The Children's Magazine by TÜV Rheinland 2014 | Edition 4

Posters Night Sky

and buzzing Bees

Internet Gone!Now What?

How TÜV Rheinland

Tests Bridges

Svalbard: In Polar

Bear Territory

Fast Facts 4Internet 6Svalbard 10Big Cities 12Winter Puzzles 14Tess and Roby 16Behind the Scenes 20Try It Out 22Fan Page 23

In this issue, you’ll find ...

Contents

Jürgen Nolden

takes you with

him to work – on

and under the

bridge.

20 What Are You

Testing There?

14 Winter Puzzles

Arctic Adventure

Svalbard has a lot to offer: a well-secured seed vault, pitch-dark days and plenty of polar bears.

10

6Internet?Forget It!Can the Internet vanish from one

second to the next? And what

would that mean for you?

STEM Spells

TÜVtel shows you how to multiply

numbers using an amazing

line technique.

22

2TÜVtel

Poster

s

Mathematics

Join in!

Tess and RobyTess enters a competition for inventors. Of course she wants to win. But as she soon realizes, inventing something brilliant is no easy task.

What do you do when cities are bursting at the seams?

Megacities

16

3TÜVtel

12

Did you know that you are a “digital native”? People say that because for you, computers, cell phones and many other digital devices have always been part of life. So has the Internet. You surely use it too, for example when looking for information on Google, watching funny videos on YouTube or sending WhatsApp messages with a smartphone.

The Internet is really practical. But what would happen if it suddenly stopped working? Would it bother you? Or wouldn’t you care? What is the Internet anyway? And what is the difference between a hacker and a cracker? TÜVtel gets to the bottom of these quesions in the cover story.

Hey, TÜV kids!

We hope you enjoyreading TÜVtel!

Tess and Roby

Poster

sBees and Stars

Where do bees disappear to

in winter? They are carrying

out a vital mission ...

The long winter nights are perfect for watching the stars. TÜVtel shows you all the different things that are shining in the sky.

Stars – they seem close enough to touch. But assuming you don‘t count the sun

(which is also a star), the nearest one is a staggering 40,000 billion kilometers away from

the Earth! It is called Proxima Centauri and funnily enough, it is not bright enough to be

visible to the naked eye. Luckily there are about 2,400 other stars shining in the sky that we

can observe without a telescope. On the TÜVtel map, you can see the night sky over Germany in December. If you imagine

that there are lines connecting certain stars, they make fi gures: the constellations. The

constellation Cassiopeia is very easy to see. Its fi ve main stars form a W. The constellations move across the sky at night. Only one star doesn‘t change its position:

the polar star (Polaris). It is part of the Ursa Minor constellation and it seems to be fi xed

fi rmly in the north while all the other stars rotate around it. Pay attention Harry Potter fans: When you fi nd Orion in the sky and look along its three

belt stars to the lower left, then you‘ll discover Sirius, the brightest star in the Canis Major

(“big dog“) constellation. Sirius is the Greek word for “glowing“. And Sirius is also the

name of Harry Potter‘s godfather, who can change himself into a big dog.

Photos: iStockphoto.com: SergeyMikhaylov, e-belyukova; shutterstock.com: My Life Graphic; Roby and Tess illustration by Franz Gerg/Comic-Agentur Roberto Freire

Jagdhunde

Kleiner Bär

Drache

Leier

EidechseCepheus

Cassiopeia

PegasusGiraffe

PerseusAndromeda

FischeDreieck

Widder

Walfisch

Zwillinge

Krebs

Löwe

Luchs

Fuhrmann

Großer Bär

Wasser-Schlange

Polarstern

Stargazers

Night Sky

CanesVenatici

Ursa Minor

Draco

Lyra

EidechseCepheus

Cassiopeia

Pegasus

Camelopardalis

PerseusAndromeda

PiscesTriangulum

Aries

Cetus

Taurus

Orion

EridanusLepus

CanisMajor

Monceros

Canis Minor

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Lynx

Auriga

UrsaMajor

Hydra

Polaris

Sirius

Due to its many bright stars and its memorable shape, Orion is one of thebest-known constellations.

If you take a long-exposure photograph of the sky, you can see that the stars are moving.

Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Earth. Unfortunately, it doesn‘t shine brightly enough to be visible to the naked eye.

ProximaCentauri

Bees in Winter

Like so many other insects, bees vanish into thin air in

winter. That‘s hardly surprising because it‘s much too cold

outside for the little black and yellow striped creatures. But

where do they buzz off to? Bees spend the cold months

in their hives. However, they are not hibernating there.

Instead, the bee colony carries out an important

mission: It has to ensure that its queen survives.

Freezing is the biggest danger. To keep the queen

warm, the bees huddle close together. Each

one clings tightly to its neighbor while at the

same time moving its fl ight muscles constantly.

With this physical exertion, the insects produce

heat. Inside the big, buzzing cluster of bees, the

temperature can reach up to 30 degrees Celsius.

There, the queen sits nice and safely. The remaining

bees change their positions frequently so that each

one only spends a short time on the cold outer

edge of the cluster before moving back towards the

warm center.

Buzzing Each Other Warm

Photos: shutterstock.com: Alexandra Giese, Megan R. Hoover, JSseng; iStockphoto.com: enjoynz; Fotolia.com: Dmytro Smaglov; Roby and Tess illustration by Franz Gerg/Comic-Agentur Roberto Freire

Fast Facts

It would be pretty

dull in winter without

glittering lights. But

what hardly anyone

knows is that the

decorations can also be

dangerous. If individual bulbs fail, the

remaining ones can become extremely

hot - so hot that in the worst case, they

start a fire. There is also the risk of

electroution from cheap cables and plugs.

To find out whether they are safe, TÜV

Rheinland inspects strings of lights. T

he

good ones receive a GS mark that is visible

on the packaging. GS stands for "geprüft

e

Sicherheit", or "tested safety".

Hot Little

Lamps

The inspector is

measuring the rising

temperature of

a string of lights

in the laboratory.

The faster you

write, the more

electricity is

generated.

Researchers in Sweden have developed paper that produces small amounts of electricity when

you write on it. The paper's secret ingredient is zinc oxide. It generates an electrical charge when it is pressed - in this case with a pen. Now the scientists are thinking about what they can use their miniature paper power plant for. One idea is to recharge a battery while writing.

Pen Power

4TÜVtel

Knows no Fear

Scientists in Argentina have discovered the skeleton of the world's biggest dinosaur. It has been christened Dreadnoughtus schrani. That means "not afraid of anything". After all, it was as big as a house and as heavy as a herd of elephants, so the primeval giant probably had no enemies. The researchers estimate that it lived between 66 and 84 million years ago.

no Reverse Gear Emus and kangaroos are fast runners. They can easily reach speeds of 50 kilometers an hour - when they are going fowards, that is.

Amazingly, neither animal can go backwards. That is why they appear on the Australian coat of arms. With them, the country wants to demonstrate that things are always moving forwards there, and that there are no backward steps.

The colossal beast was 26 meters long and weighed about 60 tons.

Look Around

You are always told to look straight

ahead when riding your bike in

traffic. That is correct. However, it is

just as important to look back. After

all, you need to keep a close eye on

whatever rolls up behind you. As the

traffic experts from TÜV Rheinland

point out: A glance over your shoulder

could save lives, especially

when you are turning the

corner.

5TÜVtel

Internet

Playing games, googling,

writing to friends – it is hard

to imagine life without the

Internet. That's what Nick and

Lena think too. But then their

nightmare comes true: The web is suddenly

gone!

INTERNET? FORGET IT!

When everything stops working, panic quickly breaks out.

6TÜVtel

WHAT IS THE INTERNET?

The Internet is a network that enables

every computer in the world to

connect with every other computer.

Think of it as a spiderweb. The

Internet connections are the

threads and the computers

are the points where the

threads intersect. Information

is sent back and forth via these

connections. To make sure all

the computers can understand

each other, they all speak the same

language. It is called the Internet

Protocol.

INTERNET? FORGET IT!

