Why was the Manhattan Project called the Manhattan Project? It was named after the city where its headquarters were originally located. The concept for the Manhattan Project began when Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann worked out how to make nuclear fission happen in 1938. Fermi had managed to make it happen in 1934, but he […]
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Who invented the slide rule? Willian Oughtred in 1622. I think, first, I need to look at what a slide rule is because not many people under 60 will have ever used one. These days, if we want to do complex calculations, we can just plug them in to our phone and get the answer
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Why did the USSR collapse? There are a myriad of reasons. Not one of them is exclusive and it could be said that were only one of these to have happened, the USSR could have continued to this day. Let’s look at 6 of them: war in Afghanistan, the price of oil, the Chernobyl nuclear
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Why did some dinosaurs have such long necks? To reach the higher up vegetation, to get more low-lying vegetation, to expend less energy, and to lose heat. There are several different types of dinosaurs that evolved long necks. The most famous that we probably all know is the diplodocus. The diplodocus was undoubtedly large. It
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When did silent movies end? The last silent movie was The Poor Millionaire, released in 1930. The expression “silent movie” didn’t exist until movies with sound were released. There was no need to have a label for something when that thing was the only option. “Silent movies” were just called “movies”, which is the shortened
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How many Egyptian dynasties were there? Depending on how you view it, there were 31, 33, or 34. Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, which made the 32nd and 33rd dynasties Greek. They still ruled Egypt, so some people count them as dynasties. Then, in 30 BC, Greek Egypt was conquered
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Why do we sing Auld Lang Syne at New Years? Because Scottish people emigrated all over the world, taking the song with them, and then a Canadian bandleader started playing it every year on American national TV. Auld Lang Syne means “old long since”. For auld lang syne is often translated as “for the sake
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Where is the Land of Punt? It is most likely where Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia are today. The Land of Punt is an ancient kingdom that existed at the beginning of Ancient Egypt. The pharaohs of Egypt traded with Punt until the the 12th century BC and then trade stopped, for an unknown reason. After
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Too busy to read? Watch on YouTube. When did archaeology start? Archaeology started as a discipline in the 18th century. Before the beginning of archaeology as a discipline, there were two types of people that were interested in things from past civilizations. Those were people who liked to collect artifacts, and people who wanted the
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Watch on YouTube Why were the Terracotta Warriors buried? They were buried to protect Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, in the afterlife. Qin Shi Huang was a very influential ruler of China. He was the first emperor of a unified China and a lot of things were begun in his reign. He
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