Science & Mathematics Questions & Answers

The Kuiper belt sometimes called the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, is a region of the Solar System beyond the planets extending from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to approximately 55 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, although it is far larger – 20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, …

A keystone species is a species that plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community and whose impact on the community is greater than would be expected based on its relative abundance or total biomass. The concept of a keystone species was first introduced by University of Washington professor, Robert T. Paine in 1969. Paine studied …

Jovian planets, also known as gas giants, is a collective term for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The term Jovian came from planet Jupiter, which describes the other gas giants in our solar system which are like Jupiter. These planets are surrounded by a number of moons and rings and their rotation is faster than terrestrial planets. Jovian planets have …

First stated by Camille Jordan in 1887, the Jordan Curve Theorem says that any simple closed curve in a plane divides the plane into two disjoint regions (inside and outside of the curve). By simple closed curve, roughly a curve which does not cross itself but eventually joins itself; more formally, the theorem refers to any homeomorphic image of a …

Histogram is a very useful tool in photography, found on all the digital cameras (compact cameras and DSLR cameras), as well as in all the photography editing programs. With the histogram you can analyse the tonal value of the image or in other words: it shows how bright or dark the image is (number of tones captured at each brightness …

The hermit crab is a type of crab that doesn’t have a very hard shell. Since its shell is not strong enough, it uses old shells of other animals for protection, especially that of old whelk. This habit of living in a second-hand shell gives rise to the popular name ‘hermit’ crab. Most hermit crab species live on the ocean …

A heat budget is the perfect balance between incoming heat absorbed by earth and outgoing heat escaping it in the form of radiation. If the balance is disturbed, then earth would get progressively warmer or cooler with each passing year.

A gyroscope is any rotating body that exhibits two properties: gyroscopic inertia or rigidity in space and precession or the tilting of the axis at right angles to any force tending to alter the plane of rotation. These properties are inherent in all rotating bodies, including the Earth. The term gyroscope is applied to spherical, wheel-shaped or disk-shaped bodies universally …

A straight line drawn between two places on a world map looks like the shortest distance between them. But this usually isn’t so, because most maps are distorted. Take a look at a globe. If you stretch a piece of string over the globe, joining Japan and Denmark, you will see that the shortest route runs over the North Pole, …

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. In some genetically predisposed children, food containing gluten causes small-bowl mucusal damage resulting in a disease called gluten-sensitive enteropathy or celiac disease. The treatment is a strict gluten-free diet i.e. elimination of wheat, rye and barley products from the diet. Gluten-free foods are commercially available.