EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Zipper This section is particularly dedicated to those individuals who are not particular interested in science to get you thinking about the very basic science that exists in your life on a day to day basis. So if you ever wondered “How Does That Work?”. Here are just a few ways in which your life is influenced by science everyday:

  1. Sunglasses – These lenses with tint help keep you from squinting at the sun. Did you know that this is just a trick that you are playing on your eyes? Basically, making them think that it is darker, so that they won’t react to the light. Although more expensive sun glasses do involve a tinting that also helps block out the UV rays of the sun as well, the most basic sunglasses just trick your mind into believing that it darker out than it is.
  2. Zippers – A zipper is a very basic mechanism, however it can only be created by machinery. It includes a hook and wedge mechanism. A “hook” is any curved item meant to grab and hold any other item. A “wedge” is an item with a slanted surface, designed to push something aside. Each zipper has two rows of multiple “teeth”, mounted across from one another. Each has a hook on it and the hooks are alternated with hollow areas. The two rows of teeth are positioned offset from one another so that each hook is across from a hollow and vice versa. A zipper is closed when the hooks in the teeth on one side of the zipper are hooked into the hollow areas between the teeth on the other side. The “slide” or pull contains wedges that push the hooks into the hollow areas, closing the zipper. When the reverse action is taken the slide actually uses a V like wedge to undo the zipper, thus unzipping the item.
  3. Aerosol Can – An aerosol can contains one fluid that boils well below room temperature which is called the propellant, and on that boils at a much higher temperature, called the product. The product is the substance that you actually use, like the cleaning product or hairspray which comes out of the can while the propellant is the means of getting the product out of the can. Both fluids are stored in a sealed metal can. A simple aerosol can is constructed by pouring the product into the can, and then sealing the can and pumping a gaseous propellant through the valve system. The gas is pumped at high-pressure and so it pushes the product out with a good deal of force.