1. How sharp are our eyes ?
2.Why do we have Hiccup ?
3. How do our Nails Grow ?
4. Why do we Yawn ?
5. Why does a Doctor take our pulse rate ?
6. How do Peoples Bodies change Because of the Place where they live ?
7 . Can a baby bird breathe inside its Egg ?
8. Why do birds have Feathers ?
9. Why does water roll-off a duck's back ?
10. Which snake can swallow a whole pig ?
11. How far can a PIGEON travel and return home ?
12. Where do the Siberian cranes comes from ?
13. Which Animal has three eyes ?
14. What is a petrified forest ?
15. Where did the sand in the sahara desert come from ?
16. Are there Highways and Road signs in the Sky ?
17. Where is the Largest VOLCANO ?
18. Is the Earth , Th eonly Planet with Moon ?
19. Where are the Highest waterfalls in the world ?
20. How many Stars can be been in the sky ?
1. How sharp are our eyes ?
Our eyes can distinguish between some ten million while the best of best machines can recognise only four millions.
From a distance of ten inches away, we can see objects 4/1000 of an inch long.
2.Why do we have Hiccup ?
We have a large and powerful muscle in our chest cavity known as diaphragm, whic tightens and relaxes to pull in and push out the air while we are breathing .
But sometimes the diaphragm contracts suddenly and at the same time the air passage to the lungs also gets closed by epiglottis.
when the air hits this closed up passage we feel a bumb and then hiccup.
3. How do our Nails Grow ?
Nails are formed from the skin that has hardened . It is formed of two parts, the root and the body.
The root is the part embedded in the skin and it is here where the nail forms.
The body of the nail grows out. It is soft while forming but slowly gets hardened.
4. Why do we Yawn ?
When we feel tired or bored , the flow of flood to the brain also gets slowed down.
The oxygen level to the brain decreases and the carbon dioxide level increases , thereby making us sleepy.
The respiratory center located in brain sends the message to the muscles in the mouth to take a yawn and gulp in air.
This way we take in extra oxygen and make the brain functional again and ward off the sleep too.
5. Why does a Doctor take our pulse rate ?
A doctor take our pulse by holding our wrist and squeezing a blood vessel to count the number of beats or pulses, he feels in one minute.
The pulse rate can be taken from other of the body . when the heart beats, it sends pulsations through the blood vessels in the body.
The pulsations indicate how the heart is beating. A healthy person has a pulse rate of 75 beats per minute. The pulse rate gets affected when we are ill.
6. How do Peoples Bodies change Because of the Place where they live ?
The people residing on high altitudes, i.e, in mountainous regions, have developed bodies which are different from ours. At high altitudes, air becomes thinner and we find it hard to breathe .
The hilly people have large lungs to accomodate more air for breathing . They have more quantity of blood in their bodies.
The red blood corpuscles are also bigger so that they can carry more oxygen and their heart is also upto 20% bigger than ours.
They have shorter arms and legs to give the heart less distance to pump the blood and have smaller hands and feet so that less area of the body is exposed to the cold.
7 . Can a baby bird breathe inside its Egg ?
A baby bird starts to breathe just before the egg hatches . The egg shell has tiny holes which are not visible to us.
These holes allow air to fill up part of the egg. So, when the chick has to break open the egg, it sucks in this reserved air of the egg and then breaks and comes out of a shell.
8. Why do birds have Feathers ?
Birds evolved from the reptile family billions of years ago . They had scales on their bodies which gradually evolved into the feathers to help them fly and keep warm.
Feathers differ in size and texture depending on the individual type of bird. An owl has long and soft feathers to give it a quite and slow flight while a hawk has short feathers so that it can fly fast.
Water birds have oil covering the feathers so that they remain water proof.
The feathers in all birds keep on falling and replacing which is known as moulting . The humming bird has about 940 feathers while the whistling swan has 25,216.
9. Why does water roll-off a duck's back ?
The duck has an oil gland under its tail. With the help of its beak, it spreads the oil on its body.' The oil stops the water from soaking the feathers , thus making the water-proof.
10. Which snake can swallow a whole pig ?
The giant Anaconda snake of South America can swallow a pig or a whole deer as a meal. This 200 pounds, 28 foot long snake coils around the animal and squeezes tightly to stop its victim's heart.
