Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2022 i Popular Mechanics

KARYN KING, 73 Aerial Photographer / Redmond, WA Passion, Creation, Inspiration FILM OR DIGITAL? I got my first camera, a Kodak Brownie, from my father when I was 7. It was a film camera, so it was costly, and I had to wait a week to get results. Now I exclusively use digital because I can see immediate results. MY PATH TO BEING A PRO I learned aerial photography by DOING it. I started out knowing nothing! I’ve been fortunate and persistent enough to gain the trust of pilots who want and need my photo services. And after years of shooting aerials from helicopters, I decided to try flying on my own. So I got my pilot’s license and became involved with the Washington Pilots Association and other flying clubs,…

CUSHIONS AND PILLOWS It all starts with throw pillows. And no, we’re not referring to the 20 or so that you have lying across your couch right now. Adding a couple of cushions to your seating area—or reupholstering an existing set—can really make the space pop. “It’s important to have foundational things that will stand the test of time, and change the pillows and tchotchkes,” Christianson says. REUPHOLSTER The next step is reupholstering the seating areas. Fabric often wears down quickly and can go out of style, so it’s best to go for leather, which is more durable. “You do a color like champagne or cream, it’s not going to be here and gone,” Christianson explains. Pricing can vary quite a bit, depending on the fabric you buy and whether…

The Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack in December 1941 was ultimately a strategic failure, as the Japanese failed to sink the Pacific-based aircraft carriers Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga. Carrier-based fighters and bombers went on to outrange the big guns of battleships by a wide margin. The Kamikaze In 1944, the Japanese military created Special Attack Units, a corps of suicide pilots trained to fly bomb-laden planes directly into Allied warships. Although the kamikazes damaged more than 10 fleet carriers, they could not sink any, thanks to the ships’ sheer size, efficient damage control, and ability to defend themselves. The Invention of the Atom Bomb The test of the first Soviet atomic bomb in 1949 led to strengthened carrier air defenses, including the adoption of the Terrier missile. The flexibility…

DESPITE WHAT THAT LONG-FORGOTTEN stain on your white shirt might have you believe, humans are pretty good at walking with a cup of coffee and avoiding spills, even if our success rate isn’t quite 100 percent. Every time you manage to get your cup of joe from one point to another spill-free, you’re intuitively completing a little-understood feat of physics: manipulating a complex object such as liquid. That’s according to a group of researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) who have been modeling the coffee-carrying phenomenon in an attempt to imbue robots with the same finesse. In a world of increasing automation, machines are expected to perform more dexterous motions, explains Brent Wallace, a Ph.D. student at ASU’s School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering who was involved in the work.…

GAS-POWERED CARS A typical gaspowered car achieves a 400-to 500-mile range with a 20-gallon gas tank that weighs 122 pounds full. TESLA MODEL S The latest Model S delivers a 390-to 412-mile range with a 1,200-pound electric battery pack, housed across 16 modules: two in the front, 14 on the bottom of the car. FUEL-CELL CAR Plasma Kinetics says it could deliver a fuel-cell car with a 400-to 500-mile range with a 20-cassette/fuel cell combination weighing 794 pounds.…

BEFORE OUR BIGFOOT TRAILER, WE WERE TENT people. But after our 2013 Subaru Forester became cramped with outdoor gear, and a few epic Colorado storms terrified our Chihuahuas, we started to consider alternatives. Our gateway to the Bigfoot was a 1992 Jayco pop-up camper. It allowed us to camp much more comfortably, for longer, and tour around the West for Joe’s bluegrass band performances. We started to consider camping permanently, but wanted a hard-sided shelter to better withstand unpredictable mountain weather. A fiberglass trailer became our best choice to replace the Jayco. Molded fiberglass is durable and easier to clean than materials like wood that are affected by moisture. These trailers are also considerably lighter than many other typical RVs and trailers (our 1981 Bigfoot B-17 SM Deluxe weighs in at…

IT WAS ALWAYS A TREAT when my mother rented movies. I never expected one of them to change my life. In the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, is recruited to recover the long-lost Ark, along the way digging up relics and piecing together the mysteries surrounding them. It was all the inspiration I needed. At that moment I knew what I was going to do for a living, and I didn’t need a magic sword or a way to travel the galaxy to do it. All I had to do was learn a craft. And so, I did. I’ve been a registered professional archaeologist, with an undergraduate degree in anthropology from California University of Pennsylvania and a graduate degree…

