CULTURAL QA 01-2023-16 BEING ACOMPILATION THERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 How much gold is there in the worldand why is it so valuable that it has been sought after from ancient times tothe present? A1 Scott Parikh, Sep 4 As the psychopathsaid, "let's go in parts": How much gold is there in the world? It is not knownexactly how much metal exists . What we do have are estimates of how muchextractable metal is left . According to the United States Geological Survey, we have extracted,throughout our history, 197,000 tons of gold, and some 54,000 more tons remain to be extracted. The problem withthis number is that this is the metal that is considered profitable and technologicallypossible to mine , and it turns out that the world is full of unprofitablesources of ore (you, right now, have gold atoms inside of you). Most gold, like all heavy metals, sank toward the center ofthe earth , when the planet was a ball of newly formed lava. There is the treasure. But we have no way of knowinghow much there really is. And why is it valuable? There are severalreasons why gold is valuable to humans. The first of these has to do with whatwas previously written: it is a very scarce metal. And what is scarce is valuable. The second reasonis because, since the beginning of human history, when only a handful of metalswere known, gold quicklystood out for its most visible detail: its color . It happens that,with the only difference of copper, all visible metals have the same silverappearance . Some brighter, others duller, but all similar. So gold, along withcopper, are useful for making things like ornaments and jewelry. Its colormakes it different. But copper, along with other metals, changes over time, andeventually they oxidize. Iron turns red, copper turnsgreen, etc. Metals react with other materials and change their appearance andproperty. On the otherhand, gold hardly reacts with anything . Therefore, a gold objectlooks yellow regardless of the passage of time . That is the third reason, itsdurability. The last reason has to do with the fact that gold iseasily workable: you can bend and carve it withoutproblems, and if you want you can melt it and reshape it without any problem.In other words, it is ideal for creating crafts with the . And that was thefirst thing humanity did. So, gold isvaluable because it is scarce, it is different, it is durable , and it ismalleable. That is why it was perfect for luxury decorations,and later for coins. That made it so important to us. Q2 Nearly all animals of the samespecies look the same to humans. Do all humans look the same to animals? A2 Mats Andersson, B. Sc, M. Sc fromUppsala University Dec 29 Visually oriented speciescan definitely tell us apart from looks. Crows and magpies, definitely, and they can even describeus to crows and magpies who haven’t met us. Prairie dogs havedifferent warning calls for different people; they can yell things like “human in red shirt approachingfrom the south-east”. Some species gomore by smell. Cats anddogs seem to primarily use smell to identify us; I had occasion tosee a cat hear its owner, who it hadn’t met for two weeks, and not react atall, but a few seconds later, her smell obviously came through and the cat shottowards her like fired from a cannon; my parents’ cat got totally confused whenI and my brother smoked the same brand of cigarettes for a week. I expect a dogwould be better at identifying us by the voice, but they would also mostly goby smell. Also, you only think animals look the same because youhaven’t spent enough time with them. Shepherds can telltheir sheep apart by looking at them; the Sami have about fifty different wordsfor reindeer to identify them by their looks as they’re running past (everyyear, they gather their herds to mark their ears; being only semi-domesticated,they have to be reined in with a lasso, so you need to be able to communicatequickly which one to aim for—and to you and me, they all look totallyidentical). Q3 Why are roads on mountains curvedinstead of being straight? A3 Luca Guala, Ph.D. in TransportationEngineering & Transportation Economics, University of Cagliari (Graduated2000)Updated 2y When I studied roadconstruction at University, many many years ago, the professor told us this story: In the old times,when a road had to be built up a hill, the team of prospector would lead a donkey or a mule up theincline. The donkey would not go straight up along the shortestroute, but would instinctively follow a path with a moderate incline, or grade,very similar to the maximumgrade considered safe for roads (8 to 10%). The prospectors would hammer stakes in the ground after thedonkey and then measure the position of the stakes, draw all the points on amap and start drawing the road profile afterjoining the dots. When the prospectors felt that the donkey had gone too farfrom the desired direction, or when an obstacle was met, they would turn thedonkey around and it would continue climbing in the opposite direction with thesame incline. The pointwhere the donkey changed direction would be the location of a hairpin turn Image from theinternet: this incredibly winding road is somewhere on the Andes range in SouthAmerica A powerfulcar with adequate gear ratios (and adequate grip) can go up a very steepincline but