Can you believe that Fixies are Such itty-bitty creatures?
Even when they're magnified It's hard to see their features.
They’re tiny, infinitesimal, So small it makes you doubt.
But if you meet a Fixie, please, Don’t let their secret out!
The Remote
Hey, Simka, the button got stuck on the remote.
How can we get it back out of there?
Look and learn, Nolik!
Please help!
Come on, come on, come on!
Should I let it go now?
Oops!
Nolik, hide somewhere!
Nolik, she stole the remote!
Nolik?
Where are you hiding? Nolik!
Hello there Fixies!
Hey! Where are you?
Hey, Tom Thomas! You got here just in time.
Chewsocka ran off with the TV remote!
So what? I can turn it on without it.
And my favorite cartoon is just about to start.
Forget about the cartoons, will you? Nolik is missing!
I’m afraid Nolik hid inside of the remote.
And Chewsocka took it…
Oh no! Nolik is in big time trouble.
Tom Thomas, there must be something you can do!
Chewsocka! Chewsocka!
Come here!
Where is that dog hiding?
I’m gonna go look in the other rooms.
Simka! Tom Thomas! Here I am! I’m over here!
For now… I’ll wait here.
Chewsocka is not out there!
Where are you? Hey, Simka!
I ran to get a pack-o-mat.
What are you gonna do with it?
I’m gonna search for the infrared ray that comes out of the remote!
That’s so great! But what is it?
I’ll explain it to you.
Inside of most remote controls there’s a special type of light bulb called a light emitting diode,
or LED for short.
When we press a button, the LED sends an invisible infrared ray.
And in the TV there is a receiver for these invisible rays.
The TV understands the command that comes from the remote control, and carries it out.
Like changing the channel or the volume.
If the rays are invisible, then how is it possible to see them?
In the pack-o-mat I’ve got these special goggles that can help me.
And now what?
Yell to Nolik. Get him to close the contact on any one of the buttons.
Nolik! You gotta push one of the buttons down on the remote!
A button? But how am I gonna do that?
Wait! One second!
Chewsocka chews socks with a brain full of rocks!
Oh, mama mia! Now she’ll eat me together with the remote!
Nothing for you here.
But here is something!
There he is!
He’s over there!
Chewsocka, come here!
Do you want a hotdog?
So you wanna play tough.
Alright then!
Hurrah! You’re in one piece!
How did you find me?
By looking out for the remote’s rays.
It’s just a shame it’s impossible for me to see them.
What are you saying? You can!
If you want to see infrared rays all you have to do is look through a digital camera.
Try it for yourself!
Turn on the camera on a mobile telephone.
Now go ahead and press any button on the remote control
and point the camera towards the front of it.
You’ll see a bright dot on the screen of the camera.
That’s the light emitting diode working.
It’s letting off a special light that can’t be seen by the naked eye.
It’s also possible to point the remote control at a mirror
and then through the camera you can see how the light emitting diode turns itself on.
So what that means is that invisible rays bounce off of a mirror
in the same way that regular light does.
So you can control the TV by bouncing the light from a remote control off of a mirror!
You don’t believe me?
Then go ahead and try it yourself!
By the way,
if your toys weren’t all stuffed under the bed we would have found the remote without the goggles!
Don’t worry about it.
When the cartoons are over I’ll put them away.
So, you done watching?
Time to clean up!
Fixies!
We're the little people that live inside of machines and appliances and take care of them:
fixing them, cleaning them and oiling them.
Humans never suspect us.
They think if something breaks and then suddenly starts working again,
that it happened all by itself.
Well nothing happens by itself.
It happens because we, the Fixies, are living inside!
Yes, without the Fixies, humans would have so many more problems with their machines!
Tom Thomas!
Do you think I can practice my drumming here?
Yeah, go ahead! I’ve just got some homework to do.
I can do that. And better than you can, too.
And what if I play like this, huh?!
Then I'll go like that.
Or like that!
Ever since I had decided That a drummer's what I want to be,
There is nothing that I won't bang on, Cause the world's a drum to me!
So I bang on radiators, With a spoon the pot goes - boom, bam, bum!
Maybe someone will take pity, And they'll buy me my own drum.
Bang it, bang it, bang it boom, bang it boom, bang it boom!
Bang it, bang it, bang it bam, bang it bam, bang it bam!
Bang it, bang it, bang it bum, bang it bum, bang it bum!
Bang it, beat it bum, bum! Bang the drum!
Bang the drum!
Both my father and my mother Wish I'd play a violin instead.
