Download - TÜVtel 4.14 - Children's Magazine
The Children's Magazine by TÜV Rheinland 2014 | Edition 4
Posters Night Sky
and buzzing Bees
Internet Gone!Now What?
How TÜV Rheinland
Tests Bridges
Svalbard: In Polar
Bear Territory
Fast Facts 4Internet 6Svalbard 10Big Cities 12Winter Puzzles 14Tess and Roby 16Behind the Scenes 20Try It Out 22Fan Page 23
In this issue, you’ll find ...
Contents
Jürgen Nolden
takes you with
him to work – on
and under the
bridge.
20 What Are You
Testing There?
14 Winter Puzzles
Arctic Adventure
Svalbard has a lot to offer: a well-secured seed vault, pitch-dark days and plenty of polar bears.
10
6Internet?Forget It!Can the Internet vanish from one
second to the next? And what
would that mean for you?
STEM Spells
TÜVtel shows you how to multiply
numbers using an amazing
line technique.
22
2TÜVtel
Poster
s
Mathematics
Join in!
Tess and RobyTess enters a competition for inventors. Of course she wants to win. But as she soon realizes, inventing something brilliant is no easy task.
What do you do when cities are bursting at the seams?
Megacities
16
3TÜVtel
12
Did you know that you are a “digital native”? People say that because for you, computers, cell phones and many other digital devices have always been part of life. So has the Internet. You surely use it too, for example when looking for information on Google, watching funny videos on YouTube or sending WhatsApp messages with a smartphone.
The Internet is really practical. But what would happen if it suddenly stopped working? Would it bother you? Or wouldn’t you care? What is the Internet anyway? And what is the difference between a hacker and a cracker? TÜVtel gets to the bottom of these quesions in the cover story.
Hey, TÜV kids!
We hope you enjoyreading TÜVtel!
Tess and Roby
Poster
sBees and Stars
Where do bees disappear to
in winter? They are carrying
out a vital mission ...
The long winter nights are perfect for watching the stars. TÜVtel shows you all the different things that are shining in the sky.
Stars – they seem close enough to touch. But assuming you don‘t count the sun
(which is also a star), the nearest one is a staggering 40,000 billion kilometers away from
the Earth! It is called Proxima Centauri and funnily enough, it is not bright enough to be
visible to the naked eye. Luckily there are about 2,400 other stars shining in the sky that we
can observe without a telescope. On the TÜVtel map, you can see the night sky over Germany in December. If you imagine
that there are lines connecting certain stars, they make fi gures: the constellations. The
constellation Cassiopeia is very easy to see. Its fi ve main stars form a W. The constellations move across the sky at night. Only one star doesn‘t change its position:
the polar star (Polaris). It is part of the Ursa Minor constellation and it seems to be fi xed
fi rmly in the north while all the other stars rotate around it. Pay attention Harry Potter fans: When you fi nd Orion in the sky and look along its three
belt stars to the lower left, then you‘ll discover Sirius, the brightest star in the Canis Major
(“big dog“) constellation. Sirius is the Greek word for “glowing“. And Sirius is also the
name of Harry Potter‘s godfather, who can change himself into a big dog.
Photos: iStockphoto.com: SergeyMikhaylov, e-belyukova; shutterstock.com: My Life Graphic; Roby and Tess illustration by Franz Gerg/Comic-Agentur Roberto Freire
Jagdhunde
Kleiner Bär
Drache
Leier
EidechseCepheus
Cassiopeia
PegasusGiraffe
PerseusAndromeda
FischeDreieck
Widder
Walfisch
Zwillinge
Krebs
Löwe
Luchs
Fuhrmann
Großer Bär
Wasser-Schlange
Polarstern
Stargazers
Night Sky
CanesVenatici
Ursa Minor
Draco
Lyra
EidechseCepheus
Cassiopeia
Pegasus
Camelopardalis
PerseusAndromeda
PiscesTriangulum
Aries
Cetus
Taurus
Orion
EridanusLepus
CanisMajor
Monceros
Canis Minor
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Lynx
Auriga
UrsaMajor
Hydra
Polaris
Sirius
Due to its many bright stars and its memorable shape, Orion is one of thebest-known constellations.
If you take a long-exposure photograph of the sky, you can see that the stars are moving.
Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Earth. Unfortunately, it doesn‘t shine brightly enough to be visible to the naked eye.
ProximaCentauri
Bees in Winter
Like so many other insects, bees vanish into thin air in
winter. That‘s hardly surprising because it‘s much too cold
outside for the little black and yellow striped creatures. But
where do they buzz off to? Bees spend the cold months
in their hives. However, they are not hibernating there.
Instead, the bee colony carries out an important
mission: It has to ensure that its queen survives.
Freezing is the biggest danger. To keep the queen
warm, the bees huddle close together. Each
one clings tightly to its neighbor while at the
same time moving its fl ight muscles constantly.
With this physical exertion, the insects produce
heat. Inside the big, buzzing cluster of bees, the
temperature can reach up to 30 degrees Celsius.
There, the queen sits nice and safely. The remaining
bees change their positions frequently so that each
one only spends a short time on the cold outer
edge of the cluster before moving back towards the
warm center.
Buzzing Each Other Warm
Photos: shutterstock.com: Alexandra Giese, Megan R. Hoover, JSseng; iStockphoto.com: enjoynz; Fotolia.com: Dmytro Smaglov; Roby and Tess illustration by Franz Gerg/Comic-Agentur Roberto Freire
Fast Facts
It would be pretty
dull in winter without
glittering lights. But
what hardly anyone
knows is that the
decorations can also be
dangerous. If individual bulbs fail, the
remaining ones can become extremely
hot - so hot that in the worst case, they
start a fire. There is also the risk of
electroution from cheap cables and plugs.
To find out whether they are safe, TÜV
Rheinland inspects strings of lights. T
he
good ones receive a GS mark that is visible
on the packaging. GS stands for "geprüft
e
Sicherheit", or "tested safety".
Hot Little
Lamps
The inspector is
measuring the rising
temperature of
a string of lights
in the laboratory.
The faster you
write, the more
electricity is
generated.
Researchers in Sweden have developed paper that produces small amounts of electricity when
you write on it. The paper's secret ingredient is zinc oxide. It generates an electrical charge when it is pressed - in this case with a pen. Now the scientists are thinking about what they can use their miniature paper power plant for. One idea is to recharge a battery while writing.
Pen Power
4TÜVtel
Knows no Fear
Scientists in Argentina have discovered the skeleton of the world's biggest dinosaur. It has been christened Dreadnoughtus schrani. That means "not afraid of anything". After all, it was as big as a house and as heavy as a herd of elephants, so the primeval giant probably had no enemies. The researchers estimate that it lived between 66 and 84 million years ago.
no Reverse Gear Emus and kangaroos are fast runners. They can easily reach speeds of 50 kilometers an hour - when they are going fowards, that is.
Amazingly, neither animal can go backwards. That is why they appear on the Australian coat of arms. With them, the country wants to demonstrate that things are always moving forwards there, and that there are no backward steps.
The colossal beast was 26 meters long and weighed about 60 tons.
Look Around
You are always told to look straight
ahead when riding your bike in
traffic. That is correct. However, it is
just as important to look back. After
all, you need to keep a close eye on
whatever rolls up behind you. As the
traffic experts from TÜV Rheinland
point out: A glance over your shoulder
could save lives, especially
when you are turning the
corner.
5TÜVtel
Internet
Playing games, googling,
writing to friends – it is hard
to imagine life without the
Internet. That's what Nick and
Lena think too. But then their
nightmare comes true: The web is suddenly
gone!
INTERNET? FORGET IT!
When everything stops working, panic quickly breaks out.
6TÜVtel
WHAT IS THE INTERNET?
The Internet is a network that enables
every computer in the world to
connect with every other computer.
Think of it as a spiderweb. The
Internet connections are the
threads and the computers
are the points where the
threads intersect. Information
is sent back and forth via these
connections. To make sure all
the computers can understand
each other, they all speak the same
language. It is called the Internet
Protocol.
INTERNET? FORGET IT!
