Science & Mathematics Questions & Answers

From the moment we put a piece of meat into our mouth, until it has been used up by the body, this mouthful of food has a very strange journey. The meat is gripped by the lips, ground by the teeth, pounded by the tongue, mixed with saliva and then swallowed. Three pathways meet at the back of the throat: …

The mystery of the Mary Celeste has occupied men’s minds for a hundred years. She was a ship of 282 tons and she sailed from New York on 7 November 1872 bound for Genoa, with a cargo of alcohol. Her master was Benjamin Briggs, and with him sailed his wife, their two-year old daughter, and five seamen. On 5 December, …

At sunrise and sunset, we see the sun through a greater thickness of air because it is low in the sky. Therefore, we are looking at it across the earth’s surface rather than directly up into the sky. At these times, the sky often turns orange-red because the photons of red and orange light are scattered through the atmosphere around …

Oil tankers, the biggest ships, are so large that their decks could accommodate a hundred tennis courts each with four players.

Did you that the sea horse is the only true fish which swims in a standing up position, and not lying down as other fish do?

A majority of dye pigments are derived from metals. Red dye comprises mercury sulphide, cinnabar and vermilion, yellow dye uses cadmium, while blue dye is made from cobalt salts. Other colours are made from chromium, manganese, ferric oxide or zinc oxide. Black dye is non-metallic and is made from carbon, black ink or logwood. Most of the metallic dyes are …

Zumba is a cardio-fitness regime based on Latin rhythms developed by a former aerobics instructor Alberto Perez from Colombia. A Zumba class would span several Latin dance styles including Mambo, Salsa, Cumbia and Merengue. Another unique feature of a Zumba class is its party atmosphere unlike a typical aerobics class.

Wood becomes waterlogged when all its calls are filled with water. It can absorb water only up to about 30 per cent of its own weight. As it does so, the wood swells until it reaches “fibre saturation point” or its maximum volume. If further water is added, it will penetrate to the cavities of the cells, but no further …

The skeleton does two very important jobs. It holds the body up, and it protects the delicate organs of the body. When a baby is born, it has about 270 bones in its body. These are small and quite soft, and as the child gets older some bones fuse together, so that there are about 206 by the time the …

This question has many parts to it. We know, for example, that eventually our star, the Sun, will die and in doing so will destroy the Earth. The very distant future, then mens the end of the Earth, but this will not occur for many millions of years and need not concern us here. It has also been suggested that …