7TÜVtel

Bang!!! The door slams shut. Nick's big sister Sarah has disappeared into her room with her friends. The know-it-all club is holding a meeting. Now Nick and his classmate Lena have the living room all to themselves. Yippee, a witch-free zone. "What should we do this afternoon?" Lena thinks out loud. "First biology homework, then rollerblades?" suggests Nick. "Okay," says Lena. "And what's our homework?" "To find out how strong ants are. That's how much they can carry. Great, we can quickly google that," adds Nick happily. At that moment, Sarah's door flies open again. "I can't believe it!" cries Sarah in a panic. "Facebook is gone! WhatsApp is gone!" Her voice grows shriller. "Google is gone! No YouTube! No emails! The whole Internet is gone!"

Her know-it-all friends are standing behind her, typing furiously on their tablets. Perplexed, Nick glances at his cell phone. It's true: The browser on his smartphone isn't loading. Lena looks at her screen, too, and shakes her head. "Now we can't even google what's happening," shrieks Sarah. "What do we do now? This is the worst day of our liiives!"

"My God," thinks Nick. "Surely you can manage one day without the Internet!" Sarah and her friends see things differently. "But we wanted to watch movies! And do some online shopping!" "Um, Nick?" Lena interrupts the older girls' moaning. "What about biology? Who apart from Google knows how strong ants are?" Nick is certain: "I'm sure we can find that out even without the Internet."

THE SEARCH BEGINSFirst, they skim through Nick's animal book. There's a section about ants but it doesn't have what they're looking for. In the basement, they comb through the old encyclopedia. It has an impressive 24 volumes. One of them includes a column about ants but there's no

information about how strong they are. Darn! Next idea: They ring the

neighbor's doorbell.Read more on page 8 →

Jessi: It wouldn't bother me.I do my homework withoutgoogling. And I don't have asmartphone either.

Flo: That would be sad because

I couldn't skype with my father

anymore. He's working in Shanghai

for a year and we catch up on

Skype every day.

Minh-Khai: That would be a

disaster! I couldn't listen to

new songs anymore or

download anything. And my

app games wouldn't work.

NO INTERNET: WHAT WOULD YOU THINK?

Internet

She's a teacher but as it turns out, she only teaches German and sport. She has no idea about ants. Nick calls his mother at work. Her suggestion: the public library. Nick and Lena go on a speedy bike tour. There are seven books about insects in the library. "Try the book called 'Strange Facts from the Animal Kingdom'," suggests the librarian. Unfortunately, it has already been borrowed. Another dead end. They head back home. Their final hope is a phone call to the zoo. "Ask me anything you like about elephants," says the zookeeper who answers the phone. "But I have no idea about ants. Why don't you look on the Internet?" Lena hangs up in a huff."Look on the Internet? Forget it!" she grumbles.

NUISANCE TO THE RESCUE "Darn it!" swears Nick. "That's really the last thing we need. We can't do anything without the Internet. And we can forget about rollerblading, too. It's getting dark." He kicks the door angrily. Lena flops tiredly onto the sofa. "I'll be interested to see whether anyone has done their biology homework tomorrow. I bet Ms. Dankert doesn't know the answer either." Nick is already thinking about the next problem. "I can forget about my app games as well. That's just great."

"Hey, relax," calls Sarah from her room. "What was the question again?" Lena reads it out in a bored voice: "How many times their own body weight can ants carry?" Nick snorts. As if the biggest pain of all time would have a clue about that. "Wait a second, let me think," murmers Sarah. "Um, that's right: "They can carry up to 39.7 times their own weight," she says smartly. Nick and Lena stare at each other in astonishment. "How do YOU know?" hisses Nick. "My friend Google told me," says Sarah, who is now

standing in the doorway grinning. "The Internet has been back for ages, you idiots. It

was just a short outage. Where have you been all afternoon anyway?

The end

8TÜVtel

Nick and Lena go looking for answers.

GOOD AND BAD HACKERS

People who carry out malicious digital attacks

are known in professional circles as black

hats. Black hats infiltrate IT systems with the

aim of causing damage, often with criminal

intentions.

On the other side, there are the white hats.

They also work as hackers but their goal is to

make people aware of gaps in their security.

There are white hats at TÜV Rheinland,

too. There, they are called Security Analysts.

They help make companies safer from

Internet attacks.

Question:

Is a total Internet

outage possible?

Dr. Daniel Hamburg says: It is highly unlikely. You would have

to pull the plug on many thousands of devices at the same time. The Internet is like the postal service. If a street is blocked, then it might be a bit chaotic there. However, the

parcel will still reach its destination viaa different route.

