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Take
a peek around “Nerds Corner” discover how
you can build your own “Clever Chaps” amazing
moments. smileypig.com will show you how to build
a vortex gun inspired by John Tyndall, a working
rocket, a Stirling Engine, a working clock &
compass and a few things using paper & card
including an incredibly strong arch bridge, helicopter,
some scales amongst other brilliant toys. Click
on the links to the left to see how!
FRANCES BACON, ARISTOTLE, & MPEMBA OBSERVED
Hot
water freezes faster than cold water!
For
a variety of reasons hot water can, in fact, freeze
faster than cold. This phenomenon, known as the
“Mpemba effect” is a good example of not making
snap judgments or jumping to obvious conclusions
without first experimenting and then considering
the results. Try it for yourself. Fill two
identical ice trays, one with water from the hot
tap and the other with water from the cold tap,
then place them in your freezer. Assuming
your Gran hasn’t got to them first for her Gin &
Tonic, you to will find this crazy fact to be true.
While this marvel has been known for centuries,
described by Aristotle and later by Francis Bacon,
it was not introduced to the scientific community
until 1969 by a student from Tanzania called Mpemba.
DID
YOU KNOW?
It's
impossible to lick your elbow!
DID
YOU KNOW?
If
you haven’t already then very soon you will be trying
to lick your elbow!
WHY
DO CLEVER IDEAS TAKE SO LONG TO CATCH ON?
Leonardo da Vinci made detailed sketches of parachutes
in 1485. He also sketched studies for a helicopter
and a tank. The first parachute jump was made from
a hot air balloon by Andre-Jacques Garnerinthe in
France in 1793. The first helicopter that could
carry a person was flown by Paul Cornu in 1907.
Tanks were first used during World War One in Cambrai,
France in 1917.
Bar codes were invented by Bernard Silver and Norman
Woodland. Their system used light to read a set
of concentric circles, but they had to wait two
decades before the advent of computers made their
system practical.
The computer was launched in 1943, 110 years
after Charles Babbage designed the first programmable
device the Analytical Engine. The first fax Machine
was patented in 1843 by Alexander Bain, but fax
machines only truly went into service in 1964.
In 1888, Frank Sprague completed an electric railway,
but electric locomotives were introduced only in
1895.
Eugene Ely landed a plane on a boat in 1911, but
aircraft carriers weren't perfected for another
20 years.
Da Vinci also suggested underwater breathing methods.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnon introduced
scuba diving in 1943, 458 years later.
Although Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin
in 1928, it was only in 1938 that Howard Florey
and Ernst Chain found a way to manufacture it even
then it was 1942 before they demonstrated it to
the world.
Adolph Fick first suggested contact lenses in 1888,
and although two companies manufactured lenses out
of glass, it wasn't until 1948 when Kevin Tuohy
invented the soft plastic lens.
Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. Peter
Carl Goldmark invented the LP record in 1948. The
Compact Disc was invented by Joop Sinjou and Toshi
Tada Doi in 1979. It took the CD fifteen years to
replace the LP.
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