What was miasma theory? Miasma theory was the idea that diseases such as cholera and the plague were caused by a noxious form of bad air called miasma, which is the ancient Greek word for pollution. Miasma as a theory lasted for over two thousand five hundred years and only disappeared when microorganisms were discovered
#1819 What was miasma theory? Read More »
Why does roulette have a 0? A roulette wheel has a 0 to increase the odds that you will lose and the house will win. A European roulette wheel and an American roulette wheel are slightly different. They both have numbers from 1 to 36, but a European wheel only has 0, while an American
#1816 Why does roulette have a 0? Read More »
What is a raglan sleeve? A raglan sleeve is a sleeve that extends all the way to the collar, with a diagonal seam from the underarm to the collarbone. It is named after Lord Raglan, who lost his arm in the Battle of Waterloo. You will almost definitely have worn a raglan sleeve at some point in your life, even
#1809 What is a raglan sleeve? Read More »
Who discovered Richard III’s body? Richard III’s body was found by the screenwriter Philippa Langley and archaeologists from the University of Leicester. Richard III was born in 1452, and he was king from 1483 to 1485. This rule of 2 years and 57 days makes him the monarch with the shortest reign in English history, if you don’t count King Edward V
#1808 Who discovered Richard III’s body? Read More »
Who was Otzi the Iceman? Otzi was a man who lived in the area where the Austrian Italian border is today in roughly 3250 BC. Otzi the Iceman was found in 1991 by two German tourists called Helmut and Erika Simon. They saw the top part of his body sticking out of ice. An unusually
#1803 Who was Otzi the Iceman? Read More »
What is the largest diamond in the world? It turns out that this simple sounding question is slightly more complex. There are three different diamonds that vie for the title of largest cut diamond in the world, but each one of them is recognized for a different reason. The largest cut colorless diamond is called
#1797 What is the largest diamond in the world? Read More »
They failed for a combination of reasons. Some were overwhelmed by the enormous storm surge caused by Hurricane Katrina, while others failed because of weaknesses in their design and the soft soil supporting them. The flood defenses had also developed over many years rather than being designed as one integrated system. A levee is basically
#1788 Why did the levees in New Orleans fail? Read More »
What is a solar tube? A solar tube is a way of channeling natural sunlight into a house to provide natural illumination without needing power or a window. Solar tubes are also called light tubes, solar pipes, or sun tunnels. These names pretty much tell you exactly what they are designed to do. A lot
#1775 What is a solar tube? Read More »
Where do the expressions red herring, read the riot act, white elephant, and pay through the nose come from? A red herring is a clue that ends up not being relevant to the crime, or purposefully set to distract the police. The main theory of its origin is that it came from training dogs to
Will jumping just before an elevator crashes save you? Probably not. Even if someone managed to jump at the last second, they would still be moving downward at almost the same speed, so the change in the impact would be tiny. The real danger in a crash is not just “speed,” but how quickly that
#1764 Will jumping just before an elevator crashes save you? Read More »