ASK AN EXPERT

Question:

Is someone

protecting us from

outages like that?

Dr. Daniel Hamburg says: Yes, computer scientists do that by not relying on individual devices. Instead, they have many

devices that are responsible for performing the same task. Question:

And how can I

protect myself?Dr. Daniel

Hamburg says: The best

way to protect yourself is

by never forgetting how to

manage without

the Internet.

HACKERS AT TÜV RHEINLAND!?Companies and banks are increasingly being targeted in digital attacks. That means that criminals are hacking into their computer systems. Their goal is to spy out data and steal information. To prevent these attacks, there are hackers working at TÜV Rheinland as specialists for IT security.IT stands for Information Technology.

Their job is to check IT systems for any gaps that somebody could hack into. To do that, the experts from TÜV Rheinland put themselves in the shoes of the attackers and try to hack into the systems themselves. If they find a hole, then it can be blocked. That way, the digital crooks end up having no access points left to attack.

Dr. Daniel Hamburg

knows the answer: He is

the boss of the white hats

at TÜV Rheinland.

9TÜVtel

Computer programs are written in programming language. Hackers understand it perfectly.

Svalbard

10TÜVtel

Svalbard is an Arctic archipelago at the northernmost tip of Norway. With temperatures averaging minus 4.5 degrees Celsius, it is inhospitable, lonely and barren there, both in summer and winter. Hardly anyone wants to live there. Nevertheless, there is plenty to discoverin the far north.

Arctic Adventure

Frozen

Seeds

In a giant guarded vault,

scientists are storing seeds from

the world's most important

agricultural crops. They include

many varieties of rice, wheat,

soybeans and corn, potatoes, carrots

and tomatoes. In the enormous cliff

bunker, around 800,000 seeds are being stored

at an icy temperature of minus 18 degrees Celsius.

The aim is to make sure new crops can be planted

after major disasters like extreme climate

change, wars or epidemics. It also ensures

that agricultural plants don't end up being

forgotten or dying out.

New packets of seeds arrive all the

time. The gigantic vault has enough

space for up to four million seeds.

World's

Biggest Open Air Laboratory

Scientists from more than ten different nations

are working in the Ny-Ålesund international

research village. Their focus is on Arctic and climate

research. That involves analyzing everything from

the depths of the ocean right up to the Earth's

atmosphere. At onshore control stations, for

example, they collect data that is important

for monitoring climate change, observing

alterations in the ozone layer, as well as

measuring air pollution.

With the big white parabolic reflector, researchers can receive radio waves from the Earth's

atmosphere.

Days

Without Light

The night from 21 to 22 December is the longest of the year in 2014. It is known as the winter solstice. In the northern hemisphere, it is when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky. In Svalbard, the sun doesn't even rise during this period. That is due to the way the Earth is tilted towards the sun. After the winter solstice, the days grow longer again and the nights become shorter. In the southern hemiphere, the whole process happens exactly the other way round.

S

NArctic Circle: 24 hours of darkness

Antarctic Circle: 0 hours of darkness

Equator: 12 hours of darkness

Polar Night

Polar Day

Polar Bear Country

Around 3,000 polar bears live in Svalbard. That means they outnumber the people there. Polar bears might look cuddly but they are actually very dangerous. Although they mainly eat seals, the wild animals also attack humans. Nevertheless, they are a protected species and hunting them is forbidden.

Polar bears are wildanimals so it's best to observethem from a distance.

11TÜVtel

Tokyo, Mexico City, Beijing, São Paulo, Mumbai, Shanghai, Teheran – all hell is loose in the megacities around the globe: crowds, traffic chaos, noise, dirt, hardly anywhere to live and even less nature. Nevertheless, more and more people on every continent are streaming from the country into the cities. And those cities are getting bigger, growing from towns into major cities, then into metropolises and – from ten million inhabitants onwards – into megacities.

Life is tough in the overflowing major cities. In Addis Ababa, people suffer from a shortage of clean drinking water. Diseases are spreading via the contaminated water pipes. Waste disposal is a problem in Mexico City. And in the megacity of Teheran (shown in the background), thick smog obscures people's vision and makes it difficult to breathe.

