Sat, Feb 5, 1994
While attempting to answer a question about the size of the universe, Beakman is visited by the famous statesman, inventor and scientist, Benjamin Franklin. Reincarnated as a stand up comic, Franklin gives a historical account of some of his most famous inventions, including the Franklin stove and his kite flying experiment, which proved that lightning is actually electricity. Then, after explaining his invention of the lightning rod, he quickly lists some other accomplishments, including the rocking chair and bifocal glasses. In "Beakmania," Beakman explains why voices sound different when played back on a tape player and the name of the world's smallest tree (a dwarf willow). Moving on to the "Lester Challenge," Lester challenges Liza to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of hammering a nail into a wall using a banana. But, he is astonished when Liza is actually able to do it by freezing the banana first. Asked by a West Virginia fan about chemical reactions, Beakman sets out to describe the four basic types ?? 1) synthesis, when two elements combine to form a new compound; 2) decomposition, the separation of something into its' constituent parts; 3) single displacement, where one element takes the place of another in a compound; and 4) double displacement, where two compounds exchange parts to form new compounds. Finally, after demonstrating these four reactions with the aid of his friends, Beakman closes the show by noting that the human body is the site of millions of chemical reactions each second.
Sat, Feb 26, 1994
Asked for facts about ants, Beakman begins by revealing that not only do they release a chemical to provide a trail for other ants to follow, but that they can also lift fifty times their own weight. After describing the three parts of an ant's body ?? the head, the trunk and the metasoma ?? Beakman takes Lester on a tour of an ant farm for a look at how these insects live. Explaining how their colonies are constructed and describing some human?like behavior exhibited by ants, including the planting and gathering of crops and keeping servants to do their work, Beakman notes that they pose little danger to humans. After revealing the temperature on the planet Pluto (340 to 370 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit), the number of dimples in a golf ball (over 350) and that canned food was first produced in the 1820's, but can openers were not invented until forty years later, Beakman calls on Liza to demonstrate what to do if someone is choking. After warning against trying to remove the obstruction with the fingers, Liza and Lester then demonstrate the Heimlich Maneuver. Asked about collisions, Beakman calls on Professor Boring for a definition before explaining the two types ?? elastic and inelastic. Noting that energy is always conserved in a collision, Beakman adopts the persona of the host of "Wheels of Collisions," a game show in which contestants are challenged to correctly identify examples of these two basic types. Finally, after demonstrating a few collisions, Beakman reluctantly allows himself to be used in an experiment to demonstrate an inelastic collision.
Sat, Oct 15, 1994
Calling on the Three Stooges to help demonstrate pain, Beakman and Liza explain how 15 million individual nerve cells called neurons produce reactions which transmit messages to and from the brain and all over the body. Then, after Lester painfully demonstrates the small delay between when a message is sent and when it is received, Beakman shows how these pain messages travel along the spinal cord causing reactions known as reflexes. After explaining how pain acts to warn the body, Beakman then shows how swelling is caused by fluids rushing into the injured area and how ice can be used as a healing agent. After revealing that cats see in color while dogs see in only black, white and gray, and the name of the largest fish (the whale shark), Beakman challenges Lester to drink a glass of punch using a pair of straws. Although finding it a simple task, Lester is stumped when Beakman asks that he do it again, this time with only one straw inside the glass. After explaining how the difference between the air pressure inside his mouth and that on the liquid are equalized by the outside straw, Beakman notes that Lester could never accomplish the feat. Dispelling Lester's notion that comets are balls of fire, Beakman calls on nineteenth century astronomy pioneer Maria Mitchell for a detailed explanation. Noting that comets are neither made of fire nor are they "shooting stars", Maria explains that they are actually "dirty snowballs" ?? masses of ice with metal and rock at their centers formed at the beginning of the solar system. Then, after noting that structure of comets ?? the nucleus, the coma and the tail ?? she explains how solar winds form the tail of the comet, which can be either in front or behind the comet, depending on the position of the sun.
