Where is the driest place on earth?
Well to answer this first of all, one should know what is a desert.
"A desert is technically defined as a place that receives less than 10 inches of rain every year".
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| Image credit: National Geographic |
Okay then I hope you have guessed the place by now and if not let me come to your help. Its none other than Antarctica. Yeah! Antarctica. Parts of this continent have seen no rain for at least two million years for now!
The Sahara desert gets just 1 inch (25mm) of rain a year. Antarctica too receives the same amount of rainfall. But, some parts of Antarctica known as dry valleys doesn't have ice and snow and it never rains there too!
Next to those dry valleys of the Antarctica, comes the Atacama desert in Chile. Its average rainfall is a tiny 0.004 inches(0.01mm). There too some areas, haven't seen a single drop of rain but that is only for about 400 years. Now this makes the world's driest place 250 times as dry as the Sahara.
Interesting facts on Antarctica:
Antarctica also has some other specialities that you should know, Antarctica is also the wettest and the windiest place on the earth.. Also seventy percentage of the world's fresh water is found in the form of ice and Antarctica has recorded the speediest winds ever.You might be wondering why those dry valleys are so much dry. This unique condition is caused by a type of wind called katabatic winds (from Greek word 'going down').
Katabatic winds:
These winds occur when cold, dense air is pulled down simply by the force of gravity.The winds can reach speeds of 320 kph (200 mph) evaporating all moisture, water and snow in the process.Now is that clear why I stated Dry valleys of Antarctica to be the driest place.And these Dry valleys are called, somewhat ironically,"Oases of Antarctica"!
They are similar to the conditions on Mars that NASA used them to test the Viking Mission.
Before the final curtain goes down On my life,I shall say to my Mother-Earth, My gratitude-heart is all for you, All for you.Sri Chinmoy
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How much of the Earth is water?
If you say 70% then you are partially right. Seven-tenths of earth's surface is covered in water. But taking the Earth's mass into consideration water doesn't even account for fiftieth of one percent.The Earth is big-it weighs about 6 million,billion,billion kg. Half of this is mass is contained in the lower mantle, the massive semi-molten layer that begins 660 km (410 miles) below the crust, the mass of the land is forty times greater than that of the oceans.
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| Image Credit: Earth Maps Satellite |
A Japanese experiment reported in Science in 2002 suggests that there may be five times as much as water dissolved in the lower mantle than sloshing around the Earth's surface. Using a pressure of 200,000 kg per cm and temperature of 1600o C, the researchers created four mineral compounds similar to those found in the lower mantle. They added water and measured how much of it was absorbed.
If the Japanese are right, the proportion of the world that is water will have to be revised upwards - to 0.1 per cent.
How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when clearly it is Ocean.
ARTHUR C.CLARKE
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What shape is a raindrop?
No! Your guess is wrong! rain Drops aren't tear shaped, they are spherical. 10 graders may sometimes get through this confusion when they come across Oil drop experiment to find the charge of an electron. Where Oil drops are regarded as a sphere. Of course there is no doubt that they are spheres.
Manufacture of lead shots:
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| Image Credit: Wvgazette |
May be that's why ball-bearing and lead shots are round too. They exploit the same property of falling liquids in their manufacturing process. In their manufacture molten lead is dropped through a sieve from a great height into a cooling liquid and becomes spherical.
Shot-drop towers:
Shot-drop towers used to be built for this purpose until the festival of Britain in 1951 there was one next to waterloo Bridge in London. At just over 71m (234 feet) Phoenix Shot Tower in Baltimore was the tallest building in America until the Washingtoon Monument surpassed it after the Civil War.
Rain is a real touch from God. It could be physical healing or emotional or whatever. MICHAEL W. SMITH
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Where is the highest mountain?
The highest known mountain is on Mars.It is called as the Mount Olympus or Olympus Mons (Latin). This giant volcano is the highest in the solar system and in the Known Universe.
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| Image Credit: Space Art |
Olympus Mons:
At 22 km (14 miles) high and 624 km (388 miles) across, it is almost three times the height of mount Everest. Olympus Mons is so wide that its base would cover Arizona, or the whole of the area of British Isles. The crater on the top is around 72 km (45 miles) wide and over 3 km (nearly 2 miles) deep, easily big enough to swallow London.
Criticisms for Mount Olympus being the highest mountain:
But Olympus Mons doesn't conform to most people's idea of a mountain as It is flat-topped -like a vast plateau in a sea drained of water and its sides aren't even steep. Their slight incline of between one and three degrees means you wouldn't even break a sweat if you climbed it.
