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Sharpen Your General Knowledge
Shamim Ansary:
Where Can You Find Giant Plants?
If you’re looking for giant plants, there’s no better place on earth to find them than Brazil.
A palm tree that grows in Brazil, the Amazonian bamboo palm, has the largest leaves of any plant on earth. The fronds, or leaves, of this palm can be close to 70 feet long and 19 feet wide!
You’ve seen lily pads, floating leaves that sometimes offer a resting place for frogs. Imagine a lily pad so large it could support a man! The Victorian water lily, or Victoria Regia, found in the Amazon region of Brazil, can measure 6 feet in diameter.
The explorers who first discovered this plant claimed that some of the pads were large enough to support three men!
Shamim Ansary:
What Is Epistemological Rationalism?
Epistemological rationalism is the position that human beings have important ideas or principles present in their minds from birth, and that the most important truths about the world can be derived from thought, without the need for experience.
These a priori truths are also held to be logically certain, which is to say that it would entail a logical contradiction to deny them, and that they are absolutely certain, or, in current terminology, “true in all possible worlds.â€
Shamim Ansary:
Can Any Plants Move From Place to Place?
One of the major differences between an animal and a plant is that an animal can move from place to place, while a plant is rooted to the spot where it grows. But there are some plants that can actually move from place to place in search of water!
The resurrection plant, a desert plant found in parts of the American West and the Near East, grows just like any other plant when there’s enough water around, sending roots into the ground and sporting green, fernlike leaves.
But when water is scarce, the resurrection plant pulls up its roots and dries up, becoming a ball of brown twigs that appear to be quite dead. This ball of twigs is carried along the ground by the wind, and may roam the desert for many years.
But when the plant finds water, it sinks roots into the wet ground, turns green, and begins to grow again! It’s called the resurrection plant because it appears to come back from the dead.
If the moisture in the soil dries up, the resurrection plant will pull up its roots and wander over and over again in search of water!
Shamim Ansary:
How Is Soil Formed?
There are four basic “ingredients†that go into the “recipe†for making soil: tiny pieces of rock, decayed plants and animals, water, and air.
When small pieces of rock break off larger ones, they form the basis of all soil. This breaking can occur in several ways: through the action of glaciers pushing rocks along the ground and grinding them against other rocks; through the action of chemicals in water eating away at rocks; through changes in temperature causing water to freeze in rocks and crack them open; through the force of wind throwing sand and pebbles against rocks; and through the movement of plant roots splitting rocks apart. This rocky, ground-up material is called the parent material of the soil.
When a plant or animal dies, its remains are attacked by bacteria which decompose, or break them down. This decaying matter combines with the parent material and provides the soil with many nutrients to help new plants grow.
Water and air fill in the spaces between the ground-up rock and decaying matter to provide places for tiny insects to live and for plant roots to grow.
Shamim Ansary:
How Are Rocks Formed?
Our earth is composed of three main types of rocks, each having been formed in its own special way.
The first type, igneus rock, was formed when hot (2,000°F.), melted rock material, magma, deep inside the earth rose to the surface during earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or other movements of the earth’s crust. This magma cooled and hardened. Granite is an example of igneus rock.
The second type, sedimentary rock, was formed millions of years ago mostly on the bottoms of lakes and oceans, when parts of plants, animals, and other, older rocks piled loosely upon each other in layers. Over millions of years, these layers squeezed together to form solid rock. Sandstone and limestone are examples of sedimentary rock.
The third type of rock, metamorphic rock, was formed when great heat or pressure, or chemical actions of liquids and gases changed either the igneus or sedimentary rock in appearance and composition. Marble is an example of metamorphic rock, since it was originally limestone, a sedimentary rock formed from hardened shells and coral upon which chemicals acted.
Smaller rocks of all three types are formed when water seeps into rocks, freezes, then expands. This expansion causes huge rocks to break apart. The movement of glaciers has also ground larger rocks into smaller, more rounded forms.
There is actually a rare kind of thin sandstone, itacolumite, found in North Carolina, which can be bent out of shape by hand!
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