What is survivorship bias? It is when researchers focus on the individuals that have passed a selection process, while forgetting those that have not. It is an error in logic. Survivorship bias doesn’t have to be about people who have survived, it can reference people or things that have survived a selection process. There are […]
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Why are there ten pins in bowling? Because nine pin bowling was outlawed. Bowling is a very old game because it is a very simple concept. As long as people have a ball and something to throw it at, they can bowl. Balls and pins have been found in a children’s tomb from 5,200 years
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What is St. Elmo’s fire? It is a glowing region that appears around tall structures, the masts of old ships, or the wings of aircraft. It is a plasma made by a corona discharge from the structure. St. Elmo’s fire looks like a blue or violet fire that has engulfed the tip of whatever structure
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What are V1 and V2 on a plane? V1 is the point where a plane must take off and V2 is the speed where a plane can safely climb if one engine fails. Flying in a plane is incredibly safe these days. However, take off and landing are the two most dangerous parts of any
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Why do we say, “pass the bar”? The bar was a physical bar that separated a courtroom between the judges, barristers, and participants, from the spectators and average people. In all English countries, and in some other countries, to become a member of the law profession a person needs to pass the bar exam before
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What color is the sea? It is technically blue, but that depends on the depth and what particles are in the water. The sky is blue because the blue light wavelengths are scattered by molecules in the air. This is not why the ocean is blue. Generally the sea is blue because water absorbs red
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Why does an atomic bomb make a mushroom cloud? Because of the speed of the blast and the heat from the fireball. We have all seen images of nuclear bombs being detonated and they always have a very distinctive cloud that is in the shape of a mushroom. These mushroom clouds can be tens of
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When were photographs first used in newspapers? The first photograph was published in a newspaper in 1848, but they didn’t become common for a long time after that. Depending on the type of paper, modern newspapers have a lot of photographs. The percentage and the size of the photographs may vary depending on whether the
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Why is there such a difference between Haiti and the Dominican Republic? There are several reasons. Some of them are the climate, their history, their languages, their population densities, and their governments. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are both on the island of Hispaniola, which is an island between Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba. It
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When did daylight savings time start? It started in Canada in 1908. Daylight savings time is the practice of putting the clocks forward by one hour in the summer and back in the winter. The reason for this is to give people more sunlight throughout the year as the length of the day changes with
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