Where do modern military ranks come from? There is not one single point where they started. Many countries have different systems and they have all evolved over time. Most of the ones we use in the West came from Italian and French. You don’t need ranks unless you have an organized army. In the beginning […]
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Do cows only eat grass? Wild cows and cows that graze on pasture eat a lot of grass, but they also eat other plants as well. Cows that are kept in dairy farms are often fed a lot of grain and soy. There are not many wild cows in the world. In most developed countries,
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Why is artificial sugar sweet? Because they have molecules that fit into the sweetness receptors in our taste buds. We have about 8000 taste buds on our tongues, although we cannot see them. The tongue is covered in tiny lumps called papillae. The taste buds are inside these papillae. Taste buds are made up of
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What is a subprime mortgage? It is a mortgage given to someone with a low credit rating who is thought to be a risk of non-repayment. They have more risk for banks, so they have much higher interest rates. As an interesting aside, the word “mortgage” comes from the old French “mort”, which meant “death”
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How is salt mined? In the same way that any other mineral is mined. There are three ways of producing salt. It can be mined out of the ground, it can be mined as a solution, or it can be left after the water is evaporated away. Salt on Earth is usually found underneath the
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Why are some people lactose intolerant? Because their body doesn’t make enough of an enzyme called lactase. Milk is a liquid produced in the mammary glands of most mammals. It is made of 87% water with the remainder made up mostly of fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. The proteins act as an emulsifier because
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How does a missile shield work? Attacking missiles can be brought down in the boost phase, the midcourse phase, and the terminal phase. Each phase of the missile’s path requires a different method to bring it down. A missile defense shield was first thought about in the Second World War. Germany had invented the V-2
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Why does a cracked whip make a sound? One portion of the whip moves faster than the speed of sound, creating a sonic boom. A sonic boom is created by anything that goes faster than the speed of sound, which is 343 m/s in air. Air behaves in the same way as a fluid, so
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Why is there a plastic island in the Pacific Ocean? Because of the amount of plastic waste we throw into the sea and because of the point where ocean currents converge. There are plastic islands in all of the oceans on Earth, not just the Pacific. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch just happens to be
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How do weight loss drugs work? They either reduce the appetite, reduce the absorption of nutrients, or increase the amount of fat that the body burns. Obesity is becoming a worldwide problem these days. It used to be only affluent countries that suffered from it, but now there are not many countries that are unaffected.
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