Marvelous mechanical engineers

To start out 2008, we invite you to visit motionsystemdesign.com and try our interactive trivia quiz. Questions will be accessible from the “Pop Quiz” link on our home page. It's fun, fast, informative, and you might even win a prize — What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained. Go online to answer these questions…….

1. Which automotive entrepreneur is not only remembered for his car company, but also for inventing double helical gears?

2. Highly regarded as one of the all-time greats among mechanical engineers, his inventions include a “hot air engine” and a “solar machine” that used mirrors to gather radiation powerful enough to run an engine. Who was he?

3. Nicknamed “Lady Edison,” this engineer invented a vacuum ice cream freezer and the first bobbin-free sewing machine. Who was this famous designer?

4. Name the inventor who was mostly homeschooled by his mother and is famous for significant improvements to the steam engine.

5. Who worked for Lotus as a gearbox engineer before starting another company and designing the Cosworth Double Four Valve (DFV) engine that had a huge impact on Formula One racing?

Win a copy of What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained

Einstein's cook was lucky. But you, too, can have a scientist in your kitchen: Robert L. Wolke. Does the alcohol really boil off when we cook with wine? Are smoked foods raw or cooked? Are green potatoes poisonous? With the reliability that only a scientist can provide, Wolke provides plain-talk explanations of kitchen mysteries with a liberal seasoning of wit in this entertaining book.

A professor of chemistry and a lifelong gastronome, he has answered hundreds of questions about food and cooking in his syndicated Washington Post column, “Food 101.” Organized into basic categories for easy reference, this book contains more than 130 lucid explanations of kitchen phenomena involving starches and sugars, salts, fats, meats and fish, heat and cold, cooking equipment, and more. Along the way, Wolke debunks some widely held myths about foods and cooking.