Why is Savile Row in central London famous for tailors? It became the centre for high-quality, custom-made men’s suits in the 19th century, as famous tailoring houses established themselves there and drew others in. Henry Poole & Co began in 1806, but it did not move onto Savile Row itself until 1846, which is when […]
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Why do apples ripen other fruits? Apples ripen other fruits because they release ethylene gas. If you have a bowl of fruit on your table, you may find that all of the fruit ripens much faster if you have apples in the bowl. You can also ripen fruit like avocados more quickly if you put
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What is the Laffer Curve? The Laffer Curve is a graph that shows the theoretical relationship between the amount people are taxed and the amount of revenue the government can expect to get. The amount of revenue is zero when people are taxed 0% or 100% of their income, and it rises to an optimal
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Is there a center to the universe? No, the universe has no center. Every part of it is expanding away from every other part. When we think of the beginning of the universe, we think of the Big Bang, and when we think of the Big Bang, we think of an explosion from one point
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What are perovskite solar cells? Perovskite solar cells are a type of solar cell that could potentially replace regular solar cells because they are thin, lightweight, cheap to make, and potentially very efficient. There are different types of solar panel technology at the moment, but the majority of them work with silicon semiconductors. Silicon is
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What is the Big Mac Index? The Big Mac Index is an informal way of working out purchasing power parity between different countries. The Big Mac Index was started as a half-serious joke in an article that appeared in The Economist in 1986. The author, Pam Woodall, was trying to find a way to look
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Why is Boxing Day called Boxing Day? Boxing Day is most likely called Boxing Day because of the tradition of wealthy families giving boxes of gifts, money, or leftover food to their servants and tradespeople. However, it could also come from churches giving charitable boxes to people in their congregation. It could be a combination
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Why do we write Xmas for Christmas? The “X” isn’t an X from the Latin alphabet; it is from the Greek alphabet, and it is “chi”, the first letter of the Greek word Christos, meaning Christ. I didn’t actually know until I started researching this topic today that some people think Xmas is an attempt
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What is a traffic light green wave? A traffic light green wave is a system where traffic lights are coordinated so that lights turn green in sequence to allow cars travelling at a specific speed to pass through without stopping, thereby reducing the overall congestion in the city. It is difficult to know how many
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What is an avalanche airbag? An avalanche airbag is a backpack that contains an inflatable balloon to increase the wearer’s volume. An avalanche happens when the snowpack separates from the ground and is pulled down the mountain by gravity. They can happen when there has been heavy snowfall, and the snowpack becomes too heavy to
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