Doctor Who: 15 Science Lessons To Build Your Own Sonic Screwdriver

1.Opening And Closing Things

1b Open Door Magentic 4 Image Of The Fendahl Older doors that were locked with big iron bolts can't be opened by controlling the electrical servo motors. Won't work cause there are no motors. To open these from the inside would require moving that big iron bold somehow and the best answer would be via a magnetic field. The first use of opening something magnetically was by the Fourth Doctor in Image of the Fendahl where the Doctor opened an old door using sound converted to magnetism to move the metallic pieces of a door lock. Both of these can be considered opening something and they do it with similar science. However, each controls a different facet of electromagnetism. By converting sound to electricity you can alter the magnetic field in the same way described earlier in how one can screw or unscrew a screw using sound. But instead of converting it to a spin current to produce torque, this controls the magnetic field to move the metallic object. Click next once more for a bonus round...
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Contributor

An artist and a computer geek before the two became synonymous. Combined them into data visualization which just seemed natural. But my real passion is Doctor Who. I write for the magazine Whotopia with my colleague Jürgen. Presented on my blog, The Doctor and Me, are essays and data analysis of Doctor Who. Working to amass large Doctor Who datasets allows for the analysis of the show unlike anything else. The most recent dataset is every use of the sonic screwdriver which is currently approaching 900. And every time an old episode comes on, there is a chance of spotting yet one more use that was tucked away.