DO YOU GET WETTER WHEN WALKING IN THE RAIN THAN YOU DO WHEN RUNNING?

The question of whether people will get wetter if they walk through the rain than if they run through it has been the subject of much bar room discussion . More than that, scien-tists have been considering the problem for many years, and have concluded...

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DOES WATER TRAVEL DOWN THE DRAIN IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS IN THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERES?

Folklore states that water drains down the sink in a counter-clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and a clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, sup-posedly owing to a physical phenomenon called the Coriolis effect. Named after a French...

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WHAT CAUSES JET LAG AND HOW CAN IT BE PREVENTED AND CURED?

Jet lag, or desynchronosis, is a condition that’s caused by crossing time zones during air travel . It is said to be a symp-tom of the disruption of the body’s circadian rhythms—i .e ., the day/night, light/dark cycle, which controls the timing of bodily functions such as when you sleep and eat . Other contributing factors to jet lag are the dry atmos-phere...

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WHY WERE NECKTIES INVENTED?

It is often questioned why such a seemingly useless item of apparel as the necktie was ever invented . It’s thought by some anthropologists that it might have been the first item of clothing ever worn, taking the form of a strip of fur around the necks...

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CAN THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA BE SEEN FROM SPACE?

It’s commonly said that the Great Wall of China is the only manmade structure that can be seen with the naked eye from space or the moon . This proposition has been perpetuated in many sources: it’s a question in the board game Trivial Pursuit, it has been contained in schoolbooks across the world and it was stated as being the case by Ed Harris in...

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WHY ARE MOTHS ATTRACTED TO LIGHTS?

It’s commonly known that moths are attracted to bright light bulbs and often circle them, giving rise to the saying “like moths to a flame ”. There are a number of theories as to why moths engage in this often life-threatening practice . The traditional...

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WHY IS THE SKY BLUE?

One of the most commonly seen sights is the blue sky, yet what’s not widely known is what makes it blue . The sun emits light that travels through space toward Earth . Because space is a vacuum (i .e ., it has no atmos-phere), the light remains largely undisturbed until it nears the Earth, whose atmosphere is made up of a mixture of gas molecules (mainly...

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WHY DO WE YAWN AND WHY IS IT CONTAGIOUS?

It has traditionally been thought that yawning is an invol-untary reflex that draws more oxygen into our bloodstream and removes a buildup of carbon dioxide . This theory was fueled by the notion that when people are bored or tired, their breathing slows,...

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WHAT IS A BLUE MOON?

“Once in a blue moon” is an expression for something that rarely happens, and of course it leads people to ask, what is a blue moon? A literal blue moon occurs when enough smoke or dust is present in the atmosphere to make the moon appear blue . This occurred back in 1883, when the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa exploded, and in 1950, when masses of smoke...

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