Innholdsfortegnelse for July - August 2021 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

I’M NOT AN IDIOT. I can assure you. Okay, that’s not an objective opinion, but I hope you can take my word for it. However, the evidence might show otherwise – an error crept on to page 87 of our previous issue, stating that the new Land Rover Defender has a 20 litre fuel tank. It doesn’t, I promise. A vehicle of that size and power with a 20 litre fuel tank would make no sense, and the design engineers are smarter than that. The correct figure is 85 litres. Apologies for the mistake. I have been test-driving new vehicles since about 2005, all as part of the various magazine jobs I’ve had. It’s certainly been one of the most fun aspects of doing what I do. Some tests have…

THE MAGNETIC North Pole just isn’t where it used to be. Scientists have measured the location of the Magnetic North Pole since James Clark Ross first identified it in Canada’s Nunavut territory in 1831. The pole has moved several kilometres annually, but in recent decades, it has been racing towards Siberia at an unprecedented rate. A team of researchers from the UK and Denmark say they’ve uncovered the cause of this rapid shift: Two writhing lobes of magnetic force are duking it out near Earth’s core. Our planet’s protective magnetic field, which keeps deadly cosmic rays at bay and serves to orientate our navigation systems, is generated in Earth’s outer core, more than 2_900 km below the crust. ‘You’ve got these sorts of swirling hot masses of molten iron, bubbling…

IF YOU’RE ALREADY familiar with IO Interactive’s Hitman series, then Hitman 3 – the third game and conclusion to The World of Assassination trilogy – won’t surprise you. And that’s a good thing. Hitman is arguably the best stealth game available. As Agent 47, you have to act and react patiently. Both the story and the location matter. How you eliminate your targets should be a calculated affair. This game isn’t about running ahead at full force with a weapon in hand to get through the mission. It may be fun to do that, but you’ll undoubtedly fail. From Dubai to Dartmoor, Chongqing to Berlin, each mission location in Hitman 3 is breathtakingly detailed. While none of the core gameplay mechanics have been changed from the previous two titles, this…

In 2022, the US Army will choose a new aircraft to replace the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Bell’s V-280 Valor and Sikorsky-Boeing’s SB-1 Defiant will battle it out to become the winner of the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) programme, and either the Valor or the Defiant will fly as the army’s next combat helo when it deploys in 2030. But ‘helicopter’ isn’t even the right word to describe these two aerial beasts. Bell’s V-280 Valor is a tilt-rotor, similar to the V-22 Osprey currently flown by the US Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy, but smaller and with a V-tail. Rather than relying on a single large main rotor for lift in forward flight and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) like a helicopter, it tilts two large rotors…

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) is driving the Fourth Manufacturing Revolution – Industry 4.0. Blockchain is telling us where our produce comes from. Drones have become an integral part of agriculture. NASA is 3D-printing pizzas for astronauts (and you can 3D-print sushi at home). There’s a robotic bartender named Makr Shakr. Everybody has – or wants – an air fryer. Tens of thousands of hamburgers can be grown in a lab using stem cells. It might all sound like sci-fi, but it’s reality – technology is dramatically altering humans’ relationship with food. ROBOTS, WITH GIN! While robot bartenders seem like something exclusively reserved for cruise ships, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing, these automated servers are now becoming a very real solution for a ‘safety-first’ future. From humanoid, tux-wearing robots…

YOU MIGHT’VE BEEN expecting this article to cover wedge-based clamps. We did mention that in the last issue, after all. But a reader and keen woodworking enthusiast wrote in requesting a feature on double-beam mortise marking gauges. This is a wonderful tool, so naturally we obliged. The double-beam marking gauge will be the last ‘how to build’ article in our current series, where we’ve explored the centuries-old use of wedges in making our own woodworking tools. This gauge is highly functional and useful in the workshop, especially when laying out mortise and tenon joinery. I find that mine is employed for various other applications too, such as inlay stringing channel layout and scribing. And, when I require a few gauges at different settings for a project, the double-beam gauges get…

MATHEMATICIANS from the California Institute of Technology have solved an age-old problem related to ‘random walks’, a mathematical process that traces a path based on random decisions at various junctions. If you’ve played a procedurally generated video game such as Minecraft or Stardew Valley, you’ve encountered a random walk in the form of a dungeon or terrain. Biologists use random walks to model how animals move and behave, and physicists use them to describe how particles behave. In a random walk, the ‘walker’ can move in any direction at any point, so there’s an assumption that the walker will eventually revert to the mean and end up near its place of origin (because it’s less likely that chance would urge the walker in a single, focused direction over and over).…

BEER IS A CATALYST for community building. At our brewery, Dogfish Head, my wife Mariah and I have tried to show our kids that we make fun, creative, off-centred ales that connect us to awesome people such as the Grateful Dead and our co-workers. We hoped one of them might be interested in carrying on this tradition, but we didn’t want to put that weight on their shoulders. We expected our kids to get holiday jobs by the time they were 14. Our daughter, Grier, has chosen not to work at Dogfish Head, whereas Sammy started running food at our pub in 2015. After he told us he loved biology and chemistry, we arranged for him to brew a non-alcoholic birch beer at Boothbay Craft Brewery, near Dogfish Head, Maine,…

We designed this toolbox to be as attractive as it is durable, and capable of holding and protecting some of our most prized tools. But more than that, we wanted to build something our children will cherish long after we’re gone. To do that, we created a design that prioritises precision and patience during construction. The joinery for the corners, handle and uprights have to fit together tightly to be structurally sound The box sides and ends are joined with dovetails – the strongest corner joint you can make without fasteners or hardware in a home workshop. The uprights are inset into the box ends. Done neatly, the wedging action of the joint is strong, especially when glue is added, and this holds the two pieces together firmly. Even more…