7TÜVtel
Bang!!! The door slams shut. Nick's big sister Sarah has disappeared into her room with her friends. The know-it-all club is holding a meeting. Now Nick and his classmate Lena have the living room all to themselves. Yippee, a witch-free zone. "What should we do this afternoon?" Lena thinks out loud. "First biology homework, then rollerblades?" suggests Nick. "Okay," says Lena. "And what's our homework?" "To find out how strong ants are. That's how much they can carry. Great, we can quickly google that," adds Nick happily. At that moment, Sarah's door flies open again. "I can't believe it!" cries Sarah in a panic. "Facebook is gone! WhatsApp is gone!" Her voice grows shriller. "Google is gone! No YouTube! No emails! The whole Internet is gone!"
Her know-it-all friends are standing behind her, typing furiously on their tablets. Perplexed, Nick glances at his cell phone. It's true: The browser on his smartphone isn't loading. Lena looks at her screen, too, and shakes her head. "Now we can't even google what's happening," shrieks Sarah. "What do we do now? This is the worst day of our liiives!"
"My God," thinks Nick. "Surely you can manage one day without the Internet!" Sarah and her friends see things differently. "But we wanted to watch movies! And do some online shopping!" "Um, Nick?" Lena interrupts the older girls' moaning. "What about biology? Who apart from Google knows how strong ants are?" Nick is certain: "I'm sure we can find that out even without the Internet."
THE SEARCH BEGINSFirst, they skim through Nick's animal book. There's a section about ants but it doesn't have what they're looking for. In the basement, they comb through the old encyclopedia. It has an impressive 24 volumes. One of them includes a column about ants but there's no
information about how strong they are. Darn! Next idea: They ring the
neighbor's doorbell.Read more on page 8 →
Jessi: It wouldn't bother me.I do my homework withoutgoogling. And I don't have asmartphone either.
Flo: That would be sad because
I couldn't skype with my father
anymore. He's working in Shanghai
for a year and we catch up on
Skype every day.
Minh-Khai: That would be a
disaster! I couldn't listen to
new songs anymore or
download anything. And my
app games wouldn't work.
NO INTERNET: WHAT WOULD YOU THINK?
Internet
She's a teacher but as it turns out, she only teaches German and sport. She has no idea about ants. Nick calls his mother at work. Her suggestion: the public library. Nick and Lena go on a speedy bike tour. There are seven books about insects in the library. "Try the book called 'Strange Facts from the Animal Kingdom'," suggests the librarian. Unfortunately, it has already been borrowed. Another dead end. They head back home. Their final hope is a phone call to the zoo. "Ask me anything you like about elephants," says the zookeeper who answers the phone. "But I have no idea about ants. Why don't you look on the Internet?" Lena hangs up in a huff."Look on the Internet? Forget it!" she grumbles.
NUISANCE TO THE RESCUE "Darn it!" swears Nick. "That's really the last thing we need. We can't do anything without the Internet. And we can forget about rollerblading, too. It's getting dark." He kicks the door angrily. Lena flops tiredly onto the sofa. "I'll be interested to see whether anyone has done their biology homework tomorrow. I bet Ms. Dankert doesn't know the answer either." Nick is already thinking about the next problem. "I can forget about my app games as well. That's just great."
"Hey, relax," calls Sarah from her room. "What was the question again?" Lena reads it out in a bored voice: "How many times their own body weight can ants carry?" Nick snorts. As if the biggest pain of all time would have a clue about that. "Wait a second, let me think," murmers Sarah. "Um, that's right: "They can carry up to 39.7 times their own weight," she says smartly. Nick and Lena stare at each other in astonishment. "How do YOU know?" hisses Nick. "My friend Google told me," says Sarah, who is now
standing in the doorway grinning. "The Internet has been back for ages, you idiots. It
was just a short outage. Where have you been all afternoon anyway?
The end
8TÜVtel
Nick and Lena go looking for answers.
GOOD AND BAD HACKERS
People who carry out malicious digital attacks
are known in professional circles as black
hats. Black hats infiltrate IT systems with the
aim of causing damage, often with criminal
intentions.
On the other side, there are the white hats.
They also work as hackers but their goal is to
make people aware of gaps in their security.
There are white hats at TÜV Rheinland,
too. There, they are called Security Analysts.
They help make companies safer from
Internet attacks.
Question:
Is a total Internet
outage possible?
Dr. Daniel Hamburg says: It is highly unlikely. You would have
to pull the plug on many thousands of devices at the same time. The Internet is like the postal service. If a street is blocked, then it might be a bit chaotic there. However, the
parcel will still reach its destination viaa different route.
