8th February 2016
A cigarette lighter is a device used to generate a flame. It was invented sometime in the 16th century. The German chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner in 1823 invented a kind of lighter that was called Döbereiner’s lamp. But the first modern, self- igniting match was invented in 1805 by Jean Chancel. In London, matches meant for lighting cigars were introduced in 1849 by a shopkeeper named Heurtner.
8th February 2016
A deck of cards has 52 cards of different denominations starting from one to ten and four colours such as spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds. It has 4 types of court cards including King, Queen, and Jack. Interestingly, the Kings represent a real historical king. The king of Spades represents King David. The king of Clubs represents Alexander the Great. The king of Hearts represents Charlemagne, and the king of Diamonds represents Julius Caesar.
8th February 2016
The average mobile phone contains about 24 mg of gold. Gold does not corrode and therefore, is a good transmitter of small amounts of currents in the mobile phone. It is estimated that in the United States alone, 130 million mobile phones are retired every year. Recycling these alone would yield about 3.4 metric tons of gold.
8th February 2016
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and the largest pyramid in Egypt. It was built for the Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek) and took 20 years to complete. The length of each side at the base averages 755.75 feet (230 metres). Its original height was 481.4 feet (147 metres) and present height is 455.4 feet (138.8 metres). It is made of about 2.5 million blocks of stone.
8th February 2016
Badminton is a popular sport played with lightweight racquets and a shuttlecock. It is said to have been originated in Poona, now Pune, where the British army officers picked it up in the 1860s. The sport was called Poona. It was introduced in England in about 1873 at the country estate of the Duke of Beaufort in Gloucestershire, England. The estate was called Badminton, after which the name ‘badminton’ was given to the sport.
8th February 2016
Asteroids are small rocky bodies that orbit the sun. Most asteroids orbit in a belt between Mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt. They are sometimes called planetoids or minor planets. There are an estimated 400,000 asteroids. However, the large asteroids of about 100 km diameter are few. Some large asteroids have their own moon, such as the asteroid Ida, which has a tiny moon named Dactyl.
