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We started our search by typing "etch a sketch" in the Yahoo! search box. This led us to the Etch A Sketch category, which listed six sites, among them the official Etch-A-Sketch.com. We arrived at the site to find a strange little Etch A Sketch mascot asking us to enter our name and then press the "Let's go" button. We typed in "Ask" and were pleased to find an online Etch A Sketch writing our name on the screen. From there, however, it became a little confusing. The site's less-than-intuitive layout made our search more difficult than we expected. We couldn't decide which odd-looking graphic to click on,
so, for no apparent reason, we chose the graphic titled "Have You Heard?" As luck would have it, this was the section of the site we wanted -- it featured Frequently Asked Questions, Toy Trivia, In the News, and, our first stop, History. Twisting and turning our way through the history of the Etch A Sketch, we quickly discovered that the inner workings of an Etch A Sketch are really quite simple. The screen's reverse side is coated with a mixture of aluminum powder and plastic beads. The left and right knobs control the horizontal
and vertical rods, moving the stylus where the two meet. When the stylus moves, it scrapes the screen leaving the line you see.
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