The friction created when you strike a match triggers a series of chemical reactions, causing it to ignite and then combust. To produce a flame, you need something to burn (fuel), oxygen and enough heat. The match head contains sulphur, glass powder and an oxidising agent. Meanwhile, the striking surface is made of sand, powdered …
Most of the salt in the ocean comes from a process that takes place on land. Rainfall contains carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making it acidic. As rain erodes rocks on land, it releases ions – atomic particles that carry an electric charge. Rivers and streams carry these dissolved ions out to the ocean. Some …
That would be the saltwater crocodile. Bite force is partly about raw size, but it also has a lot to do with the shape of the jaw and the position of the muscles. Bite force hasn’t been measured directly for every known animal, but those we have measured allow us to estimate the bite force …
The composition of dust depends on where the dust is located and the habits of the people who live there. There’s a myth that most dust inside your house primarily comprises flakes of shed human skin, but that’s not true. Most of your skin flakes go down the drain when you wash. Dust does have …
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming ownership of any celestial object or the empty space in between them. 100 nations have signed and ratified this treaty, including all those currently with a space programme. The treaty doesn’t mention ownership claims by individuals or corporations though and this loophole has been …
It’s not us that become resistant, it’s the bacteria we are trying to kill. Bacteria multiply quicker than other organisms and have simpler genomes, so random mutations happen more often. Some of those might give them a tougher cell wall or a way to metabolise a toxin. Low doses of antibiotics given to farm animals, …
The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transferred from one form to another. Energy can exist in different forms, such as thermal (heat), kinetic (movement) and potential (stored). Not all energy is transferred to ‘useful’ forms of energy though – when you run, some of the chemical …
There’s a huge amount still to find out about Mars. Despite its more-or-less uniform colour, Mars is a hugely diverse world, with a variety of different environments and landscape features -we really have only scratched the surface, but as we do so, we are discovering evidence for an increasingly Earth-like past, raising major questions that …
Most touchscreens use capacitive sensing. This uses two glass layers, coated on their inside surfaces with stripes of a transparent conducting material. On one layer the stripes run horizontally; on the other they run vertically. Each intersection acts as a tiny capacitor that stores an electric charge. When you touch the glass, your finger distorts …
Neither of the Wright brothers married throughout their lives. Wilbur is recorded as once saying that he “did not have time for both a wife and an airplane.” Wilbur and Orville were the only members of the Wright family who didn’t attend college. Orville spent the years learning the printing trade, while Wilbur helped at …
This is down to a unique chemical reaction. It starts underground, as a growing onion will absorb sulphur from the earth, causing molecules known as sulphoxides to form. When you cut into an onion, you’re breaking into its cells, which release certain enzymes. These enzymes react with the sulphoxides, converting them into sulphonic acids. This …
Quantum tunnelling is a quantum mechanical process where a particle tunnels through a barrier that it classically (ie, in classical physics) could not pass. As quantum tunnelling lies in the domain of quantum mechanics, it cannot be perceived directly. However, it can be explained basically with a simple analogy of a person throwing a tennis …
The rarest big cat in the world is the Amur leopard (panthera pardus ssp. orientalis). There are less than 30 left in the wild and the population is declining, A which means they are critically endangered. They face various threats including habitat loss, poaching and climate change. The Amur leopard is a subspecies of leopard …
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