The Utterly, Completely, and Totally Useless Science Fact-o-pedia: A Startling Collection of Scientific Trivia You’ll Never Need to Know. Steve Kanaras

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СКАЧАТЬ the thing. For example, we don’t have to taste the combination of fish, onion, butterscotch, and ice cream to know it will be disgusting; we don’t have to drive off a cliff to know that doing so is very bad idea.

      Brasswinds

      (Far from “Bore-ing”)

      • Ever wonder why a trumpet and a trombone have very clear, straight tones, while French horns have a rounder, mellower sound? It’s because of a construction concept called “bore.”

      • Much like a rifle bore, a brass instrument’s bore describes the inner diameter of a tube.

      • Trumpets and trombones are “cylindrical bore,” meaning that aside from the mouthpiece and the flare of the bell, their bore stays the same diameter for the length of the instrument.

      • Horns, on the other hand, have “conical” bores, meaning the tube increases in diameter throughout its length, resulting in the warmer, rounder sound.

      • Thus, a trombone can have that very cool slide, which would be physically impossible for a conical bore instrument! For a slide to work, the tube has to be a constant diameter.

      Buckyballs

      • Buckyballs are spherical molecules of pure carbon with the chemical formula C60 (the “C” standing for carbon). They resemble a tournament soccer ball with 20 hexagon and 12 pentagon faces.

      • The proper name for C60 is Buckminsterfullerene, so named because it looks like the geodesic dome structure made famous by the American architect R. Buckminster Fuller.

      • Buckyballs are the third naturally occurring form of pure carbon after graphite and diamond.

      • Buckminsterfullerene was named the 1991 Molecule of the Year by Science magazine.

      • Specially modified buckyballs have wide applications in the fields of electronics (superconductivity), medicine (drug delivery and medical imaging), chemistry (catalyst), and renewable energy (hydrogen storage in fuel cells).

      Butterflies and Moths

      • Butterflies and moths are both of the order Lepidoptera. Butterflies and moths are holometabolous, meaning that they undergo a complete metamorphosis from egg to caterpillar and from chrysalis to adult.

      • There are far less species of butterflies than moths. Butterflies and skippers (a skipper is a type of butterfly that has hooked-shaped antennae) make up 6–11% of Lepidoptera order, while moths make up 89–94%.

      • The largest and rarest butterfly in the world is the Queen Alexandra Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae). From the rain forests of Papua New Guinea, it has a wingspan of 11 inches (28 cm).

      • The smallest known butterflies are the blues (Lycaenidae), which are found in North America and Africa. They have wingspans from ¼ to ½ inches (6 to 13 mm). The largest known moths are the Atlas moths (Saturniidae) with wingspans as large as 12 inches (30.5 cm).

      • The smallest known moths are from the pygmy moth family (Nepticulidae), with wingspans as small as 3/32 of an inch.

      • It’s a myth that if you touch the wing of a butterfly or moth and powder rubs off that the butterfly or moth will no longer able to fly. The powder is actually tiny scales, which are modified hairs that naturally shed throughout the insect’s lifetime.

      • The word Lepidoptera comes from the Greek word lepis meaning “scale,” and pteron, meaning “wing.”

      Butterflies versus Moths

      • Wings

      • Butterflies tend to fold their wings vertically up over their backs.

      • Moths usually hold their wings in a tent shape to hide their abdomen.

      • Butterflies usually have more colorful patterns on their wings.

      • Moths typically have drab-colored, smaller wings.

      • Anatomy

      • Moths have a wing-coupling device called a “frenulum,” which joins the forewing to the hind wing, so the wings can work in unison during flight.

      • Butterflies don’t have frenulums.

      • Behavior

      • Butterflies are primarily diurnal, meaning they fly in the daytime. But some butterflies are crepuscular, meaning they fly at dawn and dusk.

      • Moths are generally nocturnal, meaning they fly at night. There are some moths that are diurnal, like the buck moth.

      • Cocoon/Chrysalis

      • Note: Both cocoons and chrysalides are protective coverings for the pupa, which is the intermediate stage between the larva and adult.

      • Moths make a cocoon, which is wrapped in a silk covering.

      • Butterflies make a chrysalis, which is hard, smooth, and has no silk covering.

Carbon

      • Carbon is an element that occurs in organic compounds, like living things, and in many inorganic compounds, like limestone, coal, and petroleum.

      • Carbon is the fourth most common element in the universe (after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen).

      • Carbon is the 15th most common element in Earth’s crust.

      • Just behind oxygen, carbon is the second most common element in the human body.

      • The word “carbon” comes from the Latin word carbo, meaning “coal”.

      • Carbon atoms can attach themselves to one another to form long chains and rings. No other atoms of other elements can attach themselves to one another like carbon atoms. Carbon’s “favorite” atom to attach to is hydrogen, but there are many others that it attaches to, including oxygen, nitrogen, fluorine, chlorine, iodine, and sulfur, to name a few.

      • There are more than ten million known carbon compounds, each with their own distinct chemical and physical properties and characteristics.

      • Plastics are made from carbon polymers, which are long-chain molecules.

      • Carbon atoms can form chains that are literally thousands of atoms long. It can also form rings, rings with chains, some with branches, and even cross links!

      • Carbon compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons are associated with ozone depletion, as well as with the greenhouse effect.

      • All organisms absorb carbon from their environment СКАЧАТЬ