Excellent book for introducing kids to technology
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Kids are surrounded by technology these days, but unfortunately fewer and fewer of them appear to know how their gadgets or the world around them works.
This book is a good introduction, even if it is a bit lightweight.
There's a mix of ordinary things like electric shavers and guitars, the somewhat exotic like fiber optics and things mostly on the drawing board like fuel-cell cars. In all, more than 90 objects, processes and technologies are described.
The explanations are all essentially superficial and profusely illustrated. It's enough to get a young person interested and perhaps move them along to considering learning more about technology.
Jerry
From MP3 Players to Nanorobots in Amazing Color Photographs
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Through the use of cutaways and exploded views pictures reveal the internal workings of objects and explain various layers and how elements are assembled. This provides fascinating explanations of objects that may otherwise remain a mystery. No need to take apart your MP3 player, you can see inside the player on page 71. There is an explanation of how MP3 compression works along with a 3-D graph.
There are six main chapters:
Connect: Microchips, cell phones, fiber optics, digital radio, voice recognition, satellite, Internet...
Play: Soccer, fabric, cameras, games, guitars, compact discs, MP3 Players, headphones, Fireworks...
Live: Light bulbs, mirrors, solar cells, microwaves, aerogel, shavers, washing machines and robots.
Move: Motorcycles, cars, wheelchairs, jet engines, navigation, space probes, elevators, wind tunnels and space shuttles.
Work: Digital pens, laptops, virtual keyboards, laser printer, smart cards, robot worker, fire suits, radio ID tag, glue and wet welding.
Survive: Laser surgery, robot surgery, MRI scan, pacemaker, cells, vaccination and antibiotics
You may enjoy reading about how fireworks explode and why they display various colors. The pet translator helps you to find out if your dogs barking indicates needy, happy or assertive behavior. Virtual keyboards make using a PDA much easier now that you can type on any flat space.
One of the most fascinating DK books in print. A must have for every library and school, not to mention home library.
~The Rebecca Review