The Problem Is Harder Than It Sounds
A machine taking money has to answer a question that a person answers effortlessly and unconsciously: is this a real coin, and which…
Three Pins, Three Completely Different Jobs
It looks like a symmetrical arrangement of three identical things, and it is nothing of the kind. The three pins are doing three unrelated…
The Belief Is Universal and It Is Backwards
Ask anybody how a microwave differs from a conventional oven and you will be told that it heats from the inside out.…
The Thing That Is Missing Is Ink
Open a photocopier and there is no liquid anywhere. No reservoir, no cartridge of fluid, no nib, no pad, no ribbon. The consumable…
It is loudest before it boils, and the switch never measures the water. Here are fifteen.
1. The Element Heats the Water, Not the Kettle
In an electric kettle the…
It is the only organ that grows back, and most people cannot name what it does. Here are seventeen.
1. It Grows Back, Which Nothing Else Does
Remove a substantial…