"Everyday" technology that blows your mind.

[Ghostpanther]

Modern medical science. It is a shame however many never get to experience it. Even in places where it is readily available due to the costs involved.

[Tzalix]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_trap_seal

Not sure if there's a history of the technology there though...

S-bend invented by Alexander Cummings in 1775...
U-bend invented by Thomas Crapper in 1880...

People had much better names in those days.

Thomas Crapper also invented the ballcock.

The ball.
Cock.

Great name for any invention, really.

[Reeve]

I think steel reinforced concrete is pretty nifty.

Oooh, and air conditioning. The unit at my apartment is broken at the moment, which just gives me a greater appreciation for when it is working.

Sounds to me like the OP might quite appreciate this:



It's entertaining, edifying, and funny. I never knew how a manual transmission in a car worked at a basic level before this book, or a zipper, or a tumbler lock, or any number of other things.

Here's a nice sample:

[StationaryHawk]

Toilets. They're very sophisticated for something with such a simple purpose.

Y'know, if they count as "technology."

[Conspicuous Cultist]

I think steel reinforced concrete is pretty nifty.

Modern construction materials is pretty fascinating. It's probably one of the sturdiest stuff you'll ever find and if it weren't for the fact that we're also crafty enough to create explosives it'd probably wouldn't be demolished anytime soon.

God dammit Humans, always having to find a hard counter to everything.

[Hraklea]

I think the technology that amazes the most is "rewritable recording" (I have no idea how to call it). I can understand a CD or a disk being recorded once, but HDs and flashdrives are insane. Whoever discovered how to do it is a freaking genious, imo.

[Aphrel]

My Samsung s4.
a fiew thing it does.
Recording and playing up sounds. The fact that data transfered throu the air as radiowaves can contain enough information for my telephone to capture it and play up the message in a perfect copy of the persons voice that spoke it. THAT IS FUCKING AMAZING.
And then ofc the equally amazing thing is that my phone can send a signal back with equally detalied information.

and to take this a step further, that with the same technology be able to send immages, videoclips and so on..
and to browse the internet, finding whatever you want nomatter where on earth the server containing the information is and have what information you requested sent back to you in seconds!

Its incredible. And if you go one step deeper, and realize that all this is possible because of the hardware, containing millions of supertransistors. Guiding teh electricity to the right components so it can preform its basic instruction to make all of the above possible. (recieving and emitting radiowaves, transalte these waves into information, and display/use this information)

To think that we started out not so long ago with a telegraph and a person clicking in a set pattern to emitt waves for some1 else listening to hear and write down the pattern, then translating it by hand..

WE have come SO SO SO far!

[Adam Jensen]

Smartphones.

With a device I can fit in my pocket, I can access the sum of all human knowledge.

And use it for boobs.

[Drusin]

Magnets... how do they work?

I was wondering if someone beat me to it lolol

[Gheld]

Television. How do they get all of those little people inside of it?

jj

Nothing really blows my mind. I just operate on the assumption that everything that happens can be explained by the laws of nature and if the mechanism interests me enough I'll look it up.

[nextormento]

Sounds to me like the OP might quite appreciate this:
[img]The way things work img snip[/img]

It's entertaining, edifying, and funny. I never knew how a manual transmission in a car worked at a basic level before this book, or a zipper, or a tumbler lock, or any number of other things.

For my first communion (around 9 years old) I got a Bible, like most kids do. I wanted it replaced and that's the book I got. Possibly the best book anyone could get at that age. I still love it.

[Adp]

Ice floating in water. When water freezes and goes below 4C it expands and forms a lattice that has empty space in it. This is why ice is less dense than water, and floats on top of it. Without this amazing property ice would sink and build up at the bottom of oceans, and lakes wouldn't have insulating ice sheets on top of them to keep aquatic life systems stable.

[Deleted]

Ice floating in water. When water freezes and goes below 4C it expands and forms a lattice that has empty space in it. This is why ice is less dense than water, and floats on top of it. Without this amazing property ice would sink and build up at the bottom of oceans, and lakes wouldn't have insulating ice sheets on top of them to keep aquatic life systems stable.

Isn't water like the only chemical composition in the universe that expands when cooled?

[Osmeric]

Toilets.

Seriously, how the fuck does that work with nothing but a little bend in the poop chute part. Who the hell figured that out in the first place?!

Alexander Cummings, in 1775.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cummings

EDIT: darn, beaten to it.

[Reeve]

Ice floating in water. When water freezes and goes below 4C it expands and forms a lattice that has empty space in it. This is why ice is less dense than water, and floats on top of it. Without this amazing property ice would sink and build up at the bottom of oceans, and lakes wouldn't have insulating ice sheets on top of them to keep aquatic life systems stable.

While scientifically cool, it's not really a technology.

[Tradewind]

Isn't water like the only chemical composition in the universe that expands when cooled?

naw, Silicon, Bismuth, Antimony, and Gallium all do it too. They all make weird tetrahedral bondy thingy crystal forms. Acetic Acid and Germanium too, and I think Hydrochloric Acid does too.

[Conspicuous Cultist]

While scientifically cool, it's not really a technology.

hnnnnnnnnngh that pun

[ro9ue]

I still believe WiFi is magic.

[Reeve]

Here's another one: the Shipping Container.

It has made globalization possible, dropped the cost of practically everything significantly, reduced waste/loss, and made my job easier. It's amazing to me that it was even possible that the shipping industry was able to adopt the containerization system, since it would require specific types of vessels and loading/unloading equipment and land storage and distribution systems everywhere in the world. It seems like this would have been a difficult transition to make gradually, yet transition we did, to everyone's great benefit.

[Deleted]

Fucking magnets, how do they work?