Making life betterTogether with the respective city councils, as well as the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, scientists are developing ideas to improve the living conditions in nine selected metropolises. You can see them on the map. With around 13.4 million inhabitants, Teheran is already a megacity. The other eight are well on their way there. But how do you make a major city clean, environmentally friendly and worth living in? Thilo Petri from TÜV Rheinland knows the answers. He and his team are accompanying, supporting and advising on the projects for the megacities of the future.

Clever urban planningWhen it comes to shaping the cities of the future, the list of possibilities is long. "Traffic is an important aspect" explains Petri. "The city must be planned in a way that enables everyone to reach their destination as easily as possible on foot, by bicycle, with the bus or by train." After all, the fewer cars there are on the road, the less exhaust gases are pumped out into the air. And people aren't as stressed when they're traveling somewhere.

The type of housing also plays a role in protecting the environment. "Planted roofs and facades don't just look good; they also help cool the building and improve the air quality," explains the expert from TÜV Rheinland. As well as saving energy, buildings should be able to produce electricity in the future, for example via rooftop solar panels that convert sunlight into power and heat. Another idea is to generate energy as a byproduct of sewage treatment or waste recycling. Special facilities make this possible.

There is no shortage of ideas. However it takes time to make them all happen. And time is scarce. The cities are growing relentlessly.Day after day after day...

Big Cities

12TÜVtel

Moving from the country to the city is a big trend right now. More than half of all people already live in cities, and those cities are slowly bursting at the seams.

Living in Megacities

Country: Peru Population: ca. 8 million Main problems: drinking water and sewage

Lima

13TÜVtel

Country: Morocco Population: ca. 4 million Main problem: dwindling space for food cultivation

Living in Megacities Casablanca

Country: Iran Population: 13.4 million Main problems: air pollution and housing shortage

Teheran

ÜrümqiCountry: China

Population: ca. 4.5 million Main problems: water and

power supplies

Ho-chi- minh-Stadt

Country: Vietnam Population: ca. 7.1 million

Main problems: flooding and living space

Country: Ethiopia Population: ca. 4 million Main problems: waste management and water supply

HyderabadCountry: India Population: ca. 4 million Main problems: food and power supplies

Addis Abeba

Of the 30 biggest megacities in the world, 20 are located in Asia and Latin America alone. They include Shanghai

(left) and Mexico City (right).

JohannesburgCountry: South Africa Population: ca. 4.5 million Main problem: lack of clean energy sources

Country: China Population: ca. 5.3 million

Main problem: heavy traffic

Hefei

Winter Puzzles

M

IO

NN

C

N

A

S

M

L

N

D

O

A

Look at all these gifts! And there are two

of each kind. Or are there? No, some

parcels are actually unique. How many

don't have a twin?

Twin

Packs

Cookie ChaosPut the crumbs in the right order to

find out what tasty ingredients were

used to bake the cookies.

14TÜVtel

C

LH

EO

A

O

C

T

Christmas Challenge

8 2

10

42

86

Each number is the sum of the two numbers below it. Fill in the empty boxes with the correct figures. What number belongs in the green box?

Tricky TreeHow many little golden bells are hidden in the text of the "Tess and Roby" story on pages 16 to 19?

Find the Bells

Solutions

Cookie Chaos: The cookies contain almonds, cinnamon and chocolate.

Twin Packs: There are two gifts that don't have a twin.

Find the Bells: There are eight little bells hidden in the story.

Tricky Tree: The number 8 belongs in the green box.

15TÜVtel

Christmas Challenge

Roby Sees the Light

Tess and Roby

Square Bubbles?

161616

TÜVtel

It is impossible to blow a square bubble. That is because the air-filled bubble always contracts until it has the smallest possible surface area. And that is a sphere. Of all the geometric shapes with an identical volume, it has

the smallest surface area. That is a law of nature.

Tess is tinkering feverishly. An inventors’ competition has been announced and she really wants to win. But that’s proving extremely difficult.

Bubbles always have a spherical shape.

