Category Fun Facts

How do erasers remove pencil marks from paper?

Erasers are made of sticky substances like plastic, rubber, vinyl and gum. Erasers are used to remove the graphite marks made while writing on paper. They are generally made of sticky substances like plastic, rubber, vinyl, gum, etc.

When a person writes, graphite particles wear off the pencil tip and get interlocked with paper molecules. The soft abrasive action of the eraser causes the graphite particles to stick to it instead of the paper, as graphite has a stronger attraction to the eraser molecules than to paper. The ‘dust’ left over after rubbing consists of worn rubber dumps mixed with graphite particles. Some types of erasers tend to remove the top layer of the paper along with the graphite particles and rubbing the same spot repeatedly can make holes in the paper.

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WHAT IS A MUSHROOM ROCK?

A rock that is shaped like a mushroom! What’s interesting is how the rock gets that shape. The strong winds blowing across desert landscapes erode the base of massive boulders more than the top. Over many years, this results in a thin stem supporting a broad cap – a mushroom rock.

Mushroom rock is a naturally occurring rock with the shape of a mushroom. The rocks are deformed in a variety of ways due erosion and weathering, glacial action, and sudden disturbances. Mushroom rocks are generally formed due to such deformations. We will learn about mushroom rocks associated with wind Erosional Landforms/ Aeolian Landforms.

  • Mushroom Rock, also known as a perched rock or pedestal rock, is a boulder balanced on a pinnacle rock or over another boulder or in some other position.
  • Rainwash generally removes the fine debris from around the boulder, causing some elevated rocks to develop.
  • Mushroom rocks are usually found with a strong capping and crumbling or exudation along their edges.
  • these types of rocks are generally found in deserts.

Formation of Mushroom Rocks

  • In mushroom rocks, the wind-carried sand rarely rises more than three or four feet above the ground, although the concentration of the sand is highest at eighteen inches closest to the ground.
  • As a result, the sandblast or abrasion effect will be greatest at or near the ground level.
  • The upstanding rocks at their bottoms are undercut by continued abrasive action, resulting in Rock pedestal or Mushroom rocks.

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What is the History of the ampersand symbol (&)?

An ampersand (&) is a symbol that represents the conjunction ‘and’. An alteration of ‘and per se and’, this sign is simply the product of combining the letters e and t, Latin (et) for the conjunction. It was first used in Roman cursive writing dating back to the first century A.D.

First historical record

Author Keith Houston in his book Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks claims that this symbol made its first appearance in historical records after being found on an unearthed graffiti from the ruins of Pompeii – a city in ancient Rome which was buried in volcanic ash following the eruption of the Mount Vesuvius in 79 A. D.

Repetitive recitation

In 19th Century Britain, school children reciting the alphabet would include the ampersand as the 27th letter.

At the time, it was customary to recite the Latin phrase ‘per se’ (which means by itself) before any letter that could also be used as a word in itself (like A, I and &). So their daily alphabet rendering would end with: X, Y, Z and per se and. Over time this phrase was slurred to ampersand and it entered the common vocabulary around 1837.

National Ampersand Day

This day was established by American author, designer and typographer Chaz Desimone in 2015, due to his preception of the ampersand sign as an art form. He introduced this day to pay homage to the illustrious history of this symbol, which is also a central motif in his fun art projects and initiatives. Therefore, September 8 is annually celebrated as National Ampersand Day in the U. S.

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Nobel Prize: Some interesting facts

Since 1901, the Nobel prizes have been awarded to men, women and organisations for work that has led to great advances for mankind, in line with the wishes of inventor Alfred The winners of this years prizes are being announced daily from October 3 to October 10. Here are some interesting facts about the prizes and their creator

A misunderstanding?

On April 12, 1888, Alfred Nobel’s elder brother Ludvig died in Cannes, France. But newspaper Le Figaro mixed up the brothers and announced Alfred’s death on its front page under a rather inflammatory headline: “A man who can hardly be called a benefactor of humanity died yesterday in Cannes. He is Nobel, inventor of dynamite”. Many credit this slight as the inspiration for Nobel’s creation of the prizes, pointing to the wording in his will that the awards should go to those who “have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.

“But we can only imagine” that this is what happened because the incident is not mentioned in his correspondence, his biographer Ingrid Carlberg said. As for the visitors who came to offer their condolences at the inventor’s Parisian mansion, they were surprised to be greeted by a very much alive Alfred, as reported by Le Figaro the following day.

