How does a heat-seeking missile work? By detecting and homing in on the infrared radiation released by a plane. Heat-seeking missiles are either launched from a plane or from the ground. They lock onto a target plane, correct their course as they track the plane, and then detonate either when they hit the target or […]
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Why do we say eleven and twelve, and first, second and third? Why do we say eleven and twelve? All languages have words for the numbers one to ten. However, a large number of languages then go on to count the numbers after ten by saying number plus ten. So, for example, in Chinese twelve
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Why do cameras have mirrors? To flip the image so that we can see it the right way up through the viewfinder. There are two types of cameras: ones with mirrors and ones without. The cameras without mirrors are digital and they don’t need to physically rotate the image because they don’t have a viewfinder.
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How do people predict the weather? These days, by using AI and supercomputers. People have tried to predict the weather for millennia. When most of the population were involved in the agricultural sector, knowing the weather was important. However, the day to day weather may have been less important than the seasonal weather. If there
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What is the difference between a forest, a wood, and a copse? These days, the difference is in the size, but it wasn’t always that way. Let’s look at all three of them. What is a copse? These days a copse is defined as a small group of trees. There is no defined size or
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What are runes? Runes were a series of alphabets used by the Germanic peoples between approximately AD 150 and the 17th century. The word “rune” comes from the Proto-Germanic word “runo” and means “secret, mystery, secret conversation”. This name possibly comes from the legend that the ability to read runes was given to the Norse
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Why do cars only have five gears? They actually don’t. Some cars have 4 and some cars have 6 or 7. Modern cars have an infinite number and electric cars don’t have any. Most manual cars have five gears, but that doesn’t mean all cars have five. However, five is the most common number because
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How high can a plane and helicopter fly? The world record for the highest a plane has managed to fly after taking off from the ground is 123,523 feet, or 37,649 meters. (The record stipulates taking off from the ground because planes that have flown higher than this are basically rockets with wings that have
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How is sewage treated? There are several different methods, but sewage generally goes through four steps before the water is safe enough to drink. Sewage isn’t only the wastewater from our toilets. It can be other wastewater from our houses, containing soaps and household products. It can also be industrial wastewater, containing chemicals and other
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How does a speedometer work? By translating the speed of the wheel’s rotation into a magnetic field. These days, electronic speedometers are becoming more common, but mechanical ones are still the norm. Let’s look at mechanical ones first. The mechanical speedometer has a dial that sits in the dashboard and miles or kilometers around the
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