Is Troy a real place? Almost certainly, Troy was a real place. It was located in present day Turkey. However, a Trojan war is only a possibility, and the two poems in which the city is mentioned are probably a mixture of history and legend. The location of the city of Troy was identified by […]
#1748 Is Troy a real place? Read More »
What is the Local Bubble? The Local Bubble is an enormous cavity 1,000 light years across that our solar system is currently traveling through. We might think that space between the stars and planets is completely empty, but it isn’t. Depending on where it is, most of interstellar space has about 0.3 to 0.5 atoms
#1747 What is the Local Bubble? Read More »
Could anyone become a knight? In theory, it was possible for anyone to become a knight, but the vast majority of knights came from the nobility. The word “knight” comes from the Old English “cniht”, which meant boy or servant. That came from the Old German “Knecht”, which meant servant, bondsman, or vassal. And that
#1746 Could anyone become a knight? Read More »
How did we discover blood types? Blood types were discovered by Karl Landsteiner in 1900. Humans have four blood types. We have A, B, AB, and O. They are further divided into positive and negative, giving 8 different blood types. The positive and negative refer to the Rh antigen. If you have it, you are
#1745 How did we discover blood types? Read More »
What was Operation Mincemeat? Operation Mincemeat was a deception by British military intelligence during World War Two to convince the Germans that Britain was going to invade Greece and Sardinia, rather than Sicily, the intended target. They planted false documents on a body that the Germans believed was a Royal Marine Major. The ruse was
#1744 What was Operation Mincemeat? Read More »
Who discovered prime numbers? The name of the first person to discover prime numbers is lost to history, but the first people to study them formally were Euclid and Eratosthenes, Greek mathematicians. A prime number is any whole number greater than 1 that can only be divided exactly by 1 and itself. For example, five
#1743 Who discovered prime numbers? Read More »
What was the Hanseatic League? The Hanseatic League was a powerful trade network in Europe that stretched from eastern England to the heart of Russia. It existed from the 12th century until the 16th century, when it gradually faded away. The word Hanseatic came from the Old German word “hanse”, which meant a band, a
#1742 What was the Hanseatic League? Read More »
What is Olbers’ Paradox? Olbers’ Paradox says that if the universe is infinite, eternal, static, and the same in every direction, the night sky should be completely illuminated and very bright, all the time. The Olbers behind Olbers’ Paradox was a German astronomer called Heinrich Olbers. In 1823, he was thinking about the size of
#1741 What is Olbers’ Paradox? Read More »
Who discovered Pompeii? Pompeii was accidentally discovered by an Italian architect called Domenico Fontana at the end of the 16th century. The City of Pompeii was buried from 79 AD until it was accidentally discovered in the late 18th century. It was then left untouched until archaeologists started to recover it in the mid-18th century.
#1740 Who discovered Pompeii? Read More »
How can a bicycle freewheel? A bicycle can freewheel because of a ratchet and spring-loaded catches inside the gear hub. When you cycle on a bicycle, you use the pedals to apply energy to the chain, which transfers the energy to the wheels and makes you move forwards. You want that when you are on
#1739 How can a bicycle freewheel? Read More »
