Innehållsförteckning för May 2020 från Popular Mechanics

TYLER DASWICK Associate Features Editor Once smuggled an entire rotisserie chicken into a movie theater. The Best Thing I Have on My Desk A cactus. I grew up in Phoenix, a world away from our offices in New York and PA, so this little guy reminds me of home. PRODUCTS I’M USING RIGHT NOW 1 Wüsthof 8-inch Cook’s Knife Delicate enough for dicing but strong enough to pulverize spices and butcher meat. 2 Lodge 10 1/4-inch Cast Iron Skillet It’s the only cooking vessel you need. I’ve used mine for steak, fish, and giant pancakes. 3 The Flavor Bible Instead of recipes, this provides an index of flavor combinations. It renders other cookbooks obsolete. 4 Kuchenprofi 12-inch Tweezers Don’t call these fussy until you’ve used them to pinch eggshells from…

HAUNTED: HALLOWEEN ’86 (2016) “It’s a beat-’em-up hybrid filled with kitschy horror and a combat system like nothing you’d have seen on the NES,” says game designer Caldwell. “We have the benefit of another 30+ years of video game history.” ROLLIE (TBD) Rollie is a shot of pure nostalgia. A woodland-critter Super Mario Bros. with a touch of Metroid movement. That’s why you’re dusting off your NES in the first place, right? MICRO MAGES (2019) Grab three friends and power up your old NES Four Score (the console’s original 4-player adaptor) for this delightful dungeon crawler. It’s a modern spin on the classic platformer genre, filled with the classic baddies: goblins, skeletons, traps, and snakes! DUNGEONS & DOOMKNIGHTS (TBD) A little bit The Legend of Zelda and a little bit…

IF COLLEGE STUDENTS could obtain a copy of Facebook’s latest neural network—a series of algorithms that resemble the human brain—they could cheat all the way through Calculus 300. At the least, they could solve the following differential equation in under one second: It may not replace Wolfram Alpha anytime soon, but Facebook’s neural net is the first to solve complex calculus problems. It’s a considerable leap forward in computers’ abilities to understand math logic. Two Facebook researchers in Paris, Guillaume Lample and François Charton, described the breakthrough in a recent paper, “Deep Learning for Symbolic Mathematics.” They noted that while neural nets can perform everyday calculations, like arithmetic, they don’t exactly have a whiz-kid reputation when it comes to calculations with symbolic data—basically information you can’t add, multiply, or otherwise…

The Diving Suit/ Leonardo designed an early diving suit, which he hoped the Romans could use to disable enemy ships. The Parachute/ The inventor drafted designs for an early parachute made of wood and linen. Skydiver Adrian Nicholas put the chute to the test in 2000. Armored Vehicles/ A far cry from today’s war machines, Leonardo’s wooden tank would have been powered by two men operating a crankshaft. Crossbow/ In 1486, Leonardo designed a giant crossbow that would employ a crank and gear system to launch projectiles.…

THE MORNING OF the powered exoskeleton finals at the 2016 Cybathlon opened on a less-than-promising note. Mark Daniel, a 26-year-old former welder who’d been paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident at 18, was rushing down a ramp at the venue when his wheelchair caught on a post. He took a hard tumble out of his chair and onto the pavement. This alarmed his teammates, a group of six engineers and technicians from the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition. They’d been working 12-hour days for months, designing, assembling, and refining the robotic exoskeleton suit for which Daniel served as the lone pilot. They had no Plan B. Given the public and media spotlight focused on the Cybathlon, careers could rise or fall depending on Daniel’s performance.…

DIFFICULTY: IF THE GROUT IN YOUR BATHROOM IS DISCOLORED but sound, you don’t need to replace it. It just needs a thorough cleaning with a pro-grade tile and grout cleaner, such as the Aqua Mix line by Custom Building Products. If it’s truly foul, the nuclear option would be to scrub dingy tile and grout with a white Scotch-Brite pad, and a mixture of two products from Custom Building Products: Aqua Mix NanoScrub and Aqua Mix Heavy-Duty Tile & Grout Cleaner. If this won’t clean it, nothing will. After cleaning, seal with Aqua Mix Grout Sealer. (1) If grout is flaking out of the joints, rake them out with a carbide-grit grout saw or a carbide scraper. For a narrow joint, less than ⅛ inch, you can also use a…

