I learned this today. The Rosetta stone helped translate hieroglyphics because it had the same message written in hieroglyphics, the cursive Egyptian script for regular people called demotic, and ancient Greek. The Rosetta stone is a large slab of granodiorite that probably stood in a temple. It has a decree written on it that concerns […]
#91 How did the Rosetta stone help people decipher hieroglyphics? Read More »
I learned this today. Sugar came to England in 1069 but it wasn’t eaten by most people until 700 years later. The average British person eats about 90kg of sugar a year. This is not only unhealthy, it is also a relatively recent trend. In 1750, it was about 1kg a year. By 1820, that
#90 When did people in Europe start eating sugar? Read More »
I learned this today. The Large Hadron Collider accelerates particles to close to the speed of light by using electric fields and radio waves. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was built between 1998 and 2008 for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. I know you are thinking that should be EONR, but CERN comes
#89 How does the Large Hadron Collider work? Read More »
I learned this today. Venice was built on 118 small islands in a marshy lagoon because the people from local Roman cities were fleeing waves of Germanic and Hun invasions. The city of Venice was founded at noon on Friday 25th March, 421 AD with the dedication of the first church. Construction started possibly five
#88 Why is Venice where it is? Read More »
I learned this today. Stars die because they exhaust all of their fuel. There are seven different types of star. They are classified using the Morgan-Keenan system. They are given the letters, B, A, F, G, K, and M, to show temperature, and Roman numerals to show luminosity. M, the coolest stars, are between 2,400
#87 How do stars die? Read More »
I learned this today. On November 14th, 1910, Eugene Ely flew a plane off a ship, technically making that ship the first ever aircraft carrier. He made the first takeoff and landing in 1911. It was a flying event in Belmont Park, New York and Eugene Ely was trying to prove that it was possible
#86 When did people start using aircraft carriers? Read More »
The first ever money was the Mesopotamian shekel, used about 5,000 years ago. Before we had money, people used the bartering system. Bartering probably started when hunter-gatherers began to form larger groups. When hunter-gatherers were in small groups, they could service all of their own needs. They only needed food, clothing, and shelter. Once the
#85 When did people start using money? Read More »
I learned this today. London was built where it is because it is the closest point to the sea that could be bridged. There may have been a small settlement where London is from prehistoric times, but there is no real evidence for that. There is, however, evidence of a bridge crossing the river Thames
#84 Why is London where it is? Read More »
I learned this today. Quartz watches are far more precise than mechanical clocks because they make quartz crystals oscillate at a very precise frequency. A mechanical watch has an accuracy of ±5 seconds a day. Quartz watches have an accuracy of about ±5 seconds a month. For comparison, an atomic clock has an accuracy of
#83 How does a quartz watch work? Read More »
I learned this today. Our skin can allow sweat out, but it doesn’t let water in thanks to a thin layer of fat between the outermost layers of skin cells. The skin is said to be the largest organ in the human body. Actually, by surface area, it is the second largest because the inside
#82 Why is skin waterproof? Read More »
