JANUARY

How is dry ice made?

Dry ice--frozen carbon dioxide--is often used to preserve perishable food, such as ice cream (God bless it). But you might perish if you ever ingested dry ice because its temperature is around -110 degrees F. It's cold enough to burn you if you even touch it.

They make dry ice by subjecting carbon dioxide to very high pressure and extreme cold. It turns into a liquid that, when it evaporates, forms a deeply frigid, snow-like substance. That "snow" is then compressed into blocks of dry ice.

If allowed to "melt," dry ice goes directly from a solid state back to a gas, a process known as sublimation. That's the same word psychiatrists use to describe substituting a benign or creative impulse for a baser one--such as treating yourself to a nice cold dish of ice cream instead of taking an ice pick to someone who's annoying you.

(Source: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA)

FAST FACTS:

Leonardo Di Vinici could draw with one hand while at the same time write with the other. Boy, you'd think if he could do
all that he would have been able to paint a couple of eyebrows on Mona Lisa.

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)

What kind of animal has the longest life span?

Humans are the longest-lived mammals and giant tortoises are the longest-lived reptiles, sometimes living as long as 150 years. Among birds, the record is held by turkey buzzards at 118 years. But thick-shelled ocean clams called quahogs hold the top longevity record among all animals. These slow-moving mollusks can live more than 200 years.

Quahogs are burrowing clams that feed on microscopic life they strain from the water. They use their fleshy foot to pull themselves under the mud, then extend two long tubes up into the water.

Native to the North Atlantic Ocean, quahogs are in great demand as food for people, and as a result, those found near shore seldom live longer than 10 or 20 years. Like many other North Atlantic life forms, populations of quahogs have been reduced greatly in some areas due to overcollecting.


Quahogs can be made into very good clam chowder:
http://www.assateague.com/clam.html
http://www.parker-river.org/nat_hist/shellfsh/quahog.htm
http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/G_Bay/quahog.html

World-record life spans among mammals, reptiles, and other groups:
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/400-499/nb486.htm

What is a sonic boom?

Sonic booms are not often heard these days in most inhabited parts of the world. That's because they can be somewhat destructive, not to mention annoying. They are caused by aircraft that travel faster than the speed of sound.

The sonic boom is a shock wave that forms when the aircraft's speed outstrips the ability of air molecules to get out of the way. It's a moving pressure wave that starts at the nose, wingtips, and other forward-projecting parts of the aircraft and forms a cone trailing back from the plane and expanding up, down, and out to the sides.

When that cone-shaped pressure field passes across a point on the ground, a sonic boom is heard. Since the pressure wave of a moderate sonic boom can be enough to break windows, non-military aircraft are no longer allowed to travel faster than sound near inhabited areas.

More about sonic booms:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/barrier/boom/
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/sonicboom.html

Sometimes a large meteor causes a sonic boom:
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9907/08/new.zeland.meteor/

More Cool Facts about sound:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1997/09/16.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/07/07.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/05/20.html

Is the "catgut" used in some tennis rackets and stringed instruments actually...?

I was appalled by this word when I was a kid. I didn't want to even consider the possibility that it was what it said it was. Well those who favor felines can read on, but if you're a lamb lover be warned: what we have here is a sheep in cat's clothing.

These days tennis rackets tend to be strung with steel or nylon, but some are still made from sheepgut, which is known for its strength. And when you strum a guitar, don't be surprised if you think you hear a bleat among the twangs.
Sheepgut is still a mainstay in string instruments. It also shows up in surgical sutures and--don't faint--sausage casings.

So why do they call it catgut? Fewer letters? Because sadism toward pussycats is politically correct? In truth, we don't know.

(Source: HOW DO THEY DO THAT? by Caroline Sutton)

FAST FACTS:

Most snakes can go a full year without eating any food. If I had to survive on a diet of mice, I'd only eat once every year too.

There are more than 50,000 earthquakes every year throughout the world. That's a whole lotta shaking going on.

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)

How does Teflon stick to pots and pans?

Teflon, or polytetraflouroethylene, (PTFE) is one of the most inert substances known. It's so inert that nothing sticks to it; to stick, it would have to react in some way. So how does it stick onto the surface of a frying pan?

In early days, the Teflon was pressed onto the metal surface after the metal had been "roughed up" by abrasion and coated with a primer chemical with lots of microscopic cavities. The Teflon squeezed into the cavities and stuck to the pan by sheer mechanical strength. But those early frying pans didn't keep their coating very long, because Teflon is so inert that its long molecules slither like wet spaghetti, and it often came loose from the mechanical primer.

