KHOWLEDGE ZONE

You probably have a favorite television show. Maybe you have more than one favorite TV show. Did you ever wonder where your favorite shows come from? Did you ever wonder how they get to the TV set in your home?

WHERE DO TV SHOWS COME FROM?

Some TV shows are made in TV studios. Some of these shows are broadcast live—that is, as they are being made. Some shows are taped in the studio. The tape gets played on TV later on.

Other TV shows are made outside of studios. Baseball and football games and other sports events come from stadiums. Some parts of news programs are broadcast “on the scene.” TV reporters go to the scenes of accidents, floods, and fires and describe what is happening.

Shows in studios are made on sets. Sets for plays or soap operas can look like living rooms or kitchens. Sets for talk shows might have a desk for the host and chairs for the guests. Bright lights shine down on the sets.

HOW ARE TV PICTURES MADE?

A TV picture starts with a TV camera. Some TV cameras are big and some are small. The cameras in TV studios are big. Camera operators roll the big cameras around on wheels. There are usually several big cameras in a TV studio. Cameras used outside a TV studio are smaller. TV camera crews take the smaller cameras to news and sports events.

Some cameras send out live pictures to your TV set. Some cameras make videotapes that get played later on a television program.

All TV cameras need electricity to work. A camera operator points the camera at a scene. The camera picks up light from the scene. It changes this light into an electric signal called the video signal. A microphone changes the sound of people talking or music playing into an electric signal called the audio signal.

TV cameras do not snap pictures the way an ordinary camera does. Parts inside a TV camera scan, or sweep over, the scene and trace a series of thin, horizontal lines, one below the other. A TV camera scans a whole scene much faster than you can blink. Lines from the scans go together to make a picture.

THE TV CONTROL ROOM

The pictures and sound from the TV cameras and microphones go to a control room. Every television station has one or more control rooms. TV cameras in a studio can send live pictures to the control room. The control room is full of dials, switches, and small TV screens. There are screens that show pictures from each TV camera in the studio.

Producers and directors work in the control room. They make sure that the best pictures with the best views go to your TV screen at home.

People who work in control rooms also use taped pictures to make programs. They use computers to put together the best taped scenes.

HOW DOES THE SHOW GET TO YOUR HOME?

The picture and sound signals go from the control room to a transmitter. The transmitter makes the signals stronger and sends them to a transmitting antenna. This antenna is very tall. It changes the electric signals into invisible television signals that go through the air. The television signals go out from the antenna in all directions.

TV signals can get to the TV set at your home in several ways. They can go through the air to an antenna on your roof. The antenna picks up the signals and sends them through wires to your TV set. The signals could go to a cable TV company. The company sends the signals through a cable to your home. The TV signals could come right to your house from a satellite circling high above Earth. A satellite dish outside your home can pick up the TV signals and send them over wires to your TV set indoors.

HOW DOES YOUR TV SET WORK?

Your TV set changes the television signals back into pictures and sound. Your set picks up the thin lines that the TV camera scanned. Your set uses parts called electron guns to “paint” a picture on the TV screen one thin line at a time. The lines get painted from top to bottom.

A color TV set uses three electron guns to beam out three colors—red, green, and blue. These three colors make all the colors you see on your TV screen. The beams scan fast enough to paint a picture on your screen 30 times a second.

OTHER WAYS TO USE TELEVISION

Television can do many things. TV cameras can be sent to places that are difficult or dangerous for people. They can travel to outer space. Spacecraft carry TV cameras to other planets. The cameras send back pictures that let us see what other planets look like.

TV cameras on robot submarines can go deep down in the sea. Doctors use tiny TV cameras to see inside the human body.

WHEN WAS TV INVENTED?

Inventors made the first TV pictures in the 1920s. Television stations started broadcasting the first regular TV shows in the 1940s. The first TV sets had small screens. The first TV sets showed black-and-white pictures.

Television sets have gotten better and better. Most TVs sold today show color pictures. TV screens have gotten bigger and bigger. TV sets have gotten thinner. Plasma TV sets are so thin that you can hang them on a wall.

