Duplicating machines

Imagine you have a really cool toy, like a toy car. And you want to give your friend the same toy car to play with too. But you don't want to give them your toy car because then you won't have one to play with anymore.

That's kind of like what duplicating machines do. They make a copy of something so that you can have one and your friend can have one too.

But how do they work?

Well, let's say you have a piece of paper with some writing on it. When you want to make a copy of that paper, you put it into a special machine called a duplicator. The duplicator has a bright light inside it that shines down on the piece of paper.

This light bounces off the paper and makes an exact opposite image of the writing on a special drum inside the duplicator. Then the drum rolls over a blank piece of paper and transfers the writing onto that paper.

Now you have two pieces of paper with the same writing on it! But the cool thing is, you can make even more copies by just repeating the process over and over again.

Duplicating machines can make copies of all sorts of things, not just paper. They can make copies of pictures, maps, blueprints, and even toys (well, sort of).

So there you have it! Duplicating machines make copies of things so that you and your friends can have the same thing to play with or look at.