Beakman’s World - Season 1 Episode 19

Queried about cassette players, Beakman asks Lester to demonstrate how the recording and playback heads write music onto magnetic tape. Posing as English rock star Axel Bearing, Beakman then provides the music while Lester attaches notes onto a moving role of butcher paper to show how a tape player encodes sound. Then, reversing the process, Lester demonstrates how it reads this magnetic message to reproduce music. For "Beak-Mania," Beakman reveals that dog's noses are wet because of how they sweat; that spaghetti and meatballs were invented in New York City; and that the laziest animal in the world is the tropical American sloth. Turning the tables on his friend, Lester challenges Beakman to rearrange a pattern of sixteen sticks that form five squares into just four squares by moving only two sticks. Though Lester thinks he has him stumped, Beakman easily reveals the solution to his problem. Asked how to lie down on a bed of nails without getting hurt, Beakman takes the opportunity to describe the difference between force and pressure. Beginning by placing a balloon and a brick atop a pin, Beakman notes that it will pop because all of the force was concentrated on a single point. However, trying the same experiment using many pins to support its' weight, the balloon doesn't pop because the force is distributed over all the pins. Finally, in a dramatic demonstration, Beakman lies down on a bed of nails without being hurt.