ASK AN EXPERT
Question:
Is someone
protecting us from
outages like that?
Dr. Daniel Hamburg says: Yes, computer scientists do that by not relying on individual devices. Instead, they have many
devices that are responsible for performing the same task. Question:
And how can I
protect myself?Dr. Daniel
Hamburg says: The best
way to protect yourself is
by never forgetting how to
manage without
the Internet.
HACKERS AT TÜV RHEINLAND!?Companies and banks are increasingly being targeted in digital attacks. That means that criminals are hacking into their computer systems. Their goal is to spy out data and steal information. To prevent these attacks, there are hackers working at TÜV Rheinland as specialists for IT security.IT stands for Information Technology.
Their job is to check IT systems for any gaps that somebody could hack into. To do that, the experts from TÜV Rheinland put themselves in the shoes of the attackers and try to hack into the systems themselves. If they find a hole, then it can be blocked. That way, the digital crooks end up having no access points left to attack.
Dr. Daniel Hamburg
knows the answer: He is
the boss of the white hats
at TÜV Rheinland.
9TÜVtel
Computer programs are written in programming language. Hackers understand it perfectly.
Svalbard
10TÜVtel
Svalbard is an Arctic archipelago at the northernmost tip of Norway. With temperatures averaging minus 4.5 degrees Celsius, it is inhospitable, lonely and barren there, both in summer and winter. Hardly anyone wants to live there. Nevertheless, there is plenty to discoverin the far north.
Arctic Adventure
Frozen
Seeds
In a giant guarded vault,
scientists are storing seeds from
the world's most important
agricultural crops. They include
many varieties of rice, wheat,
soybeans and corn, potatoes, carrots
and tomatoes. In the enormous cliff
bunker, around 800,000 seeds are being stored
at an icy temperature of minus 18 degrees Celsius.
The aim is to make sure new crops can be planted
after major disasters like extreme climate
change, wars or epidemics. It also ensures
that agricultural plants don't end up being
forgotten or dying out.
New packets of seeds arrive all the
time. The gigantic vault has enough
space for up to four million seeds.
World's
Biggest Open Air Laboratory
Scientists from more than ten different nations
are working in the Ny-Ålesund international
research village. Their focus is on Arctic and climate
research. That involves analyzing everything from
the depths of the ocean right up to the Earth's
atmosphere. At onshore control stations, for
example, they collect data that is important
for monitoring climate change, observing
alterations in the ozone layer, as well as
measuring air pollution.
With the big white parabolic reflector, researchers can receive radio waves from the Earth's
atmosphere.
Days
Without Light
The night from 21 to 22 December is the longest of the year in 2014. It is known as the winter solstice. In the northern hemisphere, it is when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky. In Svalbard, the sun doesn't even rise during this period. That is due to the way the Earth is tilted towards the sun. After the winter solstice, the days grow longer again and the nights become shorter. In the southern hemiphere, the whole process happens exactly the other way round.
S
NArctic Circle: 24 hours of darkness
Antarctic Circle: 0 hours of darkness
Equator: 12 hours of darkness
Polar Night
Polar Day
Polar Bear Country
Around 3,000 polar bears live in Svalbard. That means they outnumber the people there. Polar bears might look cuddly but they are actually very dangerous. Although they mainly eat seals, the wild animals also attack humans. Nevertheless, they are a protected species and hunting them is forbidden.
Polar bears are wildanimals so it's best to observethem from a distance.
11TÜVtel
Tokyo, Mexico City, Beijing, São Paulo, Mumbai, Shanghai, Teheran – all hell is loose in the megacities around the globe: crowds, traffic chaos, noise, dirt, hardly anywhere to live and even less nature. Nevertheless, more and more people on every continent are streaming from the country into the cities. And those cities are getting bigger, growing from towns into major cities, then into metropolises and – from ten million inhabitants onwards – into megacities.
Life is tough in the overflowing major cities. In Addis Ababa, people suffer from a shortage of clean drinking water. Diseases are spreading via the contaminated water pipes. Waste disposal is a problem in Mexico City. And in the megacity of Teheran (shown in the background), thick smog obscures people's vision and makes it difficult to breathe.
