Friday, November 04, 2005

How stuff works

For as long as I can remember I've always been interested in how things work.

Whether it's a toy, a VCR or a magic trick, I've always been fascinated to figure out "how'd they do that."

Growing up the first thing I did when I got a new toy was tear it apart, see how it worked and then put it back together. Most of the time I was able to get it back together and it could still actually work, but there were cases where I figured out how it worked but then it never worked after that, oh well there have to be sacrafices don't there?

I've always been intrigued by magic, because it's obvious that there is some kind of gimmick, something that makes it work because let's face it, no one (even David Copperfield) has magical powers, if one person has them then everyone should have them right?

Unfortunately once I discover "the magic" behind something, I'm not as intrigued as I was before I found out, but then isn't that how it normally goes?

Most "tricks" I can sort of figure out, others I have to do some research on the web, books, etc. But there is one trick that I can't figure out how it's done.

Several years ago (at least 8 years now) I saw David Copperfield perform, his "trick" that year was his ability to fly across the stage. It really was the most amazing "trick" that I've ever seen (and I've seen David Copperfield more times than I can count on two hands), to this day I've not been able to figure it out.

But that's not what this post is about.

I found this really cool website today called Cool Stuff Being Made that showcases how they make things.

The one thing I found very interesting was a 12 minute movie on how they make Aluminum Cans it was very educational and really made me think about all of the effort that goes into making a single can. Check it out see what you think?

There's also this other site called How Stuff Works

2 comments:

Xmichra said...

don't know if you ge tthis channel.. but on the discovery channel they have a half hour show called 'how it's made" and is FILLED with cool stuff. I, like you, have a wierd facination with this stuff.my fav was fiber optics.. thats just cool.

Robin said...

I have the 'How Stuff Works' site bookmarked. My son is always asking me about the way things work, what they are made of, etc. I showed him the site one day. He was in heaven. Little nerd heaven. :-)