I learned this today. The first fire extinguisher was patented in 1723 by Ambrose Godfrey. For thousands of years, the only way to fight fire was to bring water to it. If you lived too far from a water source, then your house was going to burn down. Friends, family, or anyone available would rush […]
#157 When did we start using fire extinguishers? Read More »
I learned this today. Superglue works because a chemical reaction occurs that makes it harden. Superglue is made from ethyl cyanoacrylate, which is an acrylic resin. Cyanoacrylate hardens when it comes into contact with water. Cyanoacrylate is an acrylic monomer. A monomer is a molecule that can react together with other monomer molecules to form
#156 How does superglue work? Read More »
I learned this today. Reuters is an international news agency that started in Germany 150 years ago. Reuters was started by Paul Julius Reuter in 1851 and he could have had no idea what he was starting. Paul Reuter was born in Germany as Israel Beer Josaphat. He moved to London in 1845 and changed
#155 What is Reuters? Read More »
I learned this today. What is liquefied natural gas? Liquified natural gas is gas that has been cooled down until it becomes a liquid. There are four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Matter changes from one state to the other depending on how much energy the particles within it have. As more
#154 What is liquefied natural gas? Read More »
I learned this today. What is the dark web and how does it work? The dark web is the part of the Internet that can’t be indexed by search engines and is anonymous. To access the dark web, you need to use dedicated software. It cannot be accessed in the same way as the regular
#153 What is the dark web and how does it work? Read More »
I learned this today. What is the difference between Celsius, Centigrade, Fahrenheit, and Kelvin? Fahrenheit was invented first. Celsius came next. Celsius and centigrade are the same thing. Kelvin came last. The Fahrenheit scale was invented in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit. He was German by birth, but spent nearly all of his
#152 What is the difference between Celsius, Centigrade, Fahrenheit, and Kelvin? Read More »
I learned this today. There are three different types of run-flat tires. Ones that can self-seal a hole, ones that can still support the weight of the car when flat, and ones that have an insert on the wheel rim that can support the weight of the car. Self-sealing tires have a layer of sealant
#151 How do run-flat tires work? Read More »
I learned this today. Polaris is the star that is known as the North Star because it is usually over the North Pole. Polaris is not the brightest star in the night sky. That honor belongs to Sirius, also known as the Dog Star. However, Polaris is fairly bright, and it makes up the end
#150 What is Polaris? Read More »
I learned this today. Cats sleep as much as they do to conserve energy. Something we should probably learn from. Not that it’s today’s topic, but humans are the only animals that intentionally restrict their sleep. Cats sleep between 16 and 20 hours a day. However, not all of that sleep is deep sleep and
#149 Why do cats sleep for so long? Read More »
I learned this today. A tokamak is a device that uses a strong magnetic field to keep a gas plasma in a donut shape in order to achieve nuclear fusion. Tokamaks were invented in Russia in the 1960s and the word comes from Russian. It means “toroidal chamber with magnetic coils”, which is тороидальная камера с магнитными катушками
#148 What is a tokamak? Read More »
