Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
How a coiled extension cord can melt itself
A tightly coiled extension cord can trap heat when it carries heavy electrical current. The wire may get hot enough to melt its plastic insulation.
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Backspace and delete keys actually perform opposite actions
Backspace erases the character before the cursor; Delete erases the one after it.
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Smartphone glass shatters easily because it is rigid
Tempered glass resists scratches from keys, but it remains rigid rather than flexible; a hard impact against concrete can make it shatter.
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Why modern electronics are built without drilled holes
Surface-mount components are soldered directly onto the board, so factories no longer need to drill a hole for every component lead. Robots can assemble them…
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The developer excuse that never gets old
When an app crashes after launch, developers may blame differences in the user's environment rather than their own code—the classic “works on my machine”…
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Leather tanning makes skin much harder to decay
Untreated hide is vulnerable to breakdown. Tanning stabilizes its collagen structure; in chrome tanning, chromium salts help bind that structure together. The…
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Amazon Echo was almost called Amazon Doppler
The proposed name was Amazon Doppler, a nod to an acoustic physics phenomenon; the company ultimately chose Echo instead.
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A silicon chip begins as a slice of one enormous crystal
Chipmakers grow a cylinder of extremely pure silicon from a melt, then cut it into thin wafers. Intel's description of the process gives an ingot weighing…
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Your 'tin' can is mostly steel
The can is made mostly of steel, with a thin layer of tin bonded to the inside to help protect the steel from corrosion.
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How players keep abandoned online games alive
Fans reverse-engineer the software and run their own networks, keeping multiplayer games playable after the publisher shuts them down.
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Nike's waffle sole began in a breakfast appliance
An athletics coach poured liquid rubber into his wife's waffle iron to create a new shoe sole, helping pioneer modern running footwear—and ruining the…
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How movie music teaches you to fear villains
Composers pair a distinct musical phrase with a villain, teaching viewers to associate that sound with danger. When the tune returns quietly, the association…
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Wikipedia grew out of a very different web business
Before launching Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales co-founded Bomis, a web portal that earned much of its revenue from premium adult content. The business helped fund…
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An early portable computer weighed 24 pounds
The Osborne 1, released in 1981, packed a five-inch screen, disk drives, and a keyboard into one transportable case. It was a 'luggable,' not a thin laptop…
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Umbrellas pop open using a hidden sliding spring mechanism
Pressing the button releases a catch, and the compressed spring pushes the umbrella’s supports outward to open the canopy.
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Why pilots steer the rudder with their feet
The pedals control the tail rudder, which helps steer the plane left or right. The yoke doesn’t control every direction change.
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This glass drop survives a hammer—until its tail breaks
As a Prince Rupert’s drop cools, its outer layer goes into compression, making the bulb remarkably resistant to blows. Break the fragile tail, though, and the…
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How “hacker” went from compliment to criminal label
At MIT’s Tech Model Railroad Club in the 1960s, a “hack” meant an ingenious technical solution, and a “hacker” was a skilled engineer. Media coverage of…
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Ratchet wrenches use a spring-loaded pawl to spin freely
Turning the wrench one way makes a spring-loaded pawl catch the gear teeth and apply torque. On the return stroke, the pawl skips over the teeth, so you can…
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Paging networks penetrate buildings using low frequencies
Paging networks send short data bursts over very low radio frequencies, which can reach through thick hospital walls where cellular signals may struggle.
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A malicious USB device can pretend to be a keyboard
A computer may accept keystrokes from something that looks like a flash drive because USB supports many kinds of device. That can move an attack past…
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Web cookies are just digital sticky notes
They’re tiny text files your browser holds onto, like a sticky note reminding a website that you added a blender to your cart.
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The bug that disappears when you inspect it
A diagnostic monitor can change a program’s timing just enough to make an error disappear during debugging, even though it still occurs without the monitor.…
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Why OLED screens can develop ghost images
Static menus keep the same pixels lit longer, so those pixels age faster than neighboring ones. The uneven wear can leave a persistent image on the screen.
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