210 items in this section. Displaying page 16 of 21
Why does a Cricket Ball Swing?
How many times have all of us heard that the former captain of the Indian cricket team, Kapil Dev, was one of the greatest out-swing bowlers of all times. Indeed! He took more than 430 wickets in Test cricket. But, do you know how a cricket ball swings? The term ‘swing’ refers to the movement of the cricket ball in the air after it leaves the bowler’s hand, which takes the ball away from or towards the batsman....
Why is the Bridge of Sighs so Called?
The Bridge of Sighs (Ponte de Sospiri), is in Venice, Italy, and connects the inquisitor’s room in the east side of the Doge’s palace with the state’s prison or prigioni over the Rio de Palazzo. Work on the Doge’s palace (residence of the Duke) or Palazzo Ducale was begun in the 14th century and got its present shape only by the 16th century. The palace was not only the Doge’s residence and thus contained the inquisitor’s (judge) office, it also housed many other institutions like lawyers offices, the Chancellery, Naval Offices, etc....
How do Animals Communicate?
Humans have invented new and advanced ways of communicating with each other. Television, radio, telephones and of course email. You will be surprised to know that animals who seem to have very simple methods of communication – using their bodies and voices – are also capable of long distance communication. How do Animals Communicate? [Illustration by Shinod AP] Foot stomping and low frequency rumbling created by elephants can travel upto 20 miles and is used by elephants to signal other herds or members, says an article in the Hindu newspaper....
Who Sold the Eiffel Tower Twice?
There have been conmen and cheats, cardsharps, and crooks but when it comes to deception and trickery few could match the style of international conman Victor Lustig. Victor Lustig was the king of conmen with forty-five known aliases and nearly fifty arrests in the United States alone. He was born in 1890 in Czechoslovakia. Though brilliant as a child, he turned to a life of crime, excelling in gambling, card games and scams. Lustig became a riverside gambler plying the various cruise boats that invariably consisted of the rich and famous....
How Bad is the Sting of a Scorpion?
Ever seen a scorpion scurrying across with two crab-like claws and its tail high in the air? Well this tail is what has to be watched out for! The zing in the scorpion is in its tail for it has a sting. Scorpions are poisonous animals. They are arthropods belonging to the class Arachnida and are relatives of the spiders and ticks. Though they are considered creatures of the desert, you can find them in most climates, hot or cold....
Where are the Shaking Minarets?
Among the many architectural marvels of the world, like the leaning tower of Pisa, the whispering gallery at St Paul’s Cathedral at London or the musical pillars of South India, are the astonishing and historical shaking minarets of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state, India. The minarets are so unique that if one minaret in shaken, the other sympathetically shakes too! Barely a kilometre away from the Ahmedabad city railway station is the Sidi Bashir mosque (Muslim equivalent of a temple) famed for its jhulta minars or shaking minarets (tall tower-like structures, either at the entrance gate or on the four corners)....
Where Did Numerals Originate?
We deal with numbers all the time. Not just while doing math lessons at school, but also while counting money at the shop, memorising the numbers of our favourite TV channels or even keeping tabs on the number of hours we spend in front of the Internet! But we are so used to numbers that it has never occurred to us to find out where these numbers come from. For that, we must travel back in time....
Do Raccoons Wash their Hands Before they Eat?
We wash vegetables before cooking it. And we wash our hands before we start eating. That is because we have been told that washing would clean our food and that cleanliness is necessary to keep diseases away. But, have you seen cows, dogs or cats wash their food? They don’t. But there is one kind of furry mammals called racoons, which wash their food before eating. And it has been noticed that racoons refuse to eat if they cannot find water around....
Who Invented the Photocopying Machine?
We have all used it at one time or another to copy our school documents, or parts of a book borrowed from the library, or just about anything we wanted a copy of. It’s just a matter of pressing a button of the xerox machine and hey Presto! a piece of paper comes out at one end, an exact duplicate of the document we needed copied! However, when the invention was first patented, nobody wanted anything to do with it....
What is Memory?
As a child my day began with a LARGE glass of milk and five almonds with their skin pealed, that my mother used to put in a bowl of water the previous night. While the milk was for health and energy, the almonds were for increasing the memory. I don’t know how much they helped, but I still offer them to my children in the hope that they do. After all, memory is a precious thing....