Weights and Measures
On the water, it's about 1.15 miles per hour
a knot
In physics it's the rate of change of velocity with respect to time, not necessarily an increase in speed
acceleration
Charles Kao got a Nobel by applying to telephony the "old, old idea" of transmitting light through this material
glass
Poison sang, "Every rose has its" this, but "smooth touch" varieties do exist
thorn
John Moisant made the first flight across this body of water carrying a passenger & his cat, soon renamed Paris-London
the English Channel
A bag of the Portland type of this can be one cubic foot, about 94 pounds
cement
This layer of the Earth's atmosphere lies between the troposphere & the mesosphere
the stratosphere
Maxwell Upson's mastery of the prestressed type of this material for support made the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway possible
concrete
In "It's Hot (Some Like It Hot)", Jay-Z gets it wrong with the lyric "thirty-eight revolve like a sun 'round" this
Earth
In 1913 Lincoln Beachey became the first American to perform this repetitive-sounding maneuver, flying in a vertical circle
loop the loop
A full this measure of depth is 72 inches, so 5 of them would be 30 feet
a fathom
Sugars & starches are this type of organic compound with a name meaning "watered carbon"
a carbohydrate
This machine part "ratio" tells you how many times a little wheel has to turn for the big wheel it meshes with to turn once
the gear ratio
Their 1977 song "Dreams" claims, "thunder only happens when it's raining"; that's not always the case
Fleetwood Mac
On the first coast-to-coast flight, in 1911 Cal Rodgers took off from Sheepshead Bay, N.Y. & landed in this Ca. "City of Roses"
Pasadena
This unit of force named for a 17th century man is equal to about .225 pound-force
a Newton
Studies have shown that some shrews use this process, emitting high-pitched squeaks as a guide in the dark
echolocation
Your degree isn't just on paper--oh yes it is, from this Atlanta school's former paper engineering program
Georgia Tech
This group's "Speed Of Sound" says, "Planets are moving at the speed of light"; even hyper-velocity planets aren't that fast
Coldplay
Elrey Jeppesen made the first navigation charts for U.S. pilots, who until then had used this Illinois co.'s road maps
Rand McNally
In this system used for precious metals, an ounce is heavier than a standard ounce, but a pound is lighter than a standard pound
troy
From Latin for "heap" & "rain cloud", this mushroom-shaped cloud brings the thunder
cumulonimbus
Petroleum engineers know that a Darcy is a unit of this, or how readily a porous rock lets liquid through it
permeability
We're not sure how Adele pulled off this title trick in a 2011 song, but she definitely wanted to "let it burn"
"Set Fire To The Rain"
In 1927 he launched his Wichita Aviation Company & produced the first of his small monoplanes, the Phantom
(Clyde) Cessna