How do storm drains work? Storm drains work by directing rainwater from roads, sidewalks, roofs, and streets into underground channels, where the water can be controlled and carried away. Before there were cities, storm drains were obviously not necessary. When it rains in nature, the water hits the ground and either soaks into the soil,
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Why are British people called Limeys and Poms? British people are called Limeys because of the citrus juice British sailors drank to prevent scurvy, and they are probably called Poms because of Australian rhyming slang connected to the word immigrant. There are many names for British people around the world. Some of them are affectionate
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How did hinges evolve? The very first hinges were probably simple wooden or stone pivots, and they slowly evolved from there. We probably don’t pay much attention to hinges, but we use them multiple times every day. Doors, cupboards, car doors, garage doors, and even the arms of glasses and sunglasses all have hinges. They
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What causes traffic jams? The biggest cause of traffic jams is obviously the volume of traffic, but, in order of importance, they are caused by bottlenecks, traffic incidents, bad weather, road construction, poor signal timing, and other factors. Obviously, the main cause of traffic congestion, irrespective of the other reasons, is the volume of traffic
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Why do we forget names but not faces? We forget names but not faces because our brains have evolved to give more weight to visual information than to arbitrary labels. We have a powerful brain network for recognizing faces, but names have to be attached to those faces separately, and that connection is often much
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Who invented the shopping mall? The shopping mall was invented by an Austrian architect called Victor Gruen in the 1950s. Shopping malls are sprawling labyrinths of shops and restaurants that spread out over an enormous area. They are usually out of town and are surrounded by even more enormous car parks to accommodate the masses
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Why did it take so long to invent the wheel? It took so long to invent the wheel because a wheel is not as intuitive as we might think. It is probably safe to say that modern life would not function without the wheel. Wheels are everywhere, even down to tiny wheels inside the devices
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How do plants grow towards light? Plants grow towards light using a process called phototropism, which is driven by a hormone called auxin. Plants photosynthesize, which obviously requires sunlight. They need to be able to grow towards sunlight in order to photosynthesize as much as possible. To do this, they grow more on the side
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Why do we get altitude sickness? I want to say that we get altitude sickness because we are too high up. More specifically, altitude sickness happens because the body cannot get enough oxygen at high altitude. It is more likely the higher we go, but it depends a lot on the individual. Some people get
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Why does friction produce heat? Friction produces heat because mechanical energy has to go somewhere, and some of it is converted into the random movement of atoms and molecules, which is heat. Sometimes we need friction to produce heat and sometimes we don’t want it to. If you have ever been out in the cold
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