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Who invented the first submarines?

Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance, sketched a primitive submarine around 1515.

The first design for a submersible craft was drafted in 1578 by William Bourne, an English mathematician and former Royal Navy gunner.

In 1620, the first successful submarine was commissioned by the English Royal Navy, built by a Dutch engineer and inventor Cornelius Drebbel and tested in the Thames River, where it completed a three-hour journey.

American inventor David Bushnell developed the first military submarine in 1775, during the American Revolution.

Early subs were usually propelled by hand-operated cranks, and their offensive strategies centered around covertly confronting a surface ship, attaching explosives to the enemy's hull and escaping before the explosion.

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What is the biggest submarine ever built and remaining in service?

A Russian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine known as Dmitriy Donskoy, TK-208, is the world's largest submarine.

Measuring at 175 meters, nearly 600 feet, the submarine has been in commission since 1980, with a few periods of significant refurbishment in its history.

In addition to the submarine's impressive length, it's also 25 meters wide, giving it quite the presence in the water.

The displacement of the ship is 48,000 tons and it is operated by a crew of 160 men.

The TK-208 was the foremost submarine in the Russian named Akula-class submarine line (NATO calls it Typhoon).

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What was the first sustained flight of an aircraft?

Although multiple experiments with heavier-than-air powered and controlled flights were already carried out in the 19th century, only at the beginning of the 20th century such a flight was made.

On December 17 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the US, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright marked the beginning of the pioneer era of aviation.

Their aircraft, the Wright Flyer, made then the first sustained flight for a distance of about 6 kilometers (4 miles).

The airplane was preserved and is now exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

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What were the first supersonic aircrafts?

Able to fly faster that the speed of sound (or Mach 1), supersonic aircrafts started being developed in the second half of the 20th century.

The first flight exceeding the speed of sound by a manned aircraft in controlled level flight was performed on October 14, 1947 by the experimental Bell X-1 research rocket plane.

The first fighter capable of supersonic speed in level flight was the North American F-100 Super Sabre, that first flew in 1953 and then served in the United States Air Force from 1954 to 1971.

The Soviet supersonic passenger airliner, the Tupolev Tu-144, performed its first flight in December 1968 and was in operation until 1999.

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What is the biggest passenger airliner in the world?

The Airbus A380-800 is the largest passenger aircraft ever made, able to carry up to 853 people in a single class and 644 people in a two-tiered class.

The wide-body plane made its maiden flight on April 27th, 2005, and has a maximum range of 8,208 miles (about 13,200 km) and a cruising height of 43,100 feet (about 13 km).

It has a wingspan of 261.8 feet (79.8 meters), a length of 239.5 feet (73 meters) and a maximum take-off weight of more than 1.2 million pounds (540,000 kg).

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What is the biggest cargo aircraft ever developed?

The An-225 was the biggest and heaviest aircraft ever built, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640-700 tons.

It still holds the record for total airlifted payload at 559,580 pounds, as well as airlifted single-item payload at 418,830 pounds.

With the length of 275 ft (84 meters), the six engines plane has the longest wingspan of any plane currently flying - 290 feet (88.4 meters).

It was designed in the 1980s by the Soviet Union Antonov Design Bureau to carry the Buran spaceplane (the Soviet version of the space shuttle) as well as the Energia rocket boosters.

The An-225 first flew on 21 December 1988.

Initially, two planes of the kind were laid down, but only one of them was built and went into service.

Being moored in Ukraine, the only existing copy of the plane was significantly damaged on the 25th of February 2022 during the fight with the Russian troops over the Antonov airport.

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Where in the world pyramids can be found?

When most of us think of a pyramid, we imagine Egypt where those massive triangular tombs have become the symbol of the country.

Besides Egypt, here are the countries where pyramids are scattered around the world:
- Sudan
- Nigeria
- Iraq
- China
- Mexico
- Peru
- Guatemala

Ancient temple pyramids can also be found in India, Cambodia and Indonesia.

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What is the country with the biggest number of pyramids?

Despite the common belief, Egypt isnโ€™t the pyramid capital of the world.

Sudan has up to 255 known pyramids, compared to Egyptโ€™s 138.

The pyramids in Sudan werenโ€™t created by ancient Egyptians who wandered further south, but were built by members of the Kingdom of Kush, an ancient civilization that ruled areas along the Nile River from 1070 BC to 350 AD.