Sat, Oct 29, 1994
After receiving a number of inquiries about construction equipment, Beakman takes the opportunity to explain how hydraulics give these machines their strength. Starting with the fact that liquids cannot be compressed or squeezed to make them smaller, he uses a pair of large syringes to demonstrate Pascal's Principle ?? that pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is transmitted to every portion of the walls of its container. Then, using a pair of plexiglass cylinders, he shows how this principle gives Liza a mechanical advantage which allows her to lift Lester with relative ease. Putting it all together, he then shows how construction equipment uses similar cylinders, or hydraulic rams, to lift heavy objects. During "Beakmania," Beakman describes how rattlesnakes get their rattles (by shedding their skin), how much a person can sweat in a day (up to three gallons), and the name of the largest bird that ever lived (the elephant bird). Then, in "Cooking With Art," host Art Burn shows how a mixture of charcoal briquettes, laundry bluing, water, salt and ammonia can be used to grow crystals. After Lester decides to take a stab at answering a question about dinosaurs, Beakman is forced to correct much of his sidekick's woefully out of date information. Saying that while they are reptiles, they are not lizards, Beakman goes on to explain that some dinosaurs may have been warm?blooded, and that they died long before any humans inhabited the Earth. Then, explaining that, contrary to what was once believed, dinosaurs were social animals who traveled and hunted in packs, Beakman concludes by revealing that the biggest dinosaur, called the Seismosaurus, was one hundred and forty feet long.
Sat, Dec 3, 1994
Asked how to make an electric motor, Beakman begins by explaining that they are devices which change electrical energy into mechanical power in order to do work. Then, after describing how they employ one magnet pushing and pulling on another magnet, Beakman shows how a "D" cell battery, a refrigerator magnet, some wire, a pair of large paper clips and an empty toilet paper tube can be assembled into a simple electric motor. After demonstrating that his homemade device does, in fact, work, Beakman notes that similar devices are used in electric trains and fans. During "Beakmania," Beakman reveals that, in addition to good acoustics, people sing in the shower because of the cheerfulness caused by negative ions created by falling water; that there has yet to be a recorded death of a human by a wolf in the United States; and that there are over sixty trillion cells in the human body. Then, in an episode of "Those Disgusting Animals," Beakman and his colleagues reveal all anyone ever wanted to know about lice and how to get rid of them. When a viewer inquires about how clocks tell time, Beakman begins by giving a brief history, beginning with the ancient Babylonians and their sundials, through the Egyptian water clock and the hourglass. Then, as the inventor of the pendulum clock, Christian Huyghens, Beakman describes how he built on Galileo's work with pendulums to create a timepiece that was far more accurate than any of its predecessors. After explaining that most watches now use vibrating quartz crystals instead of pendulums, Beakman concludes by revealing that the atomic clock uses Cesium combined with a quartz crystal to measure time in the billionths of a second.
Top-rated
Sat, Oct 1, 1994
Asked about the difference between frogs and toads, Beakman explains that these two amphibians are hatched as small aquatic larvae called tadpoles. Noting that they undergo a change into air?breathing animals, Beakman uses time lapse photography to show this amazing metamorphosis. Then, after explaining how both hunt using long, sticky tongues, Beakman explains that while frogs live in or near water, toads are mostly land dwellers. Finally, Beakman dispels the myth about frogs and warts as he presents the world's largest frog ?? the Goliath frog from West?Central Africa. For "Beakmania," Beakman notes that eyelashes are to keep dirt out of the eyes, that a young kangaroo is called a joey, and that a certain species of sponge can be broken into thousands of tiny pieces before reassembling itself into a single, living creature. Then, Liza presents a health tip on how to stop a nosebleed. Responding to an inquiry about plastics, Beakman reveals they are really long, chain?like strings of molecules called polymers. Using individual molecules, or monomers, Beakman goes on to show how they can be bonded together in these long chains. Showing how polymers have a variety of uses and properties, he demonstrates how to make nylon and bakelite before showing how a simple polymer can be made at home using borax, glue and water.
