Shrimp is a kind of crustacean that occurs in all oceans, freshwater lakes and streams. Shrimps range in length from a few millimetres to more than 20 centimetres (about 8 inches). They are an important source of food for humans. The body of the shrimp has two main parts – the abdomen and the cephalothorax (head…
Belching is the release of gas from the digestive system through the mouth. Every time a person swallows food or liquid, a small amount of air goes into the stomach. This air forms gas bubbles in the stomach. The muscles in the food pipe relax to allow these bubbles to escape as burps. In space,…
Calculus is a branch of mathematics which studies ‘change’. Accordingly, it deals with limits, derivatives, functions and indefinite series that explain ‘change’. Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz independently invented calculus. Newton used calculus fundamentally to arrive at the universal law of gravitation, and then to solve the problem of planetary motion, the shape of the surface…
Michael Beran, a scientist at the Georgia State University, trained chimps to use a computer and a joystick. The computer screen showed a numeral followed by a series of dots. The chimps had to match the numeral with the dots. One chimp learned numerals from 1 to 7, while another managed to learn till the numeral…
A cow gives nearly 2,00,000 glasses of milk in its lifetime. An average cow of a good breed produces about 13 to 15 litres of milk per day, which amounts to about 90 glasses (of 150 ml capacity) of milk per day or 16,000 glasses of milk per year. A cow on an average produces…
Pumice is a volcanic rock which is made from lava. It is a very light rock material filled with gas bubbles. It is produced when lava with a high gas and water content erupts from a volcano and then cools abruptly. During the process, the dissolved water vapours in the lava are suddenly released, resulting…