While the Kushites started building pyramids about 500 years after the Egyptians, both cultures used them to entomb their dead.

Kushite pyramids reach up to 30 metres high, while the height of the largest Egyptian pyramid is 138 metres.

The ancient city of Meroรซ in the middle of modern day Sudan is home to almost 200 pyramids - the biggest concentration of Kushite pyramids in the country and the biggest concentration of pyramids in the world.

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What is the oldest pyramid in the world?

The Pyramid of Djoser (or Zoser), is widely believed to be the oldest pyramid in the world.

It dates back to around 2630 BC.

The construction on the Great Pyramid of Giza began in 2560 BC, roughly 70 years later.

Like all Egyptian pyramids, the Djoser pyramid was built for a ruler. King Djoser was the second ruler of Egyptโ€™s third dynasty and held the throne for an estimated 19 years.

The kingโ€™s monument was built by a great architect, named Imhotep. He was the chief minister to Djoser and left behind a legacy. If the name sounds familiar, it may be because the architect become known as the Egyptian god of wisdom and medicine โ€” now listed among few other actual, historical people who were named deities.

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What is the tallest pyramid in the world?

The most famous and the tallest pyramid, the Great Pyramid (also known as the Pyramid of Cheops) is located in Giza, Egypt.

Its height is 138.5 metres and its base is measured at 230.3 metres.

This pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one that has stayed mostly intact.

It was built around 2600 BC as the tomb for the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu (Cheops). It remains the tallest pyramid in the world, and for 3,800 years after it was finished, it was also the worldโ€™s tallest building.

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What is the worldโ€™s largest pyramid?

Perhaps surprisingly to some, but the Pyramid of Cheops is not the largest in the world.

This title belongs to the Great Pyramid of Cholula in Puebla, Mexico.

The Great Pyramid of Cholula is a temple to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl in Mexico.

It was built in stages between the third century BC and the ninth century AD by the Toltec-Chichimec people, who settled in what is modern-day Puebla in the twelfth century.

The structure was named Tlachihualtepetl, or โ€œthe mountain built-by-handโ€.

It has the height of 55 metres and the base of 450 metres.

With this base covering an area of almost 50 acres, Cholula isnโ€™t close to being one of the tallest pyramids in the world but it is by far the biggest by volume.

It is the largest monument ever built and its volume is a staggering 4.45 million cubic metres, almost twice that of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

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When the last ancient pyramids were built?

According to scientists, the last pyramid in ancient Egypt was built between 1550 and 1525 B.C., during the rule of Pharaoh Ahmose.

The pyramid was discovered in Abydos, one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, located near the modern day Egyptian towns of El Arabia, El Madfuna and El Balyana south of Sohag.

The construction, which was in fact part of a whole pyramid complex, was likely dedicated to Queen Tetisheri, the grandmother of Ahmose.

In the Americas, that contain more pyramid structures than the rest of the planet combined, ancient Mesoamerican civilizations kept building pyramids until circa 1500 AD, when conquistadors arrived in those lands.

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What color is the snow?

Itโ€™s spring time in the Northern hemisphere and fall in the Southern, but in some parts of our planet one can still, already, and even always find snow.

Dreaming of Christmas, one's mind usually comes up with pictures of the white color of snow.

But this vision isnโ€™t strictly accurate as snow is in fact translucent.

Itโ€™s the reflection of light that makes it appear white. Many planes of snowflakes scatter the light in many directions, diffusing the entire colour spectrum.

Snow can also demonstrate a wide variety of spectacular hues. Dust, pollution or cryophilic (cold-loving) fresh-water algae can colour it black, orange or blue.

Pink or โ€œwatermelon snowโ€, caused by algae containing astaxanthin, a chemical similar to the one found in carrots, was mentioned in the early writings of Aristotle.

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How snowflakes are forming and how big they can be?

When the air is colder than 0ยฐ Celsius (32ยฐ Fahrenheit), snow crystals begin to form from water vapor high in the atmosphere.

As more water vapor condenses and freezes on these crystals, they form the beautiful shapes we call snowflakes!

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest snowflake in the world was 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. This was recorded on January 28, 1887 by Matt Coleman at Fort Keogh, Montana. He said that the snowflake was โ€œlarger than a milk panโ€.