Modern non-stick pans are made with a much more sophisticated process. Parts of the Teflon molecules at the bottom of the coating have different side chains that actually stick to the metal, while the upper ends of the molecules are pure Teflon. The layer sticks on the bottom, but not on top.

More about how they make it stay stuck:
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/Geek/geek990118.html

Teflon is a registered trademark of DuPont Corporation:
http://www.dupont.com/teflon/

Teflon is a fluorocarbon. A Cool Fact about another fluorocarbon:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/05/27.html

What the heck is something doing when it "warms the cockles" of your heart?

Some of you may recognize the word cockle as derived from the Old French, coquille, or shell, as in the French scallop dish, Coquille Saint-Jacques. You would know as well that coquille also gave us "the cockles and mussels" that Sweet Molly Malone sold in an old song.

Now those who jumped up to raise their hand with that answer, please sit down. That ain't it.

These cockles come from the Latin cochleae cordis, the ventricles in your heart. The implication is that something that warms you that internally is really, deeply satisfying.

(Source: DICTIONARY OF WORD AND PHRASE ORIGINS)

FAST FACTS:

Eventually the sun will burn itself out and Earth will freeze over. When that happens, given the 94 million miles from the Earth to the sun and the speed of light, we will have a little over eight minutes before the daylight goes dark and the temperature plunges precipitously. Maybe not enough time to take out the garbage and put your personal papers in order, but surely enough to wolf down one last bowl of nachos and salsa.

(Source: HOW A FLY WALKS UPSIDE DOWN)

What are the states of freeway traffic flow?

Although freeway traffic flow is very complex, science is beginning to reveal its dynamics. It turns out to have distinct states, like the gas, liquid, and solid states of matter.

When traffic moves like a gas, the cars are far enough apart that each one can move freely without much affecting its neighbors.
Drivers instinctively maintain large separations, and traffic flows
at maximum speed.

When things get a little busier, cars slot together into clusters that travel only a little slower than they do in the gas state. The clusters are like condensed droplets of liquid, and they are separated by intervals of gaseous traffic.

If traffic gets even heavier, another transition happens. The traffic enters a thick, viscous state like honey or tar. If it gets much heavier you have gridlock, the solid state of traffic flow.

Computers make the study of "traffodynamics" easier:
http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/7_3_99/bob1.htm

The curious musings of a traffic psychologist:
http://www.aloha.net/~dyc/ch14.html

More Cool Facts about transportation:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/11/05.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/12/07.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/2000/01/28.html

How can cartilage-jawed fish crush hard clams?

Like all elasmobranchs (fish in the shark family), stingrays have no solid bones. Instead, they have skeletons of cartilage. So how can some stingrays manage to crush and consume hard clams, whose shells are much harder than their own bones?

The secret is leverage and smart design. The clam-crushing rays have special three-layer cartilage, with an outer layer of tough, fibrous cartilage and a middle layer that is harder than the inner portion. There are also thin, hollow bracing struts that reinforce the jaws and add extra leverage.

Because of the way the jaws are designed, they can crush objects that are harder than they are. Then the ray's sharp, hard teeth can further crush the shell fragments, releasing the meat inside.

More about the clam-crushing stingrays:
http://helix.nature.com/nsu/000316/000316-2.html

More Cool Facts about elasmobranchs:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1997/08/01.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/08/31.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/11/05.html

Why do we call nonsense talk a lot of "rigmarole?"

Like the word "gobbledygook," rigmarole sounds like what it describes. Each means nonsense talk or writing and rigmarole is also applied to procedures--often bureaucratic--that don't make sense. But while gobbledygook was coined by a Texas congressman, rigmarole has a pedigree.

The word evolved from "Ragman Roll," a legal scroll related to medieval pledges of loyalty to the English king by the Scottish nobles. Even then nobody was supposed to understand legalese, so the language on this scroll just rolled along through obscurity. A French party game involving the use of a scroll likely also have played a role in the etymology of rigmarole as a nonsense name.

(Source: A BROWSER'S DICTIONARY by John Ciardi)

How does a scratch-n-sniff pad work?

Have you seen a scratch-n-sniff pad? You rub a hard object (like your fingernail) along the paper and somehow an aroma is released.
You might also have seen perfume ads in magazines where you pull open a panel and the smell comes wafting out. How does this work?

The secret is microencapsulation, a technology that is used in much more than just scratch-n-sniff pads. The idea is to enclose minute amounts of liquid, solid, or gas inside very tiny containers called microcapsules. When the containers are broken, the contents are released.

In the case of scratch-n-sniff, your fingernail breaks the tiny capsules and the smell is released. Microcapsules are also used in detergents, drugs, and many other places where chemicals need to be released at controlled times.

