• How does an oxygen canister in an airplane or a space station work?

• How does the oxygen sensor in a car work?

• What is this bumpy stuff on my ceiling that looks like popcorn or cottage cheese?

• How does popcorn work?

• How are huge multi-ton cruise ships able to float?

• I have heard that grilling or broiling meat can cause it to become cancerous. Is this true, and if so how does it work?

• When a plane flies upside down, how does the fuel get to the engine?

• How fast does hair grow?

• Is it possible for other people to connect their phones to my phone line?

• Why is it that some web sites seem to trap me so that I cannot get out of them?

• How does the thermostat in a car's cooling system work?

• What are some of the other techniques used to store energy besides a battery?

• How does Linux work, and why has it become so popular?

• Could you spin a carousel fast enough to reach the speed of light?

• How does a Fresnel lens work?

• What is the "churning" sound I hear from my hard drive whenever it is retrieving data?

• How many senses does a human being have?

• If all the money in the U.S. only totals $6 trillion, how can the NY Stock Exchange have stocks valued at $15 trillion?

• How does a fog machine work?

• How does a crookes's radiometer work (those funny little vanes inside a glass bulb that spin in the sunlight)?

• How does a "motion sensing" light work?

• If I had "all the money in the world", how much money would that be?

• Are fluorescent bulbs really more efficient than normal light bulbs? If they are, why?

• If someone coughs in my house, how long can his germs remain contagious?

• How do traffic lights detect that a car is waiting?

• What is sodium nitrate? Is it in any way harmful?

• How does gravity work?

• How does a chicken wrap the shell around an egg?

• Why can't I use a cell phone on an airplane or in the hospital?

• What does the VTEC system in a Honda engine do?

• In a kitchen oven, what is the difference between the "bake" setting and the "broil" setting?

• What causes me to gain 2 or 3 pounds during the day and then lose 2 or 3 pounds when I sleep?

• Do you know why some web pages end in "htm", others end in "html", still others end in "asp" and so on? Why all the different extensions?

• How do they superimpose the first down line onto the field on televised football games?

• How are astronomers able to measure how far away a star is?

• Do you know what causes me to get cramps in my legs when I exercise, or even worse in my sleep?

• If I want to get started creating my own web site, what do I have to do?

• If you were to move all of the matter in the universe into one corner of the universe, how much space would it take up?

• What is dioxin?

• What is the difference between a regular car battery and a "deep cycle" battery?

• What does the UL symbol stamped onto the bottom of many products mean?

• What do the little recycling symbols that you see on some plastic products mean?

• What causes hurricanes to follow such odd paths?

• Where are all of these funny looking quarters coming from?

• How does botulism work? Is it true that babies can get botulism from honey?

• What is the total amount of gold that man has mined since 3,000 B.C.? How much is it worth?

• How do the counterfeit detector pens that you see at convenience stores work?

• How does hemp work?

• What is in moth balls? Is it harmful to people?

• What is "activated charcoal" and why is it used in filters?

• How many teaspoons are there in a cubic light year?

• What are the crystals that you find in disposable diapers?

• What is silica gel and why do I find little packets of it in everything I buy?

• How do I make clear ice like they have in restaurants?

• How can I use my computer to search for extra-terestrials?

• Do race cars use gasoline like normal cars do, or do they use something else?

• Can water go bad?

• If "nature abhors a vacuum", then why doesn't the vacuum of space suck away all of the Earth's atmosphere?

• In baseball, what does it mean for someone to pitch a "perfect game"?

• When I stand at the water's edge and look out over the ocean, how far away is the horizon?

• When buying gas appliances, why do you always have to specify whether you are using LPG or natural gas? What happens if you hook a natural gas appliance up to LPG?

• What does it mean when you "case harden" metal?

• Why do those long white clouds form behind jets flying high overhead?

• Would a balloon filled with vacuum instead of helium float?

• Why do my ears hurt when I dive in the deep end of a swimming pool?

• How much fuel does an international plane use for a trip?

• How do Sea Monkeys (brine shrimp) work?

• Why is carbon monoxide so poisonous?

• How does bleach and chlorine work?

• Is it possible to see (with a telescope) the stuff left behind on the moon by the Apollo astronauts to prove/disprove whether the missions were real or hoaxes?

• Please go to The Cave of Magic and tell me how this can possibly work!

• Why is it colder at the top of a mountain than it is at sea level? Heat rises and the top of the mountains is closer to the sun, so shouldn't it be hotter at the top of a mountain?

• How many regular sized helium filled balloons would lift someone? What is the equation to figure it out?

• How do they color old black and white films?

• Why are they replacing all of the toilets in my apartment?

• Can you calculate how far away lightning struck by how long it takes for the thunder to arrive?

