) will continue mass Amount of substance, or have no electrical charge
staying still, and an object that is matter, that makes up an object
already moving will keep moving in a nuclear energy Power that comes
straight line and not change direction, from the energy released by the
unless force is applied metadata Information (such as key
words) in a computer file that describes atoms of certain elements
the content. For example, a file of a
insulator Material that does not picture might have metadata that tells nucleus Atoms are made up of a
let electricity or heat pass through it you how big it is or when the picture nucleus and electrons. The nucleus
easily. Wood and plastic are insulators was taken is made up of neutrons and protons

internal combustion engine microchip chip that contains orbit Path an object in space
Engine that burns fuel inside itself transistors, which control the flow of takes around another. For example,
to create power electricity and then convert electric the Earth orbits the sun
signals into computer language
kinetic energy Energy an object has patent Official record of an
when it moves. The faster it moves and invention that registers who made
the more mass it has, the greater its
molecule Two or more atoms joined
together. A water molecule is made up it so no one else can claim they did
kinetic energy
of three atoms—two hydrogen atoms
and one oxygen atom photovoltaic panels Panels
LCD Stands for “liquid crystal that collect solar energy (from sunlight)
display.” LCD screens display pictures and turn it into electricity. They are
or numbers by applying an electric
momentum When an object
is moving it has momentum. The also called solar panels
voltage to liquids that act like crystals
more mass an object has and the
faster it moves, the more momentum pixel Small, colored, square
lens Object that bends light rays to it has. The more momentum, the harder picture element that makes up
make an image it is to stop the object from moving part of a picture on a computer
or television screen
lever Simple machine made up of a motherboard Main circuit
bar moving on a fulcrum. Using a lever board of a computer or other large potential energy Energy stored
magnifies or reduces a force to make a electronic gadget in an object that is raised above the
job easier. Seesaws, wheelbarrows, and ground. It changes into kinetic energy
tweezers are all levers when the object falls
nanotechnology Technology
that can build things from atoms
magnetic field Area around a and molecules—the very smallest prism Triangular glass block used
magnet where other magnets are parts of an object or material to split light into visible colors
attracted or repelled

132
What are turbines?
 Glossary
proton Inside an atom’s nucleus are streamlined Objects with weight Pull of gravity on an
neutrons and protons. Protons have smooth curves. Air or water can object gives the object weight. It
a positive electrical charge flow over it with as little resistance is not the same as mass. An object’s
as possible mass is the same wherever it is, but
pulley One or more wheels its weight can change, depending
with a rope around it. It is used technology Application of upon the force of gravity. An object
to move loads scientific methods, processes, weighs one-sixth as much on the
and knowledge, often used to moon as on the Earth

reflection When light waves bounce invent objects for everyday needs
off a surface (such as a mirror) and zero gravity Feeling like you
change direction, they are reflected thermostat Device that controls are weightless, usually experienced
temperature, for example, on a in outer space

refraction When light waves travel radiator or a boiler

through a transparent object (such
as a window or glass prism), the thrust Force that moves
light bends. This is refraction something forward. Engines
provide thrust for planes and cars
renewable energy Power that
comes from the sun, wind, water, transistor Part of an electric
or geothermal sources. Unlike circuit that controls the flow
fossil fuels, these will never run out of electricity

satellite Natural or mechanical velocity Speed of a moving object

object that moves around a planet. in a particular direction
The moon is the Earth’s natural
satellite. Mechanical satellites circle virtual reality Computer-generated
the Earth and send back information environment that feels like real life to
on things like weather
the person experiencing it

solar power Power that comes

directly from the sun
voltage Force that makes electrons
move in an electric current.

solution One substance dissolved

in another
wave Up-and-down or
back-and-forth movement that
carries energy from one place
to another

Machines with blades that turn when gas (such as air) or liquid flows past them.
133
Reference section

Index F
fiber-optic cables 98
fire 8, 32, 33
fireworks 86-87
fishing rod 17
flashlight 59

