Innholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2022 i Popular Mechanics

JENNIFER LEMAN News Editor Hey! Come check out this rock. Moon or Mars? Titan! This moon of Saturn blows our moon and Mars out of the water. Its surface is covered in water ice and liquid methane lakes. The upcoming NASA Dragonfly mission will search for signs of life. Coolest Thing on My Desk Does anyone actually know what day it is? Fortunately, my vintage Perpetual Ring-A-Date Wall Calendar by Euroway helps me keep track. CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP RESEARCHING Chairs! To me, chairs perfectly sit (ha) at the juncture between form and function. Some are beautiful but completely nonfunctional, while others are ugly but extremely functional. To make something that exhibits both qualities is magic. I highly recommend the documentary Chair Times by Vitra on Vimeo. Best Thing POP…

WHITTLE → The knife works remarkably well as a whittler, thanks to a beefy handle that provides a good grip and a blade that takes a nice edge. I sharpen a point on tomato stakes and make wood plugs (shaped sort of like golf tees) to wedge into holes where a screw has stripped out. SCRIBE → When you need to mark a precise cut line, nothing beats a mark scribed with a knife. It’s narrow, it’s sharp, and it won’t smudge off. It’s as accurate as it gets. The spear-point blade on the TL-29 performs wonderfully in this respect. Just run it along the edge of a square. SCRAPE → That narrow screwdriver blade works wonders when you need to scrape gunk out of a narrow channel. Whether it’s…

WHEN IT COMES TO BUILDING tough, resilient materials without wasting energy, few human manufacturers can compete with Mother Nature. One of her most intriguing achievements is nacre, commonly known as mother-of-pearl, a material that is much stronger than the sum of its parts. “[Nacre] is effectively chalk, but it doesn’t break like chalk. When I think of chalk, I think of a very brittle, delicate material,” says Robert Hovden, a professor of materials science at the University of Michigan and one of the researchers on a study involving nacre. Last year, his team uncovered new information about the nano-level structure of nacre that could open new frontiers in the world of human-made supermaterials. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on nacre’s structure at the nanoscale…

ON THE SPOT SURVEILLANCE In 2019, the U.S. equipped a battalion from the 82nd Airborne with experimental mini drones that could be carried on a soldier’s person and flown with a handheld controller. This allowed them to rapidly scout nearby terrain from a safe position. MEDICAL HELP ON THE BATTLEFIELD As casualties from IEDs mounted, battle medicine developments focused on treatments that could be given at the scene. Medics developed tourniquets that could be applied with one hand, allowing injured soldiers to use it on themselves. BIOMETRIC DATA COLLECTION In one controversial development, U.S. and local authorities trialed biometric data collection, like iris scans, to compile large amounts of data on populations. Experts now worry the Taliban could use the tech to find Afghan allies who aided the U.S.…

WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, MY FIRST JOB involved repairing Apple computers for minimum wage so I could buy a laptop for college. When I finally scraped together the $1,800 or so for a midrange iBook, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, two months into the semester, I dropped my clamshell laptop on its power port, breaking it. I searched for a service manual online, but I was stymied by repeated copyright takedowns that are effectively “No Trespassing” signs. Those takedowns were a clear sign that Apple didn’t want me to fix my laptop; it had established a defensive perimeter of lawyers to enforce the knowledge ban. As it turns out, Apple isn’t unique in this—Toshiba notoriously demanded that an Australian repair website remove all of its online manuals. The farm equipment…

Ion thrusters rely on a process called ionization, pulling electrons from an atom to form ions, to generate thrust. Instead of ionizing expensive noble gases, ThrustMe’s propulsion system (see main image) turns solid iodine into a plasma, which can then be ionized and expelled as thrust. HOW IT WORKS: Heaters within a specialized tank warm the solid iodine until it sublimates, turning it into a gas. That gas enters a specialized discharge chamber surrounded by a radio-frequency (RF) inductive antenna. Similar to an induction stovetop, the RF induction antenna heats the gas and turns it into a plasma. “It’s essentially a soup of electrons and positive ions,” Lafleur says. Then, a pair of high-voltage grids extracts the positive ions from this soup and accelerates them to generate thrust.…

A craftsman once told us that no matter how good your saw is, you’ll need a hand plane, because no sawn edge will ever compare to one that’s been surfaced by a sharp plane. A hand plane leaves a glass-smooth surface behind it. While that may be true, our tests indicate that manufacturers continue to close the elusive gap between hand-tool perfection and machine precision. We find that newer saws and saw blades are leaving cleaner and better edges. Of course, it’s also true that the better your sawn edge, the more refined your own perception of it is and the more demanding you become. And this may bring you back to using a hand plane after it’s all said and done—or sawn.…