Making life betterTogether with the respective city councils, as well as the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, scientists are developing ideas to improve the living conditions in nine selected metropolises. You can see them on the map. With around 13.4 million inhabitants, Teheran is already a megacity. The other eight are well on their way there. But how do you make a major city clean, environmentally friendly and worth living in? Thilo Petri from TÜV Rheinland knows the answers. He and his team are accompanying, supporting and advising on the projects for the megacities of the future.
Clever urban planningWhen it comes to shaping the cities of the future, the list of possibilities is long. "Traffic is an important aspect" explains Petri. "The city must be planned in a way that enables everyone to reach their destination as easily as possible on foot, by bicycle, with the bus or by train." After all, the fewer cars there are on the road, the less exhaust gases are pumped out into the air. And people aren't as stressed when they're traveling somewhere.
The type of housing also plays a role in protecting the environment. "Planted roofs and facades don't just look good; they also help cool the building and improve the air quality," explains the expert from TÜV Rheinland. As well as saving energy, buildings should be able to produce electricity in the future, for example via rooftop solar panels that convert sunlight into power and heat. Another idea is to generate energy as a byproduct of sewage treatment or waste recycling. Special facilities make this possible.
There is no shortage of ideas. However it takes time to make them all happen. And time is scarce. The cities are growing relentlessly.Day after day after day...
Big Cities
12TÜVtel
Moving from the country to the city is a big trend right now. More than half of all people already live in cities, and those cities are slowly bursting at the seams.
Living in Megacities
Country: Peru Population: ca. 8 million Main problems: drinking water and sewage
Lima
13TÜVtel
Country: Morocco Population: ca. 4 million Main problem: dwindling space for food cultivation
Living in Megacities Casablanca
Country: Iran Population: 13.4 million Main problems: air pollution and housing shortage
Teheran
ÜrümqiCountry: China
Population: ca. 4.5 million Main problems: water and
power supplies
Ho-chi- minh-Stadt
Country: Vietnam Population: ca. 7.1 million
Main problems: flooding and living space
Country: Ethiopia Population: ca. 4 million Main problems: waste management and water supply
HyderabadCountry: India Population: ca. 4 million Main problems: food and power supplies
Addis Abeba
Of the 30 biggest megacities in the world, 20 are located in Asia and Latin America alone. They include Shanghai
(left) and Mexico City (right).
JohannesburgCountry: South Africa Population: ca. 4.5 million Main problem: lack of clean energy sources
Country: China Population: ca. 5.3 million
Main problem: heavy traffic
Hefei
Winter Puzzles
M
IO
NN
C
N
A
S
M
L
N
D
O
A
Look at all these gifts! And there are two
of each kind. Or are there? No, some
parcels are actually unique. How many
don't have a twin?
Twin
Packs
Cookie ChaosPut the crumbs in the right order to
find out what tasty ingredients were
used to bake the cookies.
14TÜVtel
C
LH
EO
A
O
C
T
Christmas Challenge
8 2
10
42
86
Each number is the sum of the two numbers below it. Fill in the empty boxes with the correct figures. What number belongs in the green box?
Tricky TreeHow many little golden bells are hidden in the text of the "Tess and Roby" story on pages 16 to 19?
Find the Bells
Solutions
Cookie Chaos: The cookies contain almonds, cinnamon and chocolate.
Twin Packs: There are two gifts that don't have a twin.
Find the Bells: There are eight little bells hidden in the story.
Tricky Tree: The number 8 belongs in the green box.
15TÜVtel
Christmas Challenge
Roby Sees the Light
Tess and Roby
Square Bubbles?
161616
TÜVtel
It is impossible to blow a square bubble. That is because the air-filled bubble always contracts until it has the smallest possible surface area. And that is a sphere. Of all the geometric shapes with an identical volume, it has
the smallest surface area. That is a law of nature.
Tess is tinkering feverishly. An inventors’ competition has been announced and she really wants to win. But that’s proving extremely difficult.
Bubbles always have a spherical shape.
