Everyone’s got a question or two they’d like answered—basic stuff, like “Why is the sky blue?” Here are a few of those questions, with answers from some of the nation’s top trivia experts.
Q: Do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?
A: “No, they do not. This ancient belief may have come about because baby ostriches often fall on the ground and stretch out their long necks when they are frightened. This largest of all birds cannot fly and therefore does need protection, but burying its head is not the answer. The ostrich’s protection from danger lies in its very powerful legs and its ability to run at speeds of about 40 miles an hour.” (From The Question and Answer Book of Nature, by John R. Saunders)
Q: What makes food sizzle?
A: “There is water inside food. When you put it in a hot pan, the water comes out in tiny drops. As soon as they hit the hot pan, the drops dance around, exploding into little puffs of steam. Dancing and exploding, they make little waves in the air that travel to your ears as a sizzling sound.” (From Why Does Popcorn Pop?, by Catherine Ripley)
Q: Why do your feet swell up in an airplane?
A: “It is a common myth that feet swell up when you ride in an airplane because of changes in atmospheric pressure due to high elevation. Feet swell up on planes, especially during long flights, for the same reason they swell up on the ground—inactivity.
“And it does not matter if you leave your shoes on or off; they will swell either way. If left on, they will provide external support, but will inhibit circulation a bit more and probably feel tighter during the latter part of the flight. If taken off, comfort may be increased, but the shoes are likely to be more difficult to put on once the flight is over.
More Americans claim German ancestry (46.5%) than any other. Irish ancestry is #2 at 33%.
“Podiatrists normally recommend ‘airplane aerobics’ to help circulation—including help for swelling feet.” (From The Odd Body: Mysteries of Our Weird and Wonderful Bodies Explained, by Dr. Stephen Juan)
Q: Why do clouds darken to a very deep gray just before it’s about to rain or prior to a heavy thunderstorm?
A: “Clouds normally appear white when the light which strikes them is scattered by the small ice or water particles from which they are composed. However, as the size of these ice and water particles increases—as it does just before clouds begin to deposit rain—this scattering of light is increasingly replaced by absorption. As a result, much less light reaches the observer on the ground below and the clouds look darker.” (From The Last Word 2, edited by Mick O’Hare)
Q: If nitroglycerin is an explosive, why don’t people who take nitroglycerin for heart conditions explode?
A: “We all know that nitroglycerin is a highly explosive compound. It’s a volatile chemical cocktail combining carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. ‘Nitro’ taken in pill form helps heart patients by acting directly on the wall of the blood vessels. It dilates the vessels, which both increases the blood supply to the heart and reduces the work of the heart by reducing blood pressure.
“But according to Dr. Thomas Robertson, chief of the cardiac diseases branch of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the amount of ‘nitro’ in heart medications is too small to cause any possible danger of a patient exploding—even if the patient overdosed a little and jumped up and down.” (From The Odd Body: Mysteries of Our Weird and Wonderful Bodies Explained, by Dr. Stephen Juan)
Youth is a malady of which one becomes cured a little every day.
—Italian proverb
Q: How did cranberries get their name?…