A+ Entertainment Weekly 1999 50 Best of the Web Popular Science Magazine Best of the Web 2000 Forbes Magazine A+ Washington Post Online Pick of the Week Yahoo! Super Site TBS Superstation 1999 Reference Site of the Year LibrarySpot.com Have you ever wondered...How helicopters are able to fly sideways?Why you crave chocolate and caffeine?What stops a car when you step on the break pedal?Where email messages go after you press the Send button?In this definitive, generously illustrated guide, Marshall Brain and the experts at the award-winning Web site HowStuffWorks.com explain the magic behind everyday items and processes. You'll learn what the Internet really is, how airplanes stay up and submarines stay down, what GPS is and why you might need it, and how a whole film can be captured on a tiny DVD.With this eye-opening book, you'll never look at a toaster, cell phone, or tattoo parlor the same way again!Hundreds of full-color illustrations and photos showing step-by-step images of how stuff works.More than 135 informative articles show you how the items you use every day work.All explained in Marshall Brain's trademark down-to-earth voice.