If you or somebody you know has this worry, then it should be brewing in your awareness to find the answers that produce autonomy from this evil web of anxiety.

Even though to the anxious it may appear impossible at first, the fright of spiders, like most fears, can most certainly be overcome.

There are a selection of treatments, exercises, and therapies that can help and the World Wide Web…oops…repentant…offers a limitless array of resources and textile that can be of assistance.

Most phobias are established to have developed from a traumatizing childhood experience that grew with the anxious so that it eventually becomes a part of him. At time when traumatizing childhood experiences cannot be established, psychologists were known to venture into the realm of reincarnation and bygone life regression.

Phobia is not the same as “fright”. A “panic” is a feeling of impending menace or evil established by inherent logics and reasoning or by gut instinct. A “terror” on the other hand is an overblown and disproportionate perception of certainty.

Some researchers theorized that spiders were once a menace to the creature nation anywhere in evolutionary story and that panic attacks ensuing from phobias were a security system that could avoid the life of persons. Such theories, however, have no pure foundations.

Is the panic of spiders rational? Almost each would permit that the answer to that issue is a resounding “no”. It is in verity, rather “spiritual”. An arachnophobe would be dreadfully scared of a spider that is genuinely nontoxic, and venomous spiders are not sincerely a risk if seen.

Experts harmonize that shrewd more about your terror helps you overcome it since most phobias grow out of horror of the strange. Following are some “fun” truth about spiders.

The fright of spiders actually has its roots pressing in Greek mythology. “Arachnophobia” comes from the Greek words, “arachne”, value “spider”, and “phobos”, sense “a terror”. Arachne was a lovely Greek maiden. She willful weaving under Athena, and had extraordinary flair. When her skills were later recognized, she denied any guidance given by Athena. Athena turned herself into a bitter, old female. She approached Arachne, and tricked her into a weaving contest. Arachne wove portraits of the gods performing evil deeds. Athena and Arachne ruined their weaving in an really terse total of time, but Arachne’s work was much finer than Athena’s. Athena was angry that a simple mortal had beaten her in a weaving contest and had portrayed the gods in a disrespectful way. Overcome with rage, she beat Arachne to the ground. Arachne was so grieve, she hanged herself. Athena realized what she had done, regretted her actions, and sprinkled a famous liquid onto Arachne, whirling her into a spider, so she could keep her weaving skills.

The feared tarantula isn’t toxic. A tarantula’s puncture can be awful, but it isn’t any more risky than a bee tingle.

Under a spider’s abdomen, near the rear, are tiny stubs called spinnerets. The spider uses its legs to injury liquid silk made in its abdomen from the spinnerets. The silk hardens as it stretches. Since silk is made out of protein, a spider eats the worn silk of an old web before whirling a new one.

On an American one-dollar statement, there is an owl in the high left-hand confront of the “1″ enclosed in the “armor” and a spider secret in the front greater right-hand turn.

Most spiders belong to the orb weaver spider family, Family Aranidae. This is pronounced “A Rainy Day.”

In the 1960s, animal behavior researchers studied the property of countless substances on spiders. When spiders were fed flies that had been injected with caffeine, they spun very “panicky” webs. When spiders ate flies injected with LSD, they spun webs with rowdy, abstract patterns. Spiders that were given sedatives destroy snoozing before completing their webs.

Horseshoe crabs and spiders are actually close relatives. The amulet crab belongs to the large group of invertebrates (animals lacking backbones) called Arthropods. This group also includes lobsters, crabs, insects, spiders, and scorpions. Even though it looks crab-like, with a hard bomb and claws, the mascot crab is more densely linked to scorpions and spiders than to crabs.

Many cultures believe that spiders fetch good accident. The spider was current with the Romans, who had a favorite mascot in the life of a precious rock winning which a spider was carved. Also they were fond of shipping little spiders of gold or silver, or any of the fortunate metals, to transport good fluke in anything to do with trade.

Spider silk can stretch up to 50 percent of its original segment. A leave of spider silk the width of a pencil could halt a Boeing 747 in flight.

On mean, people fear spiders more than they fear vanishing. However, statistically, you are more likely to be killed by a champagne plug than by the hurt of a noxious spider.

We’d maybe all be exhausted without spiders. Their sheer number makes spiders necessary in maintaining the settle of nature. Because they configure insect communities wherever they happen, spiders play a vital position in the terrestrial food bind. Without all those hungry spiders, insect populations would explode, food crops would be decimated, and ecological balances ravaged. Humans would perhaps starve within a stuff of months–if they hadn’t already succumbed to several insect-borne diseases. No spider, incidentally, has been found to transmit disease.

Spider spite can be worn to delight certain neurological and mental disorders. A inquiries group in Utah has secluded components from the rancor of many species of North American spiders, which may help moderate wits damage next strokes.

Columns used for construction have a definite value called the crippling load or buckling loadthe load at which the column bends or buckles but does not break. The effective length of the column is the length of an equivalent column of the same material and cross sectional area with hinged ends and having the value of the crippling load equal to that of the given column. The least radius of gyration is the radius of gyration where the least moment of inertia is considered. The ratio of effective length to the least radius of gyration is called the slenderness ratio of the column.

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT TEMPLE SQUARE?

The Temple Square in Utah is very religious place for the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It’s symbolic of the holy ordinances or covenants that take place there To Mormons, the Gospel of Jesus is not complete without temples The Temple Square is special because it reminds the Mormons of the sacrifices by the pioneers who erected it. It is also the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

WHO DISCOVERED SATURN’S RINGS?

Christian Huygens, a Dutch physicist and astronomer, found out that Saturn has rings. He also discovered the Titan, the moon of Saturn.

IS THERE ANY MAGNET WITH A SINGLE POLE?

Magnets found in nature and those made by man, are found to have two poles without exception. In contrast, electrical charges can be separated from each other. Several experiments to detect magnetic monopoles have been inconclusive.

WHEN DID THE FIRST MANNED BALLOON FLIGHT TAKE PLACE?

In the late eighteenth century two French    papermakers, the Mont golfer’s brothers, began experimenting with hot air balloons. On Oct 15, 1783, a French scientist, Francois de Rozier became the first person to make a balloon ascent. He rose to a height of 80 ft in a balloon made by the Mont golfers.

WHAT IS VSAT THE ACRONYM FOR?

VSAT stands for Very Small Aperture Terminal. VSAT nodes are networked together, using an antenna directed at a geo-stationary satellite. VSAT technology is used for transmission of information and is extremely popular in banking and financial services, Multisided manufacturing and for linking government offices.

HAVE YOU HEARD OFBUCKYBALLS?

Buck balls   are   microscopic spheres of 60 carbon atoms that resemble a dome. They have cavities large enough to hold other atoms — even full molecules. Unless heated to a very high temperature, the contents of the cavities do not emerge. This has enormous potential in the fields of medicine, miniature mechanics, battery technology and high strength materials.

WHAT IS ‘NUCLEAR WINTER’?

‘Nuclear winter’ is used to describe the aftermath of a nuclear explosion caused due to a nuclear war or a nuclear accident. The impact of this explosion would be so devastating that unquantifiable amounts of dust and smoke would be released into the earth’s stratosphere. This would block the sun’s energy from reaching the surface of the earth, thereby lowering the temperature. The period of this effect would be determined by the intensity of the explosion. ‘Nuclear winter’ would threaten the existence of life on Earth.

HOW DOES A GAS LIGHTER WORK?

Certain crystalline materials (like quartz, |Rochelle salt and certain ceramics) have piezoelectric behaviour. When you apply pressure to them, you get a charge separation within the crystal and a voltage across the crystal that is sometimes extremely high. For example, in a barbecue lighter, the popping noise you hear is a little spring-loaded hammer hitting a crystal and generating thousands of volts across the faces of the crystal. A voltage this high is identical to the voltage that drives a spark plug in a gasoline engine. The crystal’s voltage can generate a nice spark that lights the gas in the grill.

HOW DOES A PILOT KNOW THE ROUTE TO A DESTINATION HE IS FLYING?

Pilots rely heavily on computerized controls and with the assistance of the autopilot and the flight management computer, steer the plane along their planned route. They are monitored by air traffic control ’stations they pass along the way. They regularly check their fuel supply, condition of their engines and the air-conditioning, hydraulic, and other systems. Pilots may request a change in altitude or route if circumstances dictate.

WHAT KIND OF HEALING DID DR EDWARD BACH PIONEER?

Dr Edward Bach pioneered a kind of healing called flower remedy therapy. This treats predominantly mental and emotional manifestations of disease, relying on administration of remedies derived from the flowering parts of plants. Dr Bach considered total 38 remedies sufficient to treat the most common negative moods that afflict mankind. After his death, many remedies were added and now the total is more than 200. He believed that the remedies were divinely enriched.

WHY DO WE FEEL THAT THE AIR IS FRESH AFTER IT RAINS?

PEOPLE living in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore are bound to feel that the air is fresh after the first heavy monsoon showers. This is because the bowers bring down from the sky, gases like sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc. These first monsoon showers, however, cause harm to many freshly planted saplings in these cities.

THE FILAMENT OF AN ELECTRIC BULB IS HEATED TO VERY HIGH TEMPERATURES. HOW COME IT DOES NOT BUM?

THE filament does not bum because the bulb is filled with inert gases like argon and nitrogen. Oxygen is necessary for any combustion.

WHAT ARE ASTEROIDS? WHO INVENTED THE BICYCLE?

THE first known patent of a machine that resembled a bicycle was given to Jean Theson in 1645. It had four wheels and was driven by two men. The first two-wheeled machine was invented by a Frenchman, Baron Karl de Drais (Baron von Drais) in 1818. But it did not catch on. What caught on was the bicycle, invented by a blacksmith, Kirkpatrick Macmillan of Scotland.

HOW DO FORESTS HELP TO PREVENT FLOODS?

ONE of the major reasons for floods is erosion of soil from the area near thd banks of

the river. Forests have a dense cluster of trees in them. The roots of the trees hold on to the soil and prevent the erosion. It is therefore important that trees should not be cut indiscriminately, particularly near the banks of the rivers.

DO VOLCANIC EXPLOSIONS AND EARTHQUAKES OCCUR INSIDE OCEANS ALSO?

The waves that we see in the seas and oceans are mainly caused by air currents. The size of the sea waves depends on the speed of the wind and for how long the wind has been blowing. Tide and ebb are caused by the pull of the moon (and to some extent, the pull of the sun) on the water. Mighty waves like tsunamis are caused by earthquakes below the water surface in seas and oceans.

WHAT IS VISCOSITY?

Viscosity is a property seen in fluids that offers resistance to a body moving through them. It is equivalent to friction. Whenever a body falls through a viscous fluid, it reaches a terminal velocity or uniform speed due to the viscous force that balances gravity.

WHY IS IT THAT WE CAN WALK MORE EASILY ON WET SAND THAN ON DRY SAND?

Have you not come across the Newton’s Laws Of Motion? Everyone continues in a state of rest or uniform motional, unless compelled to do otherwise by an impressed (external) force. Walking is possible because the ground on which we walk offers some resistance. Assuming the resistance is zero, the foot that is placed forward will keep moving forward and you will fall. Even dry sand offers some resistance. That is why you can walk on it, if you are careful. Wet sand offers much more resistance and hence you can walk more easily on wet sand.

WHAT IS A RETRO-ROCKET?

Newton’s first law of motion governs a spaceship travelling in space: It continues to travel at uniform speed. Since there is no reaction in space, a retro-rocket fired in the direction opposite to that of the motion, reduces the speed of the spaceship.

WHAT IS TORQUEWRENCH? AN OTOLARYNGOLOGIST IS A PHYSICIAN. WHAT DOES HE SPECIALISE IN?

An otolaryngology’s is a physician who specializes in the problems of the ear, nose and throat (ENT). Myocardial infarction is the technical term for…? Unique is the application of liquid nitrogen to destroy warts.

WHAT IS THE WIND CHILL FACTOR?

Wind chill is the rate of loss of body heat due to the motion of air. In simple parlance, a strong wind can make it much colder than the ambient temperature. Paul Siple coined this term in 1939 during an Antarctic expedition.

WHAT IS EUTROPHICATION?

The process by which water becomes more nourished either by the natural process of maturation or artificial processes.

WHAT IS A DIAMOND MADE OF?

A 100 million tears ago, when the Earth was cooling carbon deposits were exposed to extreme heat and pressure by molten rocks. These deposits crystallized to form diamond mines. Incidentally, the diamond is the hardest material known to mankind. If so, then how is the diamond cut to various shapes for use in jewellery? Saws made from diamond dust cut the diamond. Over 80 per cent of diamonds are used in the industry itself.

WHAT IS A RE-ENTRY VEHICLE?

Whenever a spaceship returns to earth, it encounters tremendous friction from the atmosphere that generates heat. In order to ensure the safety of astronauts and the expensive apparatus, the spaceship is shielded by using heat resistant material. Scientists from the former Soviet Union were the first to deploy the re-entry vehicle successfully in the early Sixties.

WHAT IS OZONE?

Ozone is the allotropic form of oxygen. It is used-in water purification and in treating gangrene. Its presence in the upper atmosphere is crucial as it absorbs energetic ultra-violet radiation. Industrial and vehicular pollution has resulted in the depletion of this life- saving molecule and is a cause of worry for the environmental scientists.

WHAT IS HYDROPONICS?