• What is fertilizer and why do plants need it? What is in fertilizer? What do the 3 numbers on most bags of fertilizer mean?

• What is the difference between sites that do and don't require the "www" in the URL?

• Someone started controlling my computer over the Internet - what happened?

• Why are they replacing all of the traffic lights in my town?

• What do they put in hot dogs?

• What do the yellow and black wires in a home telephone jack do?

• Will adding more RAM to a computer make it faster?

• Why is southern exposure so sought after when searching for an apartment in the city?

• What is the "heat index" that the weatherperson talks about during the summer?

• How do exhaust headers work to improve engine performance?

• How do the lightsabers in the Star Wars movies work?

• What causes poison ivy?

• What can I do to make a Pinewood Derby car go faster?

• What causes fresh apples and potatoes to turn brown after you slice them?

• How does a V-chip work in a television?

• What does an anti-siphon valve do?

• What causes the seasons? What is it that causes there to be summer and winter?

• What does the "weight" of motor oil (e.g. - 10W-40) mean?

• How does a bubble jet printer work?

• Why is the ozone layer "good", but ozone in a city is "bad"

• How does snoring work?

• What does the UV index mean and how is it calculated?

• Is it possible to make a rocket motor using hydrogen peroxide and silver?

• How do the new yo-yos that have a clutch work?

• How much water is there on planet Earth?

• How do they make cotton candy?

• What does the name "WD-40" stand for?

• What is plywood and how do they make it?

• Why is a squeaking door so loud? How do I fix the squeak?

• How do ice skating rinks work?

• How do halogen bulbs work? Why are they sometimes called "quartz halogen"?

• Is it true that flour can explode?

• Can you tell me about the Starshine satellite NASA launched?

• What are GM ("Genetically Modified") foods?

• What does homogenization and pasteurization mean in milk?

• How does blood pressure and a blood pressure gauge work?

• What keeps the exhaust in a jet engine from blowing back out the front of the engine?

• How does the freezer of the modern refrigerator stay frost-free?

• Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

• How does a seismograph work? What is the Richter scale?

• How does my appendix work? What does it do?

• Why do prescription drugs have such funny names?

• How does the sense of smell work?

• What is lymph?

• What is root beer and how is it made?

• Is it possible to generate electricity directly from heat?

• What does the "CE" logo stamped on the bottom of many electronic devices mean?

• How does a "Jake Brake" work on a big rig?

• Could you create a pollution-free car that runs off of compressed air?

• How does a miller-cycle engine work?

• How does a pinhole camera work?

• How does an air bag in a car work?

• What are vitamins and why do I have to take them every day?

• What are marshmallows and how do they make them?

• How does a catapult work?

• What does it mean when someone has 20/20 vision?

• How can I tell if the light in my refrigerator turns off or not when the door is closed?

• What is a decibel, and what is the loudest sound I can listen to before it hurts my ears?

• How does a lie detector (a polygraph) work?

• What is the difference between a supercharger and a turbocharger?

• What is the right temperature for a refrigerator?

• What is a heart bypass operation? What are they bypassing?

• What is an MRE and how do they taste?

• What is an MP3 file and how does it work?

• How does a GFCI outlet (the ones with the funny test and reset buttons) work?

• How does an Alka Seltzer tablet work? Why does it fizz?

• Why does Hydrogen Peroxide fizz in a cut but not on your skin?

• How does "Pop Rocks" candy work?

• What does the computer in a car do? Will cars start on January 1, 2000?

• How do silencers on guns work?

• How do genes and genetic engineering work?

• Why do some appliances have 2 prongs on their outlets and some have 3?

• Is your name really Marshall Brain, or did you make that name up?

• Why does normal paper dissolve in the washer but dollar bills remain intact?

• Why do the lids of most spray cans have small holes in them?

• What is a cavity? If it is a hole in a tooth, why do they drill the hole even bigger?

• What is the difference between gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, etc.?

• Does a camel's hump really hold water?

• What is this Melissa virus and what are computer viruses in general?

• What is the "gravity boost" technique that interplanetary satellites use?

• In SCUBA diving, what causes "the bends"?

• Why is the hair on my arms so short, while the hair on my head can grow so long?

• How does a water softener work?

• How much oxygen does a person use in a day?

• What causes an "ice cream headache"?

• Could anti-lock brakes be used to detect a flat tire?

• Why are there 24 hours in a day or 60 minutes in an hour? Why do the days of the week have such funny names? Same for months of the year? Why are there 12 months in a year? Why does a leap day get added to February rather than at the end of the year? Why do the number of days in the months follow no pattern? Why do we have leap years? What does AM and PM mean and why do we have them? What does AD and BC mean? What year was Jesus really born in? What is daylight-saving time? Why do we have time zones? What does GMT mean?

