22 results found for university-of-illinois

Bill cuts a fluorescent light out of his ceiling to show that plasmas and their products are all around us - they're essential in making circuit boards, lights, and even potato chip bags.

Bill examines the first transistor ever built. He explains how it works, and its impact on our world today. And, also, he even tests it out!

Armed with a pair of wire cutters Bill shows how a common thermostat reveals how good industrial designers keep track of the dimensions of a human being.

Bill shows how a transistor works by examing a replica of the first one ever build: The Bardeen-Brattain point contact transistor.

Using slow motion video Bill Hammack shows how the mechanical digital-to-analogue converter of IBM's revolutionary 'golf ball' typewriter works.

Bill uses slow motion video to show the ingenious engineering design of the apparently simple tab of a pop can.

In designing an object an engineer must choose the proper material. Never is this more important than in the 'black box' flight data recorder.

Bill takes apart a cheap watch to show how it works. He describes how a tiny quartz tuning fork keeps the time.

Bill describes how a whiffletree was used in early calculating devices to do mechanical digital to analog conversion. He shows briefly the device used in an IBM Selectric Typewriter.

To engineer an object means to make choices. Bill illustrates how the choice of having a single heating element made an engineer find a creative way to pump water with no moving parts.