Hydroponics is often defined as the cultivation of plants in water. Since many aggregates or media support plant growth the definition has been broadened to read the cultivation of plants without soil Growers use hydroponics techniques due to lack of water supply or fertile farmland. Home gardeners have used it to grow fresh vegetables year round and to grow plants in smaller spaces. Greenhouses and nurseries grow their plants in a soilless, peat- or bark-based growing mix.

WHAT IS SIDEREAL TIME?

A sidereal year is the length of time it takes the Sun to move from a position relative to a fixed star and back to the same position again, as observed from the same location on Earth. It is equivalent to 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 11 seconds.

WHY THE BALLOON IS CALLED THE POOR MAN’S SATELLITE?

Unlike hot air balloons, which are used in sports, the hydrogen filled is used for scientific, metrological and military purposes. They can carry payloads of a few tons. They are extensively used for astronomical observations, especially to study X-Ray emissions from stars.

WHAT IS CORIOLIS FORCE?

Whenever a body is moving in a circular path, it experiences centripetal force towards the center of the circle. If you walk within a bus that is taking a turn, an additional force acts upon you. It is called the Coriolis force, a force that emanates from two simultaneous motions of the same body.

WHO IS THE FATHER OF GAS-FILLED LAMPS?

Irving Langmuir studied chemical reactions at high temperatures and low pressures. One of the spin-offs of this research was the development of gas-filled lamps.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ATOMIC AND A NUCLEAR BOMB9

Nuclear bombs are of two types — those that depend on fission, like atomic bombs, and those that depend on fusion, like hydrogen bombs. The former get their explosive energy from the splitting of atoms in materials like uranium or plutonium, which takes place automatically. On the other hand, hydrogen bombs, which are also known as thermonuclear bombs, depend upon the fusing together of atoms, as is taking place in our sun, to release much vaster quantities of energy than atomic bombs. The fusing requires very high temperatures; hence atomic bombs are generally used as triggers for hydrogen bombs. Hence, every atomic bomb is a nuclear bomb, but every nuclear bomb is not an atomic bomb.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CYCLONE, HURRICANE, TORNADO AND TWISTER?

Technically, a cyclone is any kind of circular wind storm. But now, it is only used to describe a strong tropical storm found off of the coast of India. Hurricanes and Typhoons are the same thing, but in different places. On the coast of Florida it is called hurricane. In the Philipines, it is called typhoon. Hurricanes occur in the Atlantic and typhoons, in the Pacific. Basically, hurricanes and typhoons form over water and are huge, while tornados form over land and are much smaller in —size. A tornado is a violent windstorm characterised by a twisting, funnel-shaped cloud. In the United States, twister is used as a a colloquial term for tornado.

WHEN DOES RESONANCE OCCUR?

Resonance occurs when two or more objects naturally vibrate at the same frequency and the sound produced by one object, causes the other to vibrate. Strings or air columns tuned to vibrate at particular frequencies result in the generation of music. Resonance’s can be destructive too. Making individual parts resonate can damage Bridges. This happens when a strong wind blows or a mechanized army convoy passes over it.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ANTI PARTICLES CLASH?

Every elementary particle is known to have an anti particle with opposite properties. Whenever the two meet, they annihilate each other and give out energy twice the mass of the particle.

WHO DISCOVERED PIEZO-ELECTRIC EFFECT?

Modern kitchens are equipped with piezo-lighters. Certain substances produce currents when they are subjected to pressure. Pierre Curie, husband of Marie and co-discoverer of radium, was the one who discovered piezoelectricity.

WHAT IS INERTIA? It is the property of a body to stay in a state of rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external agency. It is believed that the mass of a body is the total measure of its inertia. Scientists are conducting experiments    to    distinguish between inertial man and gravitational mass. WHO DEVISED THE PRECISE NATURE OF PLANETARY MOTION?

Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer, devised major laws of planetary motion. After 17 years of observation, Kepler found that orbits, of planets around the sun are ellipses and not circles.

WHY ARE QUARKS IMPORTANT?

“Three quarks to muster mark,” said James Joyce. Indeed, three quarks fuse together to form nucleons: Protons and neutrons that make the atomic nucleus. Quarks are believed to be the basic building blocks of matter.

WHERE ARE TRANSURANIC ELEMENTS FOUND?

Transuranic elements are not found in nature but have been created artificially in the laboratory. They represent atomic numbers 93 to 109, listed after the last stable element, uranium.

IN WHAT WAY IS THE NAME DE BROGLIE CONNECTED WITH WAVELENGTH? In modern physics, wave-particle duality of the microscopic world continues to battle the scientists. Light is made of waves but it can also be described as consisting of tiny particles called photons. A sub-atomic particle   can be described as having wave properties. De Broglie, a French physicist, was the first to give a formula for the “wavelength” of the particle. WHY THE ROBOT IS NAMED SO?

The word originates in the Slavic “Robota7, meaning compulsory work. Robots are used in hazardous environments. Now robots have also been powered by artificial intelligence.

WHAT IS PARAFILAX? Parallax is the apparent displacement of an astronomical object due to the change in the field of the observers. The very fact that we observe stars from the surface of the earth instead of its center causes geocentric parallax while heliocentric   parallax   occurs because the observation is carried out from the earth and not from the sun. In modern photography, this term is used to describe the difference between the view of an object through the lens of the camera and one seen through a separate viewfinder. WHICH IS THE BIGGEST MISSILE TEST CENTRE IN THE WORLD?

Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR) is the world’s largest, land-based rocket range. It has a chain of downrange flight monitoring, observing and recovery stations from inland Alaska to Spitzbergen in the Arctic Ocean. Poker Flat is a sounding rocket launch facility 30 miles northeast of Fairbanks used for auroral and middle to upper atmospheric research. The Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, operates it.

HOW DO FORESTS HELP TO PREVENT FLOODS?

ONE of the major reasons for floods is erosion of soil from the area near the banks of the river. F’orests have a dense cluster of trees in them. The roots of the trees hold on to the soil and prevent the erosion. It is therefore important that trees should not be cut indiscriminately, particularly near the banks of the rivers.

WHY ARE NOBEL PRIZES GIVEN ONLY IN NORWAY AND NOT IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY?

THE Nobel prizes were founded by Alfred Nobel,    Norwegian chemist, engineer and industrialist.

WHY IS SOME SPACE LEFT BETWEEN RAILS ON THE RAILWAY TRACK?

YOU must have learnt in school that heat expands and cold contracts. This means that as a result of heat, all bodies expand. (There are rare exfor this expansion, a little space is left between rails.

HOW IS THE INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING THE INTENSITY OF EARTHQUAKES CALIBRATED?

`The Richter scale is used to measure the magnitude of an earthquake. Magnitude is a measure of an earthquake’s size, but rather than being a direct measure of the intensity of the ground shaking, it is a reflection of the strength of the seismic sound waves emitted by the earthquake, a phenomenon that can be detected at great distances from the earthquake’s epicentre. Because an earthquake’s magnitude can be determined solely

by routine measurements made by seismometers, magnitude has become an important measurement commonly recorded on seismograms. The scale is logarithmic — this means that a factor-of-10 difference in actual earthquake energy corresponds to a difference of one whole number on the scale.

WHAT ARE SUNSPOTS?

The dark spots on the surface of the sun are called sunspots. These areas are locations for sudden changes in the magnetic environment or the ‘magnetic storms’. They appear darker in contrast to the surrounding areas, hence, the name.

WHY IS A TRACTOR’S EXHAUST PIPE BENT UPWARDS?

As the exhaust gases of an automobile are hot and tend to rise upwards, an upward bending pipe is the most natural shape, hi a tractor, the driver’s seat is directly behind the engine and usually open. So, a backward-bending exhaust pipe will throw the exhaust gases directly at the driver. The rear part of a tractor is broader than its engine. Even a sideways-bent exhaust pipe will have the same effect. As a tractor has various agricultural attachments and a trailer, the exhaust pipe cannot be extended behind its rear tyres from below its chassis. A tractor works mainly on rough terrain which could damage an exhaust pipe protruding downward from the chassis.

WHAT IS FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGY?

Fuel cell technology uses the fuel cell, an electrochemical energy conversion device. A fuel cell converts hydrogen and oxygen into water, and in the process it produces electricity With a fuel cell, chemicals constantly flow into the cell so it never goes dead — as long as there, is a flow of chemicals into the cell, the electricity flows out of the cell. Most fuel cells in use today use hydrogen and oxygen as the chemicals.

WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF DELAY IN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS?

The communication satellites are normally geosynchronous. In other words, these satellites have the same period of revolution as that of the earth — 24 hours. To attain this, the satellite is launched at an altitude of 36,000 kms from the earth. The messages, sent by means of radio waves, travel this distance to and fro. Radio waves are transmitted at the speed of light, about 3 lakh kms per second. Therefore, approximately, one quarter of a second is lost in traversing the distance between the earth and the satellite.

WHAT CONTRIBUTION DID LUIS ALVAREZ MAKE TO MODERN SCIENCE?

This American physicist developed the linear accelerator in 1946 for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1968. He and his son, Walter, first proposed that massive extinctions around the Jurassic — including that of dinosaurs, were caused by the impact of a large space object.

WHAT IS SPELEOLOGY?

It is the science that explores and studies caves found under the earth’s surface.

WHAT IS WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY?

In classical physics, all the physical phenomena concerning light, viz. reflection from a glazed surface, refraction through a prism, interference when two or more sources of light were put together and diffraction, the bending of light along edge of an object, could be explained with the wave theory. But this description does not hold for the microscopic world. In modern physics, light is made of discrete packets of energy.

WHAT IS THE FARADAY CAGE?

The Faraday Cage, also known as Faraday Shield or Screen, is a network of parallel wires connected to a common conductor at one end to provide electrostatic shielding without affecting electromagnetic waves. The common conductor is usually grounded. It attenuates an electrostatic field, designed to prevent the passage of electromagnetic waves, either containing them in or excluding them from its interior space. It is named after physicist Michael Faraday, who built the first one in 1836.

WHAT IS A PILOTLESS AIRCRAFT?

A pilotless aircraft, usually an MAV (micro air vehicle), is one which is programmed to go somewhere or do something on its own, or is a remote controlled aircraft piloted from the ground. Most pilotless aircraft are rather small in size. Pilotless aircraft used for dangerous jobs such as spying or exploring new places with a camera, which transmits the data back to the ground. They can be very useful as many are shot down or crash, and thus saving a real pilot’s life.

WHERE WAS INDIA’S FIRST ELECTRICITY-GENERATING STATION LOCATED?

The 4-5 megawatt hydroelectric power station near Sivasamudram falls of the Cauvery in Karnataka was the first major power station in India. Owned by a few British companies, it was set up by General Electric of the US. It was commissioned in 1902, and its output was mostly meant for the Kolar gold mines, located about 90 miles away much smaller power plants started functioning earlier in different parts of India. The first small hydro power plant, a 130-kilowatt plant, started functioning in 1897 at Darjeeling.

WHY IS VENUS THE HOTTEST PLANET EVEN THOUGH MERCURY IS CLOSEST TO THE SUN?

The degree of hotness of a planet does not depend on as much on closeness to the Sun as on its atmosphere. Carbon dioxide has the tendency to absorb heat, which in turn increases the temperature. Mercury’s atmosphere does not contain carbon dioxide (because of which all the heat is returned to space). Venus contains a high percentage of carbon dioxide due to which it is hottest planet.

IS IT TRUE THAT THE SAHARA DESERT EXPANDS BY HALF A MILE SOUTH OF EVERY YEAR?

In the 1970s and 1980s, it was reported that the Sahara desert was expanding southward at a rate of 5 kms per year. But during the last decade USAs NOAA meteorological satellite observed that this ‘desertification’ was a myth. It is not so severe as earlier suspected. The deserts reflect much of the incoming solar radiations as compared to land with vegetation (during cloud-free days). Satellites measure this reflected radiations daily, from which the type of land cover or greenness can be inferred. Analysing such data for several years, it was observed that the Sahara was not expanding.

IS IT TRUE THAT THE SAHARA DESERT EXTENDS BY HALF A MILE SOUTH EVERY YEAR?

It is true that the Sahara desert is expanding, but not just half a mile. It is extending at a rate of 30 miles south per year! Its stretch is engulfing degraded grasslands. Due to the extreme heat, the vegetation of the area is dying out, which results in more desertification. Thus, every year the area of the Sahara desert is increasing and scientists are working out methods to stop or decrease the rapid change. They say that if this continues, the whole of Africa will turn into a desert one day. Global warming is also a big threat in the expansion of the Sahara.

WHICH IS THE SMALLEST SUB-ATOMIC PARTICLE?

The smallest particle is the quark, the basic building block of hadrons. There are two types of hadrons: baryons (three quarks) and mesons (one quark, one antiquark). Protons and the neutrons are stable baryons. There are also leptons, a family of elementary particles that includes electrons, muons, tauons, and neutrinos. Neutrinos were originally believed to have zero mass, but they have been found to have a very tiny mass, smaller than any subatomic particle. Calling someone a ‘hadron head’ is considered an insult among physicists.

WHAT IS THE KUIPER BELT?

The Kuiper Belt is disk-shaped belt of billions of small, icy bodies orbiting the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune, mostly at distances 30-50 times the Earth’s distance from the Sun. Modern computer simulations show the Kuiper Belt to have been strongly influenced by Jupiter and Neptune.

WHAT IS A ‘NUCLEAR WINTER’?

