Where did 0 come from? The concept of the modern zero was invented in India, but the idea of a placeholder for numbers was thought up by the Mesopotamians. We take the idea of the number 0 for granted. We use it regularly throughout the day (probably) and many of the things we use would […]
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Was the transition from silent movies to talkies difficult? Yes, the transition from silent movies to talkies was difficult, not just technologically, but also for the actors. Movies began to appear alongside the invention of photography. Early photographs took hours to take, but once it became possible to take photographs instantly, movies were the next
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Was the Trojan Horse real? The Trojan Horse was either made up by Virgil in the Aeneid, was actually some kind of siege engine, or was a boat usually used for giving tribute. We all know the story of the Trojan Horse. During the Trojan War, in approximately the 13th century BC, Greek warriors were
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Why were Roman roads so straight? Roman roads were so straight because they were built to move soldiers from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. Rome wasn’t the first civilization to build roads, but they were the first civilization to build a road network that crisscrossed an entire empire. The
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What is the fast fashion graveyard? It is a place where the fast fashion clothing waste ends up, causing environmental disasters. What is fast fashion? Fast fashion is called fast fashion because it is produced extremely quickly and to give it the same connotations as fast food. Just like fast food, the clothes are made
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What is pirate radio? A pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts a signal in an area controlled by a government without having a license from that government. Pirate radio stations began in the 1940s, but they probably hit their peak in the 1960s. They brought music and attitudes to the multitudes that
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How can the James Webb Space Telescope see the past? The James Webb Space Telescope cannot really see into the past, rather it can see the light that has taken billions of years to reach us. To understand this, we need to think about the speed of light, the vast distances in the universe, the
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What is vegetable oil? Most vegetable oil is oil extracted from the seeds of plants, and sometimes from the plants themselves. Vegetable oil is an accurate name for the product in that the oil comes from plants, but they are not all technically vegetables. The name was chosen partly because the word “vegetable” conjures up
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When did we start using lifeboats? Ships usually had small boats on board that they could use, but they were not lifeboats. It was only after the sinking of the Titanic that it became the law to carry enough lifeboats for the number of passengers on board. If we are lucky enough to go on
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Why does an oxyacetylene torch get so hot? An oxyacetylene torch gets so hot because the particles in acetylene hold an enormous amount of energy that they release when they are exposed to oxygen. Most of us will never have used an oxyacetylene torch. They are used by metal workers to weld or to cut
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