Newton's Apple; No. 1001

Newton's Apple showed 1001, length 2753, KTCA TV, St. Paul Minneapolis. You're invited to a special birthday bath. Just to get right away to the core of our wish. Congratulations, Newton's Apple on 10 years of making science fun. Newton's Apple is made possible by a grant from 3M, encouraging innovative ways of looking at the world around us.

3M, innovation working for you. And now here's your host, David Hyde. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to this special anniversary edition of Newton's Apple. We're proud to be celebrating 10 years of answering questions about science, technology, and the world around us.

Over the past decade, we've gotten a lot of letters. If only you could see them all. No, David. See you next Monday. Peggy. I think you know my colleague, Peggy Nap. Thanks a lot, Peggy. Oh, well, you know how I feel about making a big entrance day. You know, as a matter of fact, we've gotten 25,373 pieces of mail to be exact. And you brought them all with you. Every single one of them. You know, it felt about like that much. What did you say? 5,373. 5,373. Well, the real point is all of these letters came from viewers just like you who were curious about something and wrote us to ask about it. You know, and because of that, we have done some great segments over the years. Well, now great segments is one thing, Peggy. Doing crazy stunts like this, you have never done anything this crazy. Never, David. Never let me refresh your memory. The silliness started in the very first show in the very first season. Why?

I like our inflator. Speaking of first, I tell you, we really know how to kick things off here at Newton's. That was my first segment. Skydiving. 8,500 feet, and I wasn't even wearing a parachute. Can't believe you did that. No, now that I look at it, I can't believe it either. That's you, staring at both. That was my first field segment. This is the way to live. Explosions. Typical jacknetland. Let's blow it up. We went to Hawaii. Yes, and I got to walk on a volcano. You did not? Yeah. The Russian space program. Ira in space. All righty. David, how many bees can you fit on your nose? No, shouldn't ask that question. It's lost. It's lost. Looking back over the last 10 years, you know, we have done some really fun science. Yeah, and it's all come from the letters that people send us just like the ones you dumped at my feet a few minutes ago. 25,000. When we first started planning this season, we noticed a lot of people have written us about television over the years. And we've got all kinds of letters, things like how does my TV work? How does a satellite signal get from one place to another? So we decided our 10th anniversary would be a great chance to take you inside television to explore all of the science and technology that goes into making Newton's Apple.

And speaking of which, I'm going behind the scenes now. I'll catch up with you later. Okay, see you later, Peggy. And to start this great journey through television, we've chosen as our tour guide, someone who's been with us for years. Our resident physics expert, Jack Netland. Hello, David. Welcome back. Jack. Thank you. So how many years have you been doing Newton's Apple? Nine years, actually. Nine years. That's four years longer than I've been doing it. It's been a long time. And your specialty, of course, is physics. Yeah. Obviously, television has something to do with physics. It certainly does. In fact, where we have to begin with television is the camera. So when we bring the camera, Benji, if you would bring that camera in here right now. Let's take a look at your camera's up close, I see. Yeah. Inside the camera, we can see where the light goes. Let's take a panel down here and look inside. It's open right there. That's good. You know, all the years I've been doing this. I've never looked inside. Oh, and I don't know why. Very complex piece of electronics, isn't it? Sure. What you see there is the place where the light that comes in the lens is converted to electronic signals, which we can then use. You light comes in here through the lens, but we don't see the light inside the camera at all. No, no.

We have to convert it. And then that's the next part of the story. If you look at this, turn the projector on right there. Here's a slide projector. That's good. Notice that there is a thing here called a prism. And that prism divides the light into its colors. There's blue over here. There's green here. And there's red right here. So behind the lens of our studio cameras, there is in fact a prism. Just like that. The divides the white light into its respective primary colors. That's right. And then we take that light and we capture it with this device called a CCD chip, which is sensitive to light. Now, as light from these different colors hits that chip, it changes into electrical current by liberating electrons. And it's also in proportion to the amount of light that hits it. So, for example, if the green light hits it like this right here, it will, in fact, send out electrons that will transmit green light when they get back to your television set. So the rest of the story must be in our TV. In your television set. We have a television set for our use right over here, which is really a television set. Not just any television set. This is a couch potato's dream. We have to have a large one so that we can go around back and we can take a look inside. So what's going on there?

