I am a big fan of understanding how things work. I am also a huge fan of describing how things work by breaking it down into it's most basic working element(s) and then build upon that until you get back to the thing you are trying to describe.
One of these things is the differential gear system in your car. I've known it was there, had a very basic understanding of why it's there, but had no idea how it worked... until now. Give the video a a little bit of time to get into describing how it works, but once you get past the introduction it gets very interesting.
Nice!
This video might be a bit old (it is in black and white after all), but it does an excellent job of breaking down the whole process to the very basic and then builds on that until you see how the whole thing works. Very elegant solution to a seemingly simple problem.
It might be because I am an Engineer (Ok, so I'm a Software Engineer, but they have some of the same mental traits), but I think most things should be taught like this. I also think more people need to be exposed to how stuff in our daily life works if we are to continue to come up with solutions to bigger problems. Too many of us take for granted the elegant engineering in the everyday things that surround us and take for granted.
