Where did Halloween come from? Halloween is the shortened form of All Hallows’ Eve, and it probably originated with the Irish Gaelic harvest festival called Samhain. The traditions of Samhain and All Hallows Eve were carried across to the United States by Irish and Scottish immigrants. Modern Halloween probably has roots in the Irish harvest
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How did travelers exchange money before modern banks? Before banks, travelers had different ways of getting money at their destination. They could carry gold and silver; they could sell goods; they could swap coins; they could use a letter of credit, or they could use an early form of a traveler’s check. These days, if
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How deep could a space probe travel into Jupiter? No one knows for sure, but a space probe using modern materials could possibly get several hundred kilometers into Jupiter’s atmosphere before being destroyed by the enormous pressure and heat. The only probe that has been launched into the atmosphere of Jupiter was the Galileo probe
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What causes nuclear winter? A nuclear winter is caused by soot, ash, and other particles being kicked up into the atmosphere by a nuclear war. These particles block out sunlight, and the temperature on the surface of Earth would be drastically reduced. A nuclear winter caused by nuclear weapons has thankfully never happened. We have
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Did Wyatt Earp have the law on his side at the OK Corral? A lot of people at the time might have disagreed, but Wyatt Earp acted legally during the Gunfight at the OK Corral. The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral happened on October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona. Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and
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Was the Iron Maiden ever actually used? Despite its terrifying reputation, there is no credible evidence that the iron maiden was used as a medieval torture device. The familiar spiked cabinet appears to have been invented much later, during the 19th century. The iron maiden is probably one of the most famous medieval torture devices
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Why do some chemical reactions give off heat and others don’t? The answer depends on the amount of energy absorbed when chemical bonds are broken compared with the amount released when new bonds are formed. There are two types of chemical reactions: endothermic and exothermic. Endothermic reactions are those that require energy, and exothermic reactions
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What is Göbekli Tepe? Göbekli Tepe is one of the world’s oldest temples and megalithic sites. It was built in roughly 9500 BC, over eleven thousand years ago. It is in the south of the modern country of Turkey, not far from the border with Syria. It is the first human-built holy place in the
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Why are lemons sour when other fruits are sweet? Lemons are sour because they contain a lot of citric acid. We also need to remember that there are a huge variety of lemons, some very sour and some not so much. We need to break this question down into a few parts. Why does citric
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How did we discover stem cells? Stem cell were discovered by accident in the 1960s by James Till ad Ernest McCulloch. Despite the enormity of the discovery, they never won a Nobel Prize for it. Most cells in our bodies have a specific job. Skin cells, nerve cells, and liver cells all perform different functions.
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