Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
A carousel’s direction changes which hand reaches outward
On a counterclockwise carousel, a rider’s right side faces the outside edge. That fits the traditional American game of reaching for a brass ring beside the…
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Cardboard boxes gain strength from wavy fluted inner paper
The wavy inner layer forms a series of arches between two flat sheets, giving corrugated cardboard its strength.
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NASA sent a wrench to space as a design file
In 2014, the ISS printed a plastic ratchet wrench from a file sent from Earth, building it in about four hours. It was a technology demonstration later…
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A cooling tower's huge shell helps air move without a giant fan
Warm, moist air rises inside a natural-draft tower and draws cooler air in near the base. The curved concrete shell provides a tall, structurally efficient…
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Why tech support can be a hacker's way in
Attackers can bypass technical defenses by impersonating executives on calls to support desks and asking for access. This kind of social engineering exploits…
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Thumb drives are basically miniature solid state drives
Both store data in flash memory, but thumb drives use cheaper controller chips that can make them slower and less durable than internal SSDs.
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BlackBerry made two letters socially loaded
In BlackBerry Messenger, D meant delivered and R meant read. A tiny status indicator separated 'perhaps it never arrived' from 'the person has opened it.' The…
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Seismographs draw lines to measure earth tremors
A suspended weight resists moving with the ground while the paper drum moves beneath its pen. The pen traces the shaking as a line.
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Nonogram grids force you to paint pictures via deduction
You use the numbers at the edges to work out which squares to fill, checking intersecting rows until a picture emerges. The result is pixel art solved like a…
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A Lightning cable is more than wires inside a familiar plug
The accessory system includes electronics and certification requirements, not just contacts that fit the socket. Apple warns that uncertified accessories may…
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Yahoo stands for a surprisingly pompous phrase
Jerry Yang and David Filo liked “yahoo” as slang for someone rude or uncouth, then turned it into the grand-sounding backronym “Yet Another Hierarchical…
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Why round manhole covers never fall through
A circle's width stays the same no matter how you turn it, so a properly sized lid can't slip through its opening.
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Microsoft invested in the company it competed against
The 1997 Apple–Microsoft agreement included a $150 million investment, future Mac versions of Office, patent cross-licensing and Internet Explorer bundled…
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The paint-can trick behind airtight food containers
The airtight seal on plastic food containers was inspired by paint cans, whose inverted rims help keep paint from drying out.
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A Victorian calculating machine finally worked in 1991
London's Science Museum built the calculating section of Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 from his 1847–1849 designs. Its printer followed in 2002. The…
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A file-sharing site nearly bought the nation of Sealand
The file-sharing site's founders tried to buy an abandoned anti-aircraft platform in the North Sea and declare it a sovereign state, hoping to host downloads…
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The controller buttons that changed how we play
When the SNES arrived in 1990, Nintendo added two shoulder buttons along the controller's top edge. They changed how players gripped the pad and gave games…
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The early social networks that shaped online addiction
Early platforms made connecting through personal profiles a central part of online life. Users shared their thoughts in exchange for digital connections.
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Cloud platforms endlessly duplicate data globally
Cloud services can store copies of your file in data centers in different regions, helping it remain available if one location has a major outage.
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Why split-screen games often run worse
A split-screen game has to render a separate view for each player, so it may lower texture resolution or frame rate to keep up.
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The hardest part of measuring a programmer is counting value
Lines of code are easy to count, but deleting a bad design can be more useful than adding thousands of lines. Speed also means little if teammates can't…
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Why a dragon's roar drowns out the whole game
When the dragon roars, the game’s audio engine lowers ambient sounds, sword clashes, and footsteps, letting the roar dominate the mix.
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The strange font designed to help you remember
Sans Forgetica's backward slant and gaps make reading less fluent, prompting readers to fill in the missing parts of letters. The idea is that this extra…
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Neopets gives hungry pets a daily slice of a giant omelet
Players can visit the Giant Omelette for free food, and a slice supplies multiple bites. The site turns a daily giveaway into a place in its world. Feeding a…
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