All about microencapsulation:
http://www.swri.edu/3pubs/ttoday/summer/microeng.htm

Another Cool Fact about something aromatic:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/2000/03/06.html

If canned grapefruit is unsweetened, why is it usually sweeter than the fresh fruit?

Did you ever suspect that the "unsweetened" claim on the juice can might be just a little fib? How else can you explain this phenomenon? Well, before you sour on the juice companies, drink this in.

There's a simple explanation. The juice-making process is totally controlled. The fruit is picked when perfectly ripe and the taste is just right. That taste is preserved by canning.

But fresh fruit has to travel to the supermarket and then sit there until you buy it. It has to be picked before it's ripe in order to give it a chance to hit its peak at the point of sale. When the timing is perfect, you slice the sections and they're delicious. But how much of life is perfect? Pass the sugar, please.

(Source: IMPONDERABLES by David Feldman,)

What is the highest point in Antarctica?

Antarctica's highest peak is Mt. Vinson, a pyramid-shaped mouontain 16,076 feet high (4897 meters). It's part of the Ellsworth Mountains, which overlook the huge Ronne Ice Shelf at the base of the Antarctic Peninsula.

First climbed in 1966, Mt. Vinson's peak has been reached by fewer than 400 people. It is a place of utter desolation and dramatic beauty. From the top, one can look out across hundreds of miles of ice, to a horizon that is distinctly curved.

Mt Vinson is about 600 miles (970 km) from the South Pole. Even during the summer, when the sun shines around the clock, conditions can be harsh and deadly. The average summer temperature is -20 degrees Fahrenheit (-29 C). Although conditions are usually cold and windless, high winds and snowfalls are always possible.

Climbing Mt. Vinson: cybercast of a 1999 expedition:
http://mountainzone.com/climbing/antarctica/index.html

More Cool Facts about mountains:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1997/06/24.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1997/11/06.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/04/01.html

And People Drink This Stuff!!

Just think what this stuff is doing to your insides.

Just when you thought you knew everything....

To clean a toilet:
Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl.
Let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean.
The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.

To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers:
Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.

To clean corrosion from car battery terminals:
Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.

To loosen a rusted bolt:
Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

To bake a moist ham:
Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan; wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.

To remove grease from clothes:
Empty a can of Coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, And run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains.

It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

AND WE DRINK THIS STUFF!

FYI: The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. It's pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. To carry Coca Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material placards reserved for Highly Corrosive materials.

The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Drink up!?

How do they make mirrors?

There are probably few things more interesting, perplexing, and sometimes disturbing as our own reflections. Since ancient Egypt, when people used shiny metal to bring themselves face to face with their face, we've used mirrors to keep an eye on ourselves.

Commercial glass mirrors were first produced in 16th century Venice. It was the Renaissance, when realistic portraits came into vogue and literature and philosophy were suddenly emphasizing the individual.

The mirror glass was backed by a mixture of mercury and tin, a method that was used until the 19th century, when a chemically treated silver-ammonia compound replaced it. The backing, supported and protected by the glass, reflects the image.

(Source: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA)

FAST FACTS:

There's a formal name for snapping your fingers. It's called a "fillip." I knew filliping had something to do with your fingers, but I thought it only involved one finger.

E is the most frequently used letter in the alphabet. Q is the least. I find that quite quizzical and quirky and you can quote me (not really, I just wanted to help poor Q along there).

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)

How are diamonds formed?

Natural diamonds are formed at least 150 kilometers deep in the Earth (93 miles) where the heat and pressure are great enough to squeeze carbon atoms together into the diamonds' tight crystal structure.

How do they get to the surface? Almost all diamonds mined today are collected from "diamond pipes," deep channels of a kind of volcanic rock called kimberlite or blueground. These structures started as nearly vertical columns of magma that pushed their way up carrying diamonds formed much deeper, and solidified in place. The most well known kimberlite pipes are in South Africa.

Most mined diamonds are of low quality, suitable for use in industrial abrasives. These are called "boart." The gem quality stones are only 15 to 20 percent of those mined.

A diamond in its original kimberlite matrix:
http://www-glg.la.asu.edu/~glg_intro/diamonds/kimberli.htm

More about diamond mining in South Africa:
http://www.bullion.org.za/bulza/educatn/diamonds.htm

More Cool Facts about diamonds:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/03/31.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/08/27.html

Why is a big gambling payoff called a jackpot?

It's a safe bet that most people don't know Jack about what kind of pot this expression refers to. Ordinarily I might play my cards close to my vest and tease you a while about what it
means, but I'm feeling pretty flush today, so I'll just play it straight and deal.