Noise abatement is a compelling argument for switching to a cordless mower. While gaspowered mowers usually average around 90 decibels (dB), the cordless models we recorded in our test fell between 73 and 76, measured at the operator. (For reference, a typical vacuum cleaner comes in at 75 dB.) While you may debate whether that’s impressive or not, what we found most interesting was how quickly noise levels dropped off as we moved away from the mowers. At 25 feet, noise dipped to 55.1 dB for the Skil, 59.3 dB for the Makita, and 60.5 dB for the Wen. That’s at or below the level of an average conversation (about 60 dB). From 75 feet, noise levels fell even further to 42.9 dB for the Skil, 46.8 dB for the…

IF YOUR HOME WI-FI SIGNAL COMES FROM a single router, you may notice that your network lacks both range and power outside or in the farthest reaches of your house. And it’s not just physical distance that’s problematic. Barriers like walls and subflooring can inhibit the signal. Network extenders may help here, but while they add range, they can throttle speeds, degrading overall performance. If you want to expand your coverage and provide each internet-connected device with equally fast speed, a mesh Wi-Fi system is your best bet. These systems consist of a main router connected directly to your modem, plus a series of nodes—or satellites—each of which produces its own strong, fast Wi-Fi signal throughout your property. This router-and-node combination blankets your house in signals from each device, eliminating any…

For our sour beers, first we brew barley, hops, and water, and add yeast to ferment. Then we filter and transfer the liquid into barrels. Here, our 24-year-old house culture transforms the golden, toasty lager into a tart and fruity sour beer. Lactobacillus bacteria convert sugars into lactic acid, while Brettanomyces wild yeasts produce a wide range of funky flavors. Once that’s ready, I blend barrels to hit volume and quality specification and create a base. Then, art melds with science as I use this base as a canvas, adding fruits, flowers, tea, herbs, and spices; blending in other beers; or aging in different spirit barrels. The possibilities are endless.…

DaVinci Resolve is Hollywood’s most popular software! Now it’s easy to create feature film quality videos by using professional color correction, editing, audio and visual effects. Because DaVinci Resolve is free, you’re not locked into a cloud license so you won’t lose your work if you stop paying a monthly fee. There’s no monthly fee, no embedded ads and no user tracking. Editing, Color, Audio and Effects! DaVinci Resolve is the world’s only solution that combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics and audio post production all in one software tool! You can work faster because you don’t have to learn multiple apps or switch software for different tasks. For example, just click the color page for color, or the edit page for editing! It’s so incredibly fast! Professional…

LOSTAR CATALYTIC CONVERTER SHIELD FOR TOYOTA PRIUS The Toyota Prius is one of the most common vehicles to roll into a shop with its cat missing. This Prius-specific aluminum shield bolts to the underside of the car to block access. $47 to $98 (depending on model year) CATCLAMP CATALYTIC CONVERTER CAGE Cages fit most vehicles. CatClamp’s model wraps its ¼-in-thick stainless-steel wire rope around the cat and loops around the chassis to add another roadblock for crooks. $176 CAT SECURITY SHIELD This shield wraps around the cat itself, making it more inaccessible to thieves than a cage. Cat Security makes shields for the Honda Element as well as Toyota vehicles (Prius, Tundra, Tacoma, Sequoia), along with the Chevrolet City and the Nissan NV200. $279…

The board game Chutes and Ladders involves players racing up a numbered path according to the sum of a dice roll. If you land at the bottom of a ladder, you climb farther up the board, while landing atop a chute slides you backward. The game ostensibly hinges on chance due to its reliance on dice, but in actuality, Chutes and Ladders is a stochastic system called an absorbing Markov chain, meaning just a portion of the system contains randomness. Absorbing Markov chains are “memoryless.” Past dice rolls in Chutes and Ladders don’t affect the results of the next move, but the current position of each player does. Rolling a seven might move you forward seven spaces in one instance, but in another, it might send you farther forward if…

2021 MAY The Federal Trade Commission issues a unanimous, bipartisan “Nixing the Fix” report, finding that “there is scant evidence to support manufacturers’ justifications for repair restrictions.” JULY President Biden issues an executive order in July calling for a “whole of government approach” to restoring competition, and singling out farmers’ problems with repairing their John Deere equipment. NOVEMBER Apple caves and agrees to start selling parts and making service manuals available to consumers “in early 2022.” 2022 JANUARY Dozens of states are expected to introduce Right to Repair laws at some point in 2022. Illinois legislators hold the first such hearing. FUTURE Members of Congress are considering reversing the anti-tinkering Section 1201 copyright law.…