The nuclear winter theory, proposed by scientists in 1983 and later on established by the US National Research Council in 1984, states that if only half of the collective nuclear weapons of Russia and US were to explode, they would release such enormous amount of dust, smoke and soot into the at- mosphere that sunlight would be completely blocked. This would continue till these clouds settled and consequently the earth’s temperature would fall, creating a period of abnormal cold and darkness. A nuclear winter is also believed likely after a nuclear war. Essential life processes like photosynthesis would also be fatally affected, endangering plant and animal life.

WHY IS A TRACTOR’S EXHAUST PIPE BENT UPWARDS?

As the exhaust gases of an automobile are hot and tend to rise upwards, an upward bending pipe is the most natural shape, hi a tractor, the driver’s seat is directly behind the engine and usually open. So, a backward-bending exhaust pipe will throw the exhaust gases directly at the driver. The rear part of a tractor is broader than its engine. Even a sideways-bent exhaust pipe will have the same effect. As a tractor has various agricultural attachments and a trailer, the exhaust pipe cannot be extended behind its rear tyres from below its chassis. A tractor works mainly on rough terrain which could damage an exhaust pipe protruding downward from the chassis.

WHAT IS FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGY?

Fuel cell technology uses the fuel cell, an electrochemical energy conversion device. A fuel cell converts hydrogen and oxygen into water, and in the process it produces electricity With a fuel cell, chemicals constantly flow into the cell so it never goes dead — as long as there, is a flow of chemicals into the cell, the electricity flows out of the cell. Most fuel cells in use today use hydrogen and oxygen as the chemicals.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IRON AND STEEL?

The difference is percentage of carbon, the main alloy element. Those irons containing less than 2% carbon are known as steels while those containing more than 2% carbon are known as pig iron. Pig iron is obtained from iron pre by processing it with coke in a blast furnace. This pig iron is then further processed to reduce the carbon content in different furnaces to obtain steels. These steels can be then further processed to obtain alloy steels, stainless steels by adding elements such as silicon, manganese, chromium, nickel, etc.

WHAT IS CRUSH DEPTH AND HOW IS IT MEASURED?

Crush or collapse depth is the submerged depth of the ocean at which a submarine will collapse due to the surrounding water pressure. A submarine’s hull is normally constructed of steel or steel alloys to increase the diving depth of submarines. This is normally mathematically calculated; however, it is not always accurate.

WHAT IS M-THEORY?

The String theory is currently the most promising candidate for a unified theory. It describes free particles as vibrations in strings in space and solves the problem of the

incompatibility of the two fundamental theories (GR & QTF). There are, however, five different string theories. The M-Theory is a theory of which all the five string theories are only different aspects. The M-Theory is an 11-dimensional theory that looks 10 dimensional at some points in its space of parameters. Such a theory could have as a fundamental object a membrane as opposed to a string.

WHAT ARE MILANKOVITCH CYCLES?

The Pleistocene period in earth history, 1.8 million years to about 10,000 years ago, witnessed profound changes in the earth’s climate characterised by repeated glacial and interglacial events. There were as many as 30 glacial intervals during this period. Milutin Milankovitch, a Serbian astronomer and mathematician, calculated in the early 1930s that the orbital parameters of the earth changed with frequencies of roughly 1,000,00 to 20,000 years. These were responsible for variations in the of solar radiations received on the surface thus causing glacial interglacial climatic changes. The exploration of the ocean floor since the 1960 has indeed identified the above periodicities and proved Milankovitch right.

WHAT ARE MILANKOVITCH CYCLES?

Astronomer Milutin Milankovitch developed the mathematical formulae upon which these orbital variations are based. He hypothesised that when some parts of the cyclic variations are combined and occur at the same time, they are responsible for major changes to the earth’s climate (even ice ages). A 1976 study, published in the journal ‘Science’ examined deep-sea sediment cores and found that Milankovich’s theory corresponded to periods of climate change. Indeed, ice ages had occurred when the earth was going through different stages of orbital variation.

o        WHEN WAS THE FIRST SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCHED?

The first space shuttle Columbia was launched into space on April 12, 1981 and landed on Edward Air Force base, California on April 14, 1981. Officially, it’s called the Space Transportation System (STS) and it was the first reusable spacecraft. These shuttles carry payloads for scientific experiments, etc. 

WHICH PLACE ON EARTH HAS NEVER RECEIVED ANY RAINFALL?

The Atacama Desert, spread between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains in northern Chile has not experienced rain in its entire recorded history. Made up of salt

basins, sand and lava flows, it lacks vegetation or animal life. Its landscape is desolate

and moon-like and has been used to simulate the moon’s surface in some experiments. The Quillagua meteorological station located in this desert has recorded an average annual rainfall of only 0.5 mm during 1964-2001.

WHAT ARE CFCS? HOW ARE THEY RESPONSIBLE FOR DEPLETION OF THE OZONE LAYER?

THERE is a layer of ozone in the zone 10 kilometre to 50 kilometre above the surface of the earth. This layer of ozone protects life on earth from the harmful ultraviolet radiation in sunlight. CFC stands for chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration, air-conditioning, aerosols, etc. When these gases rise up in the atmosphere and reach the ozone layer they destroy it. Over the past ten years, in particular, the debate has been held again and again on this issue and steps have been taken to correct the situation. Many nations have agreed to discontinue the use and production of chloro-fluro carbons for the purpose of refrigeration or air-conditioning.

I HAVE READ THAT SUN WILL BECOME A RED GIANT AFTER CONSUMING ITS SUPPLY OF HYDROGEN. WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE SUN AFTER THIS PHASE?

YES, according to astronomers, the sun is about 5 billion years-old; It is expected that the sun mil consume all the hydrogen in it and become a Red Giant. It will be so big then that it will engulf even the planets around it. Then there will be nuclear reactions, involving the vast Supply of Helium in it (formed from Hydrogen) and the heavier elements. As a result it will become a white dwarf, a star of small radius. It is estimated that the radius will be a hundred times smaller than the present radius. Slowly it will lose its luminosity and become a black dwarf. But stop worrying. It will take at least five billion years for this to happen.

DIAMOND AND COAL ARE BOTH CARBON. THEN WHY DOES ONLY DIAMOND SHINE?

DIAMOND is carbon in its pure form and is made of the same element as coal. But there is a difference. Diamonds are formed at places at least 120 km below the surface of the earth under the enormous pressure of the rocks and the crust above them. It is true that diamonds have been found in levels higher than this, below the surface of the earth. But it is believed they too were originally formed deep below and shifted to higher points due to erosion of the soil or glacial action. There are diamonds of black colour too. They are not used as ‘gems, but they are useful in making cutting tools in industry.

WHAT IS THERE BETWEEN THE EARTH AND MARS?

SURROUNDING the earth is its atmosphere. Then there is space. Again as your spacecraft approaches Mars, it will have to pass through the atmosphere around Mars. Unlike the moon, Mars has an atmosphere.

WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE TO PETROLEUM? FROM WHERE SHALL WE MEET OUR ENERGY REQUIREMENTS WHEN THE PETROLEUM RESOURCES ARE EXHAUSTED?

DESCRIBED above is one such resource: solar power. Automobiles which^run on batteries, charged by exposing them to sunlight, already exist. You must be aware that nuclear power reactors are also being established all over the world. Many scientists have expressed the possibility of using hydrogen as a fuel. We are yet to find a cheap way of separating hydrogen from water, which has two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen in its molecule. In Holland and Denmark, power is being produced from windmills. In countries like. Japan, power is being produced on a small scale from tidal waves. Let us hope that tomorrow’s generation will learn how to meet its requirements of power.

WHY IS THERE NO GRAVITATIONAL FORCE ON THE MOON?

THE moon has gravitational force too. The gravitational force exerted by a body depends on its mass. The gravitational force on the moon is about one sixth the gravitational force of the earth.

WHAT IS THE MACH NUMBER?

The Mach number, in aerodynamics and fluid mechanics, is the ratio of the speed of an object through a fluid (gas or liquid) to the speed of sound in the fluid. The Mach number was named after the Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach. An airplane travelling at less than Mach 1 is travelling at subsonic speeds; at about Mach 1, transonic, or approximately the speed of sound; and greater than Mach 1, at supersonic speeds.

WHAT IS A MACH NUMBER? WHAT IS THE CHANDRASHEKAR LIMIT?

The maximum limit of 1.44 times the solar mass (or sun’s mass) of a star, to end its life as a white dwarf star, is known as the Chandrashekar Limit. This is the basic principle to determine the future of a star after the red giant phase. The stars with a mass more than 1.44 times the solar mass go through supernova explosions and end their lives as neutron stars or black holes. This limit was discovered by Indian astrophysicist S

Chandrashekar and hence it has been named after him.

o        WHAT IS PLANETARY ALBEDO?

Planetary albedo is the fraction of the incoming light reflected from a surface. A bright surface, such as ice or snow, has a very high albedo (close to 1, which would represent total reflection), whereas a dark surface, such as coal or soot, has a very low. albedo (close to 0, which would represent complete absorption). In the solar system, the Moon, which has a bare, rocky surface, has an average albedo of 0.12 (reflects 12 per cent of the light hitting it). The Earth, which is partly cloud-covered, has an average albedo of 0.37, while the albedo of Venus, which is completely cloud-covered, is O.65.

WHAT IS THE CHANDRASEKHAR LIMIT?

In the 1930s, Subramanya Chandrasekhar, now recognised as the founder of relativistic astrophysics, address the important question: What happens to a star once it has burnt all its nuclear fuel? Chadrasekhar’s answer was that it depends on the mass of the burnt core left behind. If the mass of this core (mind you, not the mass of the shining star) is less than 1.4 times the mass of the sun, the core will retire as a white dwarf star. Immediately above this limit, say up to three times the solar mass, the core will become a neutron star. If the mass of the core is still higher, a black hole will be formed. In an ordinary shining star, the force of gravitation is balanced by nuclear reactions. In white dwarf and neutron stars, by complex quantum forces. In a black hole, gravitation dominates. For this pioneering work Chandrasekhar belatedly received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983.

HOW MANY PERSONS HAVE SET FOOT ON THE MOON?

Only twelve people have walked oh the Moon, each on one mission only. Nobody has walked on the lunar surface since 1972. The lucky astronauts are: Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, Charles Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.

IS A RAY OF LIGHT VISIBLE IN VACUUM?

No, rays of light cannot be seen in vacuum. When a ray of light enters an enclosed dark room through an opening, light is scattered by dust particles suspended in the air and thus we see the path of the ray Actually we see the dust particles falling substance which can scatter the light. This explains the darkness in space though there are many light sources. We can see only the light sources and the objects, which fall in the path of rays.

ON WHAT PRINCIPLE DOES AN ALTIMETER WORK?

There are basically two types of altimeters— pressure altimeters and radio altimeters. Pressure altimeters are aneroid barometers calibrated to indicate altitude instead of pressure. It is based on the principle of drop of atmospheric pressure with gain of height. The corrugated capsules inside the casing expand with gain of height. This expansion is magnified with the help of gears and levers to move the indicator over the dial. The mean sea level pressure is 1013.2 millibars or 29.92 inches of mercury which is taken as zero altitude and there is drop of 1 millibar for every 32 feet (approximately) gain of height. The instrument is calibrated accordingly to indicate loss/ gain of pressure in terms of height gained or lost. Depending on the pressure setting or datum, the instrument reads altitude (above MSL) or absolute altitude height (above ground level — AGL). A radio altimeter is a radar aid, which is effective only from 20 ft to 2,500 ft. It is basically used as a ground proximity warning system in mountainous terrain.

o        WHAT ARE PSEUDOHALOGENS?

Pseudohalogens are groups formed by combination of two or more P block elements (in the periodic table) with a unit negative charge e.g. CN- (CN Minus) cyanide group a combination of carbon and nitrogen with nonnegative charge. They are called pseudohalogens as they form covalent compounds, complexes similar to the halogens, the 17th group elements in the periodic table. They differ from halogens as they are able to polymerise unlike halogens and their complexes are not paramagnetic.

HOW DOES THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION MANAGE ITS WATER AND OXYGEN NEEDS?

The ISS’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) helps in water and oxygen management for the astronauts. The ECLSS Water Recycling System (WRS) reclaims waste water from the shuttle’s fuel cells, from urine, from oral hygiene and hand washing, and by condensing humidity from the air. Without such careful recycling, 40,000 pounds per year of water from the Earth would be required to resupply a minimum of four crewmembers for the life of the station. The primary source of oxygen is water electrolysis, followed by oxygen in a pressurised storage tank. Hydrogen left over from splitting water is vented into space. In ECLSS hardware racks, there is a machine that combines the hydrogen with excess carbon dioxide from the air in a chemical reaction that produces water and methane.

HOW IS ZERO GRAVITY CREATED ON EARTH?

Zero gravity conditions result in weightlessness and the body begins to float in an enclosed space. A more precise term is microgravity or reduced gravity NASA’s C-9B aircraft and Zero Gravity Corporation’s modified Boeing 727 create these conditions by flying in long, parabolic arcs. By changing the flight path, they are able to create different values of g-force and therefore varying degrees of apparent gravity. More individuals are experiencing these conditions in preparation for space tourism or for adventure.

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE TENTH PLANET?

The tenth planet in the outer solar system was discovered recently. Right now, it’s about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth and it’s the farthest-known object in the solar system. Mike Brown (California Institute of Technology) along with colleagues Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory, Hawaii) and David Rabinowitz (Yale University) discovered it. It goes under the temporary name of 2003UB313; a new name has been proposed to the International Astronomical Union.

WHAT EFFECT DO OCEAN CURRENTS HAVE ON THE EARTH’S WEATHER?

