Science of toys

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This is an updated production of a program originally broadcast two years earlier, entitled "Science of toys." Lynn Poole points out that over 1,400 different toys are now manufactured for learning and sportsmanship. He visits a studio toy shop with local child Joey Vitale where "shopkeeper" John Lockwood explains the science of such toys as slinky pull trains, punching bags, gear toys, a helicopter launcher, an electric airplane and steam engine, wind-up toys, and cog-driven toys. The trio also looks at how flexible plastics are now used to make some toys safer and dolls softer. They consider polarization in magnets, static electricity in balloons, ball bearings in bike wheels, and how toys were invented. Kits on the shelf include a chemistry set, a super sleuth science kit, and a weatherman set.

Science of toys

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In a dramatization of a child's visit to a toy store, Mr. Poole and the storekeeper explain how certain toys work. For example, wind-up cars exhibit potential energy while other cars rely on friction or inertia. The angular momentum of the gyroscope toy is the same principle used in ships and airplanes. The dunking bird toy functions because of the methyl chloride within. Electric trains and steam engines are explained in relation to Sir Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion. Musical toys, kaleidoscopes, Slinkies, and toy helicopters all have a scientific basis.

Toys in scienceland

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Lynn Poole and Malcolm Davies, a teacher at Baltimore Junior College, show two children, Marsha Southwick and Richard Tillman, how toys demonstrate basic science principles. For example, key wound spring toys with gears store potential energy. An animated cartoon shows the story of Luigi Galvani, who experimented with the "animal electricity" of severed frogs' legs, and Alessandro Volta, who realized animal tissue was unnecessary for conduction of electricity and built the first battery. The children compare draw, swing, arch, and cantilever bridge designs. They also consider the fulcrum/lever principle of the seesaw and an animation of the operation of a windlass. All of the scientific principles are demonstrated by a battery operated toy crane. Mr. Davies demonstrates how "Robert Robot" works using a Bendix cable and how other toys operate with little motors originally built as tiny fans for radios but made obsolete with the invention of transistors.