What Does the Moon Smell Like?: 151 Astounding Science Quizzes by Eva Everything Read Free Book Online
Authors: Eva Everything
Flyers
IDENTIFIED
CORRECT ANSWER:
FL
a) Flyin’ Saucers
YING
OBJECTS
Franscioni and Morrison’s discs were sold as Flyin’
Saucers. It was a catchy name that was in sync with the UFO craze of the times, but the discs didn’t exactly fly off the shelves. Morrison refined the disc by adding a slope to the outer third, called the Morrison Slope. The new and aerodynamically
improved discs, called Pluto Platters, were launched, but they didn’t really take off either. It was only after another design overhaul, and Wham-O®’s marketing of playing Frisbee as a new sport, that the flying disc finally became a huge hit in the late 1960s — more than 125 years after the first Frisbie pie plate was flung.
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:30 AM Page 64
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:30 AM Page 65
Fantastic Plastic Flying Discs
Once the flying disc caught on, there was no stop-Q
ping its fans. These days there are flying disc competitions for men, women, children, seniors, people in wheelchairs, and dogs, to name a few.
IFOs:
There are regular discs, mini discs, and the special-IDENTIFIED
ized discs used in disc golf, a game similar to regular golf. The first official disc golf course opened in California in 1975, but these days, there are more than 2,000 disc golf courses worldwide. All that activ-FLYING
ity keeps more than 60 flying disc manufacturers in business. Maybe you knew these things, but what OBJECTS
else do you know?
Which statement about flying discs is NOT true?
a) A Frisbee innovator’s ashes were put into special edition discs.
b) A sea lion holds the world record for distance in the non-human category.
c) About 100 million Frisbees have been sold in the past 50 years.
d) The U.S. Navy built a Frisbee launcher.
65
Fantastic Plastic Flying Discs
Which statement about flying discs is NOT true?
a) A Frisbee innovator’s ashes were put into special A
edition discs.
IFOs:
b) A sea lion holds the world record for distance in the non-human category.
IDENTIFIED
c) About 100 million Frisbees have been sold in the past 50 years.
d) The U.S. Navy built a Frisbee launcher.
FLYING
OBJECTS
CORRECT ANSWER:
c) About 100 million Frisbees have been sold in the past 50 years.
That statement is NOT true. It’s estimated that about 200 million Frisbees have been sold — more than the number of baseballs, footballs, and basketballs combined. The U.S. Navy, in addition to building a Frisbee launcher, spent about $400,000 to test discs in a wind tunnel for a flare launcher prototype.
“Steady Ed” Headrick’s ashes were pressed into discs after he was cremated. He came up with the ridges on the top of the Frisbee, called the Lines, or Rings, of Headrick, to stabilize its flight, and he’s also known as the father of disc golf. A sea lion set a world record by throwing a flying disc 9.76 metres (32
ft) at a zoo in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1996. The record for the longest non-human catch, 118.8 metres (390
ft), was set two years earlier by a Californian whippet hound named Cheyenne-Ashley.
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:30 AM Page 66
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:30 AM Page 67
CELLULAR BEINGS
Cell Mates
What do you have in common with ants, sharks,
Q
apple trees, hummingbirds, and elephants? Here’s a hint. It’s simple, but more complex than anything inanimate. Another hint? It’s small. An amoeba consists of only one. One what? Ah yes, a single cell.
Cells are like the teeny, tiny bricks of anatomical structure. We all know they’re tiny, but how tiny are they really? Maybe you’ve heard an old saying about angels dancing on the head of a pin? Well, what if simple cells could dance like angels?
