When was the wheel invented? The wheel was invented in roughly 4200 BC, over 6,700 years ago. I have toyed with whether “invented” might be the wrong word to use here. “Discovered” might be better because there are many round things that naturally exist in the world. However, I think we can safely go with […]
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Why is Mexico City sinking? Mexico City is sinking because they are pumping more water out of the underground aquifer than can be replaced. Mexico City is the capital of Mexico, and it has a population of almost 22 million people, which is over 17% of the population of Mexico. Since the beginning of the
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Why is breakdancing called breakdancing? Breakdancing was dancing that filled a break in the music. Breakdancing is generally only called breakdancing by the general public. People who breakdance are called breakers, or break-boy (b-boy) and break-girl (b-girl). Breakdancing is a type of dance, but b-boys and b-girls live a lifestyle which has a culture of
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Manor, mansion, villa, stately home or hall? They are all words that describe a large, expensive house, but they have slightly different origins. A manor is a British term now, but the tradition of manors comes from all over western Europe, having started in Rome. The word comes from the Latin “manere”, which meant remain,
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What languages became English? A Germanic language brought by the Anglo-Saxons, then Norse brought by the Scandinavian Vikings, and then French brought by the Normans. No language really has a starting point, but you can often see the languages that combined to make them. For example, French, Italian, and Spanish all evolved from Latin, which
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Why are mince pies called mince pies and why are puddings called puddings? Mince pies are called mince pies because they used to contain minced meat (ground beef) and puddings are called puddings because they used to be encased in some kind of skin and steamed. Mince pies are a traditional food eaten at Christmas
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What is the Mercator projection? It is a map projection that tries to put the countries from a sphere onto a rectangle. Almost all world maps you see, and all of the ones we learned about at school, use the Mercator projection. Because of this, we all have a distorted view of how big countries
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What were punks rebelling against? They were rebelling against the establishment, the commercialization of music, hippie culture, and the general economic hardship in the UK and Europe. The word punk probably started as an insult that the punk movement took control of and owned. Punk meant “something worthless”, “inferior”, “bad”, “a worthless person”, and “a
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Why did the Louvre become a museum and art gallery? It was decided that the Louvre Palace should become an art gallery during the French Revolution. There is some argument as to why the Louvre is called the Louvre. There are four competing theories. It could be because the Louvre was built on an area
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Why are the Secret Service in charge of protecting the president of the USA? They were the only agency capable of doing it at the time. The Secret Service was tasked with protecting the president of the United States in 1901 after the assassination of President McKinley. McKinley had just been elected for his second
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