Innholdsfortegnelse for July-August 2013 i Popular Mechanics

TALK TO US Email popularmechanics@hearst.com Snail mail 300 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019 Subscribe subscribe.popularmechanics.com CURATED BY ALYSON SHEPPARD Our May feature "Lessons From the Micromanufacturing Revolution," explains how to create your own startup business. "Wow," Jesse Mencer comments via Facebook. "Perfect timing for me, since I'm currently working on building my own invention. I now know what steps I need to take next." Dan Kenyon, who owns a manufacturer-representative company in Sioux Falls, S.D., emphasizes that anyone creating a startup needs to have a marketing strategy first. "Who are your customers and how will you sell your product? Believing a product will 'sell itself' leads to all business failures," he writes. "Without the proper perspective of the marketplace, your efforts will be wasted. Even if you have…

JUST OUR TYPE THE 2014 F-TYPE IS JAG'S FIRST ROADSTER IN 52 YEARS—AND WORTH THE WAIT. BY ANDREW DEL-COLLE PRICE • $69,895–$92,895 AVAILABLE • Now POWERTRAIN • Supercharged 3.0-liter V-6, 340 hp, 332 lb-ft; supercharged 3.0-liter V-6, 380 hp, 339 lb-ft; supercharged 5.0-liter V-8, 495 hp, 460 lb-ft; eight-speed automatic, RWD EPA FUEL ECONOMY (CITY/HWY) • 20/28; 19/27 (V6 S); 16/23 (V8 S) DOWN THE ROAD JULY/AUGUST TEST DRIVES Star Bolt Kia Cadenza Ford Fiesta ST Nissan Leaf Fiat 500e The residents of Spain's Navarra region have every right to be displeased with us. After all, who wants to be awakened by a 495-hp sports car racing through their bucolic villages at 8 am? Yet we couldn't help ourselves. For two days, our group of American journalists tested all three…

The shell from an M777 lightweight howitzer leaps out of the barrel at half a mile per second and doesn't slow much during flight. The 3-foot-long round, aimed at a piece of desert earth labeled Gays Pass-13 (GP-13), won't give up its kinetic energy without a fight. It gouges the rocky ground of the Mojave Desert before exploding in a spout of brown dust and black smoke. Artillery impacts are commonplace here at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at 29 Palms, Calif. The guns of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment (3/3), have been hammering their target at the sloping base of a ridge for more than 20 minutes, making GP-13 a very unpleasant place, shredded with metal fragments and pitted with craters. It's only going to get worse. The…

THIS IS LUKE GALYAN'S IDEA OF FUN: TAKE TWO NOVICES ON A CANYONEERING TRIP IN California's Death Valley National Park. From a diabolical lineup of gorges-Bad, Hades, Styx-choose the most ominous-sounding one, Coffin. Lead the beginners from a 4500-foot ridgetop into a treeless chasm of crumbling red rock. Warm up with a couple of 20-foot rappels. Then, when the canyon sides rise into cliffs and squeeze around a blind left turn, announce that "you guys should go first here." I step around the corner and gulp hard. Ten feet ahead, the ground simply ceases to be. Creeping forward with my friend Tom Colligan, I peer over the lip of the cliff. Only hot, dry air separates us from the bottom of the canyon 190 feet below. Boulders strewn in the…

     • PRIVACY SCREEN     • PALM SANDERS     • ANT-FREE HOME or more than a century the Adirondack chair has been synonymous with casual but elegant outdoor lounging. I've updated this American classic with a modern slat design that recalls George Nelson's 1940s platform bench but retains the original's low-slung comfort. I also left ample room on the armrests for beverages and snacks. The most efficient way to build this chair is to mill all the parts first before completing the joinery and then to assemble the piece. This avoids having to switch back and forth between your table saw's ripping blade and the stacked dado set, which you'll use to cut the half-lap joints. Don't have a dado set? Don't worry—you can complete the joinery without one. Use a handsaw, miter saw, or…

The Great Cover-up Q My yard is littered with unsightly items such as garbage cans and a generator. It's all essential stuff that I can't get rid of, but it's a mess. I might as well have a rusty old Dodge out there too. Any suggestions for bringing order to the outside? A Often our homes look better because of what we can't see rather than what we can. In other words, your best bet is to hide that stuff behind a privacy screen that complements your home's architecture. We built ours for special projects editor Joe Bargmann to hide a pair of 30-gallon garbage cans at the end of his driveway. "We wanted to keep the trash away from the house without upsetting the neighbors," Joe says. We used…

