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Trivia ~ Nature
The largest pumpkin weighed 377 lbs.
The largest cabbage weighed 144 lbs.
The largest known kidney stone weighed 1.36 kilograms. (3 lbs.)
Molecules are so small that in most cases they can't be counted one by one, but there is a unit of measurement for counting molecules. Logically enough, it's called a mole.
One mole of a substance is the amount that contains 602,214,199,000,000,000,000,000 molecules. This number, written in scientific shorthand as 6.022 X 10^23, is called Avogadro's number after an Italian scientist named Amedeo Avogadro who did some important work in molecule counting during the 19th century.
One mole of carbon atoms is twelve grams (less than half an ounce).
One mole of air at normal pressure and temperature fills 22.4 liters, a space as big a large balloon.
How much energy does matter contain?
Albert Einstein's most famous formula is widely known: E=mc2, which relates mass to energy. It says that the energy contained in matter is equal to its mass times the speed of light squared.
Since light travels very fast (300,000 kilometers per second, or 186,000 miles per second), there's a lot of energy wrapped up in a very small bit of matter. The energy of one gram (1/28 ounce) of matter would keep a 100-watt light bulb glowing for 28,500 years.
One of the most noticeable examples of the mass-energy relation is in the sun, where hydrogen is converted into helium by nuclear fusion. During the reaction, 0.7% of the hydrogen's mass is released as various forms of energy. A tiny fraction of that energy keeps the Earth from turning into a ball of ice.
What's the slowest drip in the world?
An experiment started in 1927 when a physics professor at Australia's Queensland University poured some molten tar into a stoppered glass funnel. Three years later, he removed the stopper, placed the funnel on a stand, and put the whole setup inside a glass bell jar. Slowly, the almost-solid tar began oozing down the funnel.
Every nine or ten years the accumulating drop of tar drips down into a beaker below. The seventh drip happened in 1988. The eighth drip was expected to happen over Christmas in 1998, but the tar oozed more slowly than expected because the room had been air-conditioned, cooling it slightly and hardening the tar.
According to the current physics professor at the University, the tar should keep dripping for another century at ever-increasing intervals.
Because solid though it may seem, glass is really a viscous liquid. I'll pause a moment while that crosses your synapses and bounces among your neurons.
Mind you that's a viscous, not vicious liquid such as a mix of vodka and champagne. A viscous liquid stiffens when cooled, but never becomes completely solid. Unlike solids, in which the atoms arrange themselves in a rigid, crystalline molecular structure, glass atoms just hang out, helter-skelter-like. Light can squeeze between them.
The molecular make-up of glass, unlike that of ordinary solids, such as wood, also keeps it from absorbing visible light. Its structure also prevents the loss of light through internal reflections, characteristic of a solid. Only glass' outer surface reflects light, which makes it considerably more useful than, say, silver or tin for eyeglass lenses.
Ozone is an oxygen molecule with an extra atom. It's most commonly created by a discharge of electricity, such as lightning. The Sun's radiation hitting our atmosphere also creates ozone, which forms a layer in the atmosphere that protects us from the sun's ultraviolet rays. I find it touching that the sun works to protect us from itself, don't you?
It helps to precipitate soot and dirt when used as a cleaning agent. It kills germs, and that's good. But it's not so good when it's in the air and it reacts perfectly with car exhaust, dirt particles and the like to make them hang out there for you to breathe as smog.
Too much ozone at ground level can irritate your eyes. Then again, too much tequila can make you cry. What can I say?
The Cullinan, the largest diamond ever found, was discovered in Jan, 1905 when a mine manager's walking stick accidentally knocked it out of a tunnel wall in Premier Mine no. 2 near Pretoria, South Africa. It was sent by General Louis Botha, South Africa's first PM (who was then the premier of Transvaal) to King Edward VII of England as "an expression of ...loyalty and affection." It was sent by ordinary registered mail where the King exclaimed on seeing it, "I should have kicked it aside as a lump of glass if I had seen it on the road." 105 stones were cut from it, including the Star of Africa. It was valued at $750,000. Danish. [H]
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