Did the Vikings get to America before Columbus? Yes. The Vikings appear to have reached North America in 1021, which is 471 years before Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. The Vikings reached North America a long time before Columbus arrived in South America, but they didn’t stay there for very long. They settled […]
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How would a Dyson sphere work? A Dyson sphere would work by capturing the energy output from the sun and transmitting it to Earth. It would probably be a series of satellites. A Dyson sphere is obviously hypothetical because we don’t have the technology available to make it. However, that isn’t to say that we
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How did the Suez Crisis mark the end of British power? Britain was forced to withdraw and, for the first time, realized that it could no long act unilaterally. It was a humiliating defeat for Britain and is sometimes said to be the actual end of the British Empire. The Suez Canal was opened in
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What is Littlewood’s law? Littlewood’s law is a law made by a mathematician called John Littlewood that says we should expect to see a miracle, or something improbable, once every 35 days. John Littlewood was a British mathematician. He was born in 1885 and he spent most of his life working on analysis, number theory,
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How does CPR work? CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and it is a way to keep blood and oxygen circulating around someone’s body if their heart has stopped beating. It can be a way of keeping someone alive long enough for professional medical help to arrive. The “cardio” part comes from the Greek word “kardia”,
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Who built the Smithsonian? The first of the Smithsonian’s many museums was built by the US government and was designed by an architect called James Renwick Jr. However, the idea for the institution and the money came from a British scientist called James Smithson, who lived from 1765 to 1829. The Smithsonian is the world’s
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What is Moravec’s paradox? Moravec’s paradox is that AI machines find it very easy to do things that we find difficult, such as chess, but very difficult to do things that we find easy, such as tying a shoelace. The paradox has Hans Moravec’s name, but he wasn’t the only person to notice this. He
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What does a fuse do? A fuse is there to protect an electrical system from an overload by cutting off the power. These days, we have multiple electrical circuits in our houses that operate numerous devices. Unless we have solar panels or our own generators, we get the power from an electricity power station. There
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Are thatched roofs good? Thatched roofs have good and bad points. They are a natural material, look nice, are great insulators (both heat and sound), and are environmentally friendly. However, on the downside, they are a fire risk, can become infested with pests and mold, need a lot of maintenance, and are expensive. As a
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What is a smart bullet? A smart bullet is a projectile that is able to alter its trajectory after it has been fired. Smart bullets sound scary, but they could have benefits. A lot of deaths in warfare come from collateral damage. There are accidental shootings by the police as well. Smart bullets would be
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