EVERY WOODWORKER needs a sturdy workbench. This particular DIY workbench, from Kreg, is easy to build, and designed to withstand heavy-duty use. In addition, it offers a versatile bench top, thanks to Kreg’s Universal Clamp Trak Kit that’s mounted along the front and one end. Combined with several Kreg Bench Clamps, this makes for a slick home set-up that will hold your pieces firmly in place while you work. WHAT YOU’LL NEED TOOLS: Circularsaw Drilldriver KregPocket-Hole Jig Mitresaw Sander Tapemeasure HARDWARE: 16 Kreg HD pocket-hole screws 24 Kreg 64 mm coarse-thread pocket-hole screws 40 65 mm flathead wood screws 1 Kreg Clamp Trak Kit: 27” × 45” (686 mm × 1 143 mm) 2 Kreg Bench Clamps: 3”-reach (76 mm) 1 Wood glue WOOD: 6 38 × 89 × 2…

+ FREE digital subscription And FREE Delivery! 6 ISSUES FOR ONLY R162 | 12 ISSUES FOR ONLY R323 SIMPLY CONTACT US AND QUOTE 21/12/GEN/GTA HOW TO SUBSCRIBE subs.arena.africa/magazines.asp RamsayMedia@arena.africa 0860 52 52 00 TERMS AND CONDITIONS: This offer is valid until 31 December 2021 and applies to print subscribers with a South African address only. By providing your personal details, you are giving Getaway permission to communicate with you via email or SMS, For other great offers visit subs.arena.africa/magazines.asp For foreign rates, please contact Ramsay Media on 021 530 3300 or email Subscriptions@hsm.co.za…

INCLUDING THE NEW FX4, there are 34 derivatives of Ford Ranger available in South Africa. This relentless expansion of the Ranger family, which includes three new derivatives launched in the last six to eight months, not only highlights South Africans’ seemingly limitless appetite for bakkies, but also hints that the Ranger is reaching the end of its wonderfully successful life cycle. The latest of these bolt-on model extensions has been introduced to help Ford maintain traction and consumer appeal during a time when a pantheon of competitors such as the new Hilux, Navara, P100 and unknown outliers like the Peugeot Landtrek, are trying to needle their way in. Determined to keep them at bay, Ford SA arranged a trip down the Wild Coast taking in some jaw-dropping views where untamed…

1 JULY 1966 ▶ The Coldest Swim in the World The cover story from this issue was told by an expedition diver who was part of a research team that ventured to Antarctica on two occasions to capture audio recordings of the Weddell seal. In addition to divers deployed below the ice in sub-freezing waters, a sub-ice observation chamber (SOC) was positioned below the surface, allowing scientists to study their subjects from the relative safety of the reinforced cylindrical cabin. 2 JULY 1968 How Engineers will save Niagara Falls A full-colour illustration and black-and-white photos accompanied this detailed write-up, which explained how a large-scale construction project was going to rehabilitate the famous waterfalls on the United States-Canada border, preventing erosion from further damaging the base rock layers. 3 AUGUST 1970…

THE MISSIVE TO POP MECH US READERS, via Instagram, was this: Make something with LEGO that will make your (or someone else’s) life easier, and show us the results. We weren’t looking for the complexity or aesthetics you see in expert LEGO builds – even though those are awesome. We were looking for utility. Plastic bricks, Technic gears, and mini figures from existing kits were allowed, but we asked that builders steer clear of any instruction manuals. The job was to engineer your own solution. As one builder put it, ‘I just see any box of LEGO as a box of parts.’ Another worked from the same philosophy: ‘I love the concept of hacking items to get more uses out of something you already own.’ Of all the projects tagged…

My family has owned a Ford dealership since before the First World War, but when I was a kid, I loved boats most. Even as I took over the dealership and spent 40 years in the automotive business, I completed a number of boat restorations and builds. Years ago, my mother-in-law gave me a 1935 edition of a book from the POPULAR MECHANICS Press called The Boat Book: Everything of Interest to the Amateur Boatman. Inside were plans to build a modified recreation boat prevalent in the ’20s and ’30s called a Gentleman’s Racer (or Gentleman’s Runabout). I loved the plans, and after a few years of only imagining the build, I laid out a roll of paper on the dealership’s showroom floor and drew the whole boat, full-size and…

Tackled any home DIY projects lately? Have you refurbished your bathroom, built a jungle gym in the garden, or made a bedside table out of wood? We want to hear about it! Send an email with the subject line ‘Kreg prize giveaway’ to popularmechanics@ramsaymedia.co.za, detailing the steps of your project and how it turned out, and you could win a new Kreg Multi-Mark tool. Be sure to include high-res photos of your project’s progress (if you can) and, importantly, of the finished product. (Original pics snapped with a cellphone are fine, but don’t reduce them in size when you attach them to your email.) THE PRIZE Kreg’s new Multi-Mark is a highly versatile marking and measuring tool, ideal for a variety of household or job-site applications. It’s accurate, adaptable, and…

THE VW AMAROK is a big bakkie. It’s always been that way, and nothing about that has changed. Right from when it was first launched in South Africa a little more than a decade ago, it’s consistently been among the most popular pick-up contenders with South Africa’s bakkieloving buyers, of which we have many. Unlike some of its competitors, there’s no mistaking this bakkie for anything else on our roads. Its look is unique, in several ways – no mean achievement in an age of seemingly ubiquitous double-cab designs. The blunt front end flows effortlessly into exaggerated wheel arches, and the high door-line amplifies its muscular posture. The unmistakable VW headlight and grille architecture enhances the commanding presence, subtly yet distinctively. I’m a tail guy (interpret that how you will),…

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