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Sharpen Your General Knowledge
Shamim Ansary:
Where Is the Busiest Airport In the World and What Is the Busiest Cargo Airport Terminal On Earth?
O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, was the world’s busiest passenger airport before 2005.
It beat out the previous world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2001.
O’Hare had 911,861 takeoffs and landings in 2001.
O’Hare International Airport serves as the primary and largest hub for United Airlines and as a hub for American Airlines.
In 2010, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, located seven miles south of the central business district of Atlanta, regained its ranking as the busiest passenger airport in the world.
The Atlanta Airport has served about 88 million passengers per year since 1999, and has 151 domestic and 28 international gates.
The busiest cargo airport in the world is in Memphis, Tennessee, which happens to be the hub for Federal Express.
Shamim Ansary:
How Is the Earth’s Magnetic Field Important to Life On Earth?
The magnetic field of Earth is very important to life on Earth because it helps deflect harmful cosmic rays and solar wind.
If we were fully exposed to these charged particles the effects on us could be devastating.
Communication systems would be disabled and the particles could cause damage to all living things.
Shamim Ansary:
Why Do Stars Always Appear to Rise In the East and Set In the West and What Is a Circumpolar Star?
Many of the stars you will see in the night sky follow a path across the sky from horizon to horizon.
Circumpolar stars, however, appear to circle the northern and southern celestial poles without ever rising or setting.
This is because the celestial sphere appears to rotate on the axis between its poles, in fact, it is Earth that is rotating on its axis.
If you draw a circle around the celestial pole in your hemisphere, the North Star in the Northern Hemisphere, at a distance equal to the number of degrees of your latitude, the stars within that circle remain above your celestial horizon all night.
For example, if you are stargazing at 40° latitude, any stars within a 40° radius of the North Star do not rise or set, but are always visible traveling around the celestial pole.
Shamim Ansary:
What Do the Different Numbers On the Richter Scale Mean and How High Does It Go?
The Richter scale is a logarithmic scale that gauges the magnitude of an earthquake’s force.
Invented by Charles Richter in 1935, it is measured on a seismograph machine, interpreting the data the machine picks up from the Earth’s vibrations.
Each number is 10 times more powerful than the previous number.
For example, a quake that registers 8.0 is 10 times stronger than one that measures 7.0; 100 times more powerful than one that measures 6.0; and 1,000 times more intense than one that measures 5.0.
The scale is from 1 to 9 but is technically open-ended.
Many factors influence what occurs during a quake, but the basic scale is as follows:
1.0 Detectable only by instruments
2.0 Barely detectable, even near epicenter 3.0 Felt indoors
4.0 Felt by most people; slight damage
5.0 Felt by all; damage minor to moderate
6.0 Moderately destructive
7.0 Major damage
8.0 Total and major damage
9.0 Devastating in areas several thousand miles across.
10.0 Never recorded.
Shamim Ansary:
How Does the Richter Scale Work and How Many Different Ways Are There to Measure Earthquakes?
The Richter scale measures the magnitude, or size, of an earthquake by using a seismograph to measure the ground motion an earthquake produces.
The scale is logarithmic. A measurement of 7 means an earthquake that has 10 times the ground motion of an earthquake that measures 6.
We can’t feel an earthquake that has a magnitude of less than 2.
Magnitude 5 earthquakes begin to cause real damage. The scale has no top number.
Another way to measure earthquakes is the modified Mercalli scale, which measures the intensity of an earthquake based on observations of the physical damage done.
It uses Roman numerals I through XII, in which I means no damage, VI means slight damage, and XII means total damage, with no structures left standing and objects thrown into the air.
A third way to measure earthquakes is the moment magnitude scale, which uses a seismogram to measure the movement of the Earth’s surface during the quake.
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