Sat, Nov 12, 1994
Asked by an Ohio fan about money, Beakman calls on Dap, the Chap from Yap, whose island's residents use large stones for currency. After Dap explains how the idea for money grew out of difficulties with a simple barter system, Beakman notes that the U.S. Mint produces fifteen billion coins each year, while the Bureau of Printing and Engraving prints an average of twenty?three million paper bills every day. Then, demonstrating how counterfeiting is made difficult, Beakman shows how bills are given distinctive, difficult?to?copy markings. For "Beakmania," Beakman takes on questions about dandruff (flakes of dead skin) and the world's fastest animal (a bird called the swift). Then, in the "Beakman Challenge," Lester is asked to place a ping pong ball into a jar without touching the ball itself. When he is unable to satisfy the request, Beakman places the jar over the ball and then swirls it in tight circles to produce centripetal forces on the ball which cause it to climb the walls of the jar. Asked how water produces energy, Beakman explains that its' energy can be changed into electricity by the use of hydroelectric dams. After Liza recaps the differences between potential and kinetic energy, Beakman shows how turbines are used to convert the moving energy of water into mechanical energy which is then transformed into electricity by a generator. Finally, after a demonstration of how moving water can be used to illuminate a small electric light, Beakman reveals that the world's largest dam is under construction in Argentina.
Sat, Nov 26, 1994
Asked about garbage, Beakman begins by noting that Americans throw away about almost half a million tons of trash each day, including, forty?eight million disposable diapers, twenty thousand TV's and forty?three thousand tons of food. Explaining that garbage generally ends up in landfill or being incinerated, Beakman encourages everyone to "reduce" (use less of anything when possible), "reuse" (use, things more than once when you can) and "recycle" (return materials that can be reclaimed). However, as Beakman notes, hazardous materials such as car batteries need to be disposed of with care. After stating that the Earth weighs six quintillion tons, that the largest beaver dams are over 200 feet long, and that the first bus was invented in England back in 1830, Beakman asks for a quiet moment. However, the noisy din of a lawn mower soon shatters his tranquility. Asked by Liza, how it works, owner and operator Lon Mower explains that his grass cutting machine uses a gas?powered internal combustion engine to help turn a cleverly designed blade. Asked how weather is predicted, Beakman first defines meteorology ?? the study of the Earth's atmosphere and the changes in its conditions which produce weather. After discussing the value of knowing what the weather will be, Beakman relates the history of instruments like the thermometer and barometer before revealing that more than 3,500 stations around the world are used in conjunction with satellites to help forecasters with their predictions. Finally, after Beakman makes a simple barometer from some common household items, he notes that the hottest recorded temperature was 136 degrees Fahrenheit (in Libya), while the coldest was 128 below zero (in Antarctica).
Sat, Nov 19, 1994
Responding to an inquiry about skyscrapers, Beakman explains that the first of these tall buildings was constructed in Chicago in 1855. Then, after recounting a history which took them from a modest ten stories to a dizzying 102 in less than fifty years, Beakman reveals the engineering secrets behind their success, including deep foundations and steel skeletons. Finally, Beakman notes that the world's tallest building, the Sears Tower in Chicago, stands 110 stories (1,454 feet) tall. While Beakman reveals that crabs have the ability to grow a new leg after losing one, Lester takes control of the show as he and his pet chicken introduce the "Scratchy Challenge." But, after Lester fails at lifting an ice cube from a glass using a piece of string, Scratchy shows salt can be used to lower the water's freezing point, allowing the ice to freeze around the string and be removed with ease. Responding to a viewer's complaint about not having a chemistry set, Beakman reveals that many common household items can be used to make one at home. Demonstrating by an experiment that distinguishes acids from bases, Beakman makes a simple indicator out of red cabbage and water to test some common acids (vinegar, grapefruit juice, lemon?lime soda and vitamin C) and bases (ammonia, antacid, milk and baking soda). Finally, Beakman concludes the show by demonstrating the volcanic reaction between vinegar and baking soda.