Annoyed, Tess screws up a sheet of scribbled paper and hurls it towards the bin. “It’s a complete load of rubbish!” she grumbles. Roby looks at his friend in surprise. He hasn’t seen her in such a bad mood for ages. She is sitting on the living room floor, cursing and staring at an angular wire frame. Roby fishes the crumpled page out of the wastepaper basket and smooths it out. He examines the drawing with interest: a bubble machine. “Is that for the inventors’ competition tomorrow?” he asks. Tess nods. Then she pulls a furious face. What is so terrible about that, the robot wants to know. It’s a very nice idea really. “Nice idea?” says Tess angrily. “You don‘t win with just a nice idea.”

“Now, why don’t you take a deep breath and tell me what the problem is,” suggests Roby. Tess breathes in deeply. And out again. And once more: in and out. And a third time just to be on the safe side: in and out again. That’s already better. She tells Roby that she has been working really hard to invent something brilliant: a machine that makes square bubbles, to be precise. Now the machine is waiting in the

Read more on page 18 →

17TÜVtel

Getting thingsrollingSince the beginning of time, people have always tinkered around and invented new

things. One of many groundbreaking inventions was the wheel, which was first developed roughly 5,500 years ago. It was a huge hit. After all, the wheel made it so much easier to

transport goods over long distances. However, nobody knows who had the

bright idea in the first place. The wheel started rolling in several places in Europe

and Asia at the same time.

to enter with this boring bubble machine,” she says with a shrug before going off to bed. Being an inventor sure is tiring.

Roby thinks hard. Square bubbles. Now that really is crazy. But could there be another way to turn the machine into something amazing? Deep in thought, he rolls into the workshop. There is the machine. The robot considers it thoughtfully. An idea flashes through his circuits and a smile crosses his face as he gets to work.

The wheel has constantly developed and even now, it is impossible to imagine our day-to-day lives without it.

basement workshop, all ready to go, and it even blows bubbles – but none of them are square. The darn things are always round.

“But Tess, blowing square bubbles – that just isn’t possible,” o says Roby, shaking his head.Tess really knows that too. But it would have been awesome if she’d invented a machine that spat out different shaped bubbles – against every law of nature. Oh well. Now it’s too late anyway. The competition is tomorrow at noon already. “Then I’ll just have

Tess and Roby

18TÜVtel

All three judges crane their necks so they can examine the machine from every angle. “Please activate it,” commands a judge. Tess is about to push the start button when Roby says “Turn the lights off first.” Tess gives him a questioning look. “Trust me,“ whispers the robot. “Lights off,” calls the judge, and the lights go out.

Tess pushes the start button and gasps in amazement: countless bubbles are flying out of the machine. But that’s not all. They are glowing in the most dazzling hues and bathing the dark room in colorful light. “They’re

colored. Who would have expected that?” marvels the first judge. “Nobody,” agrees the second. “Truly magical,”

raves the third. The other

The next day, it’s time for the competition. It is already in full swing when Tess checks

her watch impatiently at half past twelve. Three judges are walking through the long rows of inventions. They examine everything thoroughly, ask questions and take notes. Tess steps nervously from one foot to the other. “Stop fidgeting, here they come,” whispers Roby. The judges stop in front of Roby and look down at him critically. “What is it and what can it do?” asks one of them, peering sceptically over his metal-rimmed glasses. “That’s not my invention!” laughs Tess. She points at the device that she has assembled on the table beside her. “There it is: my bubble machine.”

Protecting Inventions

When you invent something, you enter a race against time. That‘s because

someone else could come up with a similar invention at any moment. To make

sure nobody can steal their ideas, inventors apply for a patent at the patent office

in their country. A patent is a contract with the state. It says that only the inventor

has the right to make a real product out of their invention.

TÜV Rheinland can find out whether an invention is new or has already been

protected by a patent. Patent tester Bruno Götz has around 50 million patents

saved in his computer database. That gives him the perfect overview. The

patents can also be inspected by TÜV Rheinland, just like the Christmas tree

extinguishing system in the photo. An extinguisher has been installed at the

top of the tree to spray water on the burning branches from above. It was

invented by a student.

entrants are equally enchanted by the gently floating, wondrous bubbles of light. “It was you Roby, wasn’t it,” whispers Tess with a grin. Roby just giggles softly.