Ocean water and currents affect the climate. Because it takes far more energy to change the temperature of water than land or air, water warms up and cools off much more slowly than either. As a result, inland climates are subject to more extreme temperature ranges than coastal climates, which are insulated by nearby water. The ocean’s surface layer, so surface currents move a lot of heat, absorbs over half the heat that reaches the earth from the sun. Currents that originate near the equator are warm; currents that flow from the poles are cold.

WHY DO STARS TWINKLE AT NIGHT?

Stars seem to twinkle or change their brightness all the time. In fact, most stars shine with a steady light. The movement of air (sometimes called turbulence) in the Earth’s atmosphere causes the starlight to get slightly bent as it travels from the distant star through the atmosphere to us on the ground. Some of the light reaches us directly but some gets bent slightly. This gives the illusion of twinkling. Stars closer to the horizon appear to twinkle more than others. This is because the atmosphere is a lot denser near the horizon than between the Earth and a star higher in the sky.

HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF PLANETS MILLIONS OF MILES AWAY FROM US?

Planets like Pluto in the outer reaches of our solar system can be viewed and photographed by powerful optical telescopes. Distant extra-solar planets, many light years away from our Sun, cannot be captured even by high resolution telescopes. Big planets orbiting close to a star can exercise a very small gravitational pull on the parent star. This causes a minute wobble in the rotation of the parent star which can be detected by highly sensitive spectroscope monitors. The existence of the planet can thus be only indirectly visualized.

HOW DO ASTRONAUTS COMMUNICATE IN SPACE? HOW IS ZERO GRAVITY SIMULATED?

Simulation of zero gravity while still within the pull of the earth’s gravity is achieved in a similar manner to that of a man-made satellite. When a body moves in a circular path, it experiences centrifugal force acting on it. This force points radially outwards and depends on both the speed and the radius of trajectory. Given this factor, if a plane flies in a circular arc trajectory, then passengers experience a centrifugal force pointing away from the earth. At a certain velocity, this force exactly counterbalances gravity, and passengers experience weightlessness or zero gravity.

HOW MANY SATELLITES ARE CURRENTLY REVOLVING, AROUND THE EARTH?

Although anything in the Earth’s orbit is technically called a satellite, the term is typically used to describe a useful object placed in orbit purposely to perform some specific mission or task. Approximately 23,000 items of space junk objects that were inadvertently placed in orbit or have outlived their usefulness are floating above the Earth. The actual number varies depending on which agency is counting. Pay loads that go into the wrong orbit, satellites with run-down batteries, and leftover rocket boosters all contribute to the count. This count is almost 26,000.

WHY DO SOME PEOPLE HAVE ‘RED EYE’ IN PHOTOGRAPHS?

Light, usually from a camera flash, enters the subject’s eyes and reflects it back into the lens. The red colour comes from the colouration of the retina which is lined with blood vessels. To prevent ‘red eye’, the feedback chain of light should be interrupted. The most effective way is to use indirect or off-camera lighting, which causes reflection from the eye to veer away from “^the lens. Another cure is to reduce the size of the pupils of your subject’s eyes, effectively preventing the bounce-back syndrome. This is why some camera models fire one or more pre-flashes before taking a picture; the smaller flashes are meant to adjust the eyes to bright light, decreasing the pupil size.

WHAT IS THE COMPOSITION OF SAND? Sand is a non-cohesive, loose granular material which comes from rocks as a result of attrition of bigger rock pieces by water or wind in favourable weather conditions. The composition of sand depends   on   the   parent rock; the most common minerals being silica and feldspar. Less common minerals are iron. Silica comes in the form of quartz and feldspar consists of plagioclase. Additional mineral fragments are rare and include Muscovite, chlorite, epidote, garnet and zircon. Some deposits of sand may contain magnetite, glauconite or gypsum. Sands rich in magnetite are dark in colour, while those rich in gypsum have a green tinge. WHAT’S THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD MONSOON?

The word monsoon comes from the Arabic word mausim, which means weather. Owing to the yearly appearance of torrential rain, indicating a marked shift in weather, mausim gradually became monsoon.

WHAT ARE FULLERENES?

Fullerenes are one of the three allotropes (same element in two or more forms) of carbon. The other two are diamond and graphite. Scientists Kroto, Smalley and Curl discovered fullerenes in Rice University in September 1985. One of the fullerenes — Buckminsterfullerene — consists of 60 carbon atoms linked together to form an almost spherical C60 molecule of joined hexagons (20) and pentagons (12). The bonds have the same arrangement as the panels on a football. Fullerenes can be prepared by passing an electric discharge through graphite rods in an atmosphere of helium. It is now known that a buckminsterfullerene is likely to be formed in sooty flames.

WHAT IS MICROLENSING?

According to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, light possesses mass. When light passes close to a massive object, it is attracted towards it and its direction changes towards it. Therefore, when an astronomical body is between the earth and another bigger, more distant astronomical object, the light coming towards the earth from the distant body gets focused on the earth because of the gravitational attraction of the intermediate body This is somewhat similar to focusing light from the sun on a piece of paper through a lens, and hence called astronomical microlensing. Astronomers use microlensing in their search for new planets, and to observe distant, faint objects and neutron stars.

WHAT IS WATER MEMORY? ,

Water is said to have the power of memory — if certain chemicals are dissolved in water and then completely removed through a chemical process, the water may still retain some properties of the dissolved chemicals. Although this concept seems difficult to accept or comprehend, French scientist Jacques Benveniste allegedly proved it. However, other scientist could never replicate this experiment.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SECOND GENERATION AND THIRD GENERATION TECHNOLOGY?

The main difference between second generation (2G) and third generation (3G) technology is data. 2G services were developed with mostly voice services in mind, but are capable of providing relatively slow (14.4kbps) speed data services. Most US service providers offer some data services, including limited wireless Internet access. For 3G, the data speeds are expected to be much higher; up to 2 mbps for fixed applications and 384 kbps for mobile applications. This will support advanced features including audio and video streaming, remote access to company databases, and a wider variety of entertainment and information services. 3G will also support a range of devices, including phones, personal digital assistants, and laptop computers.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RED RAIN?

Five years ago, scarlet rainfall was reported in a town called Chenganacherry in Kerala’s Kottayam district. Research scientists at the Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala investigated this peculiar phenomenon and discovered that the rain contained cell-like particles, which they claim, are not from Earth but from outer space. The scientists conjecture that a comet that exploded over the sky caused the airburst that created the red rain

WHY HORSE POWER IS CALLED SO?

When the steam engine began to do the work of horses in the mines during the early 1800s, the mine owners began to ask how many horses an engine would replace. James Watt, who invented steam engines, figured out a mathematical way to equate horses to engine power. Thus the term horsepower was invented. Watt measured the capability of a big horse to pull a load and found it could pull a weight of 150-pounds while walking at 2.5 miles per hour. This works out to 33,000 foot-pounds per minute or 550 foot-pounds per second.

WHAT IS LIQUID OXYGEN USED FOR? WHO INVENTED THE ESCALATOR?

The basic mechanism of an escalator f was. first invented by Jess W Reno of ‘the US in 1881. It was used mainly for riding on masts of wooden or iron poles in ships to fasten ropes or belts to support the sails. The name ‘escalator’ was applied to a moving stairway in 1900and first shown in a Paris exhibition. Charles Seeberger, with a company named Otis Elevator Company, built the first commercial escalator.

WHY IS NASA’S DAWN MISSION SIGNIFICANT?

The Dawn Mission is important because it will study Ceres and Vesta, two of our solar system’s largest asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch in July 2007 and will capture images of the surface of these asteroids and probe the composition, density and magnetism. The project almost got scuttled because of cost considerations but got a fresh lease of life recently

HOW DOES THE GROUND PROXIMITY WARNING SYSTEM IN AN AIRCRAFT WORK?

Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) is designed to alert pilots if their aircraft is in immediate danger of Hying into the ground. Another common name is Ground Collision Warning System. Don Bateman is credited with inventing GPWS. This system monitors an aircraft’s height above the ground as determined by the radio altimeter. A computer tracks these readings, calculates trends, and warns the captain with visual and audio messages if the aircraft exceeds certain thresholds or defined flying configurations also known as modes. The modes are: excessive descent rate, excessive .terrain closure rate, altitude loss after take-off, unsafe terrain clearance and excessive deviation below glidescope. Corrective action is then taken.

WHAT IS A PYROMETER?

A pyrometer, invented by Josiah Wedgwood, is an instrument which measures relatively high temperatures, like that of a furnace. Many pyrometers work by measuring the radiation from the body whose temperature is to be measured. There is another device known as the optical pyrometer. It measures the temperature of glowing bodies by comparing them visually with an incandescent filament of known temperature. Another type is the resistance pyrometer in which a fine wire is in contact with the object and its temperature is determined by measuring its electrical resistance.

WHAT IS WHITE COAL?

White coal is a form of fuel produced by drying chopped wood over a fire. It differs from charcoal which is carbonised wood White coal was used in England to smelt lead ore from the mid-16th to the late 17th centuries. It produces more heat than but less than charcoal and thus prevents lead evaporating. White coal was produced in distinctive circular pits with a channel, known as Q-pits They are frequently found in the woods 7f South Yorkshire.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE?

A geostationary satellite means a satellite, which moves in space at the same speed and in the same direction as the earth. As a result, its position is fixed in relation to any spot on the earth.

IF THE SUN IS A STAR, WHY DOESN’T IT TWINKLE?

THE sun is an ordinary star. There are stars many times bigger than the sun. The stars that you see twinkling are so far away, that the light from them takes thousands of years to reach us. Even the light from the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, takes about three to four years to reach us. The light from the stars seems to twinkle because it comes through the constantly moving air currents around the earth. The sun does not twinkle because it is very close to us —just about 150 million kilometres away.

HOW DID THE OZONE LAYER GET DEPLETED?

THE ozone layer got depleted because of chemicals released into the atmosphere by man, particularly chlorofluoro carbons used in the refrigeration industry and air conditioners.

WHAT IS A TRANSDUCER?

A transducer is a contraption by instrumentation engineers to convert a physical action into an equivalent electrical signal.

WHAT IS AN EXOTHERMIC REACTION?

Exothermic is an adjective pertaining to a chemical change that is accompanied by liberation of energy in the form of heat.

WHAT ARE CONIC SECTIONS?

In geometry, circle, ellipse, parabola, hyperbola and a pair of straight lines are called conic sections as these geometrical entities can be obtained by slicing a cone.

WHAT IS MARCODONTIA?

It is rare case of unusually large teeth found in otherwise normal person.

WHAT IS RESIDUAL STRESS?

It is a stress in metal, on a microscopic scale, resulting from nonuniform thermal changes and plassic deformation.

WHAT IS A GM COUNTER?

GM or Geiger-Mueller Counter is an instrument used in measurement of radioactivity. It is a cylindrical structure filled with inert gas and a central wire maintained at ultra-high voltage. The impinging radiationionises the inert gas and creates a shower a charged particles. This change can be electronic gadgets such as a computer.

WHICH FLOWER IS KNOWN AS THE FLOWER OF THE NIGHT?

The flower of a type of cactus called orchid cactus, (Epiphyllum oxypetallum), is known as the “flower of the night” or the “queen of the night”. This cactus is native to Central and South America. It possesses what appear to be flat leaves, which are actually stems, on which the flower blooms directly In Greek, “epiphyllum” means “upon the leaf”. This cactus flowers once a year, and the flower opens only for one night. When the flower blooms, it fills its surroundings with a strong scent, and hence the name.

WHAT IS GODEPS THEOREM?

Austrian-born American mathematician Kurt Godel proved that within a rigid logical mathematical system, there are certain questions that can neither be proved nor be disproved on the basis of the axioms of the system. Godel’s theorem, in essence, goes beyond the realm of .

DO YOU KNOW THE MEANING OF CHIRALITY?

If the mirror image of a natural object is different from the object itself, the object is called a chiral / objects. A perfect sphere is not chiral. Scientists are studying basic building blocks of matter to understand the fundamental reason for this amazing property.

IS THERE ANYTHING YELLOW ABOUT THE YELLOW SEA?

The Yellow Sea is an arm of the Pacific Ocean that extends inland for about 400 miles between the east coast of China and Korea. The Chinese named this area the Huang Hal (Yellow Sea) because the waters along the banks are a yellow, muddy color. The Huang River carries deposits of yellow earth (huangtu) to the Yellow Sea, which thereby gets its name.

WHAT IS BLACK ABOUT THE BLACK SEA?

The deep water of the Black Sea is supposed to be darker than the water of a normal sea, because the Black Sea has rich concentration of micro algae. Further, the Black Sea was called so in olden times, perhaps because it was very stormy and hence difficult to navigate. It was considered an inhospitable sea because barbarians occupied its shores. According to another theory, the Black Sea is called so because it is on the northern side of the Mediterranean Sea, and in ancient times the colour black was used in the compass to mark north.

IS THERE ANYTHING RED ABOUT RED SEA?

The Red Sea is not actually red in colour. The Red Sea, located between the African coast and Saudi Arabia, contains a type of algae called Trichodesmium eythraeum. As they die, their remains end up on the ocean floor. THEIR COLOUR CHANGES TO REDDISH-BROWN AND THIS GIVES THE SEA A ‘RED’ COLOUR.

WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT SPACE VEHICLE ORION?

