How Do They Do That?

Caroline Sutton

• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780062018526
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Science & Technology

HOW DO
THEY
DO THAT?

• How do they make mirrors?
• How do sword swallowers swallow swords?
• How does a Polaroid picture develop in broad daylight?
• How do camels go without water?
• How do they splice genes?
• How do they create spectacular fireworks?

How indeed?

Ever found yourself wide-eyed at the wonders of science? Awestruck by the arts? Mystified by the miracles of nature or the marvels of technology?

Relief is at hand. Within these pages answers abound. How Do They Do That? clarifies what used to mystify. It explains the inexplicable and makes known the unknown.

Here is a book for both the mildly curious and the grand inquisitor. Take a few hours or take a few minutes to browse through this repository of riddles revealed. You'll discover that it's not hocus-pocus that put the whole pear in the bottle of pear brandy or sorcery that suspends a suspension bridge. But if not by magic, how do they do that?

The answer awaits within. A questioner's cure, an anodyne of answers, How Do They Do That? is a puzzler's paradise.

Caroline Sutton, a graduate of Wesleyan University, fives in New York City, where she writes and edits for the Hilltown Press.

Index

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

“Absolute zero,” determination of, 227–229

Advanced optical character reader (AOCR), 19

Aerial photographs, locating archaeological sites with, 42

Aerosol cans, 127

Air cushion vehicles (ACVs). See Hovercraft

Air mail, 18–19

Airplanes

determination by pilot of speed of, 282–283

and hurricane tracking, 25–26

landing in fog, 178–179

See also Boeing 747

Airports

metal detectors at, 96

postal facilities at, 18–19

Airspeed indicator (ASI), 282–283

American Telephone and Telegraph, phone-bugging detection service of, 168

Amniocentesis, and sex identification, 21–23

Animals

censuses of populations, 89–93

determination of endangered or extinct species, 92–93

AOCRs, 19

Archaeology

dating of artifacts, 261–263

locating of sites, 42–43

Aromatics, synthetic, 116–118

Art. See Art forgeries; Frescoes; Paintings

Art forgeries, detection of, 49–52

Artificial flavors, 116–118

Artificial insemination, 66–68

Artificial pacemaker. See Pacemaker

Astronauts, toilet facilities on spacecraft for, 229–230

Astronomy

calculation of speed of light, 70–71

prediction of solar eclipses, 84–87

See also Galaxies; Stars; Universe

Atomic fusion, 87

Australopithecus afarensis, 204–205

Automobile muffler, 224

Autopsy, determination of cause and time of death from, 207–210

Bacteria, petrophilic, 183

Balance or rhythm climbing, 59

Balloons, steering of, 94–95

Balls. See Fastball

Banks, and transfer of money between checking accounts, 152–154

Bar code, and mail, 19

Barometric pressure, navigation of homing pigeons and, 20

BBs, 66

Bees

location of food by, 56–58

reasons for building honeycombs, 53–56

Best-seller lists, determination of, 103–104

Bias belted tire, 60–61

“Big Bang” theory, 121, 123–124, 212

Billboard painting, 188–190

Birds, counting of, 90

Boeing 747, air supply and pressurization, 176–178

Bombs, dogs sniffing out, 81–82

Bones, X ray of, 115

Books, best-seller lists of, 103–104

Bottle, whole fruit in, 27

Brachiosaurid. See “Ultrasaurus”

Brandy. See Pear brandy

Bridges. See Suspension bridges

Brooklyn Bridge, construction of, 156–158

Building, determination of cause of collapse from rubble, 146–148

See also Tall buildings

Bullets, tracing, 108–109

Cable cars, in San Francisco, 205–206

Camels, reasons for low water requirement of, 137–138

Canal, ships traveling upstream through, 233–234

Cancer, and radiation therapy, 154–155

Canning of corn, 135–136

“Capture, recapture” method, 89–93

Catgut, sources and uses of, 160

Caviar, collection and processing of, 273–275

Census of wild animals, 89–93

Cesium clock, 107

Checking accounts, transfer of money between, 152–154

Chemicals, for oil spill removal, 182–183

Cherries, fake, 224–225

Chickens, slaughter and processing of, 165

Choreography, notation for, 251–257

Choreology, 251, 255

Chromosomes, and sex determination, 22–23

Cigarettes, removal of tar from, 38–39

City, measurement of elevation of, 138–142

Coffee. See Instant coffee

Coins detection of slugs by vending machine, 118–119

selection of designs for, 34–35

“Cold light,” 206–207

College entrance exams. See Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)

Computers and determination of causes of building collapse, 148

and low temperatures, 229

and prediction of solar eclipses, 86

and selection of taxpayers for audit, 79–80

Conductor, signs used by, 128–130

Conservation of paintings compared with restoration, 191–192

removal of frescoes, 277–279

Contac time-release capsule. See Time-release capsules

Continental drift, measurement of, 230–233

Corn production of ethanol from, 210–211

stripping from cob for canning, 135–136

Corpse, embalming of, 246–247

Crop disease, multispectral analysis of, 45

Currency, selection of picture on, 33–34. See also Money

Dance notation systems. See Choreography

Death, determination of cause and time of, 207–210. See also Embalming

Dentistry, r...