We are so used to the stuff around our house that we don’t even think how it all works.
Why are the electrical wires colored the way they are?
How does a microwave work?
Can I make a better copy of my sister with a 3-D printer?
(Well maybe not that one.)
Stay with me now to learn a lot of interesting and quirky things about your house.
1) Why does the printer release hot sheets?
Conventional color laser printer uses toner, a colored powder.
When you print an image, this toner is sprayed onto the paper, but to fix it on the sheet,
the powder receives an electric charge with heat.
The toner melts and is finally fixed on paper, so you get a clear image and a warm sheet.
2) What’s the water dripping from the AC?
Have you noticed how in the streets water is dripping from many air conditioners?
This is condensation – (not to be confused with condescension – where you feel distain
for the air conditioner.)
When the AC cools the warm air, moisture forms, which accumulates and gradually flows out.
Take a bottle of Coke from the fridge, you will immediately see how drops form on the
outside of it.
This is condensation too.
3) Fridge – also known as the refrigerator, icebox, the cold place.
Many have heard that a fridge filled with food consumes less electricity.
Sadly, this is a myth.
The energy consumption is the same no matter if it’s stuffed or not.
And on average, the fridge consumes about 12 percent of the electricity bill.
Me?
I’d just like to consume less of the food in it.
4) How does a microwave work?
Microwaves are something like radio waves, only shorter and more energetic.
You put a sandwich in the microwave.
Waves penetrate the dish and force the sandwich molecules to move faster, crashing into each
other.
When molecules move fast, the food gets hot.
But microwaves only penetrate a couple of inches and do it unevenly around the dish.
That's why your sandwich can be partly cold and partly scalding hot.
But microwaves are not only helpful.
They interfere with the operation of microcircuits, that is, they can ruin phones, CDs and even
turn off the lights.
Neither these waves are good for humans, but fear not – all microwave ovens are equipped
with a sealed iron case.
Besides, microwaves quickly dissolve in the atmosphere.
There is a myth that a microwave makes food a little radioactive.
Well, that’s not true.
Scientists say that warming food this way is absolutely safe.
Radioactivity means splitting its atoms, and microwaves only set the molecules in motion.
5) What do the lights on a Wi-Fi router mean?
There are a lot of router models, but most of them have 8 lights on the casing.
Knowing what they mean will help you solve the problem faster if there’s no Internet.
PWR (power) — everything is clear here.
A light indicates whether your router is connected to the electrical outlet and receiving power.
SYS (often indicated by a gear icon) is a system indicator.
If it blinks, everything is in order; if it is constantly on, then it means an error in
your system.
WLAN is our favorite Wi-Fi icon.
If it blinks, it means the wireless network is working fine and you can continue watching
YouTube.
LAN — these are 4 identical icons.
Most likely, they will never bother you.
They’re only on if several more computers are connected to your router via cable.
WAN — the Internet icon.
It shows that you are connected to the global network and must always be on.
6) QWERTY Why are keyboards “qwertyfied”?
What stopped them from arranging the letters in alphabetical order?
I’ve got no exact answer to this, but there is a funny theory.
The QWERTY layout is said to have been invented specifically to slow down the typing speed.
At the time of the first mechanical typewriters, metal keys were arranged alphabetically, and
people sometimes typed so fast that the keys jammed with one another.
If you tried typing something on a typewriter of the time, you wouldn’t be able to press
two keys almost simultaneously.
Small metal levers that print characters would collide with each other and get stuck.
You’d have to interrupt the work and disconnect the levers.
It was believed that with the QWERTY layout, people wouldn't be able to quickly type since
they would search for the desired letter, and there would be less damage to a typewriter
and more efficiency at work.
7) Wire colors.
The wires in your home’s power box are marked in different colors to make an electrician’s
work faster, safer, and more convenient.
Pay attention, though!
Please do not try to study the wires yourself, it can be dangerous.
I’ll just show them to you from the Bright Side of life, if you don’t mind.
(That way, you can’t accidentally make your life, um, way brighter – if you know what
I mean.)
In each country, the wire markings are different, but this is what they mean in the US.
Black indicates a hot or live wire that’s carrying a current and brings power to all
circuits.
These wires feed an outlet or switch and are often used as switch legs.
Red is the second hot wire for large appliances such as a stove, clothes dryer, or air conditioner.
It can also be the interconnecting electrical wire between two hardwired smoke detectors.
blue and yellow are hot wires too.
They maintain common plug-in electrical devices, such as fans or lights.
White or gray indicate a neutral wire needed for safe work with electrical devices.
If the electrical wire is damaged, the casing of the appliance could become charged.
Protective grounding of white or gray wires is designed to protect you from electric shock
in such cases.
So, grounding is the connection of the metal casing of the device (stove or refrigerator)
with the ground.
More precisely, with a wire having a connection to the ground.
If such a connection exists, the charge on the case "flows" to the ground.
Green, green with a yellow stripe, or bare copper work in a similar way.
These are ground wires that keep you, your appliances, and your home safe from electrical
fires.
Their purpose is to provide a path for a circuit’s electrical current if a device short-circuits
or trips a breaker.
Without color marking, it is difficult to determine which wire is neutral and which
is hot.
If the wires are mixed up and connected incorrectly, a short circuit and breakdown of the device
may occur.
(By the way, the reason why little children are called “small fry” ---has absolutely
NOTHING to do with the misuse of electricity.
Just in case you were wondering…
8) Ready-to-assemble furniture Ever wondered why IKEA and other furniture
manufacturers deliver their goods unassembled?
The point isn’t only in convenience of transportation.
It’s also that the thing assembled with your own hands would be of much more value
to you than if you just bought it.
That was the finding of a group of researchers from Harvard, Duke, and Tulane Universities,
who found that when a group of subjects put in the effort to create three different, and
fairly simple, objects—IKEA storage boxes, origami, and Lego models—they placed greater
value on them.
In many cases, they even overvalued the objects.
9) Chairs on wheels And now, let's move back to the middle of
the 19th century, not for long.
To the moment when Charles Darwin worked hard on his famous theory of evolution.
He wasn’t very happy to walk around his room, studying samples and papers, so he attached
wheels to his chair.
Decades passed before chairs with wheels began to be widely used.
Then they were equipped with comfortable backs and soft swivel seats, and that’s how Charles
Darwin’s seat evolved into the office chairs.
10) We all love bubble wrap.
But initially, it was to become a kind of wallpaper.
Two inventors from the USA, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes, glued two bath curtains
together.
Bubbles formed between the layers, and it dawned on the guys that such fashionable wallpapers
would be in demand.
Oh were they wrong.
Then, they made a mistake again by deciding to cover greenhouses with this wrap for better
heat preservation.
And only on their third attempt, the enthusiasts were able to find the perfect use for the
film: packaging of various products and relieving stress.
And speaking about stress…
11) Washing dishes I'm sure that many of you loathe washing dishes.
Don't rush to put the dirty stuff in the dishwasher, though.
Researchers from Florida State University found that washing dishes relieves stress
and improves mental well-being.
The main thing is to do it thoughtfully and focus all your attention on it.
The smell of detergent, warm water and the tactile sensation of plates — all this reduces
stress levels by about 30 percent.
Oh I’m so stressed.
Hey give me some dirty pots and pans.
Om….
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