Orion is the new moonship that NASA plans to develop. This was revealed when US astronaut Jeff Williams inadvertently mentioned the name of the vehicle while taping a message for a space agency when floating 354 kms above the earth in the International Space Station. It was transmitted by accident over space-to-ground radio.

WHAT IS A PUFFER MACHINE?

A puffer machine, formally named an explosives detection trace portal, is a security device that detects explosives at airports and other sensitive facilities. The machine operates by releasing multiple puffs of air at a passenger standing upright in the machine. The cool air blasts are felt by the passenger, but are not painful or otherwise damaging. The purpose of the series of air blasts is to release microscopic particles into the air, such as gunpowder or residue from bomb-making materials, which would then be detected by the machine. If such particles are suspected, the passenger may be retained for further screening. The entire process takes approximately 15 seconds.

WHY IS THE TRAJECTORY OF PLUTO DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER PLANETS?

The peculiarity of Pluto’s trajectory is that both its eccentricity and inclination to the ecliptic, the approximate plane in which the orbits of the other planets lie, are extremely high. As Pluto was discovered only in 1930, astronomers haven’t been able to fully explain the peculiarity of its orbit. A hypothesis proposed that it was originally a moon to Neptune, and later somehow escaped from Neptune’s gravity In 1978, when Pluto’s moon, Charon, was discovered, new theories were proposed regarding the origin of both Pluto and Charon. It is now believed that *both of them were formed independently, but after some time there was a collision between Pluto and the original Charon. From the debris of that collision,

First, you need to have basic knowledge of some laws and regulation governing aviation accidents. Accident laws involving private planes are different from those applied in public transportation like jet planes and special aircraft, such as those used by the military.

In general, plane accidents are governed by aviation laws. General aviation law covers all aircraft other than those operated by commercial airlines and the military. There are also state and federal laws governing air travel.

The main federal agencies concerned with aviation regulations and laws are the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The FAA is the main regulatory body for aviation safety and standards. It has enforcement powers, as well as the ability to issue and revise regulations related to all aspects of air travel safety research, manufacture, and navigation.

On the other hand, the NTSB investigates aviation accidents and offers proposals to enhance future air safety. Another duty of the Board is to function as a “court of appeals” for cases involving pilots or other aviation workers against the FAA. The NTSB has neither regulatory nor enforcement powers.

Liability in general aviation accidents vary depending on the cause of the accident.

The most common causes of aircraft accidents include:

• Pilot Errors

• Faulty Equipment- Faulty equipment or even poorly maintained equipment can fail and cause an airplane to crash.

• Violating FAA regulations- FAA laws exist to protect everyone using air travel. Violations of FAA regulations can endanger the safety of everybody in the air.

• Structural or design problems with an aircraft.

• Flight service station employee negligence

• Federal air traffic controllers’ negligence

• Third party’s carrier selection negligence

• Maintenance or repair of the aircraft or component negligence

• Fueling the aircraft negligence

In plane accidents not caused by human factors, LA lawyers often determine fault by these standards:

• Strict Liability – Strict liability laws in plane accidents differ from state to state. The manufacturer of an aircraft can be held liable if the victim of an accident can prove that a defect in the product (the aircraft) caused his or her injuries. This is referred to as strict liability.

• Product Liability – product liability determine whether an accident was caused by a part of the aircraft, pilot error, or a combination of both.

• 1994 General Aviation Revitalization Act (GARA) – It protects manufacturers of non-commercial aircraft (light aircraft and business aircraft with maximum seating of less than 20 passengers) from product liability lawsuits for defects on aircraft older than 18 years.

Plane Accident Lawyers

Aviation accident laws can be complicated and may involve state, federal or even international laws. This makes litigation involving plane accidents difficult. It is therefore necessary for plane accident victims to get the services of a skilled and experienced LA lawyer to handle matters for them.

In most plane accident cases, one will find a lawyer’s services handy in the following situations:

• Preservation of evidence in wreckage

• Collection of radar information

• Interview witnesses

• Preservation of air traffic control recordings

• Locating key witnesses

• Identifying jurisdictional issues

• Evaluate liability of the parties responsible for the crash

• Protect the client’s rights during initial interviews with authorities

A lawyer is a person who practises law; one who conducts lawsuits for clients or advises clients of their legal rights and obligations. A barrister is a legal practitioner whose main function is to practice advocacy in court. They often have less interaction with clients. Barristers spend their working hours in chambers where they prepare their cases.

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT THE KEW GARDEN?

Kew Gardens in Thames, London is best known for being the home of the Royal Botanical Gardens (now a world heritage site). Other points of interest-include the Kew Palace and the National Archives (previously known as the Public Records Office) The Kew Gardens is special because it is an important international botanical research and education institution with a staff of over 700 people.

WHAT IS THE ‘COOL BIZ’ CAMPAIGN?

This is a campaign introduced by Japan. In order, to save energy, it asks office goers and politicians to remove their ties and jackets to minimise the use of air conditioners and thereby reduce consumption of electricity and also the emission of greenhouse gases. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel who is currently visiting Japan to discuss, among other things, ways to tackle global warming, had a taste of the ‘cool biz’ campaign when the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe informed her that his entourage wouldn’t be wearing their ties to adhere to the ‘cool biz’ campaign.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM POCKET MONEY?

Before the advent of pockets in shirts and trousers, money was kept in bags and sachets. Later, a smart tailor made a pocket on a garment and it became so useful, further innovations made a pocket suitable to safely keep money From then on, money kept in pockets for expenses came to known as pocket money

WHAT IS ENTABLATURE?

It is the horizontal upper part of a wall or storey of a building designed on the principles of classical architecture. It is usually supported on columns, and consists of  three parts. These are the architrave, the lowermost part; the frieze, the decorative band in the middle; and the cornice, the crowning ornamental projection. Entablature was originally conceived by Vitruvius, an ancient Roman architect.

WHICH IS THE WORLD’S FIRST AIR SHOW?

The world’s first air show was the International Air Meet held at Rheims, Franceheld in 1909. India’s first air show, AVIA-93 was held in December, 1993 in Bangalore. The world’s biggest air show was the  47th Paris Air Show. However, the world’s largest military air show  the RoyalInternational Air Tattoo (RAF Fairford, United Kingdom), held annually in July.

WHAT IS A CIRCUIT FILTER?

A circuit filter is used in trading of shares in stock exchange. It’s applied to all the shares, to supposedly safeguard the interest of general investors from the extreme volatilities in markets by preventing any unexpected fall or rise of share price in a single day beyond a limit. If the limit is crossed by any of the shares in a single trading day it is frozen for trade.

WHAT IS THE GINI COEFFICIENT?

The Gini Coefficient is a measure of inequality of income distribution or inequality of wealth distribution. It is defined as a ratio with values between 0 and 1: the numerator is the area between the Lorenz curve of the distribution and the uniform distribution line; the denominator is the area under the uniform distribution line. Thus, a low Gini Coefficient indicates more equal income or wealth distribution, while a high Gini Coefficient indicates more unequal distribution.

WHAT IS THE TRIPLE FINGER SALUTE?

The three-finger salute is used by members of Scouts and Guides organisations around the world when greeting other Scouts and Guides and at some ceremonies. The salute is made with the palm face out, the thumb holding down the little finger, and the fingertips on the brow. In computer parlance, the triplefmger salute refers to describe the three-key sequence — Alt + Ctrl + Del — developed by David Bradley This term became popular after IBM PC compatible users continually hold down these keys each time their computers froze or had other problems.

WHAT IS REFERRED TO AS THE WELL-COME COLLECTION?

The Wellcome Collection traces The development of medicine through history and spanning several cultures. Located in central London, it is a combination of exhibitions, libraries and cafes where people can learn more about the development of medicine. Part of the Well-come Trust, it was founded by Sir Henry Wellcome, a pharmacist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and collector, who garnered  a unique collection of articles relating to medicine and health. Recently, a British heart transplant patient, Jennifer Sutton, donated her old heart to the Well-come Collection, after receving a new one.

WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE BAUDHAYAN THEOREM?

Baushayan Sulv Sutra (1000 BC) is today known as the Pythogorus theorem, which states that in a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. In Baudhayan theorem, this has been expressed as follows: in a Deerghchatursh (triangle), the chetra (square) of rajju (hypotenuse) is equal to the sum of squares of the parshvamani (base) and triyangmani (perpendicular line). It is amazing to note that the pythagorus theorem was known in our country as far back as 1000 BC.

WHY IS THE NUMBER 1 NOT CONSIDERED A PRIME NUMBER THOUGH IT FITS THE DEFINITION?

The number 1, in fact, does not fit the definition of a prime number. A positive integer is called a prime number only if there are exactly two divisors of that number. Since 1 has exactly one divisor (which is 1 itself), it does not fit this definition. Another equivalent definition of a prime number is this prime number’s only positive divisor should be less than 1 and itself. Again, 1 does not fit this definition either— there are no positive divisors of 1 which are less that 1.

WHICH NATION HAS THE SMALLEST ARMY IN THE WORLD?

Vatican City, the world’s smallest country, has the smallest army. This army of 110 men, is also known as the Swiss Guard. Last year, the Vatican celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Swiss Guard. The celebration commemorated the 150 Swiss Helvetian mercenaries who came to Rome to serve Pope Julius II, on January 22,1506. The mercenaries covered a distance of 723 km in 27 days to enter Rome from Bellinzona, Switzerland. Swiss Helvetian mercenaries, famous for their courage, die-hard attitude and loyalty to their employers, were part of the regular armies of various countries at that time. As allies of the Pope, they helped to shape Italy’s destiny and thus they were granted the title ^Defenders of the Church’s freedom’ by the Pope. During the Sack of Rome on May 6, 1527, the Swiss Guard, comprising 189 personnel at that time, resisted a Spanish attack on Rome and the Vatican. But they had to retreat after suffering heavy casualties. Only 42 men survived the attack. However, the Guard was able to ensure Pope Clement VII’s escape to safety.

WHERE WAS WINE FIRST MADE?

Wine is the fermented juice of grapes. Probably, the first people to make wine were Persian farmers living near the Caspian Sea. The Egyptians learned how to make wine from them as long back as 3000 BC. In the fourth century BC., the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great carried grapevines and the knowledge of wine-making to Central Asia. Roman invaders probably took vines to northern France and Germany in later centuries. Wine was common in the everyday lives of the early Greeks and Romans. It was important to their religious ceremonies. The God of wine was called Bacchus by the Romans and Dionysus by the Greeks.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MARXISM AND SOCIALISM?

Socialism is a modern doctrine and is Western in origin, emerging with the development of industrial capitalism at the start of the nineteenth century. Socialism denotes a broad system of ideas. Marxism is a materialistic conception of history which seeks to explain the development of all societies and furthermore, make predictions about future social change. Marxists consider the material world, nature and society as constantly moving. Whereas, the socialists emphasise the organic unity of society. Marxists consider the material world as an integrated whole in which all things and phenomena are interconnected and interdependent. Whereas, socialists believe in equality and abolition of private enterprise. Marxism provides a scientific explanation of nature and society and hence, was a powerful instrument for revolutionary transformation. The society envisaged by socialists rests on certain values: redistribution of wealth to get rid of inequality, cooperative production to get rid of selfish competitors and new patterns of work and education to promote the growth of well-rounded individuals.

WHAT IS A HYPERCUBE?

Hypercube is the generalization in n-dimensions of a square in two dimensions and a cube in three dimensions. A square has four vertices (22), a cube, 8 vertices (23). Similarly, an n-dimensional hypercube has 2n vertices. In the famous painting ‘Christus Hypercubus’, Salvador Dali depicted Christ crucified on an unfolded four-dimensional hypercube. Examining the shadow of a cube reveals a square within a square. Similarly, the shadow of a four-dimensional hypercube will be a cube within a cube.

WHY IS THE ALPHABET WRITTEN IN A SPECIFIC ORDER?

The alphabet has often been described as an arbitrary collection of symbols representing an arbitrary collection of sounds. Its order is equally random. The word alphabet comes from alpha and beta, the first two words in the Greek alphabet.

WHAT IS STEAMING DISTANCE?

Steaming distance is the shortest distance between two ports, which a ship traverses while sailing from one port to another. It need not be along a straight line as, due to various physical and political constraints, it may not be always be desirable to sail along a straight route.

WHICH IS THE OLDEST CIVILIZATION IN THE WORLD?

This has long been a subject of much debate and to this day no one is absolutely sure which is the oldest civilisation. This is mostly because people cannot agree on the definition of the word civilisation. The most common definition of the word is ‘an advanced state of development in human society, marked by progress in the arts and sciences, the extensive use of writing, and complex political and social institutions’. Mesopotamia is considered as the most likely answer to the question, based on archaeological evidence and the above definition. It is believed that Mesopotamian history starts from the emergence of urban societies in Southern Iraq in the 4th millennium.

HOW IS A COUNTRY’S GDP MEASURED?

GDP or Gross Domestic Product is the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. GDP is customarily reported on an annual basis. It is the nation’s broadest gauge of economic health. It includes all of private and public consumption, government outlays, investments and exports and imports that occur within a defined territory The most common approach to measuring GDP is the expenditure method: GDP = consumption + investment (govern- ment spending) + (exports – imports). Another way of measuring GDP is to measure the total income payable in the GDP income accounts. This should provide the same figure as the expenditure method. Another formula is: GDP = rent + interests + profits + statistical adjustments (like corporate income taxes, dividends, undistributed corpo-1 rate profits) + wages.

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT UNIVERSITY OF TOULOUSE?