The game is poker, folks--draw poker, to be exact. You need a pair of jacks or better to open, but you ante-up regardless. The longer we play without someone holding the requisite cards, the more money there will be in the pot. Eventually someone will draw the cards that will win the...you-know-what.
(What are you grinning about, pardner? Just what cards are you holding?)

By extension, the payoff at slot machines is also commonly called the jackpot.

(Source: BREWER'S DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE)

What's the hottest kind of flame?

The hottest flames known to science are made by burning a mixture of oxygen and acetylene (C2H2). The flame of an oxyacetylene torch can reach a temperature of more than 3300 degrees Celsius (5972 F), hot enough to melt metal even underwater or in the extreme cold of Antarctica.

Why does acetylene produce such a hot flame? The secret is in the molecule's structure: It contains two carbon atoms joined by a high-energy triple bond, with a hydrogen atom capping each end of the molecule. When the triple bond is attacked and broken by oxygen atoms, a very large amount of energy is released.

Because of its extremely high energy content, acetylene is also one of the most explosive gasses. Even a small amount, if it explodes, can create a shock wave intense enough to kill a person and flames hot enough to inflict severe burns.

A prize-winning essay about acetylene:
http://www.chem.yorku.ca/hall_of_fame/essays97/acetylene/acetylen.htm

How dangerous is it?
http://www.cganet.com/Pubs/Free/SAAcet.htm

More Cool Facts about fire:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/06/18.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/08/11.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/04/13.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/2000/04/05.html

Why do we call a long shot political candidate a
"dark horse"?

What is there about politics that would inspire a four-legged metaphor? Well, many people associate politics with the scent
of the stable. And we have all had to listen to politicians who remind one of the southbound end of a northbound horse.
But "dark horse" rises above all that. It comes from good breeding and in fact is downright literary.

Benjamin Disraeli, the future British Prime Minister, coined it in his 1831 novel, The Young Duke, to describe a horse with dim prospects that emerges from the pack to become a serious challenger. The term was picked up at British tracks, passed into American racing lingo, and from there entered the political lexicon, where it is still trotted out to label a candidate who may surprise everyone at the finish line.

(Source: A BROWSER'S DICTIONARY by John Ciardi)

FAST FACTS:

Assuming that each fold neatly overlaps its opposite side, a dollar bill can be folded only 6 times, 7 if put in a vise (although the dollar can only be folded six times, it can be stretched numerous ways).

The amount of play money printed each year for use in the game, Monopoly is more than the amount of real money issued every year by the U.S. government. Of course, Monopoly money is a lot easier to come by.

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)

What kind of space station is blown up like a balloon?

At NASA's Johnson Space Center, the prototype of a new kind of space station has just been pressure-tested, and shows great promise for revolutionizing the way humans live in space.

The TransHab (short for "transit habitat") is an inflatable space station made of fabric. Its walls, which are more than a foot thick (1/3 meter) are made out of a composite of fabrics including puncture-resistant kevlar plastic. They can absorb impacts made by bullet-size particles travelling at 7 kilometers per second (15,600 mph) and are also able to absorb many kinds of radiation. The TransHab is almost three times larger than the crew quarters on the International Space Station (ISS), and it can be launched and deployed by a single Shuttle mission.

If TransHab passes more tests this year, it could be launched into orbit as early as 2004, and might become a part of the ISS and the first manned Mars mission.

More about TransHab:
http://www.discovery.com/news/features/transhab/transhab.html
http://www.metropolismag.com/new/content/arch/jy99spac.htm

More Cool Facts about spacecraft:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/07/09.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/02/12.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/08/06.html

Who started the custom of men wearing tuxedos on formal occasions?

At one time if you told me it was a bunch of penguins that wanted men to look as funny and ridiculous as they do, I would have believed you. But now I can muster some facts to fill in the tail--er, tale--of the tuxedo's origins.

When the tuxedo debuted in 1886, black tie and tails had been the accepted formal wear for a century. But that year Pierre Lorillard (from the tobacco family) commissioned a tailor to create something less stiff--preferably tail-less--for a big social occasion where he lived, in Tuxedo Park, New York. But by the big night his enthusiasm for the new suit had tailed off, and he chickened out. However, his son and his friends wore it, and they started a new fad that itself became the standard for formal wear. In the process, they immortalized the name of their hometown.

(Source: EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINS OF EVERYDAY THINGS by C. Panati)

FAST FACTS:

When christening a ship, instead of using champagne, the Vikings would sacrifice a human being. The custom started when some Vikings tried to break a bottle of champagne and the owner of the ship said, "Over my dead body."

The Vikings also thought the spirits of the murdered person would guide and guard the craft. Come on, if they sacrificed me just to launch a stupid ship, the only place I would guide it would be the bottom of the ocean.

(Source: 2201 FASCINATING FACTS)