Rourke’s World of Science Volume 9 TECHNOLOGY By Nancy Harris Editorial Consultant Debbie Ankiel www rourkeeducationalmedia com
TABLE OF CONTENT S What Is Technology 4 Inventors 4 Agriculture 5 Farm Equipment 6 Chemicals 8 Transportation 10 Ships and Boats 12 Trains 16 Motor Vehicles 18 Aircraft 21 Rockets 24 Electronics 25 Currents 25 Circuits 26 Lasers 28 Medicine 31 Microscopes 31 Imaging 32 Surgery 34 Communications 35 Telegraphs 35 Telephones 37 Copiers and Fax Machines 40 Satellites 41 Entertainment 44 Stereos 44 Radio 46 Television 48 Cameras 50 Motion Picture Camera 52 Computers 53 Central Processing Unit 53 Dedicated Computers 54 Computers in Our Everyday Lives 54 Personal Computers 54 Drives 54 Monitor Keyboard and Mouse 55 Printers 56 Network 56 The Internet 56 Robots 59 People Who Use Technology 61
What Is Technology Science is the search for knowledge Scientists look at the world They observe how things work and develop ideas about ways to make them work better Sometimes they try to test an idea to explain how something works Scientists perform experiments to find out how things work The knowledge that they discover is useful for many things It can help to build new machines It can help scientists to develop new medicines or cure a disease Technology is the use of scientific knowledge to create new things TECHNOLOGY TECHNOLOGY Inventors An inventor is a person who creates a new idea or device to perform a task An invention is the new technology created An inventor with a new idea or design for an invention may decide to have the idea protected The idea gets protection from the law in a paper called a patent A patent prevents other people from making using or selling the new idea without permission from the inventor Some inventions are simply a better way of doing or building something They may improve an existing technology Other inventions are much more complicated Scientists must often wear protective clothing In the 1800s telephones had a crank to ring the operator for assistance to make a call Y G O L O N H C E T S I T A H W 4
