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11 01 2002 At speeds greater than 40 miles per hour, less fuel is used in driving an automobile with the air conditioner on and the windows up than with the windows rolled down. This is due to the air drag effect - the resistance that a vehicle encounters as it moves through a fluid medium, such as air. In automobiles, the amount of engine power required to overcome this drag force increases with the cube of the vehicle's speed - twice the speed requires eight times the power. The Red Queen Hypothesis, also called the law of constant extinction, is named after the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, who said "now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place." The idea is that an evolutionary advance by one species represents a deterioration of the environment for all remaining species. This places pressure on those species to advance just to keep up. 10 01 2002 The phrase "open sesame" is likely inspired by the fact that sesame seeds burst open when they ripen. The United States, Burma, and Liberia are the only countries that have not converted to the metric system. In 1790, Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, proposed adapting the metric system, but at the time, England hadn't adopted it and since the US did a lot of trading with the UK, it was not adopted. 09 01 2002 Here's how the names of the month have originated: January - named after Janus, a Roman two-faced god, one face looking to the past, the other into the future. February - is from the Latin word Februare, meaning "to cleanse." At the time of year corresponding to our February, the Romans performed religious rites to purge themselves of sin. March - is named in honor of Mars, the god of war. April - after the Latin word Aperio, meaning "to open" because plants begin to grow in April. May - after the Roman goddess Maia, as well as from the Latin word Maiores meaning "elders", who were celebrated during this month. June - after the goddess Juno and Latin word iuniores, meaning "young people." July - was, at first, known as Quintillis from the Latin word meaning five, since it was the fifth month in the early Roman calendar. Its name was changed to July, in honor of Julius Caesar. August - is named in honor of the Emperor Octavian, first Roman emperor, known as Augustus Caesar. Originally the month was known as Sextilis, six. September - was once the seventh month and took its name from septem, seven. October - was once the eight month and took its name from octo, eight. November - was once the ninth month and took its name from novem, nine. December - was once the tenth month and took its name from decem, ten. 08 01 2002 Breathalysers used by the police are usually electronic, using the alcohol blown in through the tube as fuel to produce electric current. The more alcohol the breath contains, the stronger the current. If it lights up a green light, the driver is below the legal limit and has passed the test. An amber light means the alcohol level is near the limit; a red light above the limit. The device has a platinum anode, which causes the alcohol to oxidize into acetic acid with its molecules losing some electrons. This sets up the electric current. Earlier breathalysers detected alcohol by color change. Orange-yellow crystals of a mixture of sulfuric acid and potassium dichromate in a blowing tube turn to blue-green chromium sulfate and colorless potassium sulphate when the mixture reacts with alcohol, which changes into acetic acid (vinegar). The more crystals that change color, the higher the alcohol level in the body. 07 01 2002 During the 19th century, cows hauled mail wagons in some German towns. In Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, camels were used. In Russia and Scandinavia, reindeer pulled mail sleighs. The Belgian city of Liege even tried cats, but they proved to be unreliable. ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, is an ordering and identifying code for book products. It forms a unique number to identify that particular item. The first number of the series relates to the language the book is published in, zero is for English. The second set of numbers identifies the publisher, and the last set of numbers identifies the particular item. The very last number is a "check number." 06 01 2002 A Universal Product Code (UPC) or bar code is the product description code designed to be read by a computerized scanner or cash register. It consists of 11 numbers in groups of "0"s (dark strips) and "1"s (white strips). A bar will be thin if it has only one strip or thicker if there are two or more strips side by side The first number describes the type of product, most products begin with a "0"; exceptions are variable weight products such as meat and vegetables (2), health-care products (3), bulk discounted goods (4), and coupons (5). Since it might be misread as a bar, the number 1 is not used. The nest five numbers describe the product's manufacturer. The five numbers after that describe the product itself, including its color, weight, size, and other distinguishing characteristics. The code does not include the price of the item. When the identifying code is read, the information is sent to the store's computer database, which checks it against a price list and returns the price to the cash register. The last number is a check digit, which tells the scanner if there is an error in the other numbers. The preceding numbers, when added, multiplied, and subtracted in a certain way will equal this number. 05 01 2002 A perfect number is a number equal to the sum of all its proper divisors including 1. The number 6 is the smallest perfect number; the sum of its divisors 1, 2, and 3 equals 6. The next three are: 28, 496, and 8,126. There are no known odd perfect numbers. 0! is assigned the value 1. 04 01 2002 The word for the yarn type Angora comes from the name of the city that's the capital of Turkey: Ankara. 90% of earth's ice is in Antarctica. A smooth golf ball will only travel half as far as a dimpled one. 03 01 2002 What makes one have bad eyesight has nothing to do with watching too much TV, reading in the dark, staring at the computer too long, or not eating enough carrots. It only has to do with the shape of one's eyeball. The hands of a clock travel clockwise because back when people used a stick and its shadow to calculate the time, the shadow would move in a clockwise motion in the northern hemisphere which is where the first clocks were discovered. 02 01 2002 Bulletproof vests are made of layers of bevlar threaded intertwined so that the molecules are tightly bonded allowing the fabric to stretch and use the force of the entire sheet. This way it's 5 times stronger than a steel of its size. The reason man-made snow packs in tighter is cause its molecules are smaller since the snow doesn't travel far and thus attach to other particles and grow like it does when natural snow occurs. 01 01 2002 In running competitions horns are placed behind each runner so that the person farthest away from the gunshot doesn't have to be penalized and wait for the sound wave to reach him. The foot pedals also are pressure sensitive such that if a runner starts too early, he can be disqualified. Bears can go 7 months without urinating, whereas if humans go a day or two, we might die from the toxins that are not being released. A chameleon is the only creature that can move each eye independently.

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