While many have doubted such reports and pointed out the lack of corroborating evidence, scientists now claim thereโ€™s nothing to stop flakes growing that big.

As flake size isnโ€™t part of the meteorological measuring designations for snow, these massive flakes may well be out there, but just unreported, unseen or broken up by wind currents as they descend.

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Why snowflakes are so different and maybe each of them is even unique?

Snowflakes are all made of the same hydrogen and oxygen atoms, so they are all the same on the atomic level.

But one of the determining factors in the shape of an individual snowflake is the unstable air temperature around it.

Changes in temperature as the snowflake falls determines different shapes of the six arms or the dendritic structure of the crystal.

Most of experts agree that it is almost impossible for two snowflakes to form their complicated designs in exactly the same way.

To reinforce this hypothesis, scientists claim that that there are up to 10^158 snowflake possibilities.

Thatโ€™s 1070 times more designs than there are atoms in the entire Universe!

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Have you seen a catalogue of snowflakes?

When it is extremely cold the snow is very fine and powdery and snowflakes become quite simple in design, usually needle or rod-shaped.

When the temperature is near to freezing point (0 degrees Celsius), snowflakes become much larger and a lot more complex in design.

Some flakes experts and amateurs have catalogued 35 different types of snowflakes (plus a few other types of frozen precipitation).

Snowflakes can be categorized into six main types: plate (flat), column, stars dendrite, lacy, needle, and capped column.

Snowflakes are designated as column, plane, rimmed, germs, irregular plus a number of combinations of all of them.

These types can be recognized with the naked eye from just looking closely at them.

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What animal can be called the ultimate apex predator of our planet?

If we donโ€™t consider humans equipped with different scientific and technological achievements, there is one animal on the Earth that can be justly called the top predator of our world.

Itโ€™s orca, also known as killer whale, that holds this global title.

Being the largest member of the dolphin family and hunting in all of the world's oceans, these highly intellectual and collective mammals have no natural enemies.

Even the great white shark canโ€™t keep up - as discovered not long ago, its liver is just high-energy paste for orcas.

The size of killer whales is as impressive as their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviours.

Males typically range from 6 to 8 metres (20 to 26 ft) long and weigh in excess of 6 tonnes. Females are smaller: from 5 to 7 m (16 to 23 ft) and weigh about 3 to 4 tonnes.

The biggest registered male was about 10 meters long (33 ft).

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Do all orcas have the same diet?

All orcas are predators and have a diverse diet.

But based on many years of observation, scientists are now dividing killer whales into at least 2 types (or maybe even subspecies) with different nutritional traditions.

โ€ข Resident orcasโ€™ diet consists primarily of fish and sometimes squid, and they live in complex and cohesive family groups called pods. These are most commonly sighted in coastal waters and visit the same areas consistently.

โ€ข The diet of transient orcas consists almost exclusively of marine mammals. They generally travel in small groups of 2-6 animals, and have less persistent family bonds than residents.

Like people with different nutritional habits who donโ€™t eat at the same places in the city while living in the same areas, groups of transient and resident orcas try to avoid each other.

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Where is the apple tree that inspired Isaak Newton?

Legend has it that a young Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree when he was hit on the head by a falling fruit that prompted him to suddenly come up with his law of gravity.

There is no evidence to suggest the fruit did actually land on his head, but Newtonโ€™s observation of falling apples could really inspire him to develop his law of universal gravitation.

Experts believe that the apple anecdote took place between 1665 and 1667, when Newton was studying at Cambridge University, but because of an outbreak of the bubonic plague in the school he moved back to his childhood home, Woolsthorpe Manor near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England.

Some say that the famous apple tree has been growing at Woolsthorpe Manor to this day.

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Is it theoretically possible to turn the Earth into a black hole?

The size of a black hole can be thought of in terms of the radius of its event horizon.

Astrophysicists refer to this as the Schwarzschild radius, named after the German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild, who developed the modern idea of a black hole using Einstein's theories over a century ago.

Schwarzschild radii are not limited to black holes. Any object with mass, such as a planet, moon, or a human, has a Schwarzschild radius.

If an object's physical radius becomes smaller than its Schwarzschild radius this object will become a black hole.

The Earth's Schwarzschild radius is thought to be around 8.7mm, or roughly 17.5mm in diameter.

Therefore, if someone or something were to shrink the Earth down to a little less than the size of a penny, our planet would become a black hole.

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