We Traditionally measure mountains by their height. If we measured them by their size, it would be meaningless to isolate one mountain in a range from the rest. That being so, Mount Everest would dwarf Olympus Mons. It is part of gigantic Himalaya-Karakoram-Hindu-Kush-Pamir range which is nearly 2400 km (1500 miles) long.
Bald as the bare mountain tops are bald, with a baldness full of grandeur.
MATTHEW ARNOLD
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What's the most dangerous animal that has ever lived?
Its Mosquitoes. The female ones specifically. Half the human beings who ever died, perhaps as many as 45 billion people, have been killed by female mosquitoes (the male only bites plants). Mosquito really means 'Small Fly' in Spanish and Portuguese.But you wont realize how dangerous they are until you read this entire article.
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| Image Credit: Island Crisis |
Deadly Killers "The Mosquitoes":
Mosquitoes carry more than a hundred potentially fatal diseases including malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, encephalitis, filariasis and elephantiasis. Even today, they kill one person every twelve seconds. Amazingly, nobody had any idea that mosquitoes were dangerous until the end of the nineteenth century. In 1877, the British doctor Sir Patrick Manson - known as 'Mosquito' Manson - proved that elephantiasis was caused by mosquito bites.
Seventeen years later, in 1894, it occured to him that malaria might also be caused by mosquitoes. He encouraged his pupil Ronald Ross, then a young doctor based in India, to test the hypothesis.
Ross' Interesting Discovery:
Ross was the first person to show how female mosquitoes transmit the plasmodium parasite through their saliva. He tested his theory using birds. Manson went one better. To show that the theory worked for humans, he infected his own son - using mosquitoes carried in diplomatic bag Rome. (Fortunately, after an immediate dose of quinine, the boy recovered).
Ross' Reward:
Ross won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902. Manson was elected a Fellow of Royal Society, knighted and founded the Londen School of Tropical Medicine.
The Big Family Of Mosquito:
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.
AFRICAN PROVERB
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How long can a chicken live without its head ?
A chicken can live without its for about two years.
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| Mike "The Headless Chicken" Image Credit: interestingfacts.org |
A Real Story About A Chicken:
Can't believe? Well let me explain.This is a real story about a chicken ,who soon became a national celebrity. On 10 September 1945, a plump young cockerel in Frutica, Colorado, had his head chopped off and lived. Incredibly the axe missed the jugular vein and left enough of brain stem attached to the neck for him to survive and even thrive.
Mike-"The Headless Wonder Chicken":
Mike as he was called, he became a national celebrity, touring the entire country and he even featured in Time and Life magazines. His owner, Lloyd Olsen, charged twenty-five cents for a chance to meet him in sideshows across the USA. Mike would appear complete with a dried chicken's head head purporting to be his own - in fact, the Olsen's cat had made off with the original.
Mike's Income ! :
At the height of his fame, mike was making $4500 a month, and was valued at $10,000. His success resulted in a wave of chicken beheading, though none of the unfortunate victims lived for more than a day or two.
Mike' Diet:
Mike was fed and watered using an eyedropper. In the two years after he lost his head, he put on nearly six pounds and spent his time happily preening and 'pecking!' for food with his neck. One of the person who knew Mike commented : "He was a big fat chicken who didn't know he didn't have a head."
Mike's Tragedy:
After creating a record of the longest living headless chicken, the tragedy stuck one night in a motel room in Phoenix, Arizona. Mike started to choke and Lloyd Olsen, to his horror, realised he'd left the eyedropper at the previous day's show. Unable to clear his airways. Mike choked to death.Mike remains a cult figure in Colorado and, every may since 1999. Fruita has marked his passing with 'Mike The Headless Chicken' Day.
Suggested Sites [External Links]:
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How many legs does a centipede have?
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| Centipede Image Credit: TgcGarden |
Its not a hundred. The word centipede is from the Latin for ' a hundred feet', and though centipedes have been extensively studied for over a hundred years, not one have ever been found that has exactly a hundred legs.
A Study On Centipede:
Some have more, some less. The one with the number of legs closest to one hundred was discovered in 1999. It has ninety-six legs, and is unique among centipedes in that it is the only known species with even number of pairs of legs: forty-eight. All other centipedes have odd numbered pairs of legs ranging from fifteen to 191 pairs.
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