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Sharpen Your General Knowledge

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Shamim Ansary:
How Old Is the Moon?

Before the first man landed on the moon, scientists had come up with three possible ways that the moon might have been formed.

First, it could have formed out of the same gas cloud that formed the earth. Or it could have broken off from the earth many millions of years ago.

Or perhaps the moon formed somewhere outside the solar system and was captured by the earth’s gravity as the two bodies passed close to each other.

But when the astronauts landed on the moon and brought back some moon rocks, scientists discovered that the moon is not made out of the same elements as the earth. This means that the moon probably did not form from the same gas cloud that formed the earth, and that it most likely didn’t break off from the earth.

Scientists were surprised to find that most of the moon rocks were more than 3.5 billion years old. The oldest rocks yet found on earth are about that same age.

But some moon rocks were 4.5 billion years old, older than any earth rocks, and the moon’s soil was also of that age. These rocks and soil may not even be the oldest on the moon.

So now scientists still aren’t sure how the moon was formed, or how old it really is, but it could be older than the earth!

Shamim Ansary:
Why Do People Have Different Colored Eyes?

The pupil, the black spot in the middle of your eye, is actually a hole that allows light to enter the eye. Around this hole is the colored part of the eye, the iris, which regulates the size of the pupil and how much light is allowed into the eye.

The iris has pigment in it to protect it against light. Everyone has pigment at the rear part of the iris, but not everyone has it at the front. When a person lacks pigment at the front, this part of the iris is transparent, and absorbs red and yellow light waves. The remaining light, the blue waves, then bounces off the pigment at the rear of the eye, and gives the eye a blue color.

When the front part of the iris has pigment, it absorbs different kinds of light rays, and the light bouncing off the rear of the iris appears brown or gray.

Often a person has blue eyes when young, and brown eyes later in life, because it takes the eyes time to produce pigment at the front of the iris. Until this pigment appears, the eyes are blue.

Shamim Ansary:
How Can You Use a Cat to Tell What the Temperature Is?

How accurate a read are you looking for? A cat can be used to give a very, very general idea of temperature.

The colder the temperature, the more a cat curls around itself to sleep. If your cat’s lollin’ around, stretched out on her side or back, you can bet it’s warm.

If said cat is tightly curled, with face buried and tail wrapped as tightly around her body as possible, she’s cold. A sweater might help, but cats don’t like them very much. And they look silly in human clothes.

In other words, get yourself a sweatshirt.

Shamim Ansary:
What Does the Expression “Turned a Blind Eye” Mean and Where Did the Phrase Come From?

In 1801, while second in command of a British fleet near Copenhagen, Horatio Nelson was told that his commander had sent up flags ordering a retreat.

Nelson lifted his spyglass to his previously blinded eye and said he couldn’t see the order, and then he ordered and led a successful attack.

Nelson’s insubordination became legend and gave us the expression “turn a blind eye.”

When someone ignores the rules we say he “turned a blind eye”.

Shamim Ansary:
Where Did the Moon Come From, How Did Earth Get Its Only Satellite, and How Long Ago Was the Moon Created?

There are many theories about how the Moon formed.

The current favorite says that a huge asteroid, maybe the same one that is thought to have tilted Earth’s axis, hit Earth, throwing off a mass of debris into a broken ring around the planet.

Over time, the debris coalesced, creating the Moon.

At first the Moon was much closer to Earth, but it gradually settled in the orbit it has today.

The Moon is the only natural satellite the earth has and is also the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System.

It is currently believed that the moon formed some 4.5 billion years ago, around the same time the Earth was created.

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