CONTENTS
PREFACE
A QUICK NOTE TO PARENTS AND EDUCATORS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE — LINEAR MEASUREMENTS
Measuring Systems — Tape Measures — Calipers [Open-jawed and Vernier]
CHAPTER TWO — FRICTION
Sandpaper — Files — Lubricants
CHAPTER THREE — INERTIA
CHAPTER FOUR — THE INCLINED PLANE
Nails — Axes, Hatchets, and Mauls — The Splitting Wedge — The Cold Chisel — The Wood Chisel — The Plane — The Wooden Wedge — The Ladder — Screws and Bolts — The Wood Screw — Machine Screws and Nuts — Anchors
CHAPTER FIVE — THE LEVER
The Claw Hammer — The Pry Bar — Pliers, Tin Snips, and Scissors — Wrenches — Spring Clamps — The Wheelbarrow — The Pry Bar — The Hammer — The Pry Bar
CHAPTER SIX — THE WHEEL AND AXLE
Casters — The Wheelbarrow — The Screwdriver — The Circular Saw — The Brace — The Hand Drill
CHAPTER SEVEN — THE PULLEY
Simple Pulleys — Window Shades — Compound Pulleys
CHAPTER EIGHT — COMBINATION TOOLS
Adjustable Wrenches — Vises — The Vise Grip© — Bolt Cutters
CHAPTER NINE — MASS, WEIGHT, AND GRAVITY
The Plumb Line — The Fisherman's Scale
CHAPTER TEN — BUOYANCY
The Level
CHAPTER ELEVEN — CUTTING TOOLS
CHAPTER TWELVE — PRESSURE
The Nail and the Axe — Automobile Jacks
APPENDIX A — REVIEW OF BASIC SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES
Elements, Atoms, and Molecules — General Properties of Matter
APPENDIX B — ENGLISH AND METRIC MEASUREMENTS
GLOSSARY
FOR FURTHER READING
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PREFACE
Browsing through hardware stores can be fun, interesting, and informative. Hardware stores sell tools and supplies used by mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, homeowners, hobbyists, and do-it-yourselfers. When you have-and know how to use-tools, you can demolish, disassemble, fix, or build just about anything.
I was very lucky as a youngster. My grandfather, Louis Helfand, was an expert mechanic and woodworker. He came to live in my parent's house when I was about 10 years old. While he lived with us, he showed me the correct way to use and care for tools. It was through his patience, and his ability to explain the functions of tools, that I became interested in both the tools and the scientific principles that allow them to work.
Grandpa took tools very seriously. He praised the ones that were well made and cursed the ones that weren't. In other words, he told it like it was.
When I walk through a hard ware store today, I remember Grandpa pointing out the tools, both good and bad. Sometimes his comments made me laugh so hard that my stomach hurt.
Hardware stores still hold a fascination for me. There always seem to be new, strange, nifty, cool, wonderful machines, and tools. I can look at them, touch them, examine them, and even buy them.
This book is written as a guidebook to help you learn the scientific principles that make some of the tools displayed in a hardware store work. I hope that after reading this book you will enjoy browsing through hardware stores as much as I do. Who knows? One day we might even meet in one.
His comments made me laugh so hard that my stomach hurt.
Hardware stores still hold a fascination for me. There always seem to be new, strange, nifty, cool, wonderful machines, and tools. I can look at them, touch them, examine them, and even buy them.
This book is written as a guidebook to help you learn the scientific principles that make some of the tools displayed in a hardware store work. I hope that after reading this book you will enjoy browsing through hardware stores as much as I do. Who knows? One day we might even meet in one.
A Quick Note to Parents and Educators
Physics Lab in a Housewares Store, a companion volume in this series, demonstrates many of the same principles as this book. That has been done with intent. Many of the students who will be attracted to one of the titles will probably not be attracted to the other, due to traditional gender preferences.
Those that are attracted to both will have the added pleasure of finding out that a workshop and a kitchen have many things in common, and that tools found in one might...
