How does an oil pipeline pump oil so far? They use centrifugal pumps to convert rotational energy into the energy that moves a fluid and there are more pumps every 100 km or so. There are 2,270,526 km of oil pipeline around the world. Not all of that is still in use, but it gives […]
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When does history start? This is a difficult question, but we have prehistory, protohistory, and then history. Protohistory is the point where prehistory becomes history and it is probably in about 3400 BC. This is an impossible question because there is no concrete date. History is said to begin with the development of writing systems
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How does a bicycle stay upright? It is a combination of things, but nobody seems to really know for definite. All of the reasons that a bicycle can stay upright are valid, but none of them seem to be required. You can alter many of them and, so long as the others are still in
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Geoffrey Chaucer was known as the Father of English Literature. This is obviously a topic that is only important to English speaking countries, but he was a significant force in the revitalization of English after the Norman invasion of England. Chaucer wasn’t the only writer that was operating at that time, but he was even
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Why is a plane’s propeller at the front but a boat’s at the back? Because of how they move through the medium they travel in, the angle they need to move at, and the obstacles they encounter. The propeller was obviously first used on a boat because they were invented long before planes were. The
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What is racketeering? It is a criminal act that usually involves extortion or a scheme to extract illegal profits. Racketeering became a big thing on October 15, 1970, when the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act became law in the United States. You may have heard of it in a movie because it is shorted
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In the 1440s, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and changed the world. It is not very often where you can say that an invention caused such enormous ripples that without it, we wouldn’t be where we are today. The wheel seems an obvious example. The printing press made the spread of information, knowledge, discoveries,
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Why does hair turn white? The pigment cells in the hair follicles die. Our hair is colored by melanin that is produced by the pigment cells in each hair follicle. Melanin is what colors our skin as well. Melanin is produced in cells called melanocytes and different quantities or types of melanin can alter the
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Why does the medical symbol have a snake and a staff on it? It is the Rod of Asclepius, an ancient symbol of medicine. If you have the misfortune to require an ambulance in the US, you will notice that it a) costs an awful lot, and b) has a six pointed blue star with
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Alexander Cumming invented the S-bend in 1775. Toilets have existed for thousands of years, but the S-band (now the U-bend) was an invention that helped transition to indoor toilets and helped to improve sanitation levels around the world. Early people used streams running near their settlements for a toilet. That is fine, so long as
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