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Sharpen Your General Knowledge

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Shamim Ansary:
Why Is the President of the United States Called “Mr. President” And How Did the Nickname Originate?

The president of the United States was not always called “Mr. President”.

Washington wanted citizens to call him “His Mightiness, the President,” but to many people, that sounded too much like addressing the king they’d fought so hard to shed.

The next president, John Adams, thought he should be called “His Highness, the President of the United States and Protector of their Liberties,” but even fewer people went along with that.

Finally, Thomas Jefferson began shedding the trappings of imperialism that earlier presidents had insisted on.

After his inaugural, he walked back to his boarding house instead of riding in a coach.

He was also the first president to actually shake hands with ordinary people, previous presidents had greeted people only with a slight, dignified bow.

People began calling him “Mr. President,” a good mix of respect and equality.

Shamim Ansary:
What Is the Oldest City On Earth?

Man’s earliest surviving written records date from around 3500 B.C.

By scientifically testing objects found on the site of ruins, historians have found that the oldest city on earth is probably Jericho, which is near the Dead Sea in present-day Israel.

As many as 3,000 people may have lived there around the year 7800 B.C., thousands of years before man even learned how to write!

But another, smaller village in Mesopotamia may be even older than Jericho. The city, called Zawi Chemi Shanidar, was probably founded around the year 9000 B.C.!

Shamim Ansary:
Who Invented Calculus and What Does the Word Mean?

The Pythagoreans-ancient Greek followers of the mathematician Pythagoras-were a brilliant lot.

They came up with the mathematical truism, The square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides.

They also mathematically figured out the correct shape of Earth. In working out mathematical equations, the Pythagoreans practiced simplicity, using little rocks to represent numbers.

Thus, the word calculus means “pebbles” in Latin.

Shamim Ansary:
Who Was the Smartest President In the United States and Why?

It’s hard to say for sure who the smartest president in the United States was, but James Garfield must be up there in the top percentile.

He was a college professor in ancient languages and literature and once published a mathematical proof of the Pythagorean theorem.

An ambidextrous man, Garfield also had a nifty trick that is probably the best example of presidential multitasking: He could simultaneously write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other.

Another candidate for most erudite president is Herbert Hoover, who translated ancient texts from Latin.

When he and his wife wanted to speak privately when other people were present, they conversed in Mandarin Chinese.

What’s interesting, though, is that neither of these men were considered great presidents, so it may be true that intelligence is not necessarily a requirement of the job.

Shamim Ansary:
How Was Radar Invented and When?

Radar is now essential safety equipment for ships and planes, but it was planned as a deadly weapon.

Bouncing Waves. Radar uses radio waves to detect objects and can plot their position, course and speed. Various inventors helped develop it. German physicist Heinrich Hertz discovered radio waves in 1888 and found that they could bounce off other objects.

In 1904 Christian Hulsmeyer invented a way of detecting ships using radio waves, although his `telimobiloscope’ couldn’t measure distance.

Rudolf Kuhnold demonstrated the first practical radio detection equipment in Germany in 1934.

In 1935 the British government asked physicist Robert Watson-Watt to research radio waves and their use in destroying enemy planes. Watson-Watt quickly concluded that radio waves couldn’t be used as death-ray weapons but discovered that by bouncing radio waves off planes and measuring the delay in the echo, the direction and distance of the plane could be calculated. Only a few weeks after he’d begun his research, Watson-Watt demonstrated radar by plotting the course of an aircraft.

Radar was developed independently in Germany and the USA and was used extensively in the Second World War to plot enemy ships and planes. A US Navy Commander came up with the name, RAdio Detection And Ranging.

Magnetrons: The radio waves used in radar are generated by magnetrons, invented by John Randall and Henry Boot. Wartime radar operators discovered that magnetrons could be used as water heaters for their tea. Today they are used in microwave ovens.

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