A
abacus 9 flight 11, 48-49, 52-53, 121
Compass fluids 42-43, 44-45
air 32, 34, 39, 42, 45,
46, 47, 48, 49, 52, 88 food 68, 69, 70, 117
airplane 11, 52-53, 89 compass 9, 60 Formula 1 car 25, 30,
airship 48-49, 119 computer 7, 11, 73, 94, 34-35
Archimedes screw 9 96-97, 98-99, 100, 101, fossil fuels 38, 62, 64-65
Auto-Doc 121 116, 120 freezer 70
axle 24-25, 26, 27, 31 conveyor 20-21, 62 friction 23, 24, 27, 28, 30
cranes 18, 19 fridge 70-71, 73, 117
crowbar 16 Fry, Art 5

B
bar codes 108-109 cylinder 30-31, 33 fuel 22, 23, 32, 33, 38-39,
battery 38, 39, 58, 59, 40, 54, 55
73, 103, 105

D
Bell, Alexander Graham 11 da Vinci, Leonardo 5

GH
bicycle 24, 26-27, 30, 36, 61 dam 57, 63, 67 gas 29,
binary code 98-99 density 45, 47 42, 62, 65
biofuel 39, 63, 67 diesel 22, 32, 40 gasoline
Biome cars 121 digger 19 11, 22, 32, 34, 38, 39
bionic lenses 117 drag 44, 52, 53 gears 25, 26
boats 8, 31, 46-47 dragster 37 geothermal energy 63, 67
brakes 23, 27, 35, 41, 51 g-force 35, 50
browser 111 gravity 44, 46, 50-51

E
Brunel, Isambard Kingdom 7 ears 90-91 hammer 14
bubbles 78-79 echo 75, 91 heat 29, 56, 68, 69,
buoyancy 46-47 Edison, Thomas 6, 11 70, 76
byte 94, 98 electric guitar 92-93 helicopter 5
electricity 10, 12, 22, 38, helium 48, 49
39, 40, 57, 58-59, 60, horsepower 36, 37

C
camera 10, 76, 83, 104, 62-68, 70, 86, 92, 93 hot-air balloon 49
105, 118 electromagnet 6, 10, Hyatt, John Wesley 4
camera film 4 60, 61 hydraulics 19
car 11, 25, 28, 30-31, 32, 34-35, electromagnetic radiation 74 hydroelectric power 63, 67
37, 38-39, 57, 81, 83, 118 electrons 58 hydrogen 42, 43, 118, 121
carbon dioxide 42, 48 energy 22, 50, 56-73
cell phone 7, 11, 73, 76, 102-103 energy efficiency 64, 72-73,
celluloid 4 116-117
chariot 8, 24 engine 10, 23, 25, 31, 32-33,
chopsticks 15 34, 36,37, 39
coal 62, 65 escalator 21
color 74, 76, 77, 78, 85, 87 eyes 76, 77, 82, 83, 117

134
 Index
spring 4, 29

I
inertia 35 sprocket 20, 21
International Space Sputnik 1 11
Station 119 steam engine 10
Internet 11, 110-111, 112-113 Airplane steam train 10

PR
paper 9 sticky note 4
patent 6 streamlining 27, 34, 44, 53

L
lasers 83, 99 pen 8, 11 submarine 47, 81
lawnmower 30, 36 pencil 10 sun 22, 38, 56, 62, 67, 74, 77
Lego® 7 periscope 81
lenses 82-83 photography 10, 104-105

T
levers 14-15, 16-17, 19, 25, 27 piston 29, 30, 31, 32-33 tanker 37
light 11, 22-23, 56, 58, 74-85, plow 8 telephone 6-7, 11
99, 104 potential (stored) energy 4, 50 telescope 10, 81, 83
lightbulb 11, 58, 59, 61, 84, 85 power plants 62-63 television 11, 76, 100, 107
lighthouse 6 prism 74, 77 Televisor 11
pulley 15, 19, 20, 21, 25 thrust 52
radio 100, 106 tires 25, 27, 28, 29, 34

