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| Questions & answers on everyday scientific phenomena |
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Answers please
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| All at sea | ||||||
| I stood at the foot of a lighthouse, on a 15-metre high cliff, looking out to sea. It was a generally clear night with a light sea mist and visibility was around 6 kilometres. The beam of light, which was rotating clockwise overhead, appeared to me to be coming from a phantom lighthouse on or near the horizon, and rotating anticlockwise (it was in time with the actual beam). Any explanations? | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
| Eye tones | ||||||
| I have different coloured eyes. When I look through my green eye the scene is yellower than that viewed through the brown eye which gives a more golden hue. Do we see colours differently depending on our eye colour? | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
| On the wall | ||||||
| How does the commercial product Blu -Tak work, what is it made of and how is it able to remain sticky for so long? | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
| Itch hitch | ||||||
| Occasionally, I get two simultaneous itches, for example, one in my side and one in my ankle. Scratching one relieves the itch in both places. On other occasions I have been given an injection by a doctor and have noticed that the sharp pain caused by the needle is echoed in another part of my body, or is there another reason? | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
| Unhealthy viewing | ||||||
| If I blow cigarette smoke vertically upwards while watching television and it floats past one of my eyes while I keep the other closed, I see clear interference patterns. Could this phenomenon be used to measure the granular size of smoke particles or is it a symptom of couch potatoes? | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
| Ice history | ||||||
| What happened to Erasto Mpemba, the Tanzanian student who in 1969 discovered that hot ice-cream mixture froze faster than cold mixture and provoked a debate that is still going on in the pages of New Scientist? | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
| Fraught throat | ||||||
| Bereaved people and others similarly saddened at times of very tearful distress get a lump in the throat which can be somewhat painful and incapacitating to the powers of speech as the individual becomes "choked with tears". What is the physiological reason behind this? | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
| Ivory poaching | ||||||
| My wife recently had silver-coloured fillings in the back teeth on both sides of her mouth. When she eats boiled eggs, she experiences a tingling sensation on one side of her mouth and the filling itself becomes hot. This occurs only with the white of the egg, not the yolk and only in one filling. Any explanations? | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
| Sun sums | ||||||
| An excess of sun is bad for you because of the risk of skin cancer. On the other hand, a little sun is good for you because it helps the skin to produce vitamin D. This is why sunbathing was promoted early in this century to combat rickets. Has anyone ever tried to quantify the level of good and safe sunlight? What is the efficiency of vitamin D production versus sun intensity? If such work exists, can it be translated into simple Sun exposure recommendations for the public? | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
| Thundercats | ||||||
| Why are cats afraid of lightning? The noise of the thunder doesn't seem to scare them. | ||||||
| send your answer | ||||||
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