Many backyard gardeners start their plants indoors in late winter or early spring, before the weather is warm. But the best way to jump-start plants for spring gardening and also extend the growing season into winter is with a backyard greenhouse. Our design is a 6-by-8-foot structure, large enough to accommodate dozens of plants but compact enough to fit into the smallest yard. It’s also easy to build, requiring only basic carpentry skills and easy-to-use tools. You can finish it over a couple of weekends. The cost of the materials to build our greenhouse is about $1,200. That’s higher than some pre-assembled greenhouses, but our materials are more reliable than any “snap together” model; plus, this one is customizable. We include a potting bench, overhead plant hanger, and deck, but…

THE SPECIALTY EQUIPMENT Market Association trade show in Las Vegas is extravagant, it is inspiring, it is perhaps the greatest automotive pissing contest you’ll ever witness. It’s an annual gathering for every somebody in the car world to show off the fanciest thing they can create on four(ish) wheels. My business partner, Rich Benoit, and I thought we finally had something radical and bold enough for the event. We didn’t just want to exist there. We wanted to steal the show. That also meant we needed a car that could actually move under its own power. Most of the cars at SEMA get pushed onto the expo floor, but nobody’s happy about it. The shame of an unfinished ride is something to avoid at all costs. And yet with 30…

This pandemic has tested everyone’s mettle. And for many of us, having a space where we could grind and work away proved necessary. Not just to get away from it all, but to think. We start out working on a lawnmower and end up repairing ourselves. Every home and office should have such a shop—a repair facility, if you will. Get outside, go down to the basement, take the wheel, work on things, sharpen something. Build something beautiful. We need our shops, wherever and whatever they may be. There’s a world out there waiting to be restored. We can start with ourselves and go on from there.…

As we mentioned, range anxiety is directly applicable to cordless mowers. One of the biggest concerns people have is running out of battery life before all the grass is cut. We’re all used to the processes involved with gas mowers—going out to get fuel, checking the oil and gas before starting, seasonal servicing. Cordless mowers have their own set of considerations to keep in mind in order to eke the most functionality out of them. Anything that creates more resistance for the mower can eat up battery life. Here are a few tips to optimize your run time. 1. Clean off the deck after mowing. A smooth, clean deck allows air and cut grass to discharge more easily. 2. Avoid cutting wet grass. Water adds weight to the grass, demanding…

The proliferation of 8K could impact our everyday gadgets, from routers to streaming devices. Higher-resolution content requires more bandwidth to stream smoothly. The average American home receives internet speeds of only 100 Mbps, which doesn’t cut it for streaming 8K. This will possibly accelerate the installation of fiber-optic wire throughout the country. As the cable companies get to work on fiber installations, we may finally witness the death of the cable box, with providers opting for internet TV distribution to support 8K resolutions through apps on streaming devices. With the resulting faster internet speeds for routers to tap into, networking product manufacturers may advance their system on a chip (SoC) configurations for more powerful processors, extensive storage, and antennas to meet the growing bandwidth needs.…

▶ As a product tester for PopMech, I’m constantly opening boxes and severing packaging and strapping, so I use knives all the time. But I rarely stop and learn about a knife’s unique backstory like I did with my TL-29, a simple, single-blade pocketknife that handles well, sharpens easily, and has a fold-out screwdriver that locks in place. I’ve had this knife for decades, but it wasn’t until recently that I discovered that it had a specific name and reputation. Knife enthusiasts refer to it as an electrician’s pocketknife, not so much for its main blade but for its screwdriver; you sharpen the side of that blade, turning it into a wire stripper. Dozens of reviewers consider the knife to be the last word in pocket cutlery, and the U.S.…

Lone star ticks can transfer alpha-gal sugar molecules through their saliva when they bite you, spurring an immune system response that sends a flood of antibodies to attack the sugar. If your body overproduces those antibodies, your immune system might also attack the alpha-gal found in animal food products such as pork, beef, gelatin, and milk. This can lead to an allergic reaction ranging from hives to nausea to, in extreme cases, anaphylaxis. Alpha-gal syndrome—unique for its immune system response to a sugar (most allergic reactions are triggered by a protein)—has no cure, but sometimes symptoms fade over time. Meanwhile, Revivicor breeds GalSafe pigs for human consumption in addition to creating organs safe for transplants, so meat lovers with an alpha-gal allergy could soon enjoy the occasional slice of bacon.…

