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Speaker 1: Streaming TV shows and movies directly to your home is

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Speaker 1: a breeze. With Netflix. As a Netflix member, you can

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Speaker 1: instantly watch TV and movies on your PC, mac, mobile device,

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Speaker 1: or right on your television. Get a free thirty day

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Speaker 1: and sign up today. Welcome to brain Stuff from house

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com where smart happens. Hi Am Marshall

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Speaker 1: Brain with today's question, how does a toaster work? If

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Speaker 1: you eat bread? Chances are that you have a toaster.

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Speaker 1: Nearly every household has one. It's a device with amazing

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Speaker 1: market penetration. Have you ever wondered how your toaster works?

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Speaker 1: And before answering that question, have you ever wondered why

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Speaker 1: human beings like toast? What makes toasted bread so popular? Bread,

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Speaker 1: of course is nice. It's soft, chewy, delicious, a good

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Speaker 1: way to enjoy we But that softness creates a structural

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Speaker 1: problem that toast can solve. Dipping a piece of normal

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Speaker 1: white bread in soup usually results in a saggy mess.

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Speaker 1: Toast is much stronger, so it can hold up to

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Speaker 1: soup dipping without difficulty. The other reason for toast has

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Speaker 1: to do with flavor. When you make toast, you're activating

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Speaker 1: something called the mayor reaction on the surface of the bread.

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Speaker 1: This reaction is what causes the browning to occur. The

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Speaker 1: heat inside the toaster boils off the moisture from the

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Speaker 1: surface of the bread, and then the surface gets hot

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Speaker 1: enough for the reaction to take place. It is a

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Speaker 1: reaction that appeals to the senses we see. The result

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Speaker 1: of the reaction is browning, sugars and proteins combined together

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Speaker 1: to create the pleasant flavors and smells that we associate

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Speaker 1: with toast. A toaster gives us an automatic and convenient

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Speaker 1: way to activate this reaction whenever we need it. The

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Speaker 1: convenience is the key to a toaster's appeal. You could,

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Speaker 1: if you were patient, just hold a slice of bread

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Speaker 1: over a hot stove burner with a fork to toast it,

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Speaker 1: but that would be a lot of bother So to

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Speaker 1: make an automatic toaster, you need four things. First, you

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Speaker 1: need a source of heat similar to a stove burner. Second,

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Speaker 1: you need a switch that turns on that source of heat. Third,

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Speaker 1: you need a timer to turn off the source of heat.

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Speaker 1: And then you need a mechanism to hold and pop

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Speaker 1: up the toast. The source of heat is almost always

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Speaker 1: created by running electricity through something called nichrome wire. Nichrome

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Speaker 1: wire is an alloy made of nickel and chromium, and

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Speaker 1: it has two important features. First, when you pass electricity

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Speaker 1: through this wire, the wire heats up red hot. When

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Speaker 1: you look inside your toaster and see the glowing red coils,

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Speaker 1: you are seeing the result of electricity running through nichrome wire. Second,

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Speaker 1: nichrome wire does not corrode from the heat like many

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Speaker 1: other metals would. The simplicity and durability of nichrome wire

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Speaker 1: makes it a common source of heat and everything from

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Speaker 1: blow dryers to space heaters. If you were to take

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Speaker 1: a coil of nichrome wire and plug it straight into

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Speaker 1: a wall socket, it would glow red hot. If you

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Speaker 1: wrap it around something that can handle heat, like glass

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Speaker 1: or ceramic, you have the heating element. In a toaster.

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Speaker 1: A simple vertical tray in a spring can lower the

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Speaker 1: bread down between the toasters heating elements. When the tray

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Speaker 1: hits the bottom, it can flip a switch that turns

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Speaker 1: on the electricity and starts the toasting process. Now, we

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Speaker 1: need a way to keep the tray down. In most

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Speaker 1: modern toasters, this involves an electromagnet. The same switch that

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Speaker 1: activates the heating elements also turns on this electromagnet. It's

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Speaker 1: magnetic field holds the tray down until the toasting process

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Speaker 1: is complete. And finally, there's a timer. When you set

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Speaker 1: the dial on the toaster, that dial controls the amount

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Speaker 1: of time that the tray stays down. Once time is up,

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Speaker 1: the timer flips the switch off. This takes the power

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Speaker 1: away from the heating elements as well as from the electromagnet.

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Speaker 1: Without the magnetic field to hold the tray down, the

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Speaker 1: spring pops the tray up and your toast is served.

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Speaker 1: The next time you make a slice of toast, you

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Speaker 1: will now know what goes into it. A simple piece

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Speaker 1: of wire is creating the heat. An electromagnet keeps the

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Speaker 1: toast in place. A timer turns off both the heat

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Speaker 1: and the magnetic field, so your toast pops up automatically

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Speaker 1: with a spring, and it's all happening to activate the

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Speaker 1: mayor reaction, a reaction that creates taste and smells that

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Speaker 1: many people enjoy. For more on this and thousands of

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Speaker 1: other topics. Because it hostof works dot com streaming TV

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Speaker 1: shows and movies directly to your home is a breeze

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Speaker 1: with Netflix. As a Netflix Member, you can instantly watch

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Speaker 1: TV and movies on your PC, mac, mobile device, or

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Speaker 1: right on your television. Get a free thirty day trial membership.

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Speaker 1: Go to Netflix dot com slash brain stuff and sign

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Speaker 1: up today.