contains 2 contact areas for the 2 audio channels, above and below the black line. The large upside-down-T-shaped connector carries video.

6. Solder the jack to the cable. Solder the cable’s wires to the jack’s connection points. Following the order described in Step 4 (assuming you’re using USB wire coloring):

» White connects to the jack’s left-audio connector. » Black connects to ground.

» Green connects to the video connector.

» Red connects to the large right-audio connector. 7. Test your connections. Plug in your normal A/V cable and confirm that the white wire connects to the prong of the white RCA plug, the red to the red, the green to the yellow, and the black to all of the grounds, the circular cuffs around the outside of each RCA plug. If you’ve misconnected, resolder as needed.

8. Cover the jack. Carefully but firmly slip the black cover nearer to the jack off the cable, and screw it onto the jack.

9. Solder the plug to the cable. Again, assuming USB wire colors:

» Connect the black wire to ground.

» Connect the green wire to the large video connector.

» Connect the white and red wires to the 2 audio connectors, 1 wire per connector.

This last part is the trickiest, as the 2 connectors are so small and close together.

10. Attach the plug cover. As you did with the jack, shift the black cover off the wire and screw it onto the plug. That’s it — you’re finished and ready to test!

Test It

Connect your A/V cable to your television with the RCA plugs in the normal configuration: yellow plugged into yellow, red into red, and white into white. Connect the 1" plug end of the A/V cable to the jack in your new converter cable, and plug the converter cable into your iPod. Play a video out to your television. The audio and sound should match the quality you experience directly from your iPod.

 

Erica Sadun has written, co-written, and contributed to over two dozen books about technology.

LILIPUTIAN LEVITATION

It has long been known that some materials are repelled by magnets. These materials are called diamagnetic. When diamagnetic material is subjected to a magnetic field, the orbits of its electrons change, resulting in a repulsive force.

Water is slightly diamagnetic. In fact, scientists have levitated live frogs by placing them in strong magnetic fields. The element bismuth (which is an ingredient in Pepto-Bismol) is diamagnetic, too. You can explore diamagnetism in a number of ways, but one of the neatest is with a special type of carbon, called pyrolytic carbon.

MATERIALS

Four 12mm neodymium magnets Small piece of pyrolytic graphite You can buy these from scitoys.com

How to Do It:

1. Slice a thin layer of pyrolytic graphite from your sample. Because pyrolytic graphite is made by depositing thin layers of carbon on top of each other, you can take a single-edge razor blade or a very sharp knife and separate the layers. The thinner the layer, the higher it will levitate. Prepare to make a few mistakes before getting an ideally thin sliver. Your final chip should be a little smaller than the footprint of one of the magnets you’re using. 2. Arrange the magnets as shown, with similar poles in the opposite corners.

3. Place the pyrolytic graphite chip flat in the center of the magnet assembly. It should bounce up a millimeter or so above the surface and hover there. If not, you need to slice a thinner chip of graphite.

—Mark Frauenfelder

Further Study:

Demonstrate the diamagnetism of water by using magnets to repel grapes: makezine.com/go/diamagnet