DIFFICULTY: BLAND, 1970S-ERA TRIM REALLY DRAGS DOWN the look of a room. To replace it, you’ll need basic hand tools and a miter saw. You’ll also need a spirit of adventure. First, remove the old trim without wrecking everything in sight. Sounds easy, but sometimes it’s not, especially if you just wedge a crowbar in there. Start by slicing the layer of paint or caulk where the trim meets the wall. Then pry the trim away with the thinnest pry bar you can find. I like to begin with a hefty putty knife (called a chisel-type). There is also a bar called a fishtail-type that’s an extremely effective trim-removal tool. (1) Once you get the trim moving, spread out the prying load by wedging a wide, flat knife between the…

DIFFICULTY: (FOR PLUMBING, FLOORING, AND HEAVY STUFF) IF YOUR BATHROOM TILE IS SOUND, FRANKLY, you’re better off cleaning it, sealing it, and leaving it alone. Tearing out porcelain tile and replacing it is a huge deal. If the bathroom has an ugly vinyl floor, however, a good fix is to install a form of waterproof floor known as solid core LVL (luxury vinyl tile). Solid core LVL is a form of plank flooring that looks very similar to the laminate floor types that have become popular in the last 20 years. The biggest difference: The base of each plank is water-resistant, and the center is made of pulverized limestone and plastic resins. The faces can be printed to look like stone or wood. Some solid core LVL planks can be…

For more than 100 years, Popular Mechanics has been a go-to resource for DIY home projects. And while we’ve had experience with consumer electronics and small appliances for years, we’re now bringing our deep expertise and rigorous testing to even more home goods—from products that help you sleep better to security systems you install yourself. As the market becomes saturated with smart home technology, it’s more essential than ever to investigate and celebrate these products. These are the best new innovators, long-term top performers, and terrific value picks that will upgrade your home and simplify your life. BEST POWER STRIP Belkin Pivot-Plug 12-Outlet Surge Protector Never struggle with reorganizing your cables again, thanks to Belkin’s Pivot-Plug surge protector. Eight out of its dozen outlets swivel, so you can position them…

I ONLY MADE IT ABOUT HALFWAY through this riddle (right), the first installment from contributor Laura Feiveson. There’s a reason hers are so challenging. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She worked at the IMF. And now, on days off from her job as an economist at the Federal Reserve, she creates math puzzles for Pop Mech. For the full explanation of the solution, go to popularmechanics.com/riddle. Trying to solve these kinds of puzzles brings back good memories of computer science and geometry classes. I liked using specific tools and principles to reason toward the answer, all while building a trail of evidence. Getting beat by a “moderate” riddle reminds me: Respect the heroes who use math and logic to solve huge problems. That includes economists like Feiveson,…

WHEN SULTAN Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire requested proposals for a bridge connecting capital city Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) with the neighboring city, Galata (Karakoy, Turkey) at the turn of the 16th century, famed inventor Leonardo da Vinci was eager to win the contract. He didn’t get the job, but more than 500 years later, a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that maybe he should have. Karly Bast, who graduated from MIT in 2019 and is now at Buro Happold Engineering, worked alongside structural engineer and MIT professor John Ochsendorf and undergraduate Michelle Xie to analyze Leonardo’s sketches and letters (pulled from Manuscript L, a small Codex stored in the Institut de France in Paris). They also researched historically accurate materials and construction methods…

480 B.C. The Greek historian Herodotus details the construction of Xerxes’ pontoon bridges, rope-tied floating barges strung together during the Greek and Persian War. 1ST CENTURY A.D. The Romans finish construction on the Pont du Gard bridge in France. The solid, triple-decker stone arches still stand today. 1464 Tibetan engineer Thangtong Gyalpo, who built simple suspension bridges throughout Tibet and Bhutan, dies. The last of his bridges washed away in 2004. 1777 Construction on the world’s first castiron bridge begins in Coalbrookdale, England. Thomas Jefferson was so enthralled, he ordered an engraving of the bridge. 1841 Jacques Triger invents the pneumatic caisson, allowing workers to dig pier foundations by pumping compressed air into a chamber. 1874 The world’s first steel truss bridge, the Eads Bridge in St. Louis, Missouri, is…

DIFFICULTY: (FOR MINOR ELECTRICAL WORK) IF YOU POKE AROUND YOUR HOUSE AND FIND overcrowded electrical boxes, damaged or burned wires, or aluminum wiring, don’t mess around. Call an electrician. But if you’ve already got a pair of lights flanking your bathroom mirror, and you live in a recently built house or one with wiring that’s been improved by a licensed electrician, upgrading fixtures can be a smooth process. First, you’ll need to cut power to the bathroom circuit at the service panel; then try the light switch. No lights? Good. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a live wire lurking in the box where the fixture is mounted; it just means that the most obvious conductors serving the fixture are no longer energized. (1) Play it safe by checking wires…

