Does a tugboat tug? They do pull, but they also push, too. In the very early days of sea travel, boats were not big enough to need something like a tugboat. They could usually be sailed right into the dock. If the wind wasn’t right, they usually had oars and oarsmen who could get the […]
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How can a baseball player possibly hit the ball? They have to swing at where they think the ball will be because they cannot actually see it. There are different types of baseball pitches, and they travel at different speeds, so let’s just look at the fastball, which is a simple and straight pitch. The
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Are plexiglass and fiberglass actually glass? Plexiglass is a type of plastic and not real glass, but fiberglass has glass fibers in it. Let’s look at plexiglass first. Plexiglass is a registered trademark because it is the name of a product. It was originally written in all capitals as PLEXIGLASS®. It was invented by a
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What is a bookworm? A bookworm is any number of insects, or the larvae of insects, that eat books. They are not actually worms. Why would an insect eat a book? What food is there in a book? Some insects don’t actually eat the books, but fungi and mold that grow on the pages of
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What is the difference between AM and FM radio? The radio waves are moderated differently. AM radio waves are Amplitude Modulated and FM radio waves are Frequency Modulated. First, we need to look at how a radio broadcasts a signal. The radio has three jobs. It has to take the voice or music that is
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Why does walking become harder as we get older? It is a combination of age-related factors, such as stiff joints, brittle bones, lack of balance, deteriorating muscles, shortening ligaments, deteriorating nerves, and even neurological factors. As we age, our bodies start to deteriorate and that results in a changed way of walking. That is unavoidable,
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How does braille work? It is a system of writing where you can feel the dots that make up letters and read with your fingers. It is for people who are blind or visually impaired. It is estimated that there are 43 million blind people and a further 295 million people with moderate to severe
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Why did knights start wearing armor? Technological advances in metallurgy and changes in society made it possible. Soldiers have always used some type of protection, be it a shield or a helmet. Very few people want to go into battle with only a sword and nothing to protect them. The first type of plate armor
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What caused the Great Vowel Shift? It was a very large change in pronunciation that happened in England between 1400 and 1700. Nobody knows exactly what caused it. If you try to read Chaucer’s Canterbury tales, you will be able to string the letters together into words and you can probably understand what quite a
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Why is an Academy Award called an Oscar? There are many theories, but no one knows the actual reason why. The Academy Awards are awarded once a year, usually in February or March. They are the most important and coveted of all the awards for movies. They are watched by millions of people around the
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