Transportation
Many of us take public transportation or fly in airplanes on a regular basis, but have you ever wondered how all of these things work? This collection of transportation articles help explain how people get from place to place.
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Were these things invented to make your hair stand on end? Find out how Van de Graaff generators create static electricity and why they were invented in the first place.
It doesn't seem like twisted rope and wooden gears or levers would be able to produce the force and speed needed to launch heavy loads a great distance.
Water-cooled air conditioners work in a different way than standard air conditioners that chill the air with a compressor. If water-cooler air conditioners don't use a compressor, then how do they cool the air? Find out the answer in this article.
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When an explosion occurs, the air rapidly expands around the ignition source. Why is it that in a jet engine the expanding gas doesn't force its way through the front of the engine? Find out the answer to this and other jet-related questions.
Although the amount of fuel may seem high, when you do the math, it's actually not so bad.
Contrails are those long white clouds that form in the wake of an airplane flying at altitude. What causes these contrails and what are they made of? Learn the answer to this question in this article from HowStuffWorks.
I would like to know how airplanes can fly upside down and do loops. How does the fuel get to the engine if the plane is upside down?
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How does an oxygen canister on an airplane or spacecraft work? The ValueJet crash in 1996 was attributed to oxygen canisters that created a fire. And there was a fire on the MIR space station caused by an oxygen canister. How can a fire CREATE oxygen?
Thomas the Tank Engine is a merchandising phenomenon that includes small wooden train sets, video tapes, books, clothing, an official Web site and tons of fan sites. But wait, what exactly is a "tank engine" anyway?
How do the engines breathe in diesel submarines? Don't internal combustion engines need a lot of oxygen to run? Where would all of this oxygen come from when the sub is underwater?
There is a force that causes a 3-pole motor to spin in one direction and not the other. What exactly is this force and how does it prevent the motor from spinning in another direction. Find out the answer to this question in this article from HowStuffWorks.
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Do commercial jets have locks on the doors and ignition keys? If not, what keeps someone from stealing them?
当passen冲洗厕所ger airplane, I'm amazed by the huge noise it makes -- like a powerful vacuum cleaner. Can you explain what makes this noise?
When I was a kid, my Aunt had constantly flowing water from a natural spring down the hill. She said the water was pumped uphill using a hydraulic ram. This device ran constantly and didn't need any electricity! What is a hydraulic ram and how does i
How are people able to breathe inside a submarine? What do they do to keep the air breathable?
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Steam engines powered all early locomotives, steam boats and factories -- they fueled the Industrial Revolution. Learn how the steam engine produces power!
Not so long ago, the world's naval forces worked entirely above water. But all that changed with the addition of the submarine to the standard naval arsenal.
New York Yankees starting pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor, Tyler Stanger, died when Lidle's Cirrus SR20 hit a building in New York City in 2006.
How does a speedometer in an airplane work?
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We may fantasize about soaring through the sky, but humans aren't aerodynamic creatures. Could human flight be possible with personal jet packs?
The golden age of flight was a time when innovations in flying helped capture the public's attention. People, such as Charles Lindbergh, helped raise the popularity of flight. Learn more about the golden age of flight.
The Korean War had ended, but the world was on the brink of the long Cold War. Read about the rapid development of flight technology of the 1950s and 1960s.
The 1960s brought the height of the Space Race and revolutions in flight technology. Read about advances in flight during the '60s and '70s.
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The Dawn of Flight Timeline detailing the early history of the aviation industry. Follow the development of flight from 400 B.C. to the historic flight at Kitty Hawk. Learn more about the dawn of flight timeline.
We humans are mobile. Long before flight, FusionMan or even your average automobile arrived on the scene, trains were transporting us all over civilization. How did we get from horse-drawn carts to high-speed trains?