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Gold Nuggets
| Airports - "Countdown" markers along the runway tell the pilot how many thousand feet of runway he or she has left. At a small airport the first marker may be a "5" or smaller number. At the other extreme are runways at international airports which often have "14" as their first marker. Runways are numbered; taxiways are lettered. Runways are designated according to the compass direction of the takeoff. A west-to-east takeoff would be on a runway designated "9" for 90 degrees. By the way, if you hear the jet's wheels coming up -- that is after take off -- you know the pilot isn't worried about anything special. Enjoy your flight! |
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| Passenger Seats - The average seat in economy class is about 17.5 inches wide. |
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| Jet Lag - Did you know that you are more apt to experience jet lag when flying from west to east than if you are flying from east to west? |
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| 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
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| Temperatures - The temperature drops 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit for every 1,000 feet of elevation.
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| Interstate - The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. |
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| Standard Railroad Gauge - The Unided States standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the United States railroads were built by English expatriates. Why did the English people build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Whey did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which use that wheel spacing. Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts. So who built these old rutted roads? Te first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Thus, we have the answer to the original questions. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification (Military Spec) for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. Military Specifications and bureacracies live forever. So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what "horse's rear end" came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war-horses!
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| Lost Without a Compass - To find north, poke a stick in the ground and put a rock at the end of the stick's shadow. Wait 15 minutes and place another rock at the shadow's new position. Stand with a toe pointing toward each rock. You are facing north. |
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| Color of Water - What color is pure water? You might think that absolutely pure water would be perfectly clear and utterly transparent, but it is actually blue. The blue color of the water in the oceans is the reason why Earth is mostly blue as seen from space. Pure water absorbs some of the light that passes through it. It absorbs red light more than yellow, yellow more than green, and green more than blue. Only the deepest blue light can travel very far through water, so a large mass of water takes on a deep blue color. The blueness of water is easily visible in a swimming pool lined with white concrete. It's even visible in a white porcelain bathtub. But the blues water of all is the clear tropical ocean far from land, where the sea is much bluer than the sky. |
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| Coral Reefs - Coral reefs have a range of colors, which get their color from microscopic algae living within their tissues, and they turn white when they die. |
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| Round Portholes - Portholes on ships are round for the same reason that submarine hatches have round corners and airliners have rounded windows. In all these cases, the vehicle is subject to flexing and mechanical stress. If the windows had sharp corners, the stresses would concentrate there, resulting in material fatigue and eventually cracking. With round or rounded windows, the stress is evenly distributed. Large boats like cruise liners can have rectangular picture windows in some places because the local stresses there are smaller. When boats were made of wood, stress cracking was less of a problem. |
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| Pacific Ocean and Strait of Magellan - Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan, determined to find a western route from Europe to Asia, sailed from Spain in search of a passage between the Eastern and Western oceans. On October 21, 1520, he discovered the opening of a narrow passage near the southern tip of South America. He followed the 373-mile passage to the Western Ocean, which he named "Pacific." In his honor, that passage is now known as the Strait of Magellan.
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| Statues - If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one fron leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
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| Fall Foliage - Why do leaves change color? Native-American legend says that the red leaves symbolize the killing of the Great Bear of the Heavens; the yellow leaves represent te cooking fires. It takes the right combination of weather and type of tree to result in the annual fall parade of colors. Leaves contain chlorophyll, which absorbs red and blue light from sunlight and reflects green light, giving leaves a green color. But chlorophyll is unstable and breaks down in bright sunlight. Another pigment found in many leaves is carotene, which absorbs blue-green and blue light, making the leaves appear yellow. Many leaves also contqain anthocyanins, which absorb blue, blue-green, and green light, making leaves appear red. During the summer, leaves produce sugar and the abundant chlorophyll makes them appear green. When the days grow shorter and the nights get cooler, the flow of nutrients to the leaf is interrupted, less chlorophyll is produced, and the green color fades. If the leaf contains carotene (found in birch and hickory trees), it will change to a bright yellow color. In trees like red maples, red oaks, and sumacs, the concentration of sugar increases in the fall. This sugar reacts to the anthocyanins, turning the leaves red. Plant scientists say the brightest autumn colors come if the fall weather is dry with summy days and cool nights.
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| Dude Ranches - The first dude ranches appeared in the late 1800's when cattle and horse ranchers hosted paying guests in their homes. These urban, impeccably-dressed visitors wanted a taste of the wild West. Condescending ranch hands called them "dudes," and the name stuck.
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