Annoyed, Tess screws up a sheet of scribbled paper and hurls it towards the bin. “It’s a complete load of rubbish!” she grumbles. Roby looks at his friend in surprise. He hasn’t seen her in such a bad mood for ages. She is sitting on the living room floor, cursing and staring at an angular wire frame. Roby fishes the crumpled page out of the wastepaper basket and smooths it out. He examines the drawing with interest: a bubble machine. “Is that for the inventors’ competition tomorrow?” he asks. Tess nods. Then she pulls a furious face. What is so terrible about that, the robot wants to know. It’s a very nice idea really. “Nice idea?” says Tess angrily. “You don‘t win with just a nice idea.”
“Now, why don’t you take a deep breath and tell me what the problem is,” suggests Roby. Tess breathes in deeply. And out again. And once more: in and out. And a third time just to be on the safe side: in and out again. That’s already better. She tells Roby that she has been working really hard to invent something brilliant: a machine that makes square bubbles, to be precise. Now the machine is waiting in the
Read more on page 18 →
17TÜVtel
Getting thingsrollingSince the beginning of time, people have always tinkered around and invented new
things. One of many groundbreaking inventions was the wheel, which was first developed roughly 5,500 years ago. It was a huge hit. After all, the wheel made it so much easier to
transport goods over long distances. However, nobody knows who had the
bright idea in the first place. The wheel started rolling in several places in Europe
and Asia at the same time.
to enter with this boring bubble machine,” she says with a shrug before going off to bed. Being an inventor sure is tiring.
Roby thinks hard. Square bubbles. Now that really is crazy. But could there be another way to turn the machine into something amazing? Deep in thought, he rolls into the workshop. There is the machine. The robot considers it thoughtfully. An idea flashes through his circuits and a smile crosses his face as he gets to work.
The wheel has constantly developed and even now, it is impossible to imagine our day-to-day lives without it.
basement workshop, all ready to go, and it even blows bubbles – but none of them are square. The darn things are always round.
“But Tess, blowing square bubbles – that just isn’t possible,” o says Roby, shaking his head.Tess really knows that too. But it would have been awesome if she’d invented a machine that spat out different shaped bubbles – against every law of nature. Oh well. Now it’s too late anyway. The competition is tomorrow at noon already. “Then I’ll just have
Tess and Roby
18TÜVtel
All three judges crane their necks so they can examine the machine from every angle. “Please activate it,” commands a judge. Tess is about to push the start button when Roby says “Turn the lights off first.” Tess gives him a questioning look. “Trust me,“ whispers the robot. “Lights off,” calls the judge, and the lights go out.
Tess pushes the start button and gasps in amazement: countless bubbles are flying out of the machine. But that’s not all. They are glowing in the most dazzling hues and bathing the dark room in colorful light. “They’re
colored. Who would have expected that?” marvels the first judge. “Nobody,” agrees the second. “Truly magical,”
raves the third. The other
The next day, it’s time for the competition. It is already in full swing when Tess checks
her watch impatiently at half past twelve. Three judges are walking through the long rows of inventions. They examine everything thoroughly, ask questions and take notes. Tess steps nervously from one foot to the other. “Stop fidgeting, here they come,” whispers Roby. The judges stop in front of Roby and look down at him critically. “What is it and what can it do?” asks one of them, peering sceptically over his metal-rimmed glasses. “That’s not my invention!” laughs Tess. She points at the device that she has assembled on the table beside her. “There it is: my bubble machine.”
Protecting Inventions
When you invent something, you enter a race against time. That‘s because
someone else could come up with a similar invention at any moment. To make
sure nobody can steal their ideas, inventors apply for a patent at the patent office
in their country. A patent is a contract with the state. It says that only the inventor
has the right to make a real product out of their invention.
TÜV Rheinland can find out whether an invention is new or has already been
protected by a patent. Patent tester Bruno Götz has around 50 million patents
saved in his computer database. That gives him the perfect overview. The
patents can also be inspected by TÜV Rheinland, just like the Christmas tree
extinguishing system in the photo. An extinguisher has been installed at the
top of the tree to spray water on the burning branches from above. It was
invented by a student.
entrants are equally enchanted by the gently floating, wondrous bubbles of light. “It was you Roby, wasn’t it,” whispers Tess with a grin. Roby just giggles softly.