IN THE LATE AUGHTS, OONI REVOLUTIONIZED HOMEMADE pizza-making when it introduced the first outdoor, portable pizza oven. Since then, with popularity soaring, it’s been hard to keep up with the number of new pizza-oven brands and models. Testing them, we’ve learned as much about making pizza as we have about the ovens used to cook them—and in the process we’ve made pizza night an event the entire family looks forward to. HOW WE TESTED Before testing these pizza ovens, we heated them each for 30 minutes to season them and burn off any oils or contaminants from manufacturing, then let them cool completely. Firing up each oven on High, using their propane burners for 15 minutes, we measured the temperatures on the pizza stones with an infrared thermometer. Then, we made…

In the April 1970 issue, we reported on the introduction of General Electric’s Elec-Trak, describing the 865-pound tractor as “cool, quiet, safe, and vibration free.” James Liston, the magazine’s executive editor at the time, noted that the machine’s high torque allowed it to mow, plow snow, till, and bulldoze soil. Four 6-volt lead-acid batteries under the seat, two more under the hood, an industrial motor, and a geared transaxle provided motive power and voltage for 36-volt power tools. In that same issue, we covered a 12-volt lead-acid reel mower by Black & Decker, calling it a “somewhat specialized tool for a small, level lot.”…

POPMECH PRO It’s easy to lose track of all the perks that come with your PopMech Pro membership, like exclusive features, detailed plans for DIY projects, and a weekly members-only newsletter. Here are some of the best recent Pro stories you might have missed. (Not a member? Head to join.popularmechanics.com.) OUR WILD UNIVERSE A trippy study suggests the universe can bend the laws of physics all by itself. As the universe sought stability over time, the basic physics it relied on in the beginning evolved to become much more sophisticated, scientists believe. Think of it like this: Why are there still dogs today, but not dinosaurs? Because pups proved best-adapted to their environment and successfully passed on their genes to their progeny, and dinos didn’t. The same could be true…

You can thank thermocapillary convection for causing your food to stick to your favorite frying pan. That’s right, physics can explain why, sometimes, your meats and veggies get stuck during cooking. The phenomenon causes hot oil to bead, rupture, and spread to the outer edges of a pan, leaving the dreaded dry spot in the middle. Research led by Alexander Fedorchenko from the Czech Academy of Sciences discovered that this type of convection was a result of uneven heating. Once the cooking oil reaches a critically thin point—which in this study consistently occurred in the middle of the pan—it ruptures due to loss of surface tension. To alleviate the problem, try using a little more oil to make it harder to reach that critically thin rupture point.…

Overcompensate Max towing numbers can be misleading. They’re often higher than your vehicle’s maximum payload rating, which combines the weight of everything in your truck (including you, your gear, and any Chihuahuas you might have) and a percentage of the trailer’s weight being transferred by the hitch. The maximum payload is typically displayed on a sticker inside the driver’s door. In general, it’s best to travel as far below your maximum payload and towing numbers as possible, especially if you’re hauling a lot. Regardless, ensuring that your truck and trailer are well maintained and that everything is set up properly (double-check those chains!) is key to a successful towing adventure. Plan ahead and fuel up (a lot) Towing is not fuel-efficient, so planning our route around our fuel range is…

In the last six decades, more than 600 astronauts have traveled into SPACE. Surgical equipment is one of the top exports of Sialkot, Pakistan, but that’s not the only thing the city mass-produces. Sialkot alone produces 70 percent of the world’s soccer balls—40 million to 60 million per year. The origin of soccer is widely debated, but it can be traced back almost 3,000 years to China, where cuju, a game using balls made with leather and stuffed with feathers, was played by imperial soldiers for fitness training and then as entertainment for emperors. Astronomers in ancient China were expected to predict the time of lunar eclipses. Often, royalty had them beheaded if their predictions were incorrect about events in SPACE. In 1995, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and his crew…

CAROLINE DELBERT IS A WRITER, AVID READER, AND CONTRIBUTING EDITOR AT POPMECH. SHE’S AN ENTHUSIAST OF JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING. HER FAVORITE TOPICS INCLUDE NUCLEAR ENERGY, COSMOLOGY, THE MATH OF EVERYDAY THINGS, AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF IT ALL. ▶ My car’s exterior seems to always be dusted with dirt and other gross gunk, which makes me wishfully wonder: Could there be an aerodynamic upside to all that debris? Years ago, the MythBusters team examined whether a dirty car got better gas mileage as the result of a possible golf ball–like “dimpling” effect. Using the same vehicle for consistent results, their dirty car got 24 mpg, while the clean version made it to 26.4 mpg. Let’s say the average person drives 10,000 miles per year. Using the MythBusters results, the driver of the…

