Nearly two-thirds of the world’s farmland is used to grow cereals, including barley, maize, millet, oats, rye and wheat. However, the basic food of about half of the world’s people is rice, which flourishes in warm, wet areas, especially in Asia. The popular custom of throwing rice at weddings probably originated in India.
Read More »Which is the world’s busiest port?
There are many thousands of different ports throughout the world. Some lie island on rivers and lakes, and can be reached by boats big enough to carry raw materials and manufactured goods. On coasts, there are fishing ports and seaports which handle trade. Seaports are situated on natural or specially built harbours, which offer safe anchorage for ocean-going vessels. The …
Read More »Which is the world’s biggest gorge?
About six million years ago, the Colorado plateau in the south-western USA was a flat coastal plain. Winding slowly across it was the Colorado River. Gradually, earth movements pushed the plain upwards, making the river run faster and faster. The force of the flow began wearing out the Grand Canyon. This, the world’s largest gorge, is 446 km (277 miles) …
Read More »Which is the strongest industrial glue?
There are many adhesives and they are used depending on the application and material to be bonded. The most common one is e-600 series, a high-performance elastomeric adhesive, which bonds a broad range of materials.
Read More »Which is the most pointless gadget?
In a recent survey, an electric nail file, which gives a smooth finish to nails, all for a whopping £250, was voted the most pointless gadget of all times. While laser-guided scissors which helps cut a perfectly straight line came in second, electric candles were third.
Read More »Which is the most massive steel structure?
There are the towering television masts, some of which are higher than the Eiffel Tower. But to find the answer you have to go to sea, for oil rigs are more massive than any steel structure on land. Some of them may contain five times as much steel as the Eiffel Tower, and match it in height, even though most …
Read More »Which is the first company to use barcode for sales?
On June 26, 1974, a 10-pack Wrigley’s chewing gum was the first product logged in a grocery store by a barcoding system using the modern universal product code. Later that year, the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council became the UPCC which regulates the issue and use of all universal product codes. At the same time, companies pursued the use of …
Read More »Which is the brightest Star?
The number of stars which one can see without telescope is about 6,000. Before the invention of telescope, only six magnitudes or degrees of brightness of the stars were recognized. Today with the help of telescope stars up to 21st magnitude can be seen. There are 22 stars of the first magnitude. The brightness of all stars is Sirius, having …
Read More »Which is our biggest bone?
The thigh bone. In an adult it is about twenty inches long.
Read More »Which invention improved both cookery and education?
An important development in the history of education was the spread of gas lighting in the early 1800s. This followed the invention of coal gas by the British engineer, William Murdock, in 1792. Gas lights were much brighter than oil lamps. They illuminated whole rooms adequately at night and evening classes sprang up. As education for most people at this …
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