Longitude
Why is the Equator drawn where it is?
the sun, moon, and planets pass almost directly overhead at the Equator; it is fixed by nature
What concepts did electromagnetism connect?
magnetism, electricity, and light
When the steamship reached the mouth of the fjord, why did the ship suddenly cease to move forward, despite being under full power;
the energy made by the steamship creaded large underwater waves at the boundary between the fresh water on the surface of the sea and the salt water beneath
How did Harry Gold become a spy?
pressured by a person he felt indebted to, he wanted to pepay his debt and please his friend, plus benefit the Soviet people, and the information didin't seem to be too secret, so why not share it? But once he began, he was blackmailed into continuing, as his contacts could tell about his illegal activities at any time.
What is steel, and what made steel-making a challenge until modern times?
an allow of iron and carbon; fires contain cabon, and if iron has 1% carbon, that's great, but 4% caron makes a brittle sheel
What made time so difficult to determine on a ship during the Age of Exploration?
many things: pendulums slow down, speed up, or stop; temperature extremes ether thicken or thin lubricating oil, and make the metal expand or contract; barmedtric pressure changes; gravity changes from one latitude to another.
What happens to light and sound in a vacuum?
sound needs a medium to travel through, like air, so in the absence of air, sound ceases; light, however, continues unaffected, whether in a vacuum or not
What are alpha and beta particles?
alpha particles are helium nuclei (proton + neutrons), and beta particles are high energy electrons
What is "critical mass"?
the right amount of an element to cause a chain reaction; if the amount is too small, too many neutrons leak out and cannot cause fission; if the amount is too large, it explodes prematurely
Why does ink bleed?
if the ink gets sucked too far into the cellulose mesh, it spreads out: better to let the ink dry almost instantly
John Harrison made his first pendulum clock before age twenty. What were the works made of?
wood, with a small amount of brass and steel
What is quantum mechanics?
In order for light to be a constant, and for the speed of light to be constant to all observers, what assumptions must be overthrown?
the assumption that time flows at the same rate for all observers and that distance is the same for all observers
After Knut Haukelid sabatoged the ferry that carried heavy water on its way to Germany, what was the next plan to delay the German's nuclear resarch?
kidnap Heisenberg, the Nobel Prize winning scientist
What is self-cleaning concrete?
concrete with microscopic and transparent titanium dioxide particles that, as they absorb UV light from teh sun, create ions that break down organic dirt that can be washed away
What was the main competitor to Harrison's clock?
the lunar distance method, where navigators measured the motion of the moon compared to the starts, a calculation that took about four hours.
Mathematically, can anything go faster than the speen of light?
nope
Why did the Queen and King hear the shot clearly, while the two men standing next to them did not?
because of the slits in the window, the sound waves interacted in different ways
When the test bomb went off, what was the first sign that it had worked?
"Ant then, without a sound, the sun was shining. Or so it looked": the brightest light any of the scientists had ever seen; some also felt the blinding heat; about 30 seconds later, than the sound
What did NASA scientists need in order to capture space dust?
a way to stop an object traveling at 18,000 kn/hour, without doing damage to either the space dust or the spacecraft; ideally an object that could do this in a very short distance; and ideally one that is transparent, so scientist could find the dist: aerogel!
How did Harrison's work impact England?
it aided England's mastery over the oceans and helped create the British Empire
What are quarks and gluons?
quarks are basic particles with mass; gluons are particles without mass, that glue the quarks together; three quarks make up each proton and neutron
What is the Uncertainty Principle?
one can't measure or know all aspects of a quantum system at the same time; fro example you can't know both location and momentum of a particle
According to the book, why was the second atomic bomb dropped?
"The use of a second bomb the same week was calculated to indicate that we had an endless suplly of this super weapon for use against one Japanese city after another": the President wanted to force Japan to accept unconditional surrender, and one the second bomb went off, they did surrender
With the future creation of replacement body parts, will we be better, faster, stronger?
probably not, since the issue is that the systems wear down over time; so while specific replacements may improve quality of the life dramatically, aging still happens