Know More..

Month June 2020

I easily get distracted by my mobile phone,

I’m in Class IX. I easily get distracted by my mobile phone, and as a result, my homework remains incomplete. How do I handle this?

You are capable of doing well in your studies. You have identified the factors affecting your work. Mobile phones, television, social media etc. Must be used only to keep yourself connected with society. They should not take control of your activities. If you have the determination, you can control your usage. Fix your goal and aim to achieve your best. It is healthy to set your own targets to avoid anxiety and stress. To reduce distractions, the most important thing is to plan work – make time for everything. Allot time for television and mobile phone. Keep your mobile phone away from the place of your study.
Self-discipline is very important. Visualise your goal, and imagine how would feel when you accomplish that goal. This will motivate you.

 

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What is the clipper route?

Clippers were 19th Century merchant sailing ships that sailed mainly between England and China, Australia and New Zealand. They were fast sailing ships, equipped with multiple square rigged sails supported by three masts. These ships gained in prominence because of the booming tea and opium trade between England and China. The route plied by these ships was called the clipper route.

The clipper route ran down the Atlantic Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and then went from west to east though the Southern Ocean. The ships took advantage of the Roaring Forties, the strong westerly winds that blow between the latitudes of 40 and 50 degrees in the southern hemisphere. It was the fastest route available between Europe and Asia before the opening of the Suez Canal. The ships would continue eastwards on the homeward journey from Australia and New Zealand along the Southern Ocean, sail around Cape Horn in South America and another 100 days from there back to England.

The ships plying the clipper route faced dangers like turbulent weather at Cape Horn and huge waves and icebergs in the Southern Ocean. However, ship captains still preferred the unsafe route as it offered fast passage.

The clipper route fell into disuse as a trade route with the opening of the Suez and Panama Canals. Moreover, streamships gradually phased out clippers. Though clippers were fast, their speed was largely determined by winds while streamships were more reliable in sticking to their schedules.

Today, the clipper route remains the fastest sailing route around the world. So it is popular with sailing enthusiasts, especially for modern circumnavigation attempts and yacht races like the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and Volvo Ocean Race.

 

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What is the significance of the code AII3 in animation films?

Pronounced A-one thirteen, it is the number of a classroom at the California Institute of the Arts in the U.S. CalArts is a private university founded by Walt Disney in the early 1960s. It is where legendary animation film makers learnt their craft. The mysterious code A113 figures in every Pixar film in some form or the other. The popular shows The Simpsons, American Dad, South Park, etc. feature this number. In Finding Nemo, a scuba divers camera bears this number. The Toy Story trilogy has two vehicles with license plates bearing the number A113. In Monsters Inc. it is the classroom number of Scaring 101.

It is the moviemakers’ way of showing their gratitude to their alma mater which shaped their career. Directors who passed out of this university have churned out incredible box office hits.

 

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What is piezoelectricity? How is it produced?

Electricity resulting from the application of mechanical pressure on certain crystals like quartz and tourmaline is called piezoelectricity.

When these crystals are subjected to mechanical strain, a voltage across their opposite faces.

Conversely when a voltage is applied to such crystals, they vibrate.

Piezoelectric materials are used for converting mechanical strain into an electrical signal in such devices as microphones and phonograph pick-ups. The converse effect in which a mechanical output is derived from an electrical signal output is used in such devices as headphones and quartz watches.

The phenomenon of piezoelectricity was discovered in the 1880s.

 

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What are the chief ingredients of soap?

When reading the printed matter on the wrapper of a bar of toilet soap, I saw the following: TFM = 75% written in bold letters.

What is the meaning of TFM and what is its significance?

The chief ingredients of soap are fats – manufacturers either use animals fats or a vegetable oil, like coconut oil – and an alkali, usually caustic soda. The fats are the most important part of the soap.

TFM stands for Total Fatty Matter. This expresses the real soap content in the toilet soap. If TFM is given as 75% it means that the actual soap content is 75%, while the remaining portion consists of additives, which make it foam, or give it its colour, or keep it hard.

The higher the TFM percentage, the better is the quality of the soap. It is binding on the manufacturer to state how much fatty material there is in the soap.

 

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What is the force that makes the car turn?

A car travelling in a straight line is approaching a corner. As the driver turns the steering wheel, the car begins to swing around the corner.

We know that an object in motion tends to travel in a straight line unless acted upon by a force.

The force that makes the car turn is the friction between the car tyres and the ground. If the friction is reduced by oil or water on the ground, then it may not be great enough to provide the centripetal force and then the car will not turn but carry straight on!