HANDHELD The STIHL AS System of battery tools combines innovative STIHL performance with the precision of handheld tools. HANDHELD CUTTING POWER LIKE NO OTHER. Lightweight and compact with rubberized grips that add to its ergonomic design, the GTA 26 delivers all the benefits of the best battery-powered garden pruners. Versatile in design and function, the GTA 26 delivers plenty of power and reliable, consistent performance. HOMEOWNER Perfect for homeowners, the STIHL AK System features a wide range of reliable battery tools starting at $199.99. SHAPE UP YOUR LANDSCAPE. With their powerful performance and well-balanced design, STIHL hedge trimmers are built to give you the precision and control you need to bring beauty and shape to your landscape. PROFESSIONAL The STIHL AP System gives pros the durability, power and performance they…

FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER DUBBING ITS most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever developed “the Mother of All Bombs” (MOAB), the U.S. military finally found an opportunity to test the ordnance on the battlefield. In April 2017, intelligence officials had located a large cell of Islamic State Khorasan, the terrorist group also known as ISIS-K, hiding in a cave complex in Nangarhar province on the border with Pakistan. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, to use its official name, had shown promise during demonstrations in testing grounds, such as Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, since its unveiling in 2003. But the Pentagon had never deployed it in actual battle, over concerns about civilian casualties. This cell, however, was believed to be remote enough for a MOAB deployment. According to the initial assessment…

The Big Freeze hypothesis states that the heat death of the universe will result when all of space approaches absolute zero, or a state of no thermodynamic free energy. A 2020 study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society posits that heat death will arise in the distant future, when low-mass stars like the sun exhaust their nuclear fuel and become white dwarf stars—extremely dense remnants of the stars’ cores. After trillions of years, the white dwarf stars will become black dwarf stars, stellar remnants that have cooled down so much that they are no longer emitting heat or light. Silicon nuclei in the black dwarf stars’ cores will fuse to produce nickel nuclei which will emit positrons (the antiparticle of an electron, meaning it has…

SAWS 1. BEST LIGHT-DUTY CIRCULAR SAW Hart HPCS2 $128 We test homeowner and professional circular saws the same way. In the case of this 20-volt Hart, that meant cutting Douglas fir framing lumber, sawing through the 1.5-inch thickness and also with the board turned on edge so the blade was fully submerged at its maximum depth in the lumber. Our verdict: You won’t confuse this saw with one used to frame houses; push it too hard and you’ll trip its thermal cutoff. But it’s got enough oomph for cutting some lumber, including a 4x4. We liked the lock button (officially, the spindle lock); press it to hold the blade in place to more quickly turn off the nut that tightens down on the blade. We also liked its safety latch…

CORDLESS WALK MOWERS HAVE NEVER PERFORMED as well as they do right now—and according to our testing, they’ve reached parity with gas mowers in many cases. While we rate cut quality, ease of use, and other features, one of the most important data points in our testing is cut area. Running out of battery life in the middle of mowing is one of the biggest concerns people express to us about cordless mowers. (This is also known in the electric vehicle world as “range anxiety.”) So for each model we test, we determine exactly how much lawn you can really cut on a single charge. We also looked at a typical yard to figure out how much grass, on average, you actually need to mow, so you can be sure a…

My house is a veritable coatings laboratory, at least on the outside. Aside from the vinyl siding, there’s a wide variety of surfaces that are painted or will soon need paint. It’s a struggle to keep the place looking good. In the latest round of the battle, a few months ago I walked into my local Benjamin Moore dealer. Close by the front door I noticed a display for the brand’s Corotech Command line, highperformance coatings formulated with a waterborne acrylic-urethane resin. The company says this product can cover concrete, wood, vinyl, tile, galvanized steel, PVC moldings, and aluminum. Right there I was hooked. But I was intrigued by its other properties, too. It dries to the touch in 15 minutes, is extremely flexible and wear-resistant, and has a high…

I STARTED AT NEW BELGIUM Brewing in 1997 as an assistant. I worked my way up through various positions and eventually earned my certification in sensory science. I developed our sensory science program, training individuals to evaluate our beers by breaking them down into chemical attributes and determining if they’re true to brand and free of off-flavors. We humans are the most sensitive tasting machines, but we’re flawed by our subjective likes and dislikes. When I walk in the wood cellar to taste through a set of barrels, I use my science background and training but also bring in a human element. I’m looking to evoke a response from the drinker, to ask for their full attention, to wow them. I do this by building complex and sometimes unexpected layers to…