University of Toulouse is one of the oldest universities of France and is located in Toulouse, a city in Southern France on the banks of the Garonne river. It was founded in 1229 AD as a result of the Paris Treaty marking the end of the battle between the Roman Catholic Church and its opponents. Foulques de Toulouse, the then bishop of Toulouse, played a major role in the setting up of the university. Now, the university has an enrolment exceeding 1,00,000, and is the second largest university in France. The sixteenth century philosopher and astronomer Bruno and the Chemistry Nobel Laureate Sabatier, and the artist Dulac were some of its most illustrious faculty members.

IN ANCIENT TIMES, WHY WERE PIGEONS USED FOR SENDING MESSAGES?

Pigeons were used for sending messages not only in ancient times, but as recently as early the 1900s, during World War I. A particular breed of pigeons called homing pigeons are specially suited for carrying messages, because they possess the uncanny ability of flying back to their home over long distances at high speeds. According to some reports, a homing pigeon flew back to its home after flying over 1600 miles at the peak speed of 60 miles per hour. Exactly how such birds navigate themselves is still not clear. Scientists hypothesise that the pigeon uses a variety of sources like the direction of the Sun, Earth’s magnetism, and odours associated with different places for finding its direction. Before the advent of telegraph, telephone and radio, using pigeons for sending messages was quite popular among the military, newspapers, and stock brokers. Such a messaging system was known as pigeon post.

WHAT IS AN ATLAS CALLED SO?

Atlas is the term used to refer to a collection of maps, printed in a set order: world map, maps of the continents, each followed by maps of the several regions within that continent, and with an alphabetical gazetteer or list of place names, giving coordinates for various places, rivers, regions etc. The first use of the term atlas dates back to 1595 with the publication in Duisburg of the Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi Et Fabricati Figura by Gerard Mercator (1512-94). It was named after King Atlas, a mythical King of Mauretania in Libya, who was, according to legend, a wise philosopher, mathematician and astronomer and who supposedly made the first celestial globe. However, the more widely known Atlas is a figure from Greek mythology He is the son of the Titan lapetus and Clymene^or Asia), and brother of Prometheus. Atlas was punished by Zeus and made to bear the weight of the heavens and Earth on his back.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM ‘RULE OF THUMB’ ?

One theory about the phrase’s origin lies in the misplaced public belief that the English law allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick measuring no longer than his thumb. There was actually no such English law enacted at any time. This phrase has been in circulation since the 17th century This phrase commonly refers to any means of estimation based on a practical and ready method but not on scientific measurement. Another theory concerning the phrase’s origin involves the numerous ways in which thumbs have been used for estimation. Some examples are — measurement of distance based on an estimated inch which is about the length of a thumb; judging the alignment or distance of an object by holding the thumb at eye level etc.

WHAT IS RED CORNER NOTICE?

Certain requests used by Interpol are sent in the forms of notices. The colour of each notice determines the type of information being sent or received by Interpol and its members. A red corner notice is issued at the request of a country’s law enforcement authority. The requesting country asks for a red notice to be issued when a criminal evades arrest and escapes from the country.

WHICH IS THE SMALLEST AND LARGEST CITY IN THE WORLD BY AREA AND POPULATION?

The largest city in the world by population is Tokyo with over 35 million people. It was the world’s most populous urban area between 1965 and 1970. However, despite Japan’s declining population, it is still growing. The smallest city in the world by population is Hum. It has a population of only 23 people. It is a tiny town in the central part of Istria, North-West Croatia, 7 km from Roh, 14 km South-East of Buzet on a hill above the Mirna Valley The largest city in the world by area is Hulun Buir, encompassing 263,953 km. The smallest city in the world by area is Vatican City with an area of 44 hectares (108.7 acre). It is a landlocked sovereign city state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome. It is officially called State of the Vatican City.

WILL CREATING TWO TIME ZONES FOR INDIA SAVE ENERGY?

There is no statistical evidence of two time zones being economically beneficial other than restoring a sense of normalcy to the area that follows its local meridian time zone. India geographically extends from 68 degrees East to 97 degrees East (29 degrees) from Gujarat to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, thereby encompassing two time zones. However, it has adopted the Allahabad meridian of 72 degrees, which makes it convenient for the railways, airlines and media. This leads to weird experiences for travelers from Central India who visit the North-Eastern states which receive daylight before 5 am. This entails an extra cost to the economy in terms of industrial arid office lighting spent in these regions, since daybreak here doesn’t coincide with the rest of the country. Also, there tends to be more traffic when it is dark.

IS IT TRUE THAT CREATING TWO TIME ZONES FOR INDIA WILL SAVE ENERGY?

The Indian Standard Time is based on the meridian at 82 1/2 degrees East, which is 5 1/2 hours ahead of the Greenwich meridian. India’s geographical middle lies at 82 1/2 degrees East, which was incorrectly mentioned as 72 degrees East.

WHAT IS SECURITISATION?

Securitisation is the process through which existing assets or future cash flows are converted into marketable securities. Those assets or cash flows are, inherently, not marketable. There are two types of securitisation — assetbacked securitisation and futureflows securitisation. Some of the assets that can be securitised are loans and future cash flows like credit card payments, car rentals or any other form of future receivables. Securitisation is common in the US and Europe, but in India it is in a nascent stage.

WHEN AND WHERE WAS THE NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED?

Acta Diurna’ was the first news paper published in Rome, around 59 BC. In 1605, the first printed weekly newspaper to be published in Antwerp was called Relation. Johann Carolus (1575-1634) was the publisher of the Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien (Collection of all Distinguished and Commemorable News). The ^Relation’ is recognized by the World Association of Newspapers, as well as many authors, as the world’s first newspaper. The German Relation was published in Strasbourg, which had the status of an imperial free city in the holy Roman empire of the German nation.

WHEN WAS THE BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES?

The Battle of Los Angeles took place during the night of February 24/25, 1942 in Los Angeles, California. The battle involved heavy firing of anti-aircraft shells by the US forces aimed at several mysterious flying objects reportedly sighted in the sky over Los Angeles. These objects were thought to be Japanese military aircraft. However, even till today, their identity has not convincingly established. Even though six civilians lost their lives in the bombardment, there was no evidence that the firing destroyed any flying object. The firing was preceded by a blackout and Sounding of air raid sirens. Now, many believe that the battle was the result of a false alarm, triggered by weather balloons, or Japanese blimps. Some even think the source of the alarm could be a flying object of extraterrestrial origin.

WHO IS LADY JUSTICE?

The origin may be Themis, a Greek mythological goddess, who advised Zeus after his purge of the old pantheon. A daughter of Themis and Zeus, Dike, known as a goddess of justice but not divine justice, presided over the apportionment of things among mortals, the protection of individuals and the social and political order. At times, Dike is said to be the same as (or is confused with) Astraea. Astraea is also a daughter of Themis and Zeus and is known as a goddess of justice. In western tradition, Lady Justice sometimes wears a blindfold and carries a sword and scales. She symbolises the fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, avarice, prejudice, or favour.

WHO DESIGNED THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL?

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. is a United States presidential memorial built to honour its 16th President Abraham Lincoln. The architect is Henry Bacon (an American Beaux-Arts architect), the sculptor is Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the murals inside is Jules Guerin. The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large, seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln.

WHICH COUNTRY HAS THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF UNIVERSITIES?

According to UNESCO, India tops the list with 8,407 universities. It’s followed by the United States  (5,759), Argentina (1,705) and Spain (1,415).

WHO ARE HOBOS?

Hobos is an American word which refers to homeless people wandering about in search of work. In earlier days, hobos were supposed to move around by hopping from one freight train to another, just to save the cost of transportation. Hobos and hobo culture began in mid-19fh century, when the ending of the Civil War caused severe unemployment in the US and several people left their homes and started moving about the whole country in search of jobs. A similar phenomenon happened during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Although the term owes its origin to the above phenomena, it is used today to refer to a tramp in general, an aimless traveller not necessarily looking for work. There are several theories related to how the word hobo got coined: some say the word has been derived from the phrase hopping box cars, and some others that it is a shortened version of the rail-road greeting ‘Ho Beau,’ popular in the 19th century

WHICH CONTINENT HAS THE MOST NUMBER OF PORTS?

With over 1,000 ports, Europe is perhaps the continent with most number of ports. The UK alone has over 200 ports and European ports handle about 3.5 billion tones of cargo.

WHY IS A SANDLOT USED AS A PLAYING AREA FOR CHILDREN?

A sandlot refers to a vacant lot used by children to play games, mostly unorganised ones. Unlike a playground specifically created for certain games, sandlots perhaps developed as informal spaces which children made use of to serve as makeshift playgrounds. In the US, sandlot baseball refers to an advanced version of the game played by teams not affiliated with either the Major or Minor leagues in the country

WHO ARE WING WALKERS?

Wing walkers are those who walk on wings of an airplane in flight. Recently, a wing walker hung from a 450 Stearman aircraft when it was in flight. This stunt was performed as part of the Flying Circus Air Show in Bealeton, Virginia.

WHAT ARE P-NOTES?

P-Notes are financial instruments that facilitate investment in Indian securities by foreign investors or hedge funds that are not registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Indian brokerage houses buy the securities on behalf of these foreign investors and hedge funds and issue P-Notes to them. Any dividends or capital gains collected from the underlying securities will keep going back to the foreign investors and hedge funds. The value of P-Notes is determined on the basis of shares listed on the stock exchanges.

WHY IS THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA REFERRED TO AS A RAINBOW NATION?

The Republic of South Africa is referred to as a Rainbow Nation to describe the unity of various cultural, racial or ethnic groups in the country during the postapartheid era (after 1994) compared to the earlier divisiveness based on skin colour. This phrase was coined by the then Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, and later used by Nelson Mandela, the first President of the Republic of South Africa elected in the first polls conducted after apartheid rule officially ended. In some South African cultures, the rainbow is always associated with hope and a bright future. Incidentally, the South African Hag also has six rainbow-like colours.

WHO IS THE SECOND ASIAN AFTER RABINDRANATH TAGORE TO WIN THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE?

Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888-1970) of Israel shared the 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature with Nelly Leonie Sachs (1891-1970), a GermanSwedish poet. This was 53 years after Tagore won the prize in 1913. The first Asian after Tagore to win it solo was Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972), a Japanese novelist, in 1968.

WHICH IS THE WORLD’S FIRST POST OFFICE?

Although the origins of the postal system date back to antiquity, the British Postal Museum claims the oldest functioning post office in the world is on High Street in Sanquhar, Scotland. According to the museum, this post office has functioned continuously since 1712 AD. Sanquhar is a quiet, insignificant town, but in its heyday, its residents included many influential aristocrats, who must have played a significant role in having the first post office located there. Those days, horses and stage coaches would carry mail.

WHAT IS A CALLIOPE?

It is a musical instrument with a loud, shrill sound that’s audible miles away It is used to attract attention at circuses and fairs. It was invented in the United States around 1850 by A S Denny and patented in 1855 by Joshua C Stoddard. It consists of a boiler which forces steam through a set of whistle pipes. Either a keyboard or a pinned cylinder (like that of a barrel organ or music box) controls the entry of steam into the pipes.

• Calliope was one of the nine muses in Greek mythology. Her name means beautiful voiced and she was the daughter of Zeus (God of sky and thunder) and Mnemosyne (Goddess of memory). She is the muse of epic poetry and eloquence. She was the oldest and wisest of the muses as well as the most assertive. She is often represented as a stately young woman whose brow is crowned with gold, while in some legends, she is seen with a writing tablet, scroll, or book in her hand and wearing a gold crown. She is best known as the inspiration for Homer’s Miad and the Odyssey. WHY IS SUN TEMPLE, KONARK CALLED THE ‘BLACK PAGODA?

Today, the Sun Temple, a magnificent pagoda, is located 2 km from the sea but, in olden times, it was much closer. So, the temple was used as a navigational point by European sailors. They referred to it as the ‘Black Pagoda’ due to its dark colour and its magnetic power that drew ships into the shore and caused shipwrecks.

WHEN WAS THE SICAB HORSE SHOW FIRST HELD?

In 1980, the first Sicab (Salon Internacional del Caballo) was organised in Seville. The following year, it took place in Madrid. Today, there are more than 200 horse shows a year dedicated exclusively to the Purebred Spanish Horse.

WHEN WERE CHOPSTICKS FIRST USED?

Chopsticks were made over 5,000 years ago in China. The earliest version of chopsticks were plain sticks or branches from trees which were used to retrieve food from fire. The teachings of Confucius forbade followers to use knives at the dining table, which further increased the popularity of chopsticks in Eastern Asia. Today, chopsticks are no longer confined to culinary purposes. Japan has even launched a bra called ‘My Chopsticks Bra’ which is made from recycled chopsticks. This would reduce the decimation of entire forests to manufacture chopsticks.

WHAT IS A ‘BREATHING FABRIC’?

A ‘breathing fabric’ is designed to prevent the wearer from getting too hot or cold by adjusting itself to both the internal and external temperatures. The textile is made up of a layer of thin spikes of wool, or another water-absorbent material that opens up when it’s made wet by the wearer’s sweat. When the layer dries out, the spikes automatically close up again. A second layer underneath protects the wearer from the rain.

WHAT IS A TITANIUM TOOTHBRUSH?

Titanium toothbrushes, which were invented in Japan and now are being exported to the US, might help do away with toothpaste. One variety of the toothbrush uses titanium dioxide, which causes an electrochemical reaction while brushing and this helps remove plaque. The other type uses titanium bristles that last for several years.