If there is a passenger in the car, he too will tend to carry straight on as the car turns the corner. But friction between him and the seat provides a centripetal force to make his direction of travel circular.

 

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Who developed the oral polio vaccine? Is it more effective than Stalk’s vaccine which is given by injection?

Salk’s polio vaccine has two main drawbacks; it is not completely effective against one of the three strains of polio and it gives immunity only for a limited time which means the child has to be re-vaccinated regularly.

The oral polio vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin at the University of Cincinnati. It uses a small amount of live virus unlike the Salk vaccine which uses samples of the virus which has been killed by formation.

The Sabin vaccine is given orally. It gives immunity against all three strains of polio. It does not have to be taken as often as the Salk vaccine – just three separate doses with intervals of one month each between each dose and then a booster some years later.

 

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Why is vibrating roller used to lay a road?

A road was being laid in front of our house and a man began pulling a heavy vibrating roller over the concrete that had been spread over the road.

Why are such vibrating rollers used in road building?

Whenever you pour rice into a tall container, you shake the container vigorously from time to time so that the grains settle down making room for more.

Similarly, when concrete is laid on roads, the road has to be shaken to enable the concrete to seep down into all the nooks and crannies and fill up all the crevices, leaving no air pockets.

The vibrating roller used by road-builders makes a lot of noise but all that it is doing is shaking up the road!

 

Picture Credit : Google

What happened to the Soviet Venera probes sent to Venus?

When we speak about the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that took place in the second half of the 20th Century, we often focus on the moon missions. There were, however, various other missions during this time that had many different objectives as well. One of these was the Venera programme that corresponded to a series of probes developed by the Soviet Union – to better understand our neighbouring planet Venus – between 1961 and 1984.

Launched in 1961, Venera 1 lost radio contact before it flew by Venus. Venera 2 failed to send back any important data, but it did fly by Venus at a distance of 24,000 km in February 1966. Venera 3 too lost communication before atmospheric entry, but it did become the first human-made object to land on another planet on March 1, 1966.

With the planned mission including landing on the Venusian surface and studying the temperature, pressure and composition of the Venusian atmosphere, Venera 3 carried a landing capsule that was 0.9 m in diameter and weighed 310 kg. The atmosphere was to be studied during the descent by parachute.

Positive start

Venera 3 was launched on November 16, 1965, just four days after the successful launch of Venera 2. Things went fine for Venera 3 as ground controllers were able to successfully perform a mid-course correction on December 26, 1965 during the outbound trajectory and also conducted multiple communication sessions to receive valuable information.

Among these were data obtained from a modulation charged particle trap. For nearly 50 days from the date of launching, Venera 3 was thus able to give an insight into the energy spectra of solar wind ion streams, out and beyond the magnetosphere of our Earth.

A failure and a first

Just before Venera 3 was to make its atmospheric entry in Venus, on February 16, 1966, it lost all contact with scientists on Earth. Despite the communications failure, the lander was automatically released by the spacecraft.

At 06:56:26 UT (universal time) on March 1, 1966, Venera 3’s probe crash-landed on the surface of Venus, just four minutes earlier than planned. It wasn’t in a position to relay back any information as it had lost contact, but it was the first time an object touched by humans had struck the surface of a planet other than our own.

Success follows

Investigations revealed that both Venera 2 and 3 suffered similar failures owing to overheating of several internal components and solar panels. With regard to Venera 3, its impact location was on the night side of Venus and the site was put in an area between 20 degrees north and 30 degrees south latitude and 60 degrees to 80 degrees east longitude.

Venera 3 tasted success in what was largely a failure, but it did pave the way for several more successes as well. For, Venera 4 became the first to measure the atmosphere of another planet, Venera 7 became the first to achieve soft touchdown and transmit information from another planet, and Venera 13 and 14 returned colour photos of the Venusian surface, days within each other. Venera 13, in fact, transmitted the photos on March 1, 1982, exactly 16 years after Venera 3 had landed on Venus.

 

Picture Credit : Google

How will reclassification affect India?

The removal of India from the U.S.’ list of developing nations can negatively impact Indian trade with regard to the U.S. With the classification as a developed country, India may lose other trade benefits given as part of the GSP. India is no longer eligible for preferential treatment against CVD investigations and de minimis thresholds. With many countries having been stripped of the benefits, international trade, and global economy will slow down.

The U.S. has eliminated its special preferences for a list of self-declared developing countries. Apart from India, this list includes Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Georgia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

 

Picture Credit : Google