I don't want to, I'm a drummer, But I can't drum that in their heads.
So I bang on radiators, With a spoon the pot goes - boom, bam, bum!
Maybe someday they will get it, And they'll buy me my own drum!
Bang it, bang it, bang it boom, bang it boom, bang it boom!
Bang it, bang it, bang it bam, bang it bam, bang it bam!
Bang it, bang it, bang it bum, bang it bum, bang it bum!
Bang it, bang it bum, bum! Bang the drum!
Tom Thomas, let’s take a break!
But I'm not done!
Keep going, Nolik!
This is fun!
Maybe it's fun for you!
Stop!!! That's enough!!!
Do you know the reason why a mobile phone is also called a cellphone?
Mobile phones are connected to other mobile phones with the help of special radio stations
that are put on top of towers and building roofs.
Each one of these stations sends signals to it's own area below.
And each area is called a cell.
A mobile phone works anywhere it can find a nearby station that it can connect to.
So as long as there is a station nearby you can talk as much as you want.
You can even move from one cell to another.
And without you ever knowing it your mobile phone will switch from one station to another one.
So your conversation can keep on going
even if you're running after a bus or riding on it!
Fixies go to Fixie schools And study to be masters.
There's so much they need to learn To save us from disasters.
There isn't one appliance That they don't know about.
But if you meet a Fixie, please, Don't let their secret out!
The Bar Code
And so, what do we do if we happen to see humans?
Hide from them, right?
And what if you've got nowhere to hide?
Then we turn ourselves into screws!
That’s correct.
Where could it be?
Were on Earth could I have put it?
I'm such a scatter brain!
Ah! It's Professor Eugenius!
There's no need to hide from him. He’s our friend.
Where has it gone?!
Did you lose something again, Professor?
Yeah, how did you guess?
It's just awful. Yesterday I started testing a new iron...
and today it's totally disappeared into thin air!
Where could you have put that thing?
I've got it down to two places. It could be in the warehouse, or…
not in the warehouse.
Yeah. That information will help us find it.
Or not help us find it.
Class, follow me!
To the warehouse!
Wow! Look at all these boxes!
If we have to look inside each one of them, it'll take us two days.
Maybe we’ll get lucky! Let's look in this one.
No! Inside there is a fan.
A fan?!
Wow, it's a fan!
And what's inside this one?
A mixer!
Yeah! Amazing!
And what's in this box?
An electric kettle!
Made in Germany, by the way!
He is right, there is a kettle in there!
Professor, is this some trick? I don't get it.
Grandpus, how do you do it?
It’s gotta be magic! What else?
Here's how I think he's doing it. I think the professor has glasses made to see through the boxes.
Of course not. I only know how to read the barcode that you can see on each of those boxes!
- Oh, that. - Exactly.
If you look at the printing on packages and boxes,
you will often find a symbol with a lot of black lines and numbers.
These symbols are called bar codes.
Each bar code has all sorts of information:
what the item is, what country it came from, and even in which factory it was made.
With the help of a special reading device - a scanner,
it's possible to read all the information the bar code holds.
It really is an excellent system for stores to know what they've got!
You don’t even need a scanner to do it?!
I can figure out barcodes without one.
I'll teach you if you want.
Class!
Let's see, we are looking for a box with an iron.
There!
Well, bring in the professor!
Today on almost everything that is sold, there is some kind of mark.
For instance, this kind of mark is called a bar code,
and this one - a QR-code.
These marks help us find out a lot of information.
Suppose you walk by a building and see a QR code on it.
Just point the camera on your mobile phone at it
and information about who built it and when it was built will appear on the screen.
Isn’t that great?
It's a shame not every phone can do this yet.
And that's not all. There are also marks that work without pictures.
There are electronic chips that can hold information.
These chips can be put inside of ID cards or travel passes,
and all you need to do is press the card near a reader so it can check if you're allowed to go on through.
You just made my day! You found it so quickly!
What would I do without you?
Is something wrong?!
This... is not an iron.
- Whose sandwich is that? - Mine.
Yesterday I wanted to put into the fridge, only I guess I put it into my…
I just get distracted so easily.
Look, we need to think this through logically.
If you went and placed your sandwich into the box where the iron should have gone,
then you must have put your iron…
In the refrigerator!
Oh, here you are! Here you are, my new iron!
I looked everywhere for you.
Thank you, my friends, once again!
There's no need to thank us at all. You're always there when we need help.
You've even let us open our own school here in your laboratory.
And we don’t have to hide ourselves.
Yeah! That's because you’re so kind and you love Fixies.