Back at home, Tess proudly puts a sparkling golden trophy on the shelf. “First Place in the 2014 Bright Spark Inventors’ Competition” is engraved on it. She looks at it thoughtfully. “Now tell me, what did you actually do to make the bubbles glow? Was it a secret bubble additive?” Roby is rolling along beside her. Both their faces are reflected in the polished golden surface. “Oh, that doesn’t matter. The main thing is that we did it together, isn‘t it?” Tess has to agree with him completely. Nothing beats teamwork.
The end
19TÜVtel
Behind the Scenes
20TÜVtel
A Safe Crossing
There is a big warning sign on the highway bridge. Yellow lights are flashing and a white arrow in a blue circle signals to drivers: Please change lanes! A glance under the bridge reveals why: Jürgen Nolden is at work. He inspects tunnels, the retaining walls of roads, and approximately 200 bridges a year.
During bridge inspections, the TÜV Rheinland employee looks for faults and then evaluates them. "They can be crooked or loose
sections, cracks, chips, hollow and damp areas, or damage caused by an accident," explains the specialist.
With his expert eye, he doesn't miss a thing – neither on nor under the bridge. To examine the bottom, Nolden uses a bridge-underside inspection apparatus. That is a truck parked on top of the bridge with an arm that extends over the side to reach underneath. This arm holds a basket from which the inspector can do his work. Sometimes he also has to abseil off bridges or even go diving to examine the pylons under water.
After he has checked everything, Nolden gives the bridge a score based on its condition. It is a bit like being at
school. The worst mark for bridges is a four. After the inspection, all the damage is repaired and the traffic can roll safely over the bridge once more.
Bridges
Jürgen nolden knows when a damaged bridge is dangerous.
What are you
testing there??
The Bridge Inspector at Work
21TÜVtel
Jürgen Nolden taps the concrete areas with a hammer. If he discovers damaged
sections, he marks them with chalk so that he doesn't lose sight of them.
The World's Tallest Bridge When drivers want to cross the valley of the River Tarn in France, they travel across the Millau Viaduct at a height of 217 meters. The bridge is supported by seven slender pylons, the highest of which soars 343 meters above the valley. That makes the Millau Viaduct the tallest bridge construction in the world.
With a crack width gauge (that's a special type of ruler), the expert
determines how big the cracks in the bridge are.
The tester climbs under the bridge via the bridge-underside inspection apparatus.
The bridge bearings must be in good condition
because they ensure that the superstructure and the
substructure have adequate clearance, even when they
expand slightly in the summer heat or contract in winter.
Try It Out
22TÜVtel
Ulrich Fietz from the Executive Board of TÜV Rheinland uses mathematics every day. And he does it gladly. After all, the figures reveal how the company is going. For example, Fietz checks that there is enough money to pay the employees their
wages. Or he calculates how much TÜV Rheinland can earn in the future with a particular service. And sometimes he also has to save money.
Today: M
for Mathematics
This trick makes it easy to multiply one and two-digit numbers. And all it takes is drawing lines and counting! The technique apparently originated in China.
Mathematics at TÜV Rheinland
For each of the digits,
draw a corresponding
number of lines on a
piece of paper. This
example is based on
12×13.
The lines of the first number, 12, go from the bottom left to the top right. So you draw one line for the first digit (the 1), leave a gap, and then draw two lines underneath it (for the 2).
1
ChineseMultiplication
2
Now you need to count the interfaces where the lines cross each other – from left to right, that is. The answer: 156.
3
1 56
Careful: Sometimes an interface number is two digits long. Then you should simply add the first digit to the number on the left of it. For example, 34 × 21 gives you 6, 11 and 4 interfaces.The answer is then: (6 + 1) 1 4 = 714Tip: This trick works best with small digits. If you use large ones, you have to count a huge number of interfaces.
You then draw the lines for the
second number, 13, from the top
left to the bottom right. This time, it's
important that the lines of the first digit
go below the second digit: one line (for
the 1), a gap, and then three lines
above that (for the 3).
STEM is the abbreviation for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – all fields that involve exciting experiments.
Mathematics
Technology
Science
Engineering
stem Spells
Fan Page
Kalu is thrilled. She won the
Nano Quad in one of the last
editions of TÜVtel. Now she’s
busily practicing, flying it over
chairs and piles of books or
around bottles.
Learning is so much fun on TÜVtel day: At the Roncalli School in Troisdorf, Germany, the children in grade 3c look forward to every new edition.