Okay. You can see here the three guns and that fire electrons. When the signal is received by these guns, they fire electrons toward the front of your television set. One for red, one for green, and one for blue. And then as the electrons hit the surface, there are phosphorus painted on there, which then light up the color that they are. So we don't really shoot red light at the screen. Oh, no. It actually comes from those phosphorus. Exactly correct. That's painted on the inside. If we go around to the front of the television set, David, we can take a look and see what those phosphorus look like when they're illuminated. Three large colored dots. Yeah, that's what they are. That's not the way it looks on my TV screen. No, no. Because on your television screen, there are a whole lot smaller than that. And then if we put a whole bunch of them together, each of them filling in the part of the picture that it represents, then we get something like the apple up there or whatever it is that's on the screen at that time. Now, how do we get a changing image? Because obviously, television isn't static like that. And even with the static picture, you have to have the screen illuminated many, many times a second so that we get that picture being continuous. Now, we have to move the beam across the screen many, many times a second and compose the entire picture that the camera is on. How do you move an electron beam like that?

What you do is, and I happen to have a magnet right here in my pocket. Now, this magnet, if you hold it next to this electron beam here, this is much like your television screen. The beam is right there. Oh, sure enough. I can move the beam. I just move in the magnet cluster. You do it thousands of times a second, but it looks like it stays there, and that's exactly what happens with the television camera. So, we're surrounding that electron beam that you showed me in the back of the TV with an electromagnetic field. That's right, and then that magnetic field changes, and it deflects the thing back and forth, and then so it scans the picture many, many times a second. Now, we still don't get a very high resolution picture out of this, Jack. No, not with that one. But let's take a look at you at a real television picture. This is what it looks like right here, much better. Yeah. But now, if you move in real close to this, like we're doing, all those little squares are the pixels. They're all there. All the pixels are there. We've got columns where those phosphors are. Jack, thanks so much for getting us started here with the television and the TV camera. Perfect beginning. We'll have more on how television works in a moment. Every wonder who some of those extra folks are that come out on the studio floor at the end of a Newton's Apple segment? Well, it's high time at the end of 10 years that you meet some of those folks.

We're going to take a short break here before we go on. But could you stand on that mark there so we can check your lighting, please? Okay. Wait a minute. Not so fast. Come on back here. This is one of the folks I want you to meet. This is Norbert Ian. He happens to be the studio supervisor. Nice title, Norbert. I like it. Supervisor. That means he has the right and the privilege of telling me where to stand, telling other folks in the studio where they need to be, when they need to be there. Yep. That's my job. Get a load of those headphones. You don't mind it, you're in the norm. You don't get caught. All right. With these headphones, this is how Norbert stays in control here in the studio. He communicates with the director who's back in the control room. You'll meet the director, see the control room later. And of course, also back there are all the producers. Way too many, but they're all back there in that room. Tell them how we can do each other without interrupting the show. Okay. I'll give you those back. Thanks, Norbert. The director wants me to explain to you how Norbert and the other crew members out here on the floor communicate with each other without interrupting the taping of the show. Back to matter is, sometimes they do interrupt the show. What? They're supposed to do it this way. See here, Eric, a camera operator's got his headphones on. They all have separate headphones.

Benji's got a set of headphones. Mike's got a head of headphones over there. And they kind of whisper into the headphones and the microphone and sort of communicate with each other all the time that we're actually taping the show. In fact, there's a fourth camera in the studio here today. I forgot to mention that's your camera bob. Nice. I need to take your mic. Oh, get it. Here's audio bob. Now, audio bobs job is to make sure that the audio track is nice and clean. And we do that by checking batteries, right? Now, I'm not a robot, but this is about as close as I get to a robot. Let's not put it away. You don't want to explain this. This is a wireless microphone. Now, even though it's got a few wires, this only goes from the little box here to the microphone. It's wireless because I'm not like attached to a plug-in in the floor somewhere where I got to tie down like that. A wireless microphone gives people like, we ultimate freedom in the studio. It's great to have that opportunity. I saw a flash go by. Another bob. Now, this happens to be the light director bob. Is there some sort of conspiracy going on here? Everybody that works in the studio has to be named Bob. That's a win command. Just Bob and everybody jumps, right? Yeah. All right, Bob, tell me.

How many lights does it take to light a Newton's Apple Studio segment? Well, a typical Newton's segment can take upwards of 100 lights. 100 lights. What is this? Job security for you guys. What do you need 100 lights for? We've got a big studio about the size of a basketball court. And with all those areas, it just takes a lot of highlights to cover it. To rid of the shadows. Yeah, try to create some sort of a mood. Dimming it up and down gives you that mood. Right. You know, when I first came to work here, one of the first questions I had was, how do you create the famous Newton's Apple clouds in the background here? Sure. Of course, it isn't painted on there. It's all done with lights, right? That's right. When you share the secret, you bet. We use these stainless steel patterns. We have the image of the cloud laser cut in them. And we just drop in a spotlight and project it on the background. Isn't that great? So theoretical, you can put anything you want into this edge piece of metal and put it up on the back side. That's right, in fact, check this out. Ah, stars. You mean clouds, stars, the works. All right. I'll let you get back to work. That's great. As you can see, it takes a lot of people to make a show like Newton's Apple. And most of these people are behind the scenes. In fact, some of them, literally. We've got an entire crew of people devoted to turning our crazy ideas into reality.