Back at home, Tess proudly puts a sparkling golden trophy on the shelf. “First Place in the 2014 Bright Spark Inventors’ Competition” is engraved on it. She looks at it thoughtfully. “Now tell me, what did you actually do to make the bubbles glow? Was it a secret bubble additive?” Roby is rolling along beside her. Both their faces are reflected in the polished golden surface. “Oh, that doesn’t matter. The main thing is that we did it together, isn‘t it?” Tess has to agree with him completely. Nothing beats teamwork.

The end

19TÜVtel

Behind the Scenes

20TÜVtel

A Safe Crossing

There is a big warning sign on the highway bridge. Yellow lights are flashing and a white arrow in a blue circle signals to drivers: Please change lanes! A glance under the bridge reveals why: Jürgen Nolden is at work. He inspects tunnels, the retaining walls of roads, and approximately 200 bridges a year.

During bridge inspections, the TÜV Rheinland employee looks for faults and then evaluates them. "They can be crooked or loose

sections, cracks, chips, hollow and damp areas, or damage caused by an accident," explains the specialist.

With his expert eye, he doesn't miss a thing – neither on nor under the bridge. To examine the bottom, Nolden uses a bridge-underside inspection apparatus. That is a truck parked on top of the bridge with an arm that extends over the side to reach underneath. This arm holds a basket from which the inspector can do his work. Sometimes he also has to abseil off bridges or even go diving to examine the pylons under water.

After he has checked everything, Nolden gives the bridge a score based on its condition. It is a bit like being at

school. The worst mark for bridges is a four. After the inspection, all the damage is repaired and the traffic can roll safely over the bridge once more.

Bridges

Jürgen nolden knows when a damaged bridge is dangerous.

What are you

testing there??

The Bridge Inspector at Work

21TÜVtel

Jürgen Nolden taps the concrete areas with a hammer. If he discovers damaged

sections, he marks them with chalk so that he doesn't lose sight of them.

The World's Tallest Bridge When drivers want to cross the valley of the River Tarn in France, they travel across the Millau Viaduct at a height of 217 meters. The bridge is supported by seven slender pylons, the highest of which soars 343 meters above the valley. That makes the Millau Viaduct the tallest bridge construction in the world.

With a crack width gauge (that's a special type of ruler), the expert

determines how big the cracks in the bridge are.

The tester climbs under the bridge via the bridge-underside inspection apparatus.

The bridge bearings must be in good condition

because they ensure that the superstructure and the

substructure have adequate clearance, even when they

expand slightly in the summer heat or contract in winter.

Try It Out

22TÜVtel

Ulrich Fietz from the Executive Board of TÜV Rheinland uses mathematics every day. And he does it gladly. After all, the figures reveal how the company is going. For example, Fietz checks that there is enough money to pay the employees their

wages. Or he calculates how much TÜV Rheinland can earn in the future with a particular service. And sometimes he also has to save money.

Today: M

for Mathematics

This trick makes it easy to multiply one and two-digit numbers. And all it takes is drawing lines and counting! The technique apparently originated in China.

Mathematics at TÜV Rheinland

For each of the digits,

draw a corresponding

number of lines on a

piece of paper. This

example is based on

12×13.

The lines of the first number, 12, go from the bottom left to the top right. So you draw one line for the first digit (the 1), leave a gap, and then draw two lines underneath it (for the 2).

1

ChineseMultiplication

2

Now you need to count the interfaces where the lines cross each other – from left to right, that is. The answer: 156.

3

1 56

Careful: Sometimes an interface number is two digits long. Then you should simply add the first digit to the number on the left of it. For example, 34 × 21 gives you 6, 11 and 4 interfaces.The answer is then: (6 + 1) 1 4 = 714Tip: This trick works best with small digits. If you use large ones, you have to count a huge number of interfaces.

You then draw the lines for the

second number, 13, from the top

left to the bottom right. This time, it's

important that the lines of the first digit

go below the second digit: one line (for

the 1), a gap, and then three lines

above that (for the 3).

STEM is the abbreviation for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – all fields that involve exciting experiments.

Mathematics

Technology

Science

Engineering

stem Spells

Fan Page

Kalu is thrilled. She won the

Nano Quad in one of the last

editions of TÜVtel. Now she’s

busily practicing, flying it over

chairs and piles of books or

around bottles.

Learning is so much fun on TÜVtel day: At the Roncalli School in Troisdorf, Germany, the children in grade 3c look forward to every new edition.