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, THE U.S.Navy commissioned one of the most unusual—and controversial—ships ever to enter the fleet. The USS Jupiter, a veteran coal transport, emerged from the shipyards at Portsmouth, Virginia, and was transformed into the new USS Lang ley, the Navy’s first true aircraft carrier. Today, the carrier is still the centerpiece of the battle fleet, and the service’s carriers still have the same mission: to project air power from the sea. And while bigger and more capable than ever, carriers are also more expensive and vulnerable than ever. New threats from Russia and China could spell the end of carriers, or force them to innovate into a new craft that will continue to dominate the maritime domain. TODAY’S CARRIERS The U.S. Navy operates a fleet of 11…

WASH LIKE ITEMS TOGETHER Washing items made from similar materials together keeps threadunraveling friction to a minimum. GOING COLD Washing in cold water and using a shorter cycle can extend the life of your favorite pair of jeans and limit microfiber shedding by as much as 30 percent, per a 2020 study. Swapping out your dryer for a clothesline helps, too. TRAP IT EARLY There are several products designed to prevent fibers from entering waterways, including tightly woven mesh bags (Guppyfriend has one for $35) that trap threads, and specialized filters for your washing machine’s discharge hose.…

FORMER COMPUTER-CHIP MANUFACturing engineer Paul Smith founded Plasma Kinetics in 2008. The Arizonabased startup has developed “solid-state” hydrogen storage, essentially transferring the gas onto a proprietary film wound in many layers inside a canister. He says the tech could challenge batteries in both efficiency and environmental friendliness. When unspooled and run past a laser—the film moves from one reel to another, like movie film through a projector—the solid-state storage medium releases 99.99 percent pure hydrogen, which could power electrical grids, hydrogen fuel cells, cars, or hydrogen-injected diesel trucks. Plasma Kinetics asserts that its storage system is 30 percent lighter, 7 percent smaller, and 17 percent less expensive than a lithium-ion battery per kilowatt-hour. Those claims have reportedly attracted capital from the likes of Toyota, though Smith declined to confirm any…

Joe Kittinger August 16, 1960 Altitude / 102,800 feet Freefall Speed: 614 mph Time in Freefall / 4 minutes 36 seconds Suit Features/ U.S. Air Force partial pressure suit designed for high-altitudes. Includes inflating tubes to prevent ebullism, which is similar to decompression sickness. Felix Baumgartner October 14, 2012 Altitude / 127,852 feet Freefall Speed / 843.6 mph Time in Freefall / 4 minutes 19 seconds Suit Features / Developed by experts at David Clark Company, the fully pressurized, four-layer suit included an inflatable bladder specially fitted to his body to help maintain bloodflow. Alan Eustace October 24, 2014 Altitude / 135,899 feet Freefall Speed / 822 mph Time in Freefall / 4 minutes 27 seconds Suit Features / Eustace’s fully pressurized suit, designed by Paragon Space Development Corporation, United…

THE HEART OF NASA’S SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM ARRIVED AT KENNEDY SPACE CENTER LAST APRIL AS THE AGENCY’S FIRST HUMAN-RATED DEEP SPACE ROCKET IN 50 YEARS. The 212-foot core stage rocket, along with a pair of solid rocket boosters, and the Orion crew module largely make up the Space Launch System (SLS), which NASA is counting on for its Artemis program’s 2026 return to the moon—a feat the agency last accomplished with Apollo 17 in 1972. Despite the decades between manned lunar launches, the SLS relies on a workhorse from the shuttle program. Mounted at the bottom of the core stage are four RS-25 engines—formerly called the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME)—supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Originally designed in the 1970s, the engines are seasoned, upgraded veterans, with 25 previous space shuttle…

My Ray-Ban sunglasses have survived 10 years of pickup basketball, beach wear, and countless motorcycle trips. So when Meta (formerly Facebook) partnered with Ray-Ban to pack the latest audio and camera technology into classic styles like the Meteors, I had to see if my favorite glasses could become truly “smart.” In short, they have. My recent test of the Ray-Ban Stories proves just how easily they serve as wireless headphones, a camera, and a smart assistant, without obnoxious frames or giant arms. To use the glasses, you simply put them on, open the View app on your phone, and pair the two devices with the flick of a slider button on the glasses. I found the glasses’ audio to be enveloping, though at normal to high listening volume, some sound…