We took our scenic designer and his set builders a full week to cut, assemble, paint, weld, and tweak these props to make this picture perfect. It's scientifically accurate for our show. I think someone's pulling a little trick on me. Let's see if we can find the source. So it's the lowest. What got into you, huh? Just having a little fun. This is the lowest brown. And she runs the teleprompter machine. Normally, a little slower than that, right? Can you explain how it works? Yes. The copy goes on to this conveyor belt under this camera lens, out with these wires to that monitor. Okay. And once it gets to this monitor here, the image is reflected on this one-way mirror, which actually covers the lens of the camera. And I read the words right off of that mirror. Now, if you watch your evening news at night, you'll see the anchor's eyes going back and forth every once in a while. That's because they're reading off of a teleprompter machine. We don't use it that much here at Newton's Apple. That's because we like to be spontaneous, right? The lowest. That's right. All right. That takes care of the technology side of the house. Let's come back over here by the video wall again and look at some more studio setups. They happen to be a Newton's Apple.

Oh. Oh, look at this skateboard ramp. I remember that filled the whole studio. We'll get a load of the guy with a big hit, or me playing Spider-Man. I got one for that. Just looking at this stuff makes me dizzy, you know? Ooh, the Newton's Apple's dunk tank. Sometimes I get the feeling that the producers are like, out to get me or something. Sinking me in quicksand, for instance. One time they even had me arrested if you can believe that. I'm going to arrest them. But you know when I think about it, they're probably not treating me all that much different than they did my predecessor. I reflado. Break this over, we got to move on. Oh, that was a break, wasn't it? Yeah, it was pretty cool. Where were we when we stopped? I can't remember. Are they listening to me back there? Can you guys hear me? Tell David that as soon as we reset all this, I'm going to have to... This is a much more appropriate dress for working behind scenes, what do you think? This is the control right here. This is Jeff White. He's the director today. Can you wait, Jeff? He's very busy right now. See, he's got to set up three different shots

on three different cameras, and simultaneously decide which shot will be reported live on the master tape. So he's kind of busy. This is Clayton Henderson. Can you wave Clayton? He's not quite so busy right now. He's the director's copilot. See, Clayton operates the switcher. It has a lot of buttons here. And every time Clayton pushes a different button, something different happens on the master tape. Concentration is not... I can't see. I'm sorry. Concentration is not easy here, because mostly because of this noisy, there's a really bunch of people back here that we call producers now. A lot of people wonder, what does a producer actually do? Let's talk to Katherine Scott. She's the serious producer on Newtons Apple. She oversees the production, and it's a tie right there. Katherine, can you explain to us just in a couple of words what a producer actually does? Peggy, I haven't got time now. What did you explain in a couple of words? In fact, do a story on it. 30 seconds, you got three minutes to go. Okay, boy, better get some more tape. Oh, come on, come on. Oh, look, Katherine, I need...

Oh, that's the one I need, thanks. Oh, I'm sorry. No, Leo, I really need... You don't... Look at this. This is where the hopes and dreams of producers and directors are reduced to tiny electronic pulses that are recorded on a VTR. Pop quiz, Steve, what's a VTR? Video tape recorder. Go to the head of the class. Now, meanwhile, back in the control room, Clayton is pushing all sorts of switcher buttons and different kinds of information are being recorded on the videotape. Now over here, you see the videotape runs past a machine head which is actually an electromagnet. How am I doing so far, Steve? Pretty good. Thanks. Say, we point to the electromagnet for me? This would be electromagnet. Thanks. Now, when the human eye looks at a piece of videotape, all you see is a piece of videotape. But this is a science show, lucky for us, Steve. Very lucky. Yeah, that's what I say. Will you pull that piece of videotape out so we can look at it like a science show?