a loaded freight vehicle or a bus full of passengers cannot.As many have pointed out in their answers, going downhill on a very steep incline can be extremelydangerous. An incline, or grade of 8% is considered the limit for amajor road. For short distances, 10% 15% and even 20%grades can be considered acceptable on minor roads, but must be accompanied byadequate signage. Some veryexceptional grades exist on some mountain roads, but I would not want to travelwith a truck on such a road: EDIT: Note that “grade” and “angle” of a slopeare two different measures since “grade” indicates how much oneclimbs given a certain distance travelled in horizontal. For example, if you travel 1000 m (1 km) in a horizontal direction and at the sametime climb 100 m, then the grade would be: 100 m/ 1000 m =1/10 or 10% One good thing ofexpressing the rate of climb this way is that it is independent from the unitof distance that you use, as long as it is the same for horizontal and verticaldistances. If you measure horizontal distance and climb in miles you will reachthe same result as when using metric units (but not if you measure distance inmiles and climb in feet!) A grade of 10%corresponds to an angle of about 6° and a grade of 50% corresponds to an angleof 27°. A slope with an angle of 45° would have a grade of 100% Those who arekeen on trigonometry, or who have recollections of it from school, willrecognize that the “grade” is equivalent to the “tangent” of an angle,apart from the unit, which for the trigonometrical tangent is a pure number,while grades are expressed in percent (%) or per-thousand (used in railwayengineering, where grades are very small) to get rid of decimals. Q4 What is something that is absolutelyworth the money? A4 Rahul Shrivastava, Four decades oflife experience Updated 5y Almond oil - Apply it on your face before going tosleep. You will not get wrinkles. Saves money spent on expensive creams andmoisturizers. Turmeric - Put a pinch in your food every day. Youwill be less prone to infections. Also has anti-cancerous properties. Ginger - Drink ginger-tea everyday. Tasty, good formale potency and fights infections. Coconut oil -One teaspoon everyday decreases chances of dementia and brain-degenerativediseases. Baking soda - Apply on armpits. Kills bacteria,decreases odour and removes dark spots. And two things,which are not found naturally: Mosquito Swatter - Can’t imagine life in a tropicalcountry without it, especially in Venezuela, where mosquitoes are faster thanUsain Bolt. Neti pot - Good bye to sinus infections and cold. PS: Apply baking soda once a while under the armpitsafter making a paste with a few drops of water a minute or so before takingbath. Wash the area clean. Try with a small amount. Do not proceed in case ofirritation. Consult a yoga expert for use of neti pot. It has tobe sterilised occasionally to prevent getting infection. Alternatively,disposable nasal irrigation plastic bottles are available in the market. Useclean water to avoid getting infection. Q5 If iron is kept in the open it getsrust, so, why didn't the Iron Pillar get rusted? A5 Premjeet Yadav, Tue THE IRON PILLAR The iron pillar issituated at Qutub Minar complex, Mehrauli, New Delhi. Some people alsosay that it was made in the memory of the Gupta King Chandragupta 2. According to theancient records, it was present in Madhya Pradesh before itmoved to Delhi. It was shifted by King Anangpal in the 10th century CEfrom Udaygiri to its present location. Anangpal built a Vishnu Temple here andwanted this pillar to be a part of that temple. Archeologists confirm that this was created at least 1600years ago, but it could be much older than that. In 2002, scientistsstudied the iron pillar and realized that it has a strange way of reacting tothe atmosphere. Normally,Iron reacts with moisture in the atmosphere or rain and produces Iron oxide,which is called Rust. This rust is very powerful, it willdeteriorate the iron, and eventually destroy the entire structure. But the iron pillardoes something very strange. When it comes in contact with moisture orrain, it produces a strange material called Misawite which has not been seenanywhere before. This material actually forms a protective coating overthe iron pillar and shields it from damage, and also increases its magnetic property. The iron pillar is actually made of 98% Iron, 1%Phosphorous and the remaining 1% is made of an ancient concoction calledVajra-sanghata. This concoction is clearlyexplained in ancient Indian texts. The Vajra-sanghata is createdby mixing 8 parts of lead, 2 parts of bell metal and 2 parts of calx of brass.So, if you look at the total composition of the iron pillar, it is made ofa complex alloy, created in ancient times. Instead ofrusting which is Iron Oxide, the phosphorous and Vajra-sanghata make watervapor which is H2O, to convert into Misawite, a compound of Iron, Oxygen andHydrogen (y-FeOOH).This layer actually protectsthe pillar from rusting. So, the pillar wouldaccumulate this protective coating over the course of many centuries, making iteven more stronger. All the above QA are from Quora website on 19-01- 2023. Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on 20-01-2023. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/991954525.2547652.1674180391733%40mail.yahoo.com.
