Where do fruit flies come from?

Fruit Fly

The tiny fruit flies, or vinegar fly is often found around rotting fruit and vegetables.

If you should forget to pick up a banana peel or an apple core, in a few days you might see tiny, red-eyed flies which seem to have appeared as if from nowhere, hovering over the rotting fruit.

These tiny creatures popularly called “fruit flies” or “vinegar flies,” are almost always less than an eight of an inch in length and are yellowish to black in color.

They fly about looking for rotting fruit and vegetables on which to feed and to lay their eggs.

In just a short time, a number of female fruit flies can lay enough eggs to produce a thousand new fruit flies.  When the larvae, or young fruit fly worms, hatch from the eggs they will feed on the decaying fruit, too.

In a few days the larvae will have changed into adult fruit flies and will fly away, looking for more rotting fruit on which to lay their own tiny eggs. - Dick Rogers

Why do we call 12 inches a foot?

The foot as a unit of measurement gets its name because it may first based on the length of the human foot.

Long ago, people didn’t  have rulers to measure with.  Instead, they used such handy “rulers” as the human foot or hand (an inch was the breadth of the thumb).

One Foot Ruler

The ancient Romans divided their foot measurement into 12 “unicae” (inches).

The English borrowed the old Roman measurement.  However, they made their foot the length of the king’s foot and measured an inch as the length of three grains of barley laying end-to-end.

Of course, such measurements were not always accurate.  Same barley grains and some kings’ foot were longer than others.

To solve this problem, it was eventually decided to make standard units in which every foot and each inch were just too long.  Today, when you measure foot and inches with a ruler, you will be sure of getting the same answer every time. - Dick Rogers

What is mustard made from?

Mustard

The mustard you put on a hot dog is made from the seeds of the mustard plant. 

Mustard plants have bright yellow flowers and slender pods containing hard, round seeds.  The large, green leaves are rather jagged in shape.

Perhaps your mother may use a powder made from mustard seeds in salad dressing in preparing pickles and to add new flavor to many of the other foods you eat.

The ground-up seeds mixed with vinegar and spices make a tasty sauce that is good to eat on frankfurters.

Sauces made from spices and herbs such as mustard are called “condiments.”  The spicy oil which mustard seeds contain gives mustard its sharp flavor.

Mustard is an easy crop to grow.  The leaves may be picked while still tender and eaten as a mustard green.  Because mustard plants grow wild in manly parts of the world, they are often considered a bothersome weed to a great number of farmers. - Dick Rogers

What is a rain forest?

A rain forest is a very dense and dark forest that grows in a land where the rainfall is very heavy.  A rain forest is a large, very thick forest in a land where rain is very heavy throughout the year.  The closely crowded trees need at least 80, and often much more, inches of rain each year.

Rainforest

Most rain forests grow near the equator.  Here it is warm all year round, and rain falls nearly every day.  The tall trees raise their leafy branches high above the ground.  The leaves are usually so crowded that little sunlight can filter through, and the forest is often dark.

The heavy rains wash much of the plant food from the surface soil.  As a result, the floor of a rain forest is often bare because smaller plants cannot grow in the dim light and poor soil.  Many people think of rain forests is jungles.

Jungle differs from tropical rain forests.  A dense carpeting of creepers, vines and undergrowth generally covers the ground in a jungle.  Some jungles have a few trees.  Dense jungles may grow in dry climates where rain forests can’t.  Jungles are among the least livable places on earth.  Poisonous plants, snakes and wild creatures live in them. – Dick Rogers

How are diamonds cut into pieces?

Diamond

To bring out the brilliance in a diamond, many little sides, or facets, must be cut and polished on it with other diamonds.  Most diamonds look like dull pieces of glass when they are taking from the ground.  Before they are used as jewels, diamonds are cut and polished.

The cutting and the polishing has a great deal to do with how a diamond sparkles.  To bring out its full beauty, many little sides, or facets, must be cut and polished on the diamond.  Diamonds are found in many sizes and shapes.  Usually two or more gems are cut from a single stone.  People, called diamond cutters, can break a diamond in two with just one tap from a hammer.  Sometimes a diamond cutter uses a saw with an edge  made of diamond dust to saw a diamond in a half.

Next, he grinds off that diamond’s corners so that it is in shaped like a top.  The little faces, or facets, are then ground on the diamond by pressing it against a revolving iron dist coated with a past made from diamond dust and oil.  Upon entering a finished diamond facet, a light ray is refracted, or bent, and reflected back in a glittering rainbow of colors.  The fiery brilliance of the diamond has made it the world’s favorite jewel. – Dick Rogers

When did the liberty bell become cracked?

Historic Bell

The most famous bell in America is the Liberty Bell.  It hangs in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA.  The historic bell stands 3 feet tall.  It weighs more than a ton.  Originally cast in England, it was brought to Philadelphia in 1752, more than 20 years before the United States became a nation.

When it arrived, the bell was tested, and it cracked.  It was melted down and new bell was made.  But it cracked again and was recast a second time.  This bell worked.  It was run when the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on July 8, 1776.

In later years it was rung on every Fourth of July and at other special times, too.  In 1835, it cracked while tolling for the funeral of Chief Justice John Marshall.  Working tried to fix the bell, but it cracked beyond repair when rung on George Washington’s birthday in 1846.  The Liberty Bell rings no more, but it still stands as a symbol of independence. – Dick Rogers

What is Artesian well?

Artesian Well

An artesian well needs no pump.  It spurts out of the ground like fountain.  There is more water in the world than in our oceans, lakes and streams.  A good deal of water can be found beneath the ground. 

Springs are formed when water from rain and melted snow seeps deep into the ground.  The underground water can fill the bottom of a well, or it can bubble out of the ground as a spring.

An artesian well is quite different from the ordinary well or spring.  In an ordinary well, the water must be pumped out with a pump.  An ordinary spring occurs when the underground water seeps downhill from the pull of gravity and bubbles out of the ground at some lower point.  It is only where the water gets trapped between layers of rocks or clay that artesian wells are possible.

Ask the imprisoned water collects between the layers of rock, the weight of the water may become so great that it builds up a great pressure.  When a well is dug, or if it finds a natural opening, the water gushes out without the aid of a pump or gravity.– Dick Rogers