30th September 2016
Nail growth differs from person to person due to factors such as age, gender, health, weather, and hygiene. Fingernails grow much faster than toenails. A fingernail takes four to six months to grow from cuticle to tip, whereas toenails may take up to 12 to 18 months.
29th September 2016
The year was 1938. World War II was about to begin. A wonderful invention, which only became ubiquitous with time, happened: The ballpoint pen.
28th September 2016
The modern day violin was first designed in Italy by Andrea Amati, of the Amati family, in the 1500s. Future generations of the Amati family – sons Antonio and Girolami and grandson Nicolo Amati – perfected the art of making this musical instrument. Antonio Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri, Nicolo’s pupils, further improvised the design eventually bringing out their own distinct styles.
23rd September 2016
Cotton gets its name from the Arabic word ‘qutun’, which means fine textile or fabric. Archaeologists have found samples of cotton fabric, as old as 7000 years, at the sites of ancient civilizations, such as Mohenjo Daro, Egypt, and Mexico. Nonetheless, it is difficult to determine the exact period or place when cotton was first used for fabric. Around 2500 BC, Indus Valley civilization had begun cultivating cotton. The oldest cotton balls, discovered in Mexican caves, date back to 5500 BC. Cotton cloths have also been found in graves at ancient burial sites during certain excavations.
22nd September 2016
Ancient Indian mathematician Baudhayana is perhaps the first person to calculate the value of ‘pi’. In his text Baudhayana Shulba Sutra, he mentions that the perimeter of the pit is thrice its diameter, so the approximate value of π is 3.
21st September 2016
The Himalayas are the world’s highest mountain range. They are also the youngest. Like any adolescent youth, this mountain range is continuously growing and changing every year. The current highest point of the range is at 29, 035 feet above sea level. This is a full 7 feet higher than the previous record. Professor Bradford Washburn of the Boston Museum of Science, along with his team, helped determine the new height of Mount Everest. They also propounded that the mountains are growing at a rate of 2.4inches/6.1cms every year.