Now, there's a lot of information being electromagnetically recorded on several different locations or tracks. The video is recorded on this track. The audio is recorded on the following two tracks. The fourth records what's known as the time code. And the final track is known as the control track. What does the control track do? Let's let Jerry handle that one. I suppose I could... Yes, Jerry. Jerry, control track. Peggy. Control track. What is it? What does it do? Well, it's a series of electronic pulses recorded on the videotape. The control is speed of the tape when playback. And it also marks each frame. Much the same way that Sprocket holds doing a piece of film. Oh, very good. Now, I have a question for you. Okay, pop quiz. What's time code? Time code. I know that one. Okay. Time code is like an address that we assign to each frame of videotape so we can find a shot when we want it. An address. Kind of like this. A lot like that. And it translates into numbers that mean hours, minutes, seconds, and frames of tape. And as a matter of fact, I like that shot. Could I have this tape?

Oh, certainly. Oh, thank you very much. This is the edit suite where we actually cut the segments together. Bob, put those things away. You're going to hurt somebody. No, we're going to let Val Mondor do this electronically. This is Val, our editor. Hi, Val. Got a little rush job for you. I know what else is new. See, she's going to take all the bits and pieces that are on these tapes that I've brought her and put them a piece at a time onto a master tape and build a story that way. And she's going to do that using that address, that time code we talked about. When Val types each time code into the editing system, it's electronically copying the images and sounds located on one tape and duplicating them on a new tape for my story. This is the beginning and this is the end of each shot that I wanted to include in the story that we're telling. You can go ahead and start putting those in, Val. Thanks. This is Bernie Baudré, say hi to the people Bernie. He's going to monitor the audio levels all the way through on that master tape to make sure the sound is good on the story. Now, see, when we do a field segment, it's a lot different than when David shoots in the studio. Remember in the studio, they've got three camera shooting simultaneously. We only have one camera.

That would be this one right here. But we still need to have all of those different shots. We start by shooting a wide shot that shows you everything you need to see in a room. Then we shoot everything on a two shot with the expert that we're interviewing. Peg, is that three or an eight? Eight. Then we shoot a close-up of the expert in the segment. Then we shoot a reaction shot of me going, uh-huh, uh-huh. Oh, uh-huh, uh-huh. And we cut it all together and it looks like it just happened. I got your establishing shot. How's this? Oh, good. This is where the Newton's Apple producers work. Well, actually, they're all down in the studio right now. So it doesn't look like anything's going on, but if there were something going on, it would look a lot like this. Hello, edit. I need that tape. Okay. Oh, look, the cables. There must be thousands of cables in there. About 40,000. These cables connect everything to everything else. The editing suites to the videotape machines, the control room to the studio.

All the signal for all the electronic wizardry we use on this show runs through these cables. Shall we try a little experiment? Oh, no, no. Pack, pack, blip. Did I get it? There. Better? You know, sometimes television isn't as controlled in environments we'd like it to be. Especially with piggy around. No, no, no, no. Just kidding, piggy. But there is one part of Newton's Apple in which we're never quite sure what our guests will do next. I'm talking, of course, about the animal segments. And here to introduce us to a particularly wild and woolly beast is our very own naturalist, Nancy Gibson. Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, oh, boy. See what I mean about animals? Wow, she's going to be tied up a little while, I think. So good idea. We're going to take this opportunity to look back at the whole variety of animals that Nancy's introduced us to over the past 10 years. You know, Nancy's been with the show since we began in 1982. Over the years, she's taken us on a veritable tour of the animal alphabet.

She's brought us face to face with some exotic and ferocious creatures. Some have made us laugh, and others have inspired us with their beauty. And with every animal adventure, we've learned more about our furry and feathered friends. Can you talk? Fert and cock. Some have even set the record screen. Most of all, we've come to expect the unexpected. Don't still read the T-Pants. Well, he letters, so. Well, there you have it. Goats do eat just about anything. And as you can see, this isn't the first time that we've had to encounter an animal that's got a plan slightly different from our own. Still, you know what's amazing? Nancy always manages to maintain perfect grace and composure under pressure. Welcome back, Nancy. I now understand why you left the set so quickly before. This was at the other end of that rope. Yes, well, it was in question as to who is this? Your control areas. This is Cody, and he's a bison. Obviously, a big bison. Very big bison's fact. He's probably the largest movie star you're ever going to need to experience.

