Why are more plane crashes survivable? Because of technology, training, the way the planes are laid out, and the materials the planes are made of. Many people have a fear of flying and a lot of people have an image that flying is very dangerous. This couldn’t be further from the truth. This fear is
#1026 Why are more plane crashes survivable? Read More »
What are the doldrums? They are an area of windless ocean where sailing ships used to get stuck. The doldrums are not a problem for modern shipping because they don’t rely on wind power. They are a problem for yachts and other types of sailing boats. A Salvadoran fisherman called Jose Salvador Alvarenga spent 14
#1025 What are the doldrums? Read More »
Why is a duck-billed platypus so odd? It has a beak, no teeth, lays eggs, sweats milk, has 10 sex chromosomes, has webbed feet, has fur that glows, they have no stomachs, and has venomous spurs. The duck-billed platypus is native to Australia. Its name comes from Greek and means “flat foot”. It is so
#1024 Why is a duck-billed platypus so odd? Read More »
How is a mongoose immune to snake venom? They are not immune to all snake venom, just the snakes they live around. Even then, they have resistance rather than immunity. There are different types of venom for different types of snakes. The mongoose is particularly resistant to the venom of the cobra, which is a
#1023 How is a mongoose immune to snake venom? Read More »
Why do we get déjà vu? There is a dysfunction in the part of your brain that processes familiarity and a correction by the part that processes memory. Déjà vu comes from French, and it means “already seen”. It is the feeling that you have already seen or experienced something you are seeing or experiencing
#1022 Why do we get déjà vu? Read More »
How do planes refuel in the air? Either by using a long hose or a rigid tube to connect the fuel tanker with the plane being refueled. There are two systems of refueling a plane in the air. These are the probe-and-drogue system and the flying boom system. They’ve come a long way from the
#1021 How do planes refuel in the air? Read More »
Why are the Secret Service in charge of protecting the president of the USA? They were the only agency capable of doing it at the time. The Secret Service was tasked with protecting the president of the United States in 1901 after the assassination of President McKinley. McKinley had just been elected for his second
#1020 Why are the Secret Service in charge of protecting the president of the USA? Read More »
How do rats find landmines? They can sniff them out and the rats are light enough that they don’t set the landmines off. It is estimated that there are 110 million landmines still buried around the world. These landmines are still active and they are buried in over 60 countries. Explosives do deteriorate with age,
#1019 How do rats find landmines? Read More »
What is Zipf’s Law? It is a statistical distribution in a data set where the first item is twice as big as the second item, three times as big as the third item, four times as big as the fourth item, and so on. Zipf’s Law is called a law, but it is not really
#1018 What is Zipf’s Law? Read More »
How do our hearts and lungs work automatically? We have an autonomic nervous system that makes organs like the heart and the lungs function automatically. If you want to pick up a cup of tea, your brain has to go through several steps to accomplish the act. It has to make the decision to pick
#1017 How do our hearts and lungs work automatically? Read More »
