Tech Talk Hub

It's a tale as old as time: We see a lot of people wearing/doing/saying something and we want to try it, too. Back in the day, it was saying "Bloody Mary" into a mirror at slumber parties. Today, it means viral social media stunts. Though adults get caught up, too,  kids are especially susceptible to peer pressure and FOMO  (fear of missing out). To them, what was once a double-dog dare is now a popular YouTuber eating a hot pepper just to see what happens. Called "challenges," these stunts range from harmless to horrifying: There are the silly ones (such as the  Mannequin Challenge ); the helpful ones (like the  ALS Ice Bucket Challenge ); the slightly risky ones (such as the  Make Your Own Slime Challenge  and the  Shell On Challenge ). But sometimes, challenges are downright dangerous, resulting in physical injury -- and possibly even death, like  the Momo Challenge  is reported to be. So what's a parent to do? Below are som...

The  engine  is the heart of your car. It is a complex machine built to convert heat from burning  fuel  into the  energy  that turns the road wheels. The chain of reactions which achieve that objective is set in motion by a  spark , which ignites a mixture of petrol vapour and compressed air inside a momentarily sealed  cylinder  and causes it to burn rapidly. That is why the machine is called an  internal combustion engine . As the mixture burns it expands, providing power to drive the car. To withstand its heavy workload, the  engine  must be a robust structure. It consists of two basic parts: the lower, heavier section is the cylinder block, a casing for the engine's main moving parts; the detachable upper cover is the  cylinder head . The cylinder head contains valve-controlled passages through which the air and  fuel  mixture enters the cylinders, and others through which the gases produce...

By Jimoh Smith …Day 1 and Day 2 Nigeria’s foremost online educational platform, Edufirst.ng kicked off this year’s Codefunky 2019 summer camp at Grange Schools, GRA, Ikeja on the 5 th  of August, 2019. READ ALSO: 5 THINGS EVERY STUDENT MUST DO TO BE SUCCESSFUL Unlike last year, Codefunky 2019, is witnessing a mixture of students (day and boarders) from different schools across Nigeria. This year, campers expect to learn, have fun, network with other intelligent students and to get relevant skills that will be useful to them in the future and organizers in the same vein have put together contents that will make it a very memorable experience for everyone. The much-anticipated summer camp which has been described by Digital Innovation and creativity Manager of Edufirst.ng, Idris Oladipo as a “summer of learning and fun” rightly got off to a good start. Campers got introduced to Robotics and 3D printing on the very first day after getting informed about the diff...

HOW TO MAKE A ROBOT How to Make a Robot - Lesson 1: Getting Started Lessons Menu: Lesson 1 – Getting Started Lesson 2 - Choosing a Robotic Platform Lesson 3 - Making Sense of Actuators Lesson 4 - Understanding Microcontrollers Lesson 5 - Choosing a Motor Controller Lesson 6 – Controlling your Robot Lesson 7 - Using Sensors Lesson 8 - Getting the Right Tools Lesson 9 - Assembling a Robot Lesson 10 - Programming a Robot Getting Started Welcome to the first instalment of the Grand  RobotShop  Tutorial, a series of 10 lessons that will teach you how to make your own robot. This tutorial is aimed at anybody willing to get started in robotics and have a basic understanding of terms such as “ voltage ”, “ current ”, “ motor ”, and “ sensors ”. Although this might seem pretty basic, even people with previous robot building experience might find useful information...

W e take for it granted that we can fly from one side of the world to the other in a matter of hours, but a century ago this amazing ability to race through the air had only just been discovered. What would the Wright brothers—the pioneers of powered flight—make of an age in which something like 100,000 planes takes to the sky each day in the United States alone? They'd be amazed, of course, and delighted too. Thanks to their successful experiments with powered flight, the aeroplane is rightfully recognized as one of the greatest inventions of all time. Let's take a closer look at how it works! Photo: You need big wings to lift a big plane like this  US Air Force C-17 Globemaster . The wings are 51.75m (169ft) wide—that's just slightly less than the plane's body length of 53m (174ft). The maximum takeoff weight is 265,352kg (585,000lb), about as much as 40 adult elephants! Photo by Jeremy Lock courtesy of US Air Force. How do planes fly? If you've ever wa...