About how many cells could crowd onto the
head of a pin?
a) 10
b) 100
c) 1,000
d) 10,000
67
Cell Mates
About how many cells could crowd onto the
A
head of a pin?
a) 10
b) 100
CELLULAR
c) 1,000
d) 10,000
BEINGS
CORRECT ANSWER:
c) 1,000
One thousand simple cells could rip up the
IDENTIFIED
CORRECT ANSWER:
FL
a) Flyin’ Saucers
YING
OBJECTS
Franscioni and Morrison’s discs were sold as Flyin’
Saucers. It was a catchy name that was in sync with the UFO craze of the times, but the discs didn’t exactly fly off the shelves. Morrison refined the disc by adding a slope to the outer third, called the Morrison Slope. The new and aerodynamically
improved discs, called Pluto Platters, were launched, but they didn’t really take off either. It was only after another design overhaul, and Wham-O®’s marketing of playing Frisbee as a new sport, that the flying disc finally became a huge hit in the late 1960s — more than 125 years after the first Frisbie pie plate was flung.
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:30 AM Page 64
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:30 AM Page 65
Fantastic Plastic Flying Discs
Once the flying disc caught on, there was no stop-Q
ping its fans. These days there are flying disc competitions for men, women, children, seniors, people in wheelchairs, and dogs, to name a few.
IFOs:
There are regular discs, mini discs, and the special-IDENTIFIED
ized discs used in disc golf, a game similar to regular golf. The first official disc golf course opened in California in 1975, but these days, there are more than 2,000 disc golf courses worldwide. All that activ-FLYING
ity keeps more than 60 flying disc manufacturers in business. Maybe you knew these things, but what OBJECTS
else do you know?
Which statement about flying discs is NOT true?
a) A Frisbee innovator’s ashes were put into special edition discs.
b) A sea lion holds the world record for distance in the non-human category.
c) About 100 million Frisbees have been sold in the past 50 years.
d) The U.S. Navy built a Frisbee launcher.
65
Fantastic Plastic Flying Discs
Which statement about flying discs is NOT true?
a) A Frisbee innovator’s ashes were put into special A
edition discs.
IFOs:
b) A sea lion holds the world record for distance in the non-human category.
IDENTIFIED
c) About 100 million Frisbees have been sold in the past 50 years.
d) The U.S. Navy built a Frisbee launcher.
FLYING
OBJECTS
CORRECT ANSWER:
c) About 100 million Frisbees have been sold in the past 50 years.
That statement is NOT true. It’s estimated that about 200 million Frisbees have been sold — more than the number of baseballs, footballs, and basketballs combined. The U.S. Navy, in addition to building a Frisbee launcher, spent about $400,000 to test discs in a wind tunnel for a flare launcher prototype.
“Steady Ed” Headrick’s ashes were pressed into discs after he was cremated. He came up with the ridges on the top of the Frisbee, called the Lines, or Rings, of Headrick, to stabilize its flight, and he’s also known as the father of disc golf. A sea lion set a world record by throwing a flying disc 9.76 metres (32
ft) at a zoo in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1996. The record for the longest non-human catch, 118.8 metres (390
ft), was set two years earlier by a Californian whippet hound named Cheyenne-Ashley.
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:30 AM Page 66
SmellyMoon_Final 4/21/08 10:30 AM Page 67
CELLULAR BEINGS
Cell Mates
What do you have in common with ants, sharks,
Q
apple trees, hummingbirds, and elephants? Here’s a hint. It’s simple, but more complex than anything inanimate. Another hint? It’s small. An amoeba consists of only one. One what? Ah yes, a single cell.
Cells are like the teeny, tiny bricks of anatomical structure. We all know they’re tiny, but how tiny are they really? Maybe you’ve heard an old saying about angels dancing on the head of a pin? Well, what if simple cells could dance like angels?
About how many cells could crowd onto the
head of a pin?
a) 10
b) 100
c) 1,000
d) 10,000
67
Cell Mates
About how many cells could crowd onto the
A
head of a pin?
a) 10
b) 100
CELLULAR
c) 1,000
d) 10,000
BEINGS
CORRECT ANSWER:
c) 1,000
One thousand simple cells could rip up the
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