A fortune for a Nobel

The Nobel Prizes come with a tidy prize sum, currently set at 10 million kronor ($895,000) per discipline, along with an 18-carat gold medal.

Auction surprise

The 2021 Peace Prize laureate, Dmitry Muratov, turned his gold disc into a fortune to benefit Ukrainian children displaced by the war. In June, his 196-gram medal including 150 grams of gold-sold at auction for a whopping $103.5 million to an anonymous philanthropist. That smashed the previous record for a Nobel medal 21-fold.

Posthumous awards

Since 1974, the statutes of the Nobel Foundation stipulate that the prize may not be given posthumously. But a person may be awarded if she or he dies between the time of the announcement in October and the formal prize ceremony in December. Before the change, only two people had won a Nobel posthumously. One was Dag Hammarskjold, the Swedish secretary general of the United Nations who died in a plane crash in 1961 but was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize later the same year. And in 1931, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded posthumously to another Swede. Erik Axel Karlfeldt. In 2011, the medicine prize committee selected Ralph Steinman of Canada, unaware that he had passed away just three days before the prize announcement. Nevertheless, the foundation decided to give him the award.

New prizes

With 120 years under their belt and a name associated throughout the world with excellence, the Nobel prizes are considered the creme de la creme of awards. But some critics consider them to be archaic, often honouring discoveries made decades ago and not taking into account newer scientific fields. The Right Livelihood Award was therefore created in 1980 by a German-Swedish philanthropist after the Nobel Foundation refused to create two new prizes for the environment and international development. Finland created the one-million-euro Millennium Technology Prize in 2002 to recognise the role technology plays in solving global challenges, while the $1 million Kavli Prizes in Norway have since 2008 honoured discoveries in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. But the richest prize of them all is the most recent one, the Breakthrough Prize created in 2010 by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Dubbed the “Oscars for Science, they come with a cheque for $3 million. more than three times the winnings of a Nobel Prize AFP.

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Which is the world’s shortest flight?

You might have heard about the longest flight. But what about the shortest flight? It could very well take you longer to read this story than to complete a ride on the world’s shortest passenger flight.

Scottish regional airline – Loganair flight LM711 – holds the title of being the world’s shortest regular commercial flight connecting two of the Orkney Islands of Scotland. Covering a distance of 1.7 miles in less than two minutes, it is a regular commercial flight connecting two of the Orkney Islands of Scotland.

According to Guinness World Records, the little aircraft covers a total distance of 1.7 miles, which is almost the same length as the runway at Edinburgh Airport, in about 90 seconds. However, it can take less than 53 seconds on a good day. It is flown by a single pilot and has seating for eight passengers. There are no in-flight facilities so if you need the toilet you have to control the urge.

The flight has been operating since 1967. In 2016, it honoured its millionth flier – Anne Randall, a Royal Bank of Scotland banker.

Every day, the flight makes two to three trips from Westray, an island on the edge of the Orkney archipelago, to a smaller remote island of Papa Westray.

The two-minute flight is the lifeline for residents of the four-square-mile island. Besides, it is also popular with travellers as every year during summer tourists throng the island to discover Papa Westray and experience the plane ride.

For the two-minute ride, you need to reach Kirkwall, the capital of Orkney, and take about a quarter-hour-long flight to Westray. The cost of a one-way ticket is around $22. The alternative to the shortest flight is a rocky boat ride that can take around 20 minutes. There are no in-flight facilities in this 90-second flight for eight passengers flown by a single pilot.

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Why do we get ‘prune fingers and toes’ after swimming for a long time?

After prolonged exposure to water, the skin on our fingertips and toes tends to shrivel up, making them look like dry, wrinkly prunes (a kind of plum). But unlike prunes which shrink when they lose moisture, our skin becomes wrinkled because it absorbs water.

Our skin is made up of several layers. The outer layer of the skin is mostly made up of dead cells that help protect the body. These cells contain a protein called keratin, the same protein which is present in our nails and hair. On our palms and soles, the quantity of keratin in the cells is higher, which makes the skin in these areas thicker and tougher.

The outer layer of the skin is covered by an oily substance called sebum which keeps water out of the skin. When we swim in the pool for a long time, the layer of sebum gets washed off leaving the skin exposed to water.

The keratin-rich skin on our palms and soles tends to absorb more water than skin on the other body parts. Thus, the skin swells up and becomes puffy, but cannot expand too much as it is attached to the layer beneath and shrinks instead, resulting in prune fingers and toes.

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