He's got 7 to 200 pounds. Now, what movie has Cody been in? Well, probably the best known one is Dances with Wolves. Oh, this is one of the bison from Dances with Wolves. That explains why he was dancing with you so well, huh? Right. And he's shedding right now. That's why he's got the multi-colored coat right now. A little bit modeled. It's amazing. Now, how do you get a bison prepared for being a movie or a TV star? Well, he's been bottle fed, and he's been trained, hand-raised, and so he's actually been trained for movies. And that's very different than most of the animals that we have on the show here. You got it. Most the animals I bring on are tolerant to the situation. In this case, semi-tolerant at best. Right, right. We've got a movie star here, and this kind of fun. He used to it, which is nice. Even though he's big, he's some damage if he wanted. Yes. He's under control. All right. Nancy, thanks so much for bringing Cody in. Now, normally, at this time, what we would do is invite the audience up and to be sort of the end of the show. But that wouldn't give us a chance to tell you how we beam television to the chase. So we sent piggy out. Change the channel. Change the dress. OK. Now the program is edited and ready to go. How do we get Newton's Apple into your home?

Well, the first thing we do is we send the tape to PBS in Washington, DC. First, they log the tape into their computer system, where they keep track of hundreds of different programs. Next, the tape receives a technical evaluation to make sure it meets federal broadcast standards. When it's time for broadcast, PBS sends the program to a communications satellite. The satellite catches the signal and retransmit it to reach all the PBS stations across the US. Communication satellites are in geosynchronous orbits. That means they're at just the right height, about 23,000 miles, to orbit the Earth once in 24 hours. That matches the Earth's rotation. So the satellite appears to stay in the same place in the sky all the time. This is a fashion don't kids, but safety first. Now, this is where my local PBS station gets its signal from the satellite. Actually, you know, that big dish there, that's not an antenna. The antenna is the round knob in the middle. That big dish just serves to catch all the waves and concentrate them onto the antenna.

But even with that huge dish concentrating all of those waves, the signal is still very weak. It just traveled 23,000 miles. I'd be weak, too. So the first thing that happens is the signal is sent to an amplifier to boost it to a usable level. Then the signal is sent into our control room. This is air control, where we control what's broadcast out over the air. With this switcher here, Dave can choose to broadcast a program from a videotape, or from any one of four different PBS satellite channels. So your local station has a lot of choices when to air a program. Choose me for a moment. Isaac, sir. Yes. And I feel I must point out to you, Peggy, you've missed some crucial items. First of all, I must point out that I first explained how one object stays in orbit around another object. And secondly, I first envisioned a placing a man-made object into an orbit. However, what most intrigues me now

is this bit of new technology. This is a satellite broadcast truck. I think it is one of the most versatile communication tools ever devised. By using one of these, a local television station can produce a live telecast from anywhere in the United States. This is not only a receiving antenna, but a transmitter as well. It can be aimed at any number of communication satellites. The truck is also equipped with its own electrical generator, as well as its own air conditioning system, thus making it completely self-contained. Would you like to look inside? You will find the same things here as you have in your own studio panel that are controls for several different campers, a switching device, and on the side are videotape recording devices and an audio control panel. So with all of this, you can produce your own program.

Right on the site of the action, whether it's a sporting rally or a political event. They still have to rise if we got to move along. OK, we still have to get the signal to your home. And to do that, we need a transmitter. Yes, this is a transmitting tower. The actual transmitter's in a little building right over there. The transmitter does two very important things for the signal. First of all, it modulates the signal. What does that mean? Well, each channel has a specific broadcast wavelength. This electromagnetic wave is called a carrier wave, because it carries the program in a specific channel. Now, the transmitter takes the electrical impulses that make up my picture and sound, and adds them onto that carrier wave. The second thing the transmitter does is give the signal power. Depending on the station and its location, the transmitter can put out up to 5 million watts of power. Then they put the transmitting antenna up on the tower, usually at least 1,000 feet tall.

The taller the tower, the further the signal can reach. From here, to the antenna on your TV at home. What a great effect, David. I got a new dress out of the deal, too. Wow. Another big entrance for Peggy. How did this come? I think I melted my sequence. Don't worry about the sequence. Peggy, actually, the party's about to begin. It's not over here. Party started. Party started. Come on. Come on. Well, we hope you've enjoyed this behind the scenes. Look at Newton's apple. Obviously, we thank all of you for joining us. Our celebration would not have been complete without you. This is a great cake. Thank you. Look at that. And you know, this is just the beginning of a brand new season here. We've got lots of science adventures ahead. Can David Hyle survive this most unfortunate encounter? The most distressedly talented Peggy now reveal her inner beauty. Do some of Nancy Gibson's acquaintances fault her taste in fashion? And does the good doctor, Bruce Dan,

really get his just desserts? Don't forget to watch my show. Newton's apple is made possible by a brand 3M and its employees dedicated to innovative thinking and scientific learning. 3M. Innovation working for you. Let's do it here. This is PBS.

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