Once the animal dies, Anaconda swallows it whole .
The animal remains for several hours in the stomach, when anaconda's body releases powerful digestive juices that can break down even large bones of the victim.
11. How far can a PIGEON travel and return home ?
A well trained pigeon can travel more than 1,500 miles from its home to a totally new place and then return back to its home .The pigeon is known to have this natural instinct and has been used by man to send messages since thousands of years ago. Pigeons are given special training from the time they are three months old.
Initially they are released for a short distance and they come back quickly . Gradually , the distance is increased. Messages are placed in small metal containers which are attached to the pigeons foot.
The pigeons , like a sincere postman, always delivers the message.
12. Where do the Siberian cranes comes from ?
The beautiful Siberian cranes are the inhabitants of Siberia , which is their breeding ground. This region freezes in the winters resulting in the death of plant and animal life.
The cranes then fly to warmer and more hospitable places like India, Iran and China.
In India , they land at Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan , travelling a distance of 6,200 km. They fly back to Siberia with the onset of summers.
13. Which Animal has three eyes ?
The tuatara , found only in New Zealand , is a lizard like reptile having three eyes. It is known as a living fossil because it has not undergone any change since thousands of years and is the only living number of a group whose other members have perished in due course of years.
The third eye comes from a gland attached to the brain known as pineal body. The third eye or the pineal body is fully developed and the tuatara can see through it.
14. What is a petrified forest ?
petrified comes from the Greek word 'Petra' meaning rock.
A petrified tree is one that has been turned into a stone . It takes hundreds of million years to convert a tree into a petrified one.
The trees , after falling off, are carried by streams to swampy areas where they get buried is soil and volcanic ash.
Over the course of many centuries , the wood cells in these dead trees are replaced by a glossy mineral called silica, which is present in sand and ash.
Eventually , though the trees retain their original shapes, they turn into stones rather than wood.
Iron and other minerals also get mixed up, giving the petrified tree various shining colours.
15. Where did the sand in the sahara desert come from ?
Sahara was once covered with water, a million of years ago. The sand is actually all that is left of the soil that lost its moisture.
When the Ice-Age ended about a half millions years ago, the climate of the Sahara grew hotter and drier. The soil gradually dried out and was eroded by the wind.
16. Are there Highways and Road signs in the Sky ?
For the safety of air traffic over the big cities, the sky is divided into highways or airways and has speed limits.
As the roads have road signals so do the airways. They have radar signals from control towers at points along the route, which are beamed constantly into the sky.
Radar uses radio waves which can travel great distances even in fog, rain, snow, clouds, darkness. A pilot follows the radar signals received in the plane.
17. Where is the Largest VOLCANO ?
The largest Volcano , that is known , is on the planet Mars.
It is a huge mountain called Olympus Mons, and is about 370 miles across and its peak stands 18 miles above the land.
It is just 5.5 miles less than the highest peak of the earth - The Mount Everest.
18. Is the Earth , Th eonly Planet with Moon ?
Planets other than the Earth alos have their moons . Mars and Neptune have two moons, while Uranus has five and Saturn has ten moons.
Jupiter, the largest planet has 14 moons. Mercury and venus have no moons.
19. Where are the Highest waterfalls in the world ?
Angel Falls in Venezuela are the highest waterfalls in the world with a height of 3,212 feet.
The rain forests of Venezuela , a South American country, have many high, flat top plateaus with steep sides.
They are so remotely located that it takes four days to reach them.
One of these plateaus is called Auyantepui or Devil's mountain and it rises over 1/2 mile high.
heavy tropical rains collect in pools and streams at the top of Devil's mountain and burst out in a roar of waterfalls to the rocks in the Carrao river below.
20. How many Stars can be been in the sky ?
There are billions and billions of stars in the sky and only about 6,000 can be seen from the earth without a telescope.
The brightness of star is measured in the unit magnitude . A star with a magnitude one is twice as bright as a star of magnitude two. Stars with magnitude six onwards to magnitude 21 can be seen through a telescope
source-- http://www.padukai.com/2008/12/gk-general-knowledge-questionsansweres.html