Is TÜVtel distributed at your school? Then send a photo of your class to [email protected] and tell us which sections of TÜVtel you find really cool. With a bit of luck, you can admire your photo in the next issue.
Flying High
Q+AYou ask, we answer.
Thea asks: Why do whales die when
they‘re on land, even though they are
mammals?
Dear Thea! You’ve surely
experienced it too: When
you’re in the water, you feel
much lighter. That is due to
buoyancy. The massive whale
also enjoys the same feeling
while it is gliding through
the oceans. However, if
it is beached, the whale
suffocates fairly quickly.
That is because it feels its enormous weight when it
is on shore. The weight presses down so heavily on
its organs, including its lungs, that the whale can no
longer breathe and it dies. In addition, it needs to be
cooled constantly. Without water, its body very quickly
dries out.
Do you have a question too? Send it
by email to: [email protected] We‘ll
answer it in the next edition.
TÜVtel in Troisdorf
Join in!
23TÜVtel
TÜVtel – Who Made It?Publisher: TÜV Rheinland Aktiengesellschaft, Communikation, Am Grauen Stein, D-51105 CologneResponsible: Aud Feller, v. i. S. d. P. (responsible according to the German press law)Editing: S+L Partners GmbH, ColognePrinting: Druckhaus Ley + Wiegandt, Wuppertal
Photos: All Roby and Tess illustrations by Franz Gerg/Comic-Agentur Roberto Freire; TÜV Rheinland AG: (cover, pp. 2, 4, 9, 19, 20-21, 22); Mari Tefre: Svalbard Global Seed Vault (p. 10); PLAYMOBIL (p. 14); Universal (p. 14); Universum Kids (p. 15); Carrera RC (p. 15); private source (p. 23); Lely Deutschland GmbH (p. 24); iStockphoto.com: archibald1221 (cover), davorr (pp. 2, 15), enjoynz (p. 3), CoreyFord (p. 4), goldenKB (pp. 6, 8), Glam-Y (p. 7), alenkadr (p. 9), mmac72 (pp. 10-11), jennifermecca2013 (pp.12-13), ntzolov (p. 13), Natural_Warp, Nemida, istmylisa, (p. 14), malija (pp. 14-15), Baks (p. 15), MR1805 (p. 23); 123RF.com: Sergei Uriadnikov (cover), Eric Isselee (p. 2), Stoyan Haytov (pp. 2, 22), ladyann (p. 4), Nadiya Vlashchenko, forsterforest (p. 5), mamanamsai (p. 8), ifong (p. 10), James Steidl (p. 17), Mikhail Mandrygin (p. 21); Fotolia.com: grafikplusfoto (cover), Dmytro Smaglov (p. 3), tovovan, arturaliev, Aleksandr Bryliaev, Dirk Schumann, eyewave (pp. 4-5), valdis torms (pp. 4-5, 22), lubashka (p. 5), bluedesign (pp. 6-7), Photo Tuller, leungchopan, mrslevite, paulrommer (p. 7), maxbaer (p. 10), kebay, Peter Hermes Furian (p. 11), yuliufu (p. 13), farbkombinat (p. 16), J BOY (pp. 16-17), Photocreo Bednarek (p. 24); shutterstock.com: gpointstudio, Borna_Mirahmadian, Alexandra Giese, Megan R. Hoover, JSseng (p. 3), Borna_Mirahmadian (pp. 12-13), James Steidl (p. 17), Alexey Fyodorov (pp. 18-19)
BARN ROBOTS HELP OUT
Au Ja, total gerne!
Roboter-Eissorten!
A gingerbreadRoby!
Look what I‘ve baked.
What is that meant
to be?
TÜVtel had a look inside a modern cowshed.
The bristles of the scratching robot do the cow good and make its hide gleam.
The cow can enter
and leave the milking
robot whenever it wants to.
The manure removal
robot gets into all the
corners and pushes
the liquid waste off
the walkways.
One cow devours 80 kilos
of
fodder per day.
Feeding robots tr
ansport
hay to the bars.
The farmer uses his cell phone to steer
and control the robots.
TESS and ROBY
Wait a minute.
Pat-A-Cake, Pat-A-Cake, Robot Man