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BrainiacHere’s your chance to learn a little about a lot.It’s like brain food -- quick facts and information about a bunch of topics.Talk about them at lunch with friends or dinner with your family, and they’ll think you're a genius! AirWhat happens when all engines go out on a jet airplane mid-air? It glides. Most commercial jet aircraft have approximately a 15-to-1 glide ratio (gliding 15 feet for each foot it descends). That is, an airplane flying at 35,000 feet can glide about 525,000 feet (or 100 miles). Helicopters are the most versatile flying machine in existence! Cars can move forward, backward, right and left, and planes can only move forward, left, right, up and down. A helicopter can do all of that AND fly backwards, rotate in the air, and hover. The 1900 Glider was the first aircraft built by the Wright brothers and flown at Kitty Hawk. The 1901 Glider was the Wrights’ second aircraft, and one of the most frustrating to fly. It was this aircraft that led them to do basic research in aerodynamics, testing different wing shapes in a homemade wind tunnel. The 1902 Glider was the Wright’s third aircraft, and the first fully controllable flying machine with wing warping to control roll, a forward elevator for pitch, and a trailing rudder for yaw. This allowed the Wrights, for the first time, to navigate the air in all three dimensions. A 747-400 has 171 miles (274 km) of wiring, 5 miles (8 km) of tubing, and consists of 147,000 pounds (66,150 kg) of high-strength aluminum. The wing of a 747-400 weighs 95,000 pounds (43,090 kg), more than 30 times the weight of the first Boeing airplane, the 1916 B&W. 75,000 engineering drawings were used to produce the first 747. Engine thrust has grown from 43,500 pounds (19,730 kg) per engine on the early 747s to as much as 63,300 pounds (28,710 kg) on the current model. The Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C. could have been performed within the 150-foot (45-m) economy section of a 747-400. WaterDid you know that you can use sound waves to see things? Submarines use sonar to ’see’ where they’re going in dark waters by interpreting the reflection of sound waves off things in the ocean. Ultrasound is another technology that uses reflected sound waves to ’see’ inside your body. Personal watercraft (PWC) manufacturers have gone to great lengths to protect the environment, investing more than $1 billion in technological advances since 1998 that have resulted in cleaner, quieter and more efficient crafts. Today’s PWCs have 75% fewer emissions and are up to 70% quieter than 1998 models. Personal watercraft and outboard motors use the same two-stroke engine technology. The new technology being used on PWC today, called direct injection, reduces emissions by 75% over conventional outboard motors. SpaceThe Hubble Telescope, one of the largest and most complex satellites ever built, was the result of more than 20 years of science research and engineering. The space shuttle is an aircraft when it is in the Earth's atmosphere and a spacecraft only when it is in orbit. It takes only about eight minutes for a space shuttle to accelerate to a speed of more than 17,000 miles (27,359 kilometers) per hour. A space shuttle’s main engine weighs 1/7th as much as a train engine but delivers as much horsepower as 39 locomotives The speed of the gasses exiting a shuttle’s nozzle is more than 6,000 miles (9,656 kilometers) per hour, about five times the speed of sound or three times the speed of a high-powered rifle bullet. The plume of flame ranges up to 500 feet (152 meters) long. A pair of solid rocket motors on a shuttle is more powerful than 35 jumbo jets at takeoff. AutomobilesWomen spend more than $65 million on new cars and trucks and influence 80 percent of all new car purchases. There are enough roads in the Unites States to stretch from the earth to the moon eight times. The first Ford cars had Dodge engines. In the 1970’s cars were scrapped almost twice as often as small trucks, but over the years, cars have become more durable and in 1999, the scrapping rate was almost equal. Mary Anderson patented the windshield wiper in 1905. By 1916, wipers were standard equipment on all American-made cars. Electric cars run on batteries instead of gas, so they don’t pollute the air. The first electric cars were made in the early 1900s. Fuel cell vehicles, or hybrid vehicles, don’t pollute the air either. They run on a combination of hydrogen and electricity. Fuel cells turn hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. The electricity powers an electric motor, similar to the electric car. Fuel cells have been used to power rockets like the space shuttle for years. When cars started driving on the streets of New York City in 1900 they were hailed as pollution relieving devices. At the time there were 120,000 horses in the city; they produced more than a million kilograms of manure each day! Honda was the first to market a gasoline vehicle (Civic) meeting the Low-Emission Vehicle (LEV) standard in all 50 states. Nicolaus Otto invented the gas motor engine. An engineer and experimenter, Nicolaus Otto invented the first practical alternative to the steam engine in 1876 -- the first four-stroke internal combustion engine. He called it the “Otto Cycle Engine,” and as soon as he had completed his engine, he built it into a motorcycle. Air Conditioning in Cars:The first car with an actual refrigeration system was the 1940 model year Packard. Car Radio: In 1929, American Paul Galvin, the head of Galvin Manufacturing Corporation, invented the first car radio. The first car radios were not available from carmakers. Consumers had to purchase the radios separately. Galvin coined the name “Motorola” for the company's new products combining the idea of motion and radio. Turn Signals: Buick introduced the first electric turn signals in 1938. EnvironmentAll over the world agricultural and chemical engineers are working together to convert animal fats and vegetable oils into biodiesels, a type of biodegradable fuel. Every day products such as paper grocery bags, and corrugated boxes are often made from the recycled sawdust and wood shavings left over from manufacturing wood products like tables and chairs. Engineers with the US Army Corps are helping to keep the Mississippi River flowing past New Orleans. Trees shading homes can cut energy costs 18-50 percent each year. An acre of healthy trees can remove five tons of CO2 from the air annually. A single, mature tree in good health can filter out the air pollutants of a car driven 11,300 miles. One large, mature shade tree has the same cooling effect as 15 room-sized air conditioners. Engineering "Toys"An engineer invented the snowboard. Engineers design running shoes for protection, performance and comfort. A civil engineer created the slippery part of the water slide. The Ferris Wheel is one of the greatest engineering wonders of the world. It was created by George Washington Gale Ferris for the Chicago Fair in 1893. The largest Ferris Wheel, or observation wheel, is London’s British Airways London Eye with a diameter and height of 443 feet. Engineers have made interactive television possible. Computer engineers, in conjunction with animators, have created special effects in movies such as Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump and Interview with the Vampire. MiscellaneousHedy Lamarr, a glamorous Hollywood actress from the 1930s, held a patent on technology, which is the foundation for today’s advanced wireless networks. The first cell phone was developed in 1984 by Motorola. It cost $3,995 and weighed 2 pounds. Some phones today weigh less than 5 ounces. A team of biomedical engineers in Edinburgh, Scotland created the first working bionic arm in 1993. A woman named Emily Roebling supervised the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge from 1872 when her husband got sick until it opened in 1883. Ada Byron Lovelace, daughter of famous poet Lord Byron, published a paper in 1843 that predicted the development of computer software, artificial intelligence, and computer music. Every time you turn on a light switch, 72 percent of the energy comes from coal. Lighting uses 12-15 percent of the electricity consumed in a home. Did you know that Canada has:
1,800 aerodromes/airports Famous Engineers
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