Pyramids and pharaohs, mummies and magic, picture writing on papyrus—ancient Egypt had all this, and much more. Rich, powerful, and peace-loving, this North African kingdom was home to a splendid civilization that lasted 3,000 years, from about 3300 bc to 30 bc.

RED LAND, BLACK LAND



Ancient Egypt was a vast territory, stretching 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) southward from the Mediterranean Sea. Most of it was hot, dry, and dusty. The Egyptians called it Deshret (red land). But the world’s longest river, the Nile, runs through this desert. Every year, the river flooded the surrounding land. The floods left sticky, smelly mud covering the land along the riverbanks. Egyptians called the riverside area Kemet (black land). This land was very fertile. About 5000 bc, the ancient Egyptians built some of the world’s first farms and villages there.

THE GIFT OF THE NILE

Egypt was sometimes called “the gift of the Nile.” All Egyptian life depended on the river. Farmers dug ditches to bring its water to fields of wheat, grapes, and onions. Rich nobles, town traders, and poor country families all built homes made of sun-dried river mud. Craftspeople shaped clay from the Nile into pottery, and wove cloth from the flax plant that grew on its banks. Families caught fish and river birds for food. Children played in riverside pools, but they had to watch out for killer crocodiles!

LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Most ancient Egyptian homes had just two or three rooms, with workspace on the roof. Rich people built larger houses, with painted walls, fine furniture, gardens, and pools. In poor families, women wore rough homemade dresses and men wore cloths tied around the hips. But the rich could afford curled wigs, makeup, colored clothes, and jewels. They had servants and slaves to work for them.

Rich or poor, all Egyptians valued family life. They married young and had many children. Families worked together and played together. Egyptian people liked games, stories, music, dancing, and holiday feasts and parades.

The ancient Egyptians believed in magic and many gods. People built little shrines to their favorite gods. They wore amulets (charms), and recited prayers and spells. They also built statues representing gods. The most famous is the Great Sphinx of Giza. This huge statue with the body of a lion and the head of a man still stands today.

HIEROGLYPHS AND PAPYRUS

The ancient Egyptians had a complex system of writing known as hieroglyphics. This form of writing looks like columns of little pictures. These picture-symbols are called hieroglyphs. Not everyone could read hieroglyphs. Reading and writing was the job of special scholars called scribes.

Scribes wrote in hieroglyphs on papyrus, a kind of paper made from reeds. This was some of the world’s first writing! Pages of poems, songs, stories, math, science, and astronomy have all been preserved.

POWERFUL PHARAOHS

Egyptian kings were known as pharaohs. Egyptians said the pharaohs were the children of a god. They were links between heaven and Earth. Pharaohs were the chief priests, lawmakers, and army commanders of the kingdom. They gave orders to governors, judges, tax collectors, and soldiers. They made treaties with foreign rulers and controlled trade with other countries. All Egyptians had to pay taxes to them or work on their building projects.

PYRAMID TOMBS AND MUMMIES

Some of the pharaohs had great pyramids constructed. A pyramid was an enormous stone tomb. Building a pyramid was a tremendous project. Thousands of people worked for many years to construct one. Some of the stone blocks that make up the pyramids weigh more than two elephants!

The ancient Egyptians believed that their bodies must survive for life after death. They had their bodies made into mummies. Mummies were preserved, dried, and wrapped in cloth. Egyptians hoped this would help their spirits survive after they died. Pharaoh mummies were placed in pyramids or great tombs surrounded by treasures to be used in the afterlife. Guides to the world of the dead written in hieroglyphs on papyrus have been found with mummies. Most royal mummies, and the treasures buried with them, were stolen by grave robbers long ago.

LASTING REMINDERS OF THE PAST

Egypt’s rich civilization attracted many invaders. But it survived for thousands of years. In 30 bc, Egypt’s last pharaoh—Queen Cleopatra—killed herself rather than surrender to Roman conquerors. That was 2,000 years ago. But ancient Egypt has not been forgotten. Some mummies were so well preserved that they are still around. Some of them are in museums. And many of ancient Egypt’s greatest monuments, including many pyramids, are still standing. You can visit them!