1896: The cast-iron USA Liquid Pistol—said to "stop the most vicious dog (or man), without permanent injury"—is patented. A menacing rubber squeeze bulb and tube load the ammo. 1906: Soren Sorensen Adams founds the Cachoo Sneeze Powder Company. The prettiest prank in his bag of tricks: the water-streaming lapel flower. 1936: Space hero Buck Rogers fired ray guns. His earthbound fans settle for the XZ-44 Liquid Helium Toy Water Pistol, which is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. 1940s: Abbott and Costello spray each other with seltzer bottles while becoming a favorite comic duo. 1989: Engineer Lonnie Johnson perfects the Power Drencher, positioning the air-pressurized water chamber on top of the barrel. Rebranded in 1991 as the Super Soaker, it triggers a water-gun…

WING SAIL The AC72's sail is more akin to an aircraft wing than to a traditional fabric sail. The crew can adjust the fixed wing by trimming its multiple flaps individually. SENSORS Structural sensors monitor the loads on the rigging and daggerboards, others track boat and wind speed, and units on the wing help the crew make sure they're not overloading it. FOILS As boats increase speed, L-shaped carbon-fiber foils that extend from the bottom of the hulls generate lift and keep the boat "flying" above the water. THE COURSE MAP AND TURNS MARINE TECHNOLOGY Speed Racer The fastest sailboats in the world arrive in San Francisco Bay this July, where they'll battle to qualify for this year's America's Cup race. Aboard the AC72, Oracle Team USA will face the…

The garage isn't just a place to park cars. It's a storage shed, a shop, a hangout, an office, and even a place to get the band back together, man. What was once merely a permanent structure to keep your car out of the elements has evolved into the focal point of many homes. Only the kitchen gets more attention, yet the garage offers far more possibilities. Attached or free-standing, with one, two, or three parking spaces, the potential of a big empty space is only limited by your imagination and willingness to spend. This special section is meant to guide two kinds of people: The first is garage owners who want to organize the mess they have; the second is those working with a blank slate. In either case,…

For some people, mowing the lawn is a meditative experience—a chance to tune out while getting a little exercise walking behind the lawnmower, inhaling the scent of freshly cut grass. It's good old-fashioned domestic man's work, like your father did before you, his father before him, and so on. Well, not me. I hate mowing the lawn. It's a numbingly repetitive, sweaty, noisy waste of time. My father hated it too. And I'm pretty sure his dad did before him. Tell you what I do like, though: robots—love 'em! In fact, I would gleefully surrender every thankless bit of home landscaping to an automaton. So I decided to see if I could piece together a system wherein my lawn essentially would take care of itself. Yes, I could have hired…

     • TRICK SWITCH      • DOGGIE DOWNER DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY 1/10 You probably haven't missed that every product in our lives is getting connected to the Web. Computers, phones, and tablets are old news; now it's televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, yard sprinklers, home thermostats, and cars. And not just new cars—any car from 1996 on can get in on the act. Verizon's Vehicle Diagnostics by Delphi—yes, the GM spin-off—is a device that plugs into any car with an On-Board Diagnostics (OBD-II) port and sends a stream of vehicle and location data to the cloud. Not only does this allow you to view all kinds of info about your car, you can also control features such as door locks and remote starters from anywhere via the Internet. We gave it an Editor's…

With its light weight and small size, the quarter-sheet sander is truly useful for summer painting and repair work. So we gathered 11 and sanded hardwood and softwood. Then, using 60-grit paper, we timed them as they removed two layers of latex paint a foot square from mdF. Two inexpensive Pro models tied for first, and there are other low-cost options. For less money than a bag of groceries, you can sand with speed and ease. RIDGID R2501 Price: $50 Weight: 3.8 pounds Amperage: 2.4 Time trial: 1 minute, 40 seconds RANKING Likes: Sanding speed, a comfortable shape, sanding quality, and a lack of vibration enabled the Ridgid to tie for first place. Its sandpaper clamp is second only to the Bosch's for a secure…

Diy Tech      • AUTOMATING A/C      • STREAMING VIDEO FROM OVERSEAS      • CREATING PERSONALIZED KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Sorry, Minotaur, five bars of signal and your text to King Minos still won't go through. Tech lore has it that Macs never get viruses, PCs are terribly fragmented, and if you jailbreak your phone, you're going to jail. Though many common tech myths are harmless, others can waste your time and even leave you dealing with digital snafus. Here, we explore some of the most prevalent untruths to finally put them to rest. JAILBREAKING AND ROOTING ARE ILLEGAL Smartphone owners can jailbreak their iOS devices and root their Android phones to get around the restrictions of manufacturers and carriers. But is this ominous-sounding practice legal? The word itself—jailbreaking—makes it sound like the process is…