Is TÜVtel distributed at your school? Then send a photo of your class to TUEVtel@de.tuv.com and tell us which sections of TÜVtel you find really cool. With a bit of luck, you can admire your photo in the next issue.

Flying High

Q+AYou ask, we answer.

Thea asks: Why do whales die when

they‘re on land, even though they are

mammals?

Dear Thea! You’ve surely

experienced it too: When

you’re in the water, you feel

much lighter. That is due to

buoyancy. The massive whale

also enjoys the same feeling

while it is gliding through

the oceans. However, if

it is beached, the whale

suffocates fairly quickly.

That is because it feels its enormous weight when it

is on shore. The weight presses down so heavily on

its organs, including its lungs, that the whale can no

longer breathe and it dies. In addition, it needs to be

cooled constantly. Without water, its body very quickly

dries out.

Do you have a question too? Send it

by email to: TUEVtel@de.tuv.com We‘ll

answer it in the next edition.

TÜVtel in Troisdorf

Join in!

23TÜVtel

TÜVtel – Who Made It?Publisher: TÜV Rheinland Aktiengesellschaft, Communikation, Am Grauen Stein, D-51105 CologneResponsible: Aud Feller, v. i. S. d. P. (responsible according to the German press law)Editing: S+L Partners GmbH, ColognePrinting: Druckhaus Ley + Wiegandt, Wuppertal

Photos: All Roby and Tess illustrations by Franz Gerg/Comic-Agentur Roberto Freire; TÜV Rheinland AG: (cover, pp. 2, 4, 9, 19, 20-21, 22); Mari Tefre: Svalbard Global Seed Vault (p. 10); PLAYMOBIL (p. 14); Universal (p. 14); Universum Kids (p. 15); Carrera RC (p. 15); private source (p. 23); Lely Deutschland GmbH (p. 24); iStockphoto.com: archibald1221 (cover), davorr (pp. 2, 15), enjoynz (p. 3), CoreyFord (p. 4), goldenKB (pp. 6, 8), Glam-Y (p. 7), alenkadr (p. 9), mmac72 (pp. 10-11), jennifermecca2013 (pp.12-13), ntzolov (p. 13), Natural_Warp, Nemida, istmylisa, (p. 14), malija (pp. 14-15), Baks (p. 15), MR1805 (p. 23); 123RF.com: Sergei Uriadnikov (cover), Eric Isselee (p. 2), Stoyan Haytov (pp. 2, 22), ladyann (p. 4), Nadiya Vlashchenko, forsterforest (p. 5), mamanamsai (p. 8), ifong (p. 10), James Steidl (p. 17), Mikhail Mandrygin (p. 21); Fotolia.com: grafikplusfoto (cover), Dmytro Smaglov (p. 3), tovovan, arturaliev, Aleksandr Bryliaev, Dirk Schumann, eyewave (pp. 4-5), valdis torms (pp. 4-5, 22), lubashka (p. 5), bluedesign (pp. 6-7), Photo Tuller, leungchopan, mrslevite, paulrommer (p. 7), maxbaer (p. 10), kebay, Peter Hermes Furian (p. 11), yuliufu (p. 13), farbkombinat (p. 16), J BOY (pp. 16-17), Photocreo Bednarek (p. 24); shutterstock.com: gpointstudio, Borna_Mirahmadian, Alexandra Giese, Megan R. Hoover, JSseng (p. 3), Borna_Mirahmadian (pp. 12-13), James Steidl (p. 17), Alexey Fyodorov (pp. 18-19)

BARN ROBOTS HELP OUT

Au Ja, total gerne!

Roboter-Eissorten!

A gingerbreadRoby!

Look what I‘ve baked.

What is that meant

to be?

TÜVtel had a look inside a modern cowshed.

The bristles of the scratching robot do the cow good and make its hide gleam.

The cow can enter

and leave the milking

robot whenever it wants to.

The manure removal

robot gets into all the

corners and pushes

the liquid waste off

the walkways.

One cow devours 80 kilos

of

fodder per day.

Feeding robots tr

ansport

hay to the bars.

The farmer uses his cell phone to steer

and control the robots.

TESS and ROBY

Wait a minute.

Pat-A-Cake, Pat-A-Cake, Robot Man