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“How does a toaster know when to pop?”

…and other Questions Kids Ask

About How Things Work

          I am reading the book “How does a toaster know when to pop?” … and other Questions Kids Ask About How Things Work , by…I don’t know. It is a Scholastic book but the author is not written on or in the book. I had this book at home and it interested me when I was younger so I decided to write a blog on it. Well, the book has a question on each page and explains the answer. Like “Why don’t you fall out of an upside-down roller coaster?” and then the book explains the answer.

          I learned many things. I learned… why you don’t fall out of an upside-down roller coaster, how vending machine counts money, how a toilet knows when to stop flushing, how a vacuum cleaner picks up dirt, how a sundial works, why a halogen light bulb lasts longer than a regular light bulb, how a submarine works, how high an airplane can go, how a combination lock works, how an “electric-eye” door works, why a helium balloon rises in the sky, why a hot air balloon rises, how a guitar makes sound, how a kaleidoscope works, how a computer search engines work, what a microchip is, how a sailboat sails in the wind, how a ship floats, how a toaster knows when to pop, how things cook in the microwave, how a fan cools you off, how a thermometer knows the temperature, why castles had moats, why things look backwards in a mirror, how a camera takes pictures, how an elevator works where the escalator steps go, how a scale knows how much I weigh, how scientists measure earthquakes, how a radar works, what an X-ray is, how a kite flies, what a blimp is, and what braces do. Of course, I’ll never remember all these things. So I’ll answer a few of them here.

          Why don’t you fall down out of an upside-down roller coaster? The answer is the centrifugal force.  The centrifugal force causes any object traveling in a circle to move away from the center.

          How does a vending machine count money? The vending machine has a scanner that read coded information on the bills, as for coins…They go through an obstacle course, first they fall through slots. Small coins fall through small slots and larger coins roll on to find a larger slot. Then all the coins fall down through a trapdoor where a magnet removes fake coins. Real coins fall inside the machine and push open a door that triggers a release button, then the object you chose, gets released.

          How does a computer search engine work? A search engine is a program that tells you where to find information about a topic on the Internet. Like Google. A search engine has three parts. The first one is called a web crawler. This part searches virtually EVERY website in the world. Then the information gathered by the web crawler is then transferred to the second part which is the database. It makes a list of the information that the web crawler found. The third program is the agent. It takes your request for information and searches the database to find websites that have what you’re looking for.

          I have a text-to-world connection. These things in the book are about things in our everyday life. Like how a toaster knows when to pop. All these answers to these questions are interesting and explain a lot to me. One question I have is, “If all these things can be explained, what about everything else in the world?”