Children Education System

The Way Things Work - Light & Other Amazing Discoveries (Vol 5)

"Humorous, informative and very educational. Explanations are clear and relevant, with necessary diagrams to explain exactly how things work...These are exceptional physics videos that merit a place in all educational collections." - USA School Library Journal

The Way Things Work is an animated children’s series based on the award-winning international best-selling book by David Macaulay. Each fun-filled episode enables children to understand how the principles of physics affect daily life. On the mythical Mammoth Island, a group of Islanders and their indigenous mammoths are caught up in a series of entertaining adventures which are motivated and inspired by their need to find solutions to various everyday problems. Our guide and interpreter, the Inventor, offers the islanders friendly advice and as they make their amazing discoveries we learn how these fundamentals apply to us today.

The series poses questions such as “Have you ever wondered what a wheelbarrow and a bottle opener have in common? “Did you know that a dentist's drill is a direct descendant of the first windmill?” and sets about explaining the answers using animation. From aircraft to zippers and axles to zoom lenses, The Way Things Work brings to life core principles of physics in a fun and engaging way for children.

SCIENCE CONCEPTS:

LIGHT: Olive and Troy learn all about the properties of light with the help of the inventor. Together, they examine a variety of devices, which use lenses to bend light and help us see images correctly, such as telescopes, periscopes and binoculars.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Local inhabitants are attempting to memorialize the winner of their annual golf tournament with a portrait. Olive begins to experiment with light its effect on the stumbles on the principles involved in photography, and the inventor helps her understand how light, lenses and chemicals can be used to produce a photograph.

SENSORS: Olive and Troy help their family remodel a quaint old lodge in the mountains. They decide that the old building could use some modernization with the help of sensors. The inventor explains principles behind different types of sensors that can detect the presence of something, such as smoke detectors, automatic doors and security alarms.

LEVERS: The inhabitants decide to enter their mammoth in a "heaviest mammoth" competition. Olive finds inspiration in a simple machine called a lever after seeing a see-saw. The Islanders then explore the properties of the three classes of levers and mastered the fine art of weighing a mammoth.

SPRINGS: The inventor observes a family harvesting coconuts on Mammoth Island, using a number of devices called springs. Springs store potential energy when they are stretched or compressed. This stored energy is transferred to the energy of motion -- causing the coconuts to go flying through the air!