I learned this today. Rasputin managed to gain so much influence over the tsar of Russia because he appeared able to cure the tsar’s son of his hemophilia. Rasputin was a peasant who managed to rise to become one of the most powerful people in Russia before and during World War 1. In the end […]
#176 How did Rasputin gain so much influence over Tsar Nicholas II of Russia? Read More »
I learned this today. Technically the first parachute jump was in 852. A man called Armen Firman, in Spain, jumped off a tower using a cloak as a parachute. Apparently, it did slow him down enough to avoid death and serious injury. Having a parachute seems obvious, but I am thinking from a world where
#175 When was the parachute invented? Read More »
I learned this today. New Delhi became the capital of India in 1911 because the previous capital Kolkata had become too politically unstable, and it was too far from the center of India to be an effective capital. India has an extremely long history and people first lived there 55,000 years ago. Over the millennia,
#174 How did New Delhi become the capital of India? Read More »
I learned this today. Nobody knows why gravity exists. They can explain what happens, but not really why. Gravity can be observed, but not completely explained. Gravity is the force whereby objects with mass are attracted to each other. This force is related to the mass of the objects and the distance between them. The
#173 Why does gravity exist? Read More »
I learned this today. Concrete goes hard because the filler (usually something like gravel) is glued together by the binder (usually cement) through the process of hydration. Concrete is probably the most common building material in the world. Without it, our cities would not look anything like they do. Concrete has been with us for
#172 Why does concrete go hard? Read More »
I learned this today. Octopuses have blue blood because they have adapted to live in cold, deep water. Octopuses live in every ocean on Earth, and they live in a range of different conditions. A lot of them live at great depths and this is the main reason why they have evolved to have blue
#171 Why do octopuses have blue blood? Read More »
I learned this today. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Our brains are protected by cerebrospinal fluid. Cerebrospinal fluid is a colorless fluid that is derived from blood plasma, but it has no protein. It surrounds the brain and acts as a buffer between the brain and the
#170 What is a concussion? Read More »
I learned this today. The UK finished paying its World War 2 debt on 29th December 2006 and its World War 1 debt on 9 March 2015. Fighting World War 1 and World War 2 cost the UK a lot more than they could have imagined. Even though they had an empire, they didn’t have
#169 When did the UK finish paying its World War 1 and 2 debts? Read More »
I learned this today. The moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of 3.78cm per year, but there will be a time when it will stop moving away and then it will start to fall in towards Earth. However, we are talking about a hundred billion years. The moon has been dated to
#168 Will we lose our moon? Read More »
I learned this today. Antarctica is a polar desert because it has less than 250mm a year of precipitation, which is the set amount to be classified as a desert. However, it is classified as an ice cap climate because it isn’t hot enough to be called a desert. Deserts can be classified using the
#167 Is Antarctica a desert? Read More »
