What is the Jevons Paradox? It is that improvements in efficiency of a machine increase the overall consumption of energy by making the machine cheaper and more efficient. The paradox is named after William Stanley Jevons who was an English economist and logician. He lived from 1835 to 1882, unfortunately drowning while bathing at the […]
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Why is there so much gold in Fort Knox? Because it is far enough away from any coast and is protected by the Appalachian Mountains. Fort Knox is famous worldwide for being the place where the United States keeps most of its gold. The building isn’t actually called Fort Knox. It is called the US
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Why does the USA use the dollar? Because, in the early days of the American colonies, the Spanish dollar was more prevalent than the British pound. There are twenty countries around the world that have a dollar as their currency. The symbol for the majority of them is the $ sign with possibly letters before
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When were credit cards invented? The first use of the phrase “credit card” was in 1887. A credit card is a system whereby a customer can pay for goods using a line of credit from the credit card provider. The credit card provider basically pays for the goods upfront, and the customer reimburses the credit
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Why are diamonds so expensive? Because we believe they should be expensive, not because they are rare. We think that diamonds are expensive because they are rare, but they are not as rare as we think. Diamond is a structure made of carbon atoms that are arranged in a crystal structure. Diamond is one of
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When was the penny first used? The first coin to be called a penny was in 790, but the word meant “all money” and not just one coin. There are several currencies across the world that use “penny” for their smallest coin. In the UK there is a one penny coin. In the United States
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What is a central bank? It is an institution that manages the currency of a country and controls the supply of money. Nearly every country has a central bank. It is sometimes called a reserve bank. There are nine countries that don’t have one. They are Andorra, Isle of Man, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Monaco,
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I learned this today. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a universal classification system which has the most important needs at the bottom and then the following needs in an ascending order of importance. Maslow was an American psychologist. He worked from the early 1930s until his death in 1970. He published his hierarchy of needs
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I learned this today. The UK finished paying its World War 2 debt on 29th December 2006 and its World War 1 debt on 9 March 2015. Fighting World War 1 and World War 2 cost the UK a lot more than they could have imagined. Even though they had an empire, they didn’t have
#169 When did the UK finish paying its World War 1 and 2 debts? Read More »
I learned this today. A society without money is not only possible, it is probably the best way that society will survive the rise of automation and AI. Money has been with us for about 5,000 years and our entire society is based on money. The majority of our time is spent trying to earn
#117 Could a society without money work? Read More »