Sat, Nov 5, 1994
Asked about sharks, Beakman notes that among the 350 different kinds, the smallest is the Spined Pygmy shark at just ten inches long, while the largest in the forty foot, 32,000 pound Whale shark. While claiming that few are a threat to humans, Beakman reveals that the Great White shark is the most dangerous of all, that sharks wear their teeth out and quickly grow replacements, and that they must always stay in motion to keep their blood circulating. Then, after Beakman presents a live Leopard shark to his friends, he explains that sharks are so sensitive as to be able to detect minute electrical emissions which help them track their prey. During "Beakmania," Beakman reveals that the human body can go two months without food but only four minutes without oxygen, that it takes 720 peanuts to make a pound of peanut butter, and that female African elephants have tusks. Then, with help from host Art Burn, "Cooking With Art" demonstrates how soaking an egg in vinegar will make it bounce. Responding to an inquiry about his famous Special Theory of Relativity, Beakman adopts the persona of physicist Albert Einstein. Beginning with a definition of the famous equation E = mc2, Einstein notes that "E" stands for energy, while "m" is an object's mass and "c" is the speed of light. Then, using a series of examples, he explains that matter can be converted into energy, and demonstrates that all objects in the universe move relative to one another.
Sat, Apr 16, 1994
Asked how molds form on bread, Beakman begins by explaining that they are fungi, a family of plant?like organisms that lack chlorophyll. Listing their four types ?- mushrooms, mildews, molds and yeasts ?? Beakman and Liza describe the tube?like structures (hyphae) which weave together into larger webs (mycelium). Then, noting how their lack of mobility requires them to live on their food (like bread), Liza reveals that molds like penicillin save millions of lives each year by eating harmful bacteria, while Beakman claims that the world's largest living organism is a 1,500 acre giant fungus growing underground in the State of Washington. During "Beakmania," Beakman reveals why crabs walk sideways and that part of Canada is actually south of Michigan before introducing "Those Disgusting Animals" look at slugs. Claiming there are over 80,00 varieties of slugs worldwide, Beakman notes that these slimy creatures have two pairs of tentacles, one of which has a pair of eyes at the end. Finally, after describing how they move using a large muscular organ known as a foot,Beakman says that slugs are helpful in cleaning up the environment by eating dead plants and animals. Asked how caves are formed, Beakman enlists Dave From the Cave, a crusty cave dwelling hermit to demonstrate how acid water dissolves limestone to create them. Then, Beakman is left to describe the types of animals that live in caves, including bats, birds, mice, rats, porcupines, skunks and snakes, along with eyeless troglobites like, cavefish, crayfish, crickets, shrimp, flatworms, snails, and salamanders. After using a solution of washing soda to show how limestone stalactites and stalagmites form, Beakman reveals that the world's biggest cave is in southern New Mexico, while the longest is in central Kentucky.
Sat, Sep 24, 1994
When a viewer expresses exasperation over understanding the concept of momentum, Beakman first calls on Professor Boring, who says it is "the product of a body's mass and its linear velocity." Hoping to improve on this definition, Beakman notes that an object's momentum depends both upon how fast it is moving and how much it weighs, and then uses a bowling ball and a baseball each rolling down a pair of identical ramps to demonstrate. But, showing the results can be changed by altering velocity, he proves that the baseball's momentum can be increased by propelling it down the ramp, and then reminds a skeptical Lester that understanding momentum is critical in designing brakes, launching satellites and building roller coasters. For "Beakmania," Beakman illuminates some facts about the octopus, reveals that there actually was a Tower of Babel constructed in Mesopotamia in the sixth century B.C., and says that Clarence Birdseye developed frozen foods after observing Eskimos. Then, after convincing Beakman to have the "Liza Challenge," Liza shows a befuddled Lester how to make a coin fall into a bottle from a precariously balanced plastic loop. Turning to a series of viewer questions about cows, Beakman begins by explaining that cows don't really have four stomachs, but a single stomach with four separate chambers. Then, after using the Boguscope to show how they chew grass and then regurgitate it to be chewed again, Beakman shows how the stomach breaks down this digested food to produce milk, which is white because of the colors of its component proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats and sugars. Then, after Lester demonstrates his milking technique, Beakman notes that several different kinds of milk, along with a variety of other dairy products including butter, are all made from this single product of cows.
