CULTURAL QA 12-2023-09 Allthe BELOW simple and curious QA are from Quora DIGEST to me on 09-12-2023.
QUORA ANSWERS NEED NOT BE 100%CORRECT ANSWERS. Compiled and posted by R. Gopala Krishnan, 80, on 09-12-2023. Q1 Doanimals and other creatures taste their food or just eat? Do they have tastebuds like humans do? A1 Shamas Khanewal, Former Biology andChemistry Teacher20h One animal thatneeds a special mention is the rat. Much maligned as the rat species is, it is a verysuccessful species. Humans for years have been battling the animal that filchesour food. One reason that ratsare difficult to kill with some poisons is that they have the habit of notgorging themselves on new food they come across. They eat a little and then waitto see if it has any adverse effects on them. If it doesn’t they go backand eat some more. This type of rat behaviour has contributed significantly tothis animal’s success. My note- Dogs justsmell and not eat rice mixed with even asmall quantity of sambar.They don’t eat. Regarding taste buds, I have observed cows eat plantains and biscuits with more taste. Profile photo forAlon Amit Q2 How can we see the Moon if the Moon is200,000 plus miles away if our vision can only see 12 miles away? A2 Alon Amit, Math Ph.D., Physics and ComputerScience B.Sc.8h The moon…? You’reworried about the moon? The sun is not 200,000 miles away, it’s around 91,000,000miles away. Yet you can see the sun quite well, can’t you? The North Star, Polaris, has been used by humans fornavigation for thousands of years. Look up into thenight sky and ask someone to show it to you (I assume you’re in the northernhemisphere). It’s very,very visible, yet it is something like 2,587,000,000,000,000 miles away. Photons make longdistances, and when they hit your retina they don’t care how far they’ve come. It may have taken more than 400 years for them to get there, in thecase of Polaris, but nobody cares. They hit, atoms respond, yourmind registers an image. You see. You may have said 12 miles because that’s roughly thedistance to the visible horizon if you’re standing at sea level. Come on. Just lookup. Q3 Can the Sun turn into different colours? A3 Silk Road, AI Expert4h We usually see it as yellow, orange, or red. But what if it couldbe blue, green, or purple? That would be so cool! Well, sorryto burst your bubble, but the Sun can't really change its color like that. The Sun is actually white, but it looks different tous because of the way its light interacts with the Earth's atmosphere. When the Sun is low in the sky,its light has to travel through more air, which scatters the shorterwavelengths of blue and green more than the longerwavelengths of red and orange. That's why we see sunsets and sunrises as colorful andbeautiful. But when the Sun is high in the sky, its light travels through less air, so we see more of the white light that combines all thewavelengths. Sometimes, the air can also have dust or smog that canmake the Sun look even more yellow or orange than usual. Therefore, the Sundoesn't really change its color, it just appears to us differently depending onhow we look at it. But there is onething that can make the Sun change its color for real: its age. The Sun is a starthat burns hydrogen into helium in its core, and as it does so, it gets hotterand brighter over time.Inabout 5 billion years, the Sun will run out of hydrogen and start burninghelium instead. This will make it swell up into a red giant star that willengulf them inner planets, including Earth. Then, after another billion years or so, the Sun willshrink into a white dwarf star that will slowly cool down and fade away. A natural Question arises in me- Why do the moon looksslightly wider when looked from certain places? It is still baffling in mymind, when I saw the moonmore reddish and large while in Jabalpur during my first visit in 1992( Lookingfrom plain area DURING WAXING DAYS. We few from Kerala were baffling about it.) Q4 Why do so many mammals have a differenttexture of skin on their noses, but not humans? A4 Gary Meaney, author of Zoology's GreatestMystery (2022)3y So, you’re referring to a structure called the rhinarium,which most mammals have. This furless patch of skin whichsurrounds the nostrils is usually covered in crenellations, or wrinkles, which probably serve to increase thesurface area of the rhinarium’s olfactory equipment. Humans, of course, don’t have a rhinarium. Nor do other apes, Monkeys,Ortarsiers. Our closestrelatives which do have rhinaria are the strepsirrhine primates - lemurs,bushbabies and the like. Forthis reason, they are often known as “wet-nosed primates”. The above animals, including humans, are all dry-nosedprimates, or haplorhines. So, something clearly happened to the primate nosewhen the order split into two groups, with one retaining the rhinarium, theother losing it. It seems that us dry-nosed primates gradually became moredependent on vision, over millions of years. As sight became a more important sense, there wasno longer a need for such a sophisticated nose. While thehuman sense of smell isn’t as inferior as we once thought, there’s no doubtthat - in general - our olfactory abilities are significantly less acute thanmost animals with rhinaria. Q5 Why does an aeroplane vibrate too much frominside during take off? A5 Rebecca Williams, Experience in Aviation Thu An aeroplane is a complex machine that consists of manyparts and systems that work together to enable flight. During take-off, the aeroplane experiences various forcesand conditions that cause it to vibrate more than usual. Some of themain reasons for the vibration are: The runway surface. Most runways aremade of concrete or asphalt, which have gaps or cracks between them to allowfor expansion and contraction due to temperature changes. When the aeroplane’s wheels rollover these gaps or cracks, they create bumps and vibrations that are feltinside the cabin. Theolder and more damaged the runway is, the more bumps and vibrations there are. The engine power. During take-off, the aeroplane’sengines need to produce a lot of thrust to overcome the weight and drag of theaeroplane and to achieve the required speed and altitude. The engines are usually at their maximum power during take-off, which meansthey generate a lot of noise and vibration that are transmitted to the airframeand the cabin. The engines also create hot and humid air that mixes withthe colder and drier air outside, forming contrails that can also causeturbulence and vibration. The wing flaps and landing gear. During take-off,the aeroplane’s wings need to create more lift to help the aeroplane lift offthe ground. To do this, the pilot extends the wing flaps, which aremovable surfaces on the trailing edge of the wings that increase the wing areaand the angle of attack. The flaps also create more drag, which slows down theaeroplane and reduces the fuel efficiency. The pilot also retracts the landinggear, which are the wheels and struts that support the aeroplane on the ground.The landing gear also creates drag and noise when they are extended. The movement of the flaps andthe landing gear creates changes in the aerodynamics and the weightdistribution of the aeroplane, which can cause vibrations and noisesthat are felt and heard inside the cabin. The crosswinds and wake turbulence. During take-off, the aeroplane may encounter crosswinds, which are winds thatblow across the runway from the side. Crosswinds can affect the stability and direction of theaeroplane, forcing the pilot to make corrections with the rudder and theailerons. The rudder is a movable surface on the vertical tail thatcontrols the yaw, or the side-to-side movement, of the aeroplane. The aileronsare movable surfaces on the outer edge of the wings that control the roll, orthe tilting movement, of the aeroplane. The movement ofthe rudder and the ailerons creates changes in the lift and drag of theaeroplane, which can cause vibrations and noises that are felt and heard insidethe cabin. The aeroplane may also encounter wake turbulence,which is a disturbance in the air that is caused by the passage of anotheraeroplane. Wake turbulence consists of wingtip vortices, which are swirlingmasses of air that form behind the wings of an aeroplane, and jetwash, which isthe high-speed exhaust of the engines. Wake turbulence can affect theaeroplane’s performance and stability, causing it to shake and vibrate. -- 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/553745525.1293469.1702107590027%40mail.yahoo.com.
