The Light Bulb Filament
Bill takes apart an incandescent light bulb to how the filament is made. He shows extreme close-ups of the filament, and he discusses the materials processing need to make the ductile tungsten used.
Engineer Guy
Bill Hammack takes a humanistic approach: from the trial, tribulations, and triumphs of inventors and scientists to the effect of technology on our daily lives.
Why The Other Line Is Likely To Move Faster
Bill introduces queueing theory and uses it to design the most efficient check out line.
How A Quartz Watch Works
Bill takes apart a cheap watch to show how it works. He describes how a tiny quartz tuning fork keeps the time.
How A Smart Phone Knows Up From Down
Bill takes apart a smartphone and explains how its accelerometer works. He also shares the essential idea underlying the MEMS production of these devices.
Fiber Optic Cables: How They Work & How Engineers Use Them To Send Messages
Bill uses a laser pointer and a bucket of glycol to show how fiber optic cables works, and how engineers use them to transmit signals across the ocean.
Cell Phone Design
What are the basic constraints used in engineering cell phones?
The Coffee Maker: Pumping Water With Almost No Moving Parts
How the water gets from the bottom of a coffee maker to the top with almost no moving parts
How The First Transistor Worked
How the first transistor worked and, eventually, revolutionized microelectronics
The Pop Can Stay-On Tab
The ingenious engineering design of the pop can stay-on tab
Black Box: Inside A Flight Data Recorder
The inner workings of the flight data recorder