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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuffworks dot com where

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Speaker 1: smart Happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question, what

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Speaker 1: does the computer in a car do? All cars manufactured

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Speaker 1: today contain at least one computer. It's in charge of

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Speaker 1: monitoring engine emissions and adjusting the engine to keep emissions

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Speaker 1: as low as possible. The computer receives information from many

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Speaker 1: different sensors, including the oxygen sensor, the air pressure sensor,

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Speaker 1: the air temperature sensor, the engine temperature sensor, the throttle

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Speaker 1: position sensor, the knock sensor, and so on. Using the

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Speaker 1: information from these sensors, the computer can control things like

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Speaker 1: the fuel injectors, the spark plugs, and the idle speed

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Speaker 1: to get the best performance possible from the engine while

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Speaker 1: keeping emissions low. The computer can also sense when something

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Speaker 1: has gone wrong, and it can inform the driver with

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Speaker 1: the check engine light. A mechanic can read a diagnostic

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Speaker 1: code from the computer and fix the problem. Do you

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Speaker 1: have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so,

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Speaker 1: please send me an email at podcast at how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. For more on this and thousands of

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Speaker 1: other topics, go to how stuff works dot com.