Jami Versus Science

Ah, Science, my old nemesis. Actually Math was pretty much my arch-enemy, but Science was up there, too. I am frequently perplexed by sciencey things, and here are few. Maybe one of my brilliant readers can explain some of these to me, keeping in mind that 1. I am science-challenged and 2. I haven't had a science-themed class in more than a decade. First - I don't get sound recording/playback. It just doesn't make sense. How can the contents of my iPod make the same sounds as a bass guitar, a piano or Brett Michaels? TV I get; it's totally logical. The little pixels make the colors, and the way they are arranged makes it look like pictures and that the pictures are moving. Totally clear. But the sound - I don't get it. I can't take a piece of metal and plastic and then shake, bang or rub them together in a way that makes a sound like a trumpet. How is that possible?? And don't say that it's just replaying sound waves because that is TOTALLY my point - how can something make the same sound waves as something it isn't? Speaking of sound waves, even having worked in radio, I can't tell you how that works. If there are sound waves rushing around in all the different frequencies, why don't I ever walk into a stream of sports talk or oldies? Sure it's all in the "translation" of the radio, but for that, see point one. As a former FCC licensed (when they still required that) on-air personality, I can explain to you the difference between AM and FM (which I won't here, but I do know it) but I can't for the life of me understand what it means and why you can send sound on different frequencies and they sound the same. Lastly, electricity. So, I get that it comes through the wires into the house and up to the light fixture. I get that if there isn't a bulb in the fixture, the electricity doesn't fall out onto my head, because there's really nothing there to conduct it. But, if there's a burnt out bulb in there, what is happening to the electricity? The bulb is conductive, obviously. How does the electricity know to stop going into it? I know it does because I've broken light bulbs (unintentionally) and the pent up electricity never comes shooting out. So where's it going? If it's not going, how does it know??? My poor brain is tired. We prefer the soothing intellectual things, like a good nonfiction book or science like on Forensic Files where it's very cut-and-dry (no pun intended, but that was a good one). My best guess for the three concerns above is "magic". Clearly sound from a box is magic and electricity isn't a solid, liquid or gas, so that leaves Supernatural Entity, right? This is why my degree is in Communications . . ..