Category Fun Facts

HOW TO HIDE LIKE COUNTS ON INSTAGRAM

What one person wants from their Instagram experience is different from the next, and people’s needs are changing. To hide likes on your post, tap on the three-dot menu button next to an image and select ‘hide like count. To pre-emptively hide likes on your posts when you create them, go to Advanced Settings and turn on ‘Hide like and view counts on this post. To avoid seeing the total number of likes and views on posts from other accounts on your feed, go to Settings > Privacy> Posts and turn on Hide like and view counts’.

Picture Credit : Google 

WHY ARE AIRCRAFT WINDOWS SO SMALL?

Large windows were found to weaken the structure of planes making them unsafe…

The de Havilland Comets were the first passenger jet airliners. They had large windows that allowed passengers a panoramic view of the outside. A series of aircraft crashes in 1954 led to an investigation it was found that weakening of the metal at the corners of the windows was causing a weakening of the whole structure of the plane, causing it to give way during flight.

The crashes stopped when the windows were re-designed Since then windows in all aircraft have been kept as small as possible. They are generally about 33cm high and have three panes-two pressure panes and one interior pane-that are contained in a window unit that is fastened and sealed to the aircraft structure.

Picture Credit : Google 

WILL A PAPER IN A GLASS WATER REMAIN DRY?

What you will need

A wad of old newspaper, large plastic tub, glass tumbler, water.

What you do:

  • Fill the tub with water.
  • Scrunch up the newspaper and stuff it in the bottom of the glass tumbler. upside down to make sure that the paper does not slip out.
  • Holding the tumbler upside down, plunge it straight down to the bottom of the tub.
  • Pull out the glass from the water.
  • Do not tip the glass to the side at any time during the experiment.

What do you observe?

When you take out the newspaper, you will find that it is absolutely dry!

Why does this happen?

Air occupies space. When you submerge the tumbler, the air inside the glass cannot escape. It acts as a block, preventing the water from entering the glass. Hence the newspaper does not get wet.

Picture Credit : Google

DO MAYFLIES HAVE MOUTHS?

Adult mayflies have no functional mouths. Then how do they eat, you wonder? Adult mayflies never eat and, as a result, die of malnutrition. They live for a brief span, from a few hours to a day, during which they mate. Indicators of clean, healthy waterways, mayflies eat only during their larval stage. The adults of some species live as few as two hours, which doesn’t give them very much time to do all their reproduction business, but such is life for a mayfly.

Mayflies “hatch” (emerge as adults) from spring to autumn, not necessarily in May, in enormous numbers. Some hatches attract tourists. Fly fishermen make use of mayfly hatches by choosing artificial fishing flies that resemble them. One of the most famous English mayflies is Rhithrogena germanica, the fisherman’s “March brown mayfly”. Like a lot of other insects, mayflies cycle through different metamorphic stages during their lives — think of them as insect costume changes. The first two take place in the water as an egg and then a larva. After hatching, a mayfly larva feeds, grows and develops, some males building burrows to live in and feed from, while others just cruise around in the aquatic vegetation, finding snacks. During this time, they grow and molt over and over — as many as 50 times for some species.

Credit : How stuff works

Picture Credit : Google 

HAS ANYONE EVER PLAYED GOLF ON THE MOON?

Yes, that credit goes to American astronaut Alan Shepard. He was the first to play golf on the lunar surface. He achieved the feat when he was part of the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. He is said to have hit two golf balls across the surface of the moon with a makeshift club.

Shepard took a few moments during the Apollo 14 landing to show off his hobby during a live broadcast from the lunar surface on Feb. 6, 1971. He took two shots, with the second ball going “miles and mile,” he said on-camera. He was exaggerating, according to new analysis from the United States Golf Association (USGA). Based on data from the crew and a modern-day moon mission, the group found that the first ball traveled 24 yards (22 meters) and the second about 40 yards (37 m). By comparison, a 2019 report using golf tournaments’ gender categories shows that an average amateur male golfer on Earth can drive the ball 216 yards (198 m), and an average female golfer 148 yards (135 m), although those distances have increased significantly since Shepard’s flight. To be fair to Shepard, however, he had more obstacles to contend with than your typical Sunday hobbyist. His golf “club” was actually a modified sample collection device with the head attached to the end. He was also wearing a notoriously stiff spacesuit that forced him to swing with a single arm.

USGA found the lunar golf balls in high-resolution, enhanced scans of the original flight footage of the Apollo 14 mission. The association measured the point between divot and locations where the balls ended up using high-resolution images from orbit taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launched in 2009.

The association used a second technique to confirm the measurements. Some of the images used were photo sequences taken from the lunar module, the astronauts’ landing craft, taken to show the entire landing site to geologists on Earth. USGA stitched the photographs into a panorama to demonstrate the location of the divot and the two balls, which (after taking the new photo enhancements into account) were well within view of the landed spacecraft.

The two balls are also visible in Apollo 14 takeoff footage, but only after applying “a complex stacking technique on multiple separate frames,” according to a USGA Golf Journal story. This means NASA astronauts Shepard and Ed Mitchell likely couldn’t have seen the balls themselves from the spacecraft, either during their time on the ground or when flying away from the moon.

Credit : Space.com

Picture Credit : Google 

Which country’s national anthem has no words?

The Spanish national anthem, the “Marcha Real” or “Royal March, has no official lyrics. The original version had lyrics, but they are no longer used. The lyrics which were said to have fascist overtones were scrapped in 1978 when Spain embraced democracy after nearly 40 years of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.

The usual practice for audience members is to hum or ‘na na na’ along to the tune, while the players stand and listen in silence.When World Cup fever took over in the summer of 2018, a wildly amusing Twitterstorm broke out in the run-up to Spain’s game against Iran on 20 June. ‘Marcha Real’ was composed in 1761 by Manuel de Espinosa de los Monteros, who wrote the tune as a military march for the Spanish Infantry. In the 1770s, Charles III declared it the official march of Spain, and it later became the country’s national anthem.

There have been a number of attempts to set words to the ‘Marcha Real’, some of which have been used at past events. However, none of the suggested lyrics have been officially approved by the Spanish government. In 2008, Spain’s Olympic Committee tried to set lyrics to the anthem, but their suggestion was widely criticised due to its opening line of ‘Viva España’, an expression associated with Franco’s dictatorship.

Picture Credit : Google