OtterBox Elevation 36 Growler Whether you’re carrying piping hot coffee to a job site or icy cold water into the woods, bring your beverage in the Elevation. During our test, the double-wall stainless steel construction kept hot water at 125°F over 24 hours, while most competitors' water cooled to 100°F or lower. The spread was closer for cold water, but this 36-ounce thermos was one of the top performers there, too. Still, it was the system of five interchangeable lids—including a French press and an easy-to-use flip top—that won us over in the end. $45 BioLite BaseLantern XL Light The BaseLantern is like the iPhone of camp lights: powerful and intuitive. At its simplest, it does just what you want, through either the single button at the top or BioLite’s…

IN 1985, AMERICAN VIDEO games languished in a wasteland. The gaming giant Atari had just folded in a wave of terrible and unplayably buggy third-party games. In its final throes, the company physically dumped millions of cartridges in the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico. Afterward, Atari was split up and sold off to competitors. But that fall, an 8-bit phoenix rose from these cartridge ashes: the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES). Soon, the NES would be in one of every three households in America. In an effort to avoid Atari’s fate, the Nintendo corporation kept a tight grip on what games you could play on their system, so each console came with a top-secret lockout chip, a first for the gaming industry. Nintendo called it the 10NES. It worked like…

1 DOCK STREET BREWING CO. SWARM INTELLIGENCE At 4.9 percent ABV, this drone-assisted pale ale was brewed with local orange blossom that’s been fermented out, leaving behind floral, fruity notes and a taste of honey. Ekuanot is the dominant hop, but you can also taste Mosaic and Chinook. 2 MACKMYRA WHISKY INTELLIGENS This Swedish single-malt whiskey, master blended by AI with supervision from D’Orazio, is described as fruity, oaky, and slightly salty with a dryish end. Mackmyra used smaller casks to produce a concentrated flavor. 3 BULLEIT BETA TEST COCK TAIL With the help of Austrian tech company Print A Drink, Bulleit Distilling Co. developed the Beta Test, a light and fruity 3D-printed cocktail. A robotic arm injects suspended beads of colored lemon oil into a mix of Bulleit bourbon,…

1 How good are you at planning? A. I have a master’s degree in engineering and am also a CPA B. I planned a family reunion once C. How much do you know about that Fyre Festival that I put together a couple years ago? 2 True or False: A gut renovation is more difficult if it’s the only bathroom in the house. A. True: Taking your home’s only toilet out of commission is always a bad idea, even if you rent a porta-potty B. False: Doesn’t matter. You can always rough it, right? 3 How should your bathroom release water vapor and gases? A. Through a flexible, hose-like duct to a closet in the attic B. Out a window C. Through a cast-iron or plastic pipe leading to a…

DIFFICULTY: A BATHROOM MIRROR IS SURPRISINGLY EASY TO remove and replace. First, determine whether your mirror is held in place with clips or glue. To remove a mirror held with clips, have a helper hold the mirror while you undo the top and side clips. Carefully tilt the mirror forward into the helper’s hands and lift it off the bottom clips. If the mirror feels like it’s still attached to the wall as you try to tip it forward, it might be sticking to the paint or be fastened with adhesive. Removing an adhesive-fastened mirror is a tougher job, requiring safety glasses, a long-sleeve shirt, and work gloves. (1) First, thoroughly tape down and across the mirror with strips of painter’s masking tape so that the whole thing doesn’t break.…

DIFFICULTY: (FOR MINOR PLUMBING) REPLACING THE FAUCET AND DRAIN ASSEMBLY can brighten the heck out of a bathroom, and it’s not very difficult, although it does involve minor plumbing. First, turn off the hot and cold water valves supplying the faucet, and use an adjustable wrench to undo the nut that holds each supply line to its valve. (1) Now, drop out the parts that hold the faucet to the sink. (2) How you’ll do this will depend on whether you have a faucet that is a single handle (a), center set (b), or spread fit (c). Undo the nuts that clamp the faucet body in place or that otherwise prevent the parts from being lifted up and out. Also undo the lift-rod assembly, all the parts that lever the…

0.29 GIGAHERTZ the faintest frequency that the telescope can detect 10 years it takes to paint the entire structure 13,000 SQUARE MILES the size of the National Radio Quiet Zone 485 FEET HEIGHT OF THE GBT 6,500 HOURS time per year the telescope spends observing the sky 4,600 LIGHT YEARS the distance from Earth of the most massive neutron star ever detected, which was discovered by the GBT in 2019 17,000,000 POUNDS the weight of the GBT 8,500 people who live in Pocahontas County, where the GBT is located 2,004 panels in GBT’s parabolic dish, each one the size of a full mattress…