WHY IS SATURN ASSOCIATED WITH AGRICULTURE?

In Roman mythology, Saturn is regarded as the god of agriculture. He is usually depicted holding a scythe to harvest land. Farmers in ancient Rome believed that Saturn had the power to bring a good harvest and if made angry could destroy it. In order to receive his blessings, they held a festival named Saturnalia. According to another myth, Saturn established the Golden Age in Rome. He introduced agriculture to his people by teaching them how to farm the land.

WHAT CAUSES THE HEILIGENSCHEIN EFFECT? WHO DISCOVERED IT?

If an observer stands on dew-covered grass with his or her back turned towards the early morning sun, the observer is likely to observe a faint glow around the shadow of his or her head on the grass. Such a faint glow is called Heiligenschein, and the above optical phenomenon, the Heiligenschein effect. It occurs because the dew droplets act as tiny lenses focusing both the sunlight falling on the surface on which the shadow is cast, and the light that is back-scattered by the surface. In general, when a long shadow is cast on certain irregular surfaces with specific optical characteristics, the above effect occurs. Although Heiligenschein must have been known for a long time, it was first described in writing by the Italian sculptor and painter Benevenuto Cellini (1500-1571). Sometimes it’s called the Cellinis halo. In German, Heiligenschein means holy glow.

WHAT ARE THE OLEFINS?

An alkene, olefin or olefine is a class of highly reactive unsaturated hydrocarbons, recovered from petroleum, with at least one carbon-carbon double bond. The simplest alkenes, with only one double bond and no other functional groups, form a homologous series of hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n, eg. Ethylene (ethane), propylene (propene), butylenes (butene) and so on. The olefins are widely used for making synthetic fibres.

WHO BROKE THE SOUND BARRIER?

Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14,1947. He flew a plane faster than the velocity of the sun and broke the sound barrier which caused explosive vibrations over the atmosphere.

WHAT IS THE MONTY HALL PROBLEM?

The Monty Hall problem talks about a situation where there are three closed doors —a goat lies behind two and a car behind the third. A person is asked to select a door (which is not opened immediately). Instead, one of the two unchosen doors are opened and the content is revealed, which incidentally turns out to be a goat. The person is now asked whether he would like to switch his choice to the other unopened door. This gets him thinking. Will changing his choice increase the possibility of winning the car? Common knowledge lets us assume that since now there are two closed doors (one with a goat and the other with a car), chances of winning a car if either of the doors are chosen is 1/2. Hence, it really isn’t a winning situation to motivate a person to change the choice. However, what one needs to remember is the fact that when the person initially made the choice, all three doors were closed and the probability of having a goat behind a closed -toor was 2/3. Now that we already know of ie door that has a goat behind it, chances f winning the door with the car if the peron decides to change his initial choice is /3, which is higher than what he would am if he refuses to change his decision.

WHO INVENTED THE HELICOPTER?

French inventor Launoy and Bienvenue created a toy with rotary wings which could take off vertically and fly The term helicopter was later coined by French writer Ponton D’Amecot: helico for spiral and pter for wing. It was only in 1907 that the first helicopter was piloted by PaulCornu, who also created the model. The 100th anniversary of the helicopter’s first flight was celebrated on November 13,2007.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE LAUGHING BUDDHA?

Hotel or Pu-Tai is better known as the Laughing Buddha. The image of Hotel is based on a Chinese Zen monk who lived over 1000 years ago. Many regarded him a future Buddha because of his benevolent nature. It was due to his large protruding stomach and smile that he came to be known as the Laughing Buddha; His image graces many temples, restaurants and homes in China and Japan. Legend has it that if one rubs the Laughing Buddha’s great belly, it brings wealth, good luck and prosperity

WHAT ARE BLUELAWS AND WHY THEY ARE CALLED SO?

A bluelaw is enacted by the people of the Dominion of New Haven. These laws in the United States and Canada are designed to enforce moral standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest. They came to be known as bluelaws because they were supposedly printed on blue paper. Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence to support this assertion.

WHO IS CREDITED WITH HAVING THE HIGHEST IQ?

Marilyn vos Savant is an American magazine columnist, author, lecturer and playwright who rose to fame through her listing in the Guinness Book of World Records under the Highest IQ category, with a score of 228. She wrote for acolumn called Ask Marilyn in a magazine in which she answers questions from readers on a variety of subjects.

WHICH IS THE WORLD’S FIRST COURIER SERVICE?

Overseas Courier Service, the world’s first courier service providing firm, was established in 1957 by a consortium of major newspaper publishers in Tokyo as a global, overnight delivery system for time-sensitive business publications. It was the first such private international network, dedicated entirely to overseas air-speed shipping.

WHY IS LAS VEGAS CALLED SO?

Las Vegas was named by Spaniards in the Antonio Armijo Party, who used the water in the area while heading along the Old Spanish Trail from Texas. In the 1800s, areas of the Las Vegas Valley contained artesian wells that supported extensive green areas or meadows (vegas in Spanish) and hence the name Las Vegas.

WHO INVENTED THE CLOCK?

The earliest way of telling the time was by looking at the progress of the shadow cast by a twig stuck up-right in the ground. Round about 1300 BC, this was developed by the inhabitants of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia into the sundial. The sundial served for a thousand years until the invention of the clepsydra, or water clock. This was the first clock with moving parts. The mechanical clock was not invented until the 13th century and it was driven by weights. The spring-driven clock was invented sometime around 1450 AD.

WHO INVENTED THE CLOCK?

The primitive type of clock was invented by Henry de Wick in 1368. He installed it on the tower of the castle of the king of France. Using the technique of a pendulum, the clock was developed by French engineer Hyudhence in 1639. Electricity was deployed in the clock by Alexander Ben around 1840-50.

WHO ARE ‘THE LITTLE EMPERORS’?

They refer to obese little boys in China without any siblings. They are heavily doted on by their parents and grandparents, who feed them calorie-laden candies and fast food. As a result, obesity has become a problem amongst Chinese teenagers. It’s also seen as a fallout of the strict population policy of China which restricts couples from having more than one child, because of which parents and relatives tend to spoil their children with fatty foods.

WHAT WERE GULAG CAMPS?

The Gulag, a system of forced labour camps in the former USSR, was first established in 1919 under the Cheka, its secret police. Prisoners included murderers, thieves, and other common criminals along with political and religious dissenters. The Gulag, whose camps were located mainly in remote regions of Siberia and the far North of USSR made significant contributions to the Soviet economy in the period of Joseph Stalin. Conditions in the camps were extremely harsh. After Stalin died in 1953, the Gulag population was reduced significantly, and condition of inmates somewhat improved.

WHO IS CHE GUEVARA?

Ernesto Che Guevara was a Cuban revolutionary leader. Though communism may have lost its fire, he remains the symbol of rebellion and the alluring zeal of revolution. By the time Ernesto Guevara, known to us as Che, was murdered in the jungles of Bolivia in October 1967, he was already a legend, not only in Latin America but also around the world. His fearless last words, reportedly, were “Shoot, coward, you’re only going to kill a man”.

WHO IS CHE GUEVARA?

Though a comrade of Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution, Ernesto Che Guevara was actually from Argentina, not Cuba. His nickname ‘Che’ (loosely translates as ‘yaar’ in India) is an Argentinian slang.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF JAZZ MUSIC?

Jazz originated among the Black people in New Orleans in the late 19th century and is characterized by syncopated rhythms and improvisation. It has since developed various styles. Jazz originally drew on Ragtime, Gospel, Black spiritual songs, West African rhythms, and European harmonies. The term jazz originated in southern United States (it is first recorded in 1909, applied to a type of ragtime dance), and it is tempting to speculate that its ancestor crossed the Atlantic on the slave ships from Africa. In the absence of any certain origin, various colourful alternative theories have been put forward, for instance, the name jazz came from the nickname of a certain Jasbo Brown, an itinerant musician along the banks of the Mississippi.

WHAT IS AGENT ORANGE?

Agent Orange is a defoliant herbicide mixture used during the Vietnam War to destroy forests in Vietnam. The United States sprayed 20 million gallons of Agent Orange over forests in Vietnam, and as a result, members of the armed forces were exposed to it. Agent Orange, named as such due to the orange colour of its storage drums, is a 50:50 mixture of the butyl esters of 2, 4-D and 2,4,5-T. It is probable that damage to humans would be due to the highly toxic impurity dioxin present in Agent Orange.

HOW OLD IS THE JERUSALEM OLD CITY?

Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities of the world, having a history that begins in the fourth millennium BC. There was a mention of the city even in the Egyptian texts that belonged to 20th century BC. David was the first Jewish king to conquer the city of Jerusalem in 1007 BC and adopt it as his capital. Over the next several centuries, the city has been conquered and ruled by several different groups of people and countries, and has become a holy city for Jews, Muslims and Christians. Today, it is under the control of Israel and happens to be Israel’s largest city. What has been the city of Jerusalem until 1860s, is the 0.9 square kilometre walled portion inside the modern city of Jerusalem. The walled portion is called the old city today. The old city is divided into four quarters, Armenian, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish, and houses many important shrines.

WHO IS KNOWN AS A MATHLETE?

Just as athletes participate in athletic events, matheletes are those who compete in mathematics competitions. The word is a trademark of MathCount Foundation. Recently, a French mathlete named Alexis Lemaire calculated the 13th root of a 200-digit number in just over 70 seconds. By doing so, he beat his own previous record of 72.4 seconds at an event in London’s Science Museum.

WHAT IS A MOM-AND-POP SHOP?

A mom-and-pop shop is a colloquial expression for a single-family operated business with few or no employees other than the owners. Sometimes, fewer than ten employees work in these small or micro businesses. People who speak of mom-and-pop businesses often refer to the unique perspective offered by patronizing a family business. Some encourage the unknown experience of entering a mom-and-pop establishment over franchise businesses, which typically offer comparable stores and similar consumer experiences, regardless of location. For example, mom-and-pop businesses are often highlighted in travel guides, because going to a business owned and operated by a family allows a traveller to fully experience and understand the people of another culture.

WHO INVENTED CHEWING GUM?

Thomas Adams, a rubber scientist, invented chewing gum. He was working with a substance called chicle, a gum prepared from the latex of the saphodila tree, a tropical evergreen plant. By chance, he popped a small piece of chicle into his mouth and chewed it casually to while away time. Suddenly, it occurred to him that others may derive pleasure from chewing chicle, which is, even today, a chief ingredient in chewing gum.

WHICH IS THE LONGEST ACRONYM IN USE?

Adcomsubordcomphibspac is the longest English acronym. It’s a navy term which stands for Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Subordinate Command.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A FRESCO AND A MURAL?

A mural is any large painting on a wall, ceiling or any other large structure. There are many techniques used to make them. A fresco, executed using water-soluble paints on wet or dry limestone, is one of the techniques and probably the most popular. A primary characteristic of a fresco is that the paintings, though often done in parts, are generally related by a common thread. For example, the frescoes on the walls and ceilings of Ajanta caves in India (6th century) depict the Jataka tales — stories from Buddha’s life.

WHAT DOES THE WORD ‘WOOT’ MEAN?

If lay persons say ‘yay’, then hardcore gamers would say ‘wOOt’. This phrase, an expression of joy by on-line gamers, has been selected as the word of the year by the US dictionary publisher Merriam Webster.

WHAT IS THE NYQUIST RATE?

In data communication, the sampling theorem states that a continuous signal can be completely represented in its sampled form and recovered from the sampled form if the sampling frequency f is equal to 2W, where W is the maximum frequency of that continuous signal. This minimum sampling rate of 2W samples per second for a signal having maximum frequency of W is called the Nyquist Rate.

WHAT IS THE PHOBIA OF ALIENS CALLED?

Fear or dislike of foreigners or aliens is called xenophobia. The word xenophobia is a combination of two Greek words — xenos (foreigners) and phobos (fear). When a majority of people in a country suffer from xenophobia, the phobia can lead to mass expulsion of people of foreign origin, or banning of certain foreign cultural elements. Xenophobia is different from racism, although often both words are used interchangeably Racism implies a hatred of people of other races, irrespective of whether they belong to one’s own country, whereas xenophobia implies hatred of people of other countries or regions. In science fiction, xenophobia refers to fear of extraterrestrial beings. Scientists explain xenophobia as a defence mechanism evolved in humans in response to the need to win in inter-group competition in society and Nature.

WHAT IS THE GUDERMANNIAN FUNCTION?

The Gudermannian function, named after Christoph Gudermann (1798 -1852), relates to the circular and hyperbolic trigonometric functions without using complex numbers.

HOW IS A BARGE DIFFERENT FROM A REGULAR BOAT?

The word originally referred to any small boat; the modern meaning arose around 1480. A barge is a flatbottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Most barges are not self-propelled and need to be moved by tugboats or towboats. Barges on canals contended with the railways in the early industrial revolution but were outclassed when it came to carrying high-value items due to the higher speed, falling costs, and route flexibility of rail transport. A boat is a watercraft designed to float on, and provide transport over water.

WHAT’S THE GREEN GOLD PROJECT?

The Green Gold or Oro Verde project seeks to ensure the safety of miners and also protect them from exploitation. A jewellery shop in Chichester, England along with miners in a cooperative in Choco in North-East Colombia and the Fair Trade Foundation embarked on this project which promotes the purchase of green gold or jewellery which isn’t created by putting labourers through hardships.

WHAT IS THE ANTARCTICA TREATY?