• What is a light year?

• Where does corn oil and corn syrup come from?

• Why do the children of two parents look so different when they all come from exactly the same DNA?

• How much does it cost to run an electric blanket overnight?

• What does the octane rating of gasoline mean? Why is it called octane?

• What causes the pipes in my house to bang, especially when I run the washer?

• How do anitbiotics work?

• What is spider web made of?

• What is chewing gum made of?

• Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

• What is the difference between jelly, jam and preserves?

• How are people able to breathe inside a submarine?

• What are Internet cookies?

• Why are boogers sticky?

• How do they determine what day Easter will occur on?

• What is a nautical mile, and how does it differ from a normal mile and a kilometer?

• Why do all FM radio stations end in an odd number, e.g. 105.7, 93.3, 96.9, etc...?

• What are the standard top-level domain names and who controls them?

• How does a dehumidifier work?

• What is the year 2038 Problem?

• Why is it so hard to start a car in the winter?

• What causes a sonic boom?

• What causes high tide and low tide? Why are there two tides each day?

• How do they make maple syrup?

• What is wind chill and does it have any effect on inanimate objects?

• What is "stealth technology" and how does it work?

• Marshall, where do you go when YOU have a question?

• How does dry cleaning work? What is "dry" about it?

• What is a catalytic converter and how does one work?

• Is it possible to tell that the earth is round?

• What is a carat (as in diamonds) and a karat (as in gold)?

• Why do many foods have "High Altitude Cooking Instructions"?

• Why, when the electricity goes out, does the phone still work?

• How does a DVD work?

• What does it mean when a Hard Disk has a Head Crash?

• How does black light work?

• Why do they use salt to melt ice on the road in the winter?

• What is baking powder and how does it work?

• Why don't water towers freeze solid in the winter?

• What is a MiniDisc and how does it differ from a CD?

• What is the world's fastest computer?

• At night, why does it take my eyes several minutes to get used to darkness?

• Why do CDs reflect rainbow colors?

• Why do some people have red eyes in flash photographs?

• How many days will February have in the year 2000?

• How does a heat pump work?

• How does the pop-up timer on a turkey work?

• What is white noise?

• What causes flatulence?

• Why does your body temperature rise when you have a virus such as the flu?

• What is the "Dow Jones Industrial Average" and why do I hear about it on the news every day?

• Why does smoke come from a fire?

• How do touch lamps (lamps that turn on when you touch them) work?

• What causes a rainbow?

• What are atomic clocks and how do they work?

• Why is the sky blue?

• What causes the common cold?

• Why do golf balls have dimples?

• How does a lava lamp work?

• How does a rice cooker know when to turn off?

• Can grass grow in a lava rock as well as it does in soil?

• How did public fountains, like those in Rome, work without any type of motor to pump the water?

• Why are the coils on the backs of refrigerators always painted black?

• What is the difference between analog and digital cell phones?

• How much does planet earth weigh?

• How does reverse osmosis work to filter water?

• How does an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) work on a personal computer?

• What exactly are the "Twelve Days of Christmas"? When do they start and end?

• Why do some dump trucks have extra axles?

• How does the a gas pump know when the tank is full so it can turn itself off automatically?

• How does a 3-way light bulb work?

• What happens if I touch the surface of a CD?

• Why does a fan make you feel cooler?

• How do digital answering machines work?

• How does a car's rearview mirror work when it's set on the upwards, "glare resistant," setting?

• How far does ultraviolet light penetrate into the body?

• How does an X-Ray machine work?

• How does a kidney dialysis machine work?

• How many sheets of paper can be produced from a single tree?

• Can you explain pressurized airplane cabins?

• How does a water cooled air conditioner work?

• What actually does it mean when a barometer is rising or falling?

• How do they make helium?

• How does a computer's parallel port work and how can I design things to attach to a parallel port?

• What causes helium ballons to lose their lift after a day or two?

• What is a glacier?

• What is the oscilloscope used to measure?

• Can you explain the basic diference between analog and digital technology?

• What is the function of the fan within the refrigerator?

• How do you write the chemical reaction that takes place in the smoke detector?

• Do certain radio wave frequencies pose health risks?

• What force causes a 3-pole motor to spin one way and not the other?

• How can I make my own battery to win a contest at school?

• Why do you hear some radio stations better at night than in the day?

• Scientific American Ask the Expert - answers to many science questions
• How things work - answers to hundreds of general and physics questions
• Mad Scientist Question Archive - LOTS of science questions!
• Dr. Weil's Q&A Archive - answers to medical questions.
• Appliance repair FAQ
• Sci.chem FAQ - answers to many chemistry questions
• The Skinny on... - look at bottom of the article for a list of others

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