M
magnets 9, 60-61, 93 radio waves 56, 76, 100, 106 towers 59, 63, 66
microchip 94–95 rainbow 77 tractor 28
microprocessor 10, 96 renewable energy 63, 66-67, 72 train 10, 40-41, 60
microwaves 56, 57, 107 robots 114-115 turbine 62, 63, 66
mirror 8, 80-81 roller coaster 50-51 tweezers 14, 16
molecules 42, 43, 68
monster truck 29

S UV
motor 20, 21, 38, 39, 50 scissors 15, 16 ultraviolet rays 77
motorcycle 30, 118 seesaw 17 virtual reality 117
shock absorber 29
shoes 4, 7, 9, 118

NO W
nitrogen 42 silicon chip 94-95 water 35, 43, 45, 46,
nuclear energy Silver, Dr. Spence 5 47, 53, 79, 81
56, 63 Sinclair C5 7 wheel 4-5, 8, 23,
nutcrackers 16 smartclothes 120 24-25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 51
oil 19, 22, 62, 64 smart homes 116 wheelbarrow 14, 15
oscilloscope 89 smartphone 102, 116 wind 42, 63, 66
oven 68 smartwatch 103 Wright Flyer 11
oxygen 32, 39, 42, 43, 121 Smeaton, John 6
smoke detector 4

X
solar power 22, 38, 63, 67 X-rays 11, 56, 77
sonic boom 89
sound 74-75, 88-91, 92
space rocket 54-55
Space Shuttle 55
speed 36-37
Digger spinning jenny 9

135
Reference section

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Productions 64tr (gardening); Moodboard 12bl (light bulb), 105cla (camera screen), 105tc (pixel insert); Alexander Woodcock, and Katie Lawrence for editorial assistance,
23cb, 23cra (welder), 32cla (welder), 64cra (television ); Hafemann / iStock Exclusive 63cra (wind power); Bruce and Seeta Parmar for proofreading. And thanks to Robert
Noah K. Murray / Star Ledger 43cra, 52tr; Charles O’Rear Hands 40cra; Tim Hawley / Photographer’s Choice 113bl; Spanton and Klaus-Peter Zauner from ECS, University
9bc (coins); David Papazian / Beateworks 64cra (insulation Chris Hondros 4cra (camera film.); Lyn Hughes 43 of Southampton, for information on Formica robots.
); Louie Psihoyos 95tc; Radius Images 62l; Nick Rains 41cra (background), 45l (sky background); Hulton Archive 4tr,
(Australian); Anthony Redpath 120fbl (rain); Jim Reed 89cl; 10cb; Janicek 73cra (battery); Brian Kennedy / Flickr 40bl;
Roger Ressmeyer 63crb (geothermal power), 67cb; Reuters Keystone / Stringer / Hulton Archive 52c; Romilly Lockyer /
119bl; Michael Rosenfeld / DPA 2-3 (circuit board t & b); The Image Bank 42 (clouds background); Vincenzo
Schlegelmilch 35cl; Sie Productions 32fcla; Julian Smith Lombardo / Photographer’s Choice 16cra (door handle);
85cr; Paul A. Souders 57tl; Specialist Stock 47bc; Pauline St. Steve McAlister 22cra, 113crb (document); Ian Mckinnell
Denis 64cra (walking); Hubert Stadler 25cra (waterwheel); 4cra (pool ball); Ian Mckinnell / Photographer’s Choice
George Steinmetz 1bl, 48crb (gas burning), 65bl; 13crb; Ryan McVay / Photodisc 25cra (steering wheel );
Keren Su 60crb; Ramin Talaie 119cla; Tetra Images Ryan McVay / Photodisc 6br; Ryan McVay / Stone 88bl;

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