The Antarctica Treaty, signed in 1959, was a path-breaking agreement among countries of the world. There are certain regions located beyond the sovereign jurisdiction of any country of the world. Therefore, they require common governance by the international community These are known as ‘res communis humanitatis’ or Global Commons. It includes not only Antarctica but also the ocean floor and outer space. According to the treaty, Antarctica’s environment and ecosystem will be protected. Since 1959, activities in the area have been limited to scientific research and development, fishing and tourism. Even these limited activities have not prevented this region from being degraded by waste, for example, oil spills. The expansion of the treaty was Antarctic Environmental Protocol of 1991.

WHAT IS A PAGODA?

A pagoda, in South-east Asia, is a cone-shaped monumental structure built in memory of the Buddha. But in the Far East, a pagoda is a tower-like, multi-storeyed structure of stone, brick, or wood, usually associated with a Buddhist temple complex. The pagoda is derived from the stupa of ancient India, which was a dome-shaped commemorative monument, usually erected over the remains or relics of a holy man or king.

WHY DOES FEBRUARY HAVE 28 DAYS, AND JULY AND AUGUST, 31 DAYS?

According to a popular legend, July was named after Julius Caesar and hence it had 31 days. Later, when Augustus Caesar took over the Roman Empire, he wanted August, the month named after him, to have 31 days as well. Hence, the two extra days were taken from February, which was then left with 28 days. However, some historians d.on’t agree with this reasoning. They believe February always had 28 days ever since the time of King Numa Pompilius. He decided that a year would have 355 days, the length of 12 lunar cycles. Back then, even numbers were considered unlucky So, he created seven months with 29 days, and four with 31. Since he now needed one short even-numbered month, he chose February, as it was considered the least favourite month for it arrived during the middle of winter. And hence, it was given only 28 days.

WHAT IS RICE WINE?

Rice wine is made from fermenting freshly steamed glutinous rice. Most rice wines are low in alcohol content, light in colour, noncarbonated and have a sweet flavour. Rice wine is categorized according to the degree to which rice is polished. It does not usually improve with age and should be preferably consumed within one year of bottling.

WHY WAS THE NEW AMSTERDAM COLONY ESTABLISHED?

New Amsterdam was established by Dutch colonisers in 1624 in what is known today as New York city The town of New Amsterdam became a city in 1653 when it received municipal rights and was reincorporated as New York city in June 1665. The town was founded on the southern tip of Manhattan island as the most optimal place for permanent settlement by the Dutch West India Company and was strategically located on the south of the Hudson river. The location was best suited to defend the integrity of the New Netherlands province and was entrusted to safeguard the West India Company’s exclusive access to New Netherlands’ other two estuaries — the Delaware river and Connecticut river.

WHICH WAS THE FIRST WAR FOUGHT IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND?

If we define war as a large-scale violent conflict between two states employing the military, the earliest recorded wars might have taken place between various city states in the Mesopotamian region during the period 3,000-2,300 BC in the Bronze Age. The first recorded evidence of such a war was the one between the two city states Lagash and Umma, estimated to have taken place in 2525 BC. From the stone slabs bearing inscriptions related to the war, it could be inferred that the war employed professional soldiers wearing helmets who moved on chariots. The weapons employed were maces and swords.

WHERE DOES SANTA CLAUS LIVE?

The original Santa Claus lived nowhere near the North Pole. If the 4th century bishop known as Saint Nicholas of Myra — the inspiration for Santa Claus — existed at all, he lived in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey Santa Claus is a corruption of the Dutch name Sinte Klaas for St Nicholas, the patron saint of children and unmarried girls. Tradition says he gave bags of gold to three daughters from a noble, but poor family as their dowries, thus saving them from a life of prostitution. As the legends developed in the Netherlands, the three bags of gold were replaced by a bulging sack of presents which Santa Claus distributed to children on December 6, St Nicholas’ feast day Later, this custom caught on to other parts of the world, to give gifts to good people and punish the bad.

WHAT IS THE SEEHECK EFFECT?

The principle of the thermocouple was first described by Seebeck in 1821. Seebeck discovered that when wires of two dissimilar metals were joined together to form a circuit of at least two junctions, a current would flow when the junctions were at different temperatures. This phenomenon, called the Seebeck Effect, is the basis upon which thermocouples are designed.

WHAT IS FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CINEMA?

What we normally see today in theatres are two-dimensional movies with multi-channel sound. In three-dimensional movies, viewers are required to wear special glasses which create 3-D images of objects in the movie. Chhota Chetan and Shiva Ka Insaaf were such movies released two decades ago. Fourth dimension in a movie creates an overall different experience. In addition to the effects of 3-D features, viewers can experience the movies through other senses like sight, sound, odour, touch and also have personal remote control. Viewers are seated in special seats which have bass shockers and other special fittings which make them a part of the complete 4-D experience.

WHAT IS BOW SHOCK?

In aerodynamics, bow shock is a normal shock that occurs in front of an object within a supersonic flow. Unlike an oblique shock, the bow shock is not attached to the tip, off the object in the flow. Oblique shock angles are limited in formation based on the corner angle and upstream Mach number. When these limitations are exceeded, a bow shock occurs instead of an oblique shock. Therefore, bow shocks are often seen forming around blunt objects. In astrophysics, bow shock is a boundary between a magnetosphere and an ambient medium. For stars, this is typically the boundary between their stellar wind and the interstellar medium. In a planetary magnetosphere, the bow shock is the boundary at which the solar wind abruptly drops because of its approach to the magnetopause.

WHAT IS ASSUMPTION DAY?

Assumption Day is, according to the Roman Catholic church, the day on which the Blessed Virgin Mary was, along with her body and soul, accepted (or ‘assumed’) in heaven. It is usually celebrated on August 15 by Roman Catholics. In some parts of the world, Assumption Day is a public holiday; in some parts it is a day of solemnity and prayers, whereas in some other parts, it is a day of feasting and festivities. Although in the early days of Christianity some held that it was not certain how the Virgin Mary’s life ended, from the 5th century AD onwards, Christians believed that the Virgin Mary did not actually suffer a physical death and that she passed into heaven with her physical body and soul on Assumption Day The above day was officially recognised through a Dogma by the Church only in 1950. The Assumption has also been a subject of Christian art for several centuries.

WHAT IS HEIRLOOM GARDENING?

An heirloom plant, heirloom variety, or (especially in the UK) heirloom vegetable is an open-pollinated cultivar that was commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but not used in modern large-scale agriculture. Since most popular heirloom plants are vegetables, the term heirloom vegetable is often used instead. The trend of growing heirloom plants in gardens has been growing in popularity in the United States and Europe over the last decade. This is called heirloom gardening. Some examples are heirloom tomato, forbidden rice and Bhutanese red rice.

WHAT IS DIES IRAE?

Dies Irae literally means day of wrath. The mediaeval Christians were preoccupied with the end of the world; they anticipated the Last Judgement, followed by the millennium. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the West there was a revival of the belief in the end of time. The year 1000 likewise excited mythological speculation, as did famines, plagues, and earthquakes. Most influential were the views of the visionary Joachim of Fiore. He divided history into several ages and said that 1260 would be the fulfilment of the Age of the Spirit, which had begun with St Benedict. At that time, mankind could expect a new revelation, the coming of the anti-Christ, and the last days of wrath. This myth, written down at the behest of the Papacy, exerted a potent influence on mediaeval thought, and in its vision of a future world where the Holy Roman Empire and the Church of Rome would give place to a free community of perfected beings who have no need of clergy or sacraments or scripture, it anticipated modern millennial theories.

HOW MANY COUNTRIES DOES THE DNIEPER FLOW THROUGH?

Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are the three countries through which Europe’s third-longest river flows. It originates in the south-west of Moscow and flows through Smolensk (Russia), Mogilev (Belarus), Kiev (capital of Ukraine), Dnepropetrovsk and Kherson (Ukraine) and empties into the Black Sea.

WHAT IS ANTHROPOCENE EPOCH?

The current geological epoch we live in is called Holocene, which began around 9600 BC. However, considering the way humans have altered the course of the Earth scientists suggest that the epoch be renamed anthropocene. Nobel-prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen coined this term in a casual remark in 2002, while talking about how the Earth was entering a new epoch due to increasing human population and economic activity However, other scientists want this word to refer to the human impact upon the planet.

WHAT IS ANTI-DUMPING DUTY?

If any company exports a product at a price lower than what it normally charges in its home market, then it is dumping the product. Opinions differ as to whether or not this is unfair competition, but many countries take action against dumping by imposing anti-dumping duty Thus, anti-dumping duty is an extra import duty on a particular product from a particular country in order to bring its prices closer to the normal value of that product in the country it is imported to. It is done to protect its own industry from predatory pricing. The World Trade Organisation does not prohibit antidumping policies and allows any country to take anti-dumping action against the countries which violate the principles of General Agreement on Trade and Tariff.

WHAT IS A CASCADE EFFECT?

An unforseen chain of events due to an act affecting a system, much like how a waterfall cascades down, is called cascade effect. Cascade effects are commonly visualised in tree structures called event trees.

WHAT IS LAPIS LAZULI?

Lapis Lazuli is an intense blue semiprecious stone. It has been mined for 6,500 years in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. It has lazurite as the main component. It’s used in jewellery, mosaics, architecture and as a pigment called ultramarine in tempera paintings. It was used by Assyrians and Babylonians for seals, as an eyeshadow by Cleopatra and Romans believed it to be an aphrodisiac. It was thought to keep limbs healthy and free the soul from error, envy and fear.

WHAT ARE MAGIC BULLETS IN PHARMACEUTICAL TERMS?

In pharmaceutical terms, magic bullets are those drugs which attack the affected organ/cells and not the healthy ones. For example, the medicine for blood cancer I — called Glivec — is known to be a magic bullet as it attacks only those cells which are affected by the disease and not the healthy or surrounding cells.

WHAT IS THE ‘ART OF MOVING’?

‘The art of moving’ or Parkour involves moving from one point to another as quickly and efficiently as possible. It entails overcoming obstacles using the power of the human body and is practised in several urban areas the world over. Recently, members of the Du Yize Parkour Club of Beijing showed their prowess at the Forbidden City

WHAT ARE POLAR COORDINATES?

It is a system of coordinates in Geometry whereby the position of a point, say P, in a plane can be determined with reference to a fixed point called origin, denoted by 0, and a predetermined direction represented by a ray OA. The measure of length OP, denoted by r, and the measure of the angle that OP makes with OA, generally denoted by a Greek letter theta, are called polar coordinates of P and, P is called the graph of r and theta. One pair of values of r and theta corresponds to only one point in the plane and one point in the plane corresponds to only one pair of the values of r and theta.

WHAT ARE SLATS?

These are thin narrow flat strips made of wood or metal, which are used as an auxiliary air foil at the leading edge of the wing of an aeroplane.

WHEN AND WHERE DID JALLIKATTU ORIGINATE?

Jallikattu, which is bull-baiting or bull fighting, is an ancient Tamilian tradition. There are several rock paintings, more than 3,500 years old, at remote Karikkiyur village in the Nilgiri district in Tamil Nadu that show men chasing bulls. Another single painting discovered in a cave at Kalluthu Mettupatti, about 35 km west of Madurai, between Madurai and Dindigul, shows a lone man trying to control a bull, Researchers estimate that this painting, done in white kaolin, is about 1,500 years old.

WHAT’S THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM ‘TOP DOG’?

‘Top dog’ means one who is dominant or victorious. When wooden planks were sawn by hand, two men did the job using a two-handed saw. The senior man took the top handle, standing on the wood, and the junior took the bottom, in the saw-pit below. The irons that were used to hold the wood were called dogs and that the bottom position was much more uncomfortable. The term ‘top dog’ originated from this practice.

WHICH IS THE FIRST ART GALLERY?

The term art gallery refers to two different kinds of places: 1. A place which exhibits items of art (an art museum), and 2. A place which sells art items. The oldest art museum is supposed to be housed in the Cosquer Caves, the under-water caves, near Marseilles. The caves consist of finger tracings, impressions of painted hands, and painted and engraved figures of animals. The oldest works in these caves were estimated to have been created 29,000 years ago. Art galleries that exhibit and sell works of art on a large scale have been in existence since the 17th century AD. Most of the oldest art auction houses that exist today in Europe have been founded in the first half of the 18th century Viennabased auction house Dorothium, which claims to be the oldest art auction house of the world, was founded in 1707, and Sothebys, the oldest and largest art auction house of England, was founded in 1744.

WHAT ARE TEXTONYMS?

They refer to the new language developed by cellphone-addicted teenagers, based on predictive text on their handsets. They are also known as adaptonyms or cellodromes. Using predictive text, the first alternative to certain keywords are used in textonyms.

WHAT ARE BANKURA HORSES?

The vibrant tradition of folk art in West Bengal’s Bankura district includes a variety of clay handicrafts. The district’s most famous product is the Bankura Horse, a very stylised figure with a long neck and elongated ears, in warm terracotta colours. Artisans have used the same techniques of hollow clay moulding and firing for generations. Sizes vary from minute, palm-sized to gigantic creations over 1 metre high. The horses are votive figures and are usually kept or placed in front of local deities.

WHO WAS THE FIRST INDIAN TO BE KNIGHTED?

Queen Victoria founded The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India in 1861, which was an order of chivalry, meant to be given to viceroys of India, nawabs and princes for their meritorious service and loyalty to the British empire. The people admitted to this order were called knights. In the year of its founding, Nawab Sikandar Begum Sahiba, Nawab Begum of Bhopal was made the Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India (GCSI). La