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Engineering Facts

Taming Twin Tornadoes

Every time a jet airplane flies through the sky, it creates two invisible tornados. They're not the kind of tornados that strike in severe weather. These tornados are called vortices and can cause ... Continue reading

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

So, what, exactly, is the watch on your wrist, Big Ben in London, or the national atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado, actually measuring? The first definition of a second was 1/86,400 of the average ... Continue reading

The second, once defined as 1/86,400 of the average solar day, now is determined to be 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation, the frequency it takes to convert a cesium atom from one low energy state to another.

Seeing In The Dark

In the movies, there are all sorts of nasty things that can see perfectly well in the dark. More realistic movies also boast their share of 'beasts' that can see in the dark. Who could forget the ... Continue reading

Night Flight

How Can A Bullet-proof Vest Stop A Bullet?

Here's an experiment: take the small coil springs from a dozen or so retractable pens and roll them together in a heap until they are thoroughly tangled and entwined. Now try to pull them apart from ... Continue reading

This vest was shot with a .357 Magnum bullet at the NIST ballistics facility. The bullet does not penetrate, but it deforms the vest enough to burst the outer nylon material.

More Engineering Facts


Automation:

  1. Man Versus Machine

Breakthroughs:

  1. X-Ray Astronomy vs. Medical X-Rays
  2. A New Twist on Fiber Optics
  3. Bicycle Chain for Fleas
  4. Cool Fuel Cells
  5. Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
  6. Drip, Drip Water Clocks
  7. Fiber Optics
  8. GPS (Global Positioning System)
  9. Hollywood To The Rescue
  10. How Can A Bullet-proof Vest Stop A Bullet?
  11. How We Use Crystals To Tell Time
  12. Hybrid Cars: The Magic Braking
  13. Infrared Headphones
  14. Liquid Crystal Communication
  15. NASA Hits a Hole-In-One
  16. New York to London in Less Than Two Hours
  17. Non-Flammable Fuel?
  18. Pass the Basalt
  19. Red Dot Replacing Cross Hairs
  20. Searing Heat, Little Package
  21. Seeing In The Dark
  22. Smoke Detectors
  23. Space Lasers Keep Earth's Air Clean

Computer Technology:

  1. Moore's Law

Flight:

  1. A Quick Guide To Gliders
  2. Barn Yard Aeronauts
  3. Big Boom
  4. Guide to Propulsion
  5. High Altitude
  6. Nothing Backwards About It
  7. Taming Twin Tornadoes
  8. The Motion of An Aircraft
  9. The Night Orville Wright Had Too Many Cups Of Coffee

Fluids:

  1. A Shear Mystery

Inventions:

  1. Airbags
  2. Inkjet Printers
  3. The Truth About Atomic And Hydrogen Bombs

Materials:

  1. A Man-made 'Take' on Nature's Style
  2. Alloys
  3. Don't Blow A Gasket!
  4. For Want Of An O-Ring
  5. How Many Cows Does It Take To String A Tennis Racquet?
  6. Making Cars Out of Soup
  7. Solid Smoke
  8. The Right Stuff for Super Spaceships
  9. What Are Composite Materials?

Processes:

  1. Bioinformatics
  2. Dress Sizes The Scientific Way
  3. It's A Bird, It's A Plane -- No, It's A Clam!
  4. X-Ray Images & False Color

Robotics:

  1. Snakebots Coming Your Way
  2. Teeny Tiny Technology

Simple Machines:

  1. Ants Are Wimpy
  2. Sundials, Ancient Clocks

Structures:

  1. Hydropower Basics
  2. Leaning Wonder of Engineering