Episode
Modern Marvels: Magnets
Overview
We played with them as children, but the world of magnets isn’t kid’s stuff! The pervasive magnet serves as the underpinning for much of modern technology. They can be found in computers, cars, phones, VCRs, TVs, vacuum cleaners, the washer and dryer, the ubiquitous refrigerator magnet, and even in an electric guitar! On the cutting-edge of technology, scientists experiment with a variety of magnets. Magnets’ amazing forces of attraction and repulsion may take us to the far reaches of outer space.
Details
- Series
- Modern Marvels
- Season
- Season 9
- Episode
- Episode 42
- Air date
- 2002-09-17
- Runtime
- 44 min
Episode context
Magnets is Episode 42 in Season 9 of Modern Marvels. It aired on 2002-09-17. The runtime is 44 min.
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Episode 41: Liberty Ships of World War II
Between 1941 and 1945, U.S. shipyards built more shipping tonnage than had been previously produced in the history of the world. American industrialists like Henry Kaiser transformed the nation’s shipyards into mass production facilities in a matter of months. Ships that had once taken years to build now only took weeks to construct. This record pace of producing ships is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of American industry. This episode utilizes rare color film obtained from the National Archives as well as principle photography taken on board World War II Liberty Ships and aircraft carriers that remain afloat today.
Episode 43: The Chrysler Building.
The 1,046-foot Chrysler Building in New York City, erected between 1928 and 1930, was the world's tallest edifice–until the Empire State Building eclipsed it in 1931! Since then, this Art Deco masterpiece has become one of the most beloved skyscrapers on the city skyline. Financed by auto tycoon Walter P. Chrysler and designed by architect William Van Alen, the private office building was constructed by more than 2,000 men. Find out why it was the first–and last–skyscraper Van Alen designed.
More episodes from this season
Episode 40: War Trains
Examines how the great 19th-century peacetime invention developed into a powerful war machine, forever altering how, when, where, and why battles were fought. Also looks at the brave men and women who kept the military Iron Horses running, often at their own peril.
Episode 44: The Autobahn
Imagine a superhighway designed for speed…thousands of miles of roadway unhindered by limits of any kind. Buckle up for safety as we take you for the ride of your life when we explore the fascinating history and current reality of the world’s fastest freeway. The number-one works project of the Third Reich, the Autobahn was known as Adolf Hitler’s Road until Germany’s defeat in WWII. Reconstructed and extended to more than four times its original size, it became a symbol of the New Germany.
Episode 39: Nordhausen
It was the world’s largest underground factory–seven miles of tunnels built to manufacture Hitler’s secret weapons, primarily the V-2 rocket. But Nordhausen kept more than one secret. Technology and torture went hand-in-hand–25,000 concentration camp workers died there–and some of those associated with Nordhausen later helped take America to the moon.
Episode 45: Home Tech
From the outhouse to the smart house, our lives have improved drastically in the last 150 years. Convenience and comfort have always been considerations in home design. Yet, it is often these everyday appliances and gadgets that we take for granted. In Household Wonders II, we’ll take a peek into one of today’s fully-automated homes that is so smart, the owner can operate everything from the home theater to the outdoor waterfall at a push of one button.
Episode 38: Jet Engines
This program will tell the story of jet propulsion, which has radically transformed our world since it was first introduced near the end of World War II. We’ll trace the development of jet-powered aircraft from the Nazi’s first operational fighter, the Me 262, to the supersonic Concorde, to the latest U.S. jet fighter, the F-22 — and beyond, to the fighters and passenger planes of the future, which will be powered by new jet engines on the drawing boards (like the “scram-jet” — designed for a new hypersonic transport plane that would switch to rocket power once outside the earth’s atmosphere).
Episode 46: Cranes
One of the most useful machines ever created, the crane is a simple but important combination of the pulley and the lever. Though cranes have been helping us build civilization from at least the time of the Egyptian pyramids, the modern steel-framed construction cranes are a relatively recent development. Put on your work boots as we ride through the history of cranes from ancient days to skyscraper construction sites, ocean-freighter docks, and the International Space Station.
Episode 37: Towing.
Think you know towing? As simple as engaging a tow man when your car is stalled? From mighty tugboats that guide massive ships safely into port, dizzying roller coasters that send cars careening up and down hills, to funicular railroads that climb mountainsides, when it comes to towing, being a "drag" was never so good! We also watch a 125-year-old church as it's towed on the back of a flatbed truck, and rocket towards space as we're hauled 20,000 feet-high behind a Boeing 747!
Episode 47: The Internet: Behind The Web
Over 200-million people around the world use the Internet–yet no one owns or controls it. Its phenomenal usage puts it on a par with the printing press as a civilization-shaping invention. Follow the rise of the Net as a humble defense department research project to its stature as the number one communications tool for the future.
Episode 36: Gasoline
Traces the history and evolution of the world’s most important fossil fuel. Without gasoline, modern life would grind to a halt. Americans use about 360-million gallons of gas every day. And though most of us could not function without gas, very few understand what it really is, how it is made, what all those different octane numbers really mean, and how researchers developed cleaner burning gasoline. All these questions will be answered as we look at the history of this “supreme” fuel.
Episode 48: Sherman Tanks
An exciting series that takes viewers into the heart of action as it focuses on a particular machine from WWII, beginning with the story of its design and manufacture and showing the machine in combat, using vintage archive footage. Miniature cameras take viewers inside the machine to share with its crew the experience of war. In this episode, ride along in the thick of battle in the American M4 Sherman Tank, as it blasts its way into history and paves the way for the liberation of Europe.