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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How many people do you need for a revolution? You need 3.5% of a population to start a revolution. There have been countless revolutions throughout human history. The ones that probably stick in our minds (depending on where we are from) are the French Revolution from 1789, the American Revolution from 1765, the Chinese Revolution
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Why do beavers build dams? To make a deep pond that they can live in. Beavers are rodents and they are the second largest rodents in the world. Only the capybara is bigger. However, unlike most other rodents, beavers are herbivores. They mainly eat tree bark, water plants, and grasses. Because they are mammals and
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What is a black swan event? It is a completely surprising and unpredictable event that has major consequences. It is something that is as rare as a black swan. The phrase was first used in Rome in the 2nd century BC and its usage was to show that an event was as rare on Earth
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Are all stars inside galaxies? No. There are some stars that are not part of a galaxy. Stars can form outside a galaxy, or they can be kicked out of a galaxy by something. They are called intergalactic stars. Stars that form outside of a galaxy can also be attracted into a galaxy. Stars are
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Do the three laws of robotics need updating? The three laws of robotics were an invention by Isaac Asimov and they were meant for a story, not to be a literal way of controlling the robots and AI in our lives today. We will need some kind of laws that robots have to follow at
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How do our organs stay where they are when we stand up? Pieces of tissue called fascia hold our organs in place, along with a membrane called the serous membrane. I need to define this question a little more succinctly because organ has a surprisingly broad definition. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “organ” as “a
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Is “I think therefore I am” true? Probably. “I think therefore I am” is probably the most famous philosophical quotation of all time. It is probably the only one that most people will have heard of. It was coined by René Descartes in 1637. He was born in France in 1596 and he was a
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