Sat, Oct 8, 1994
Responding to a question about hay fever, Beakman begins by explaining that this common affliction is an allergy ?? a reaction which the body has to foreign substances (known as allergens). Noting that allergens enter the body in a variety of ways, including breathing, eating and insect bites, Beakman takes a closer look at pollen. Showing how it is absorbed via the nose and mouth, he goes on to explain how the body's immunesystem first produces antibodies to fight pollen's allergens, and then histamines to cause sneezing to expel them. Then, after describing symptoms which may indicate allergies, he explains the mechanics of sneezing. After noting how young robins learn to find worms and which fruit is eaten most often (bananas), Beakman calls for a tranquil and quiet "Beak?moment." However, interrupted by the sound of his pneumatic drill, Liza asks construction worker Jack Hammer to explain how it works. Showing her how the drill, commonly known as a jackhammer, uses a piston moving up and down, Jack then tries to explain why these tools always seem to be used most often in the early morning hours. Asked about the first codes and who invented them, Beakman reveals that they were developed in ancient Greece as a way of sending secret military and political messages. Then, after demonstrating one early technique which concealed vital information beneath a layer of wax, he shows how to make a simple code machine used by the Greeks. Finally, after explaining how success at breaking codes influenced the outcome of World War Two, Beakman shows how to make an invisible ink using juice, and reveals that itThomas Jefferson who invented the first code machine.
Sat, Oct 22, 1994
Asked by several viewers about snakes, Beakman starts by explaining that they are reptiles who can sometimes go for a year between meals. Noting that their skin is actually quite dry, Beakman shows how snakes swallow prey much larger than themselves, and how they use their tongue's keen sense of smell to compensate for their poor eyesight. Then, after claiming that the South American Anaconda can grow as large as thirty feet long and weigh up to 500 pounds, Beakman is joined by Lester and Liza in a musical tribute to these reptiles. Asked why we have seasons, Beakman begins by explaining how the Earth rotates like a gyroscope which has been tilted on its axis. Then, adopting the persona of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, Beakman shows how this tilting brings the northern and southern hemispheres closer or farther away from the sun, causing seasonal warming and cooling. Finally, explaining the extremes resulting from this tilting, Beakman shows how the north and south poles each experience months in total darkness and total light each year.
Sat, Sep 17, 1994
When a viewer asks about tornadoes, Beakman begins by demonstrating a popular household version ?? the vacuum cleaner. Calling on the Boguscope, he then shows how a critical combination of hot air, cold air and the jet stream creates just the right conditions to spawn a tornado. Noting that these wind storms can carry objects such as cars for hundreds of yards, Beakman shows off his own tornado generator as well as how a model of these storms can be made using a pair of plastic soda bottles. After revealing that oils in flower petals cause them to smell, that the human skull has twenty?eight separate bones, and that Osmium is the world's densest metal, Beakman moves on to bee stings. Explaining that an allergy to bee stings can be dangerous if not recognized and treated immediately, Beakman describes how to remove a stinger and treat the wound, as well as what symptoms indicate an allergic reaction. After answering questions about what makes freckles (melanin), when corns dogs were invented (in the 1930's) and whether mosquitoes have teeth (yes!), Beakman turns his attention to a viewer question about fires and firefighting. After first explaining how fire requires a combination of fuel, oxygen and heat, he demonstrates how the lack of any one of these three will extinguish a flame. First showing how firefighters react quickly to an alarm, Beakman follows them to a real fire. With different pieces of firefighting equipment at work, Beakman describes the various types of trucks and tools used to combat a blaze, as well as the type of firefighter responsible for each task. Finally, after Lester's feeble attempt at using a fire hose, Beakman concludes with some lifesaving tips on how to survive a fire.