We tried out the latest running shoes to see if the new technology is game-changing or just attention-grabbing. BEST IN SHOE RUNNING TECH Innovative design and high-tech materials have put a new spring in the step of the oldest form of exercise. Soles with polymer blades bounce back. Elastic bands make you feel like you're running barefoot. An entire upper is woven from a single strand of microengineered yarn. The results of years of research, these and other advances have put an edgy breed of shoe in the running. — TIM NEWCOMB ADIDAS SPRINGBLADE ($180) YEARS IN THE MAKING: Six TECH SPEC: 16 polymer blades of different lengths and varying degrees of stiffness are designed to respond to the direction and amount of pressure imparted by the foot. HOW IT…

Russian car designers often ripped off other models. The GAZ-21 Volga is jokingly referred to as Russia's Volvo because it shared similar styling with the Swedish carmaker's 122 and 122S sedans. Back in the mid-'50s, the Soviets were building highly advanced MiG-15 and MiG-19 jet fighter planes. They launched their Sputnik satellite months before we launched Explorer I. And in 1961 they catapulted cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit. With all this superior technology you'd think Soviet cars would have been equally impressive. Nope. Soviet and, more specifically, Russian cars in the mid-20th century were about as cutting-edge as an anvil. Communist Russia's totalitarian government fostered a planned, state-run economic system that encouraged heavy industry. Public transport was the priority, not privately owned cars. As a midlevel party bureaucrat, engineer, or…

Only one planet has been proven to support life: Earth. But evidence is mounting that we are not alone. Scientists now think the galaxy contains at least 11 billion Earth-size worlds orbiting in their stars' habitable zones, where life is most likely to be found. And new studies show that strange creatures may thrive far beyond that boundary—on nearly any of the galaxy's 100 billion planets or their moons. Popular Mechanics presents … The search for alien life in distant star systems is accelerating. Here, each triangle represents 2.25 million worlds in the Milky Way galaxy. The colors provide information on the sizes of these worlds and their positions within their star systems. These factors may affect the odds of life emerging, and what course evolution would take. 100 BILLION…

I have a pickup I absolutely love, and would like to prevent it from being stolen. Have any ideas to make it theft-proof? Car theft is a perennial problem that everybody worries about. In 1991, the peak of auto theft according to FBI crime statistics, a staggering 1.66 million vehicles were stolen in the U.S. Manufacturers responded to this problem with factory alarm systems and sophisticated electronic validation between the car and the ignition key. In 2011, thefts dropped to a reported 715,373 incidents, but even though fewer cars are being lifted, nobody wants to walk out to his parking spot and find it empty. Anecdotal evidence indicates that mid-1980s to late-'90s Japanese cars are highly prized owing to their lucrative parts market and easy hot-wiring, but we have a…

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY 2/10 AGES: 5+ BUILD TIME: 30 MINUTES PARTS COST: ABOUT $10 In fireworks lingo, a mine is a device that shoots sparks out of a mortar tube. No dangerous explosives here; instead we utilized everyday party poppers to launch colorful trails of confetti. This project is a playful introduction to the world of pyrotechnics. Youngsters building the popper will wonder what exactly makes it pop (answer: compressed air) and how that energy forces the confetti out of the tube. But all that physics stuff aside, who are we fooling? The best part for the kids (and the adults) will be pulling the trigger on this explosive device, no matter the occasion. — WILLIAM GURSTELLE PREPARE THE MINE 1. Refashion the ½ x ¾–inch adapter fitting (Fig. C)…

If you had central air, the answer would be easy: Install a smart thermostat such as the Nest or Honeywell Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat. But even if you don't have central HVAC, you can still control window air conditioners from afar, so you always arrive home at the end of a sweltering summer day to a comfortable and cool house. To pull it off, you'll need to plug your air conditioner into a smart outlet, which, in turn, plugs into your regular outlet. These can be controlled over the Internet via your smartphone or from Web portals. We like Belkin's Wemo Switch (in spite of its name) for its compatibility with If This Then That (IFTTT), an automating service, and ThinkEco's Modlet, which is used by some utility companies for demand–response…