Some Common Uncommon Whys - 3

15. WHY does the surrounding become cold when the snow starts melting? 

When the snow around the surrounding melts, we experience cold weather. This is due to the specific latent heat of the fusion of ice. The specific latent heat of fusion of ice is relatively high at 336000 J/kg. This means that in order to melt one kilogram of ice, it requires 336000 Joules of heat. So to melt the whole mass of snow around our surroundings, it certainly needs a large amount of heat. Consequently, the heat available in the surrounding is absorbed to melt the snow.

16. WHY does the steam at 100ºC causes severe burns than boiling water at the same temperature? 

This is because of the high specific latent heat of vaporization of steam which is almost 2268000 J/kg. this means that 1kg of steam contains 2268000 joules of heat energy which is comparatively more than the boiling water at the same temperature. 

17. WHY are fishes able to float and sink in water? 

Fishes have special organs called swim bladder precisely known as air sacs. To rise, the fishes allow the gases to fill in their swim bladder thereby increasing the volume. Since upthrust (upward force exerted by the liquid when an object is immersed in it) is directly proportional to the volume, the fishes are able to float. On the contrary, the removal of gases from air sacs will enable the fishes to go deep into the water. 

18. WHY does a body weigh less in water? 

Based on the Archimedes Principle, whenever an object is immersed either wholly or partially in the liquid, it experiences an upthrust which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced. Due to this buoyant force (upthrust) exerted by the liquid on the object immersed into it, the weight appears to weigh less in water. 

19. WHY do we feel cold when we take bath with cold water? 

Heat is a physical quantity that flows when two bodies in contact have differences in temperature. It flows from a body having a higher temperature to the body having a lower temperature. Since cold water has a lower temperature when compared to our normal body temperature (37.5 ºC / 98.6ºF), heat from our body is transferred to the water, thus making us feel cold. Also, water has a high specific heat capacity, it needs a huge amount of heat to raise its temperature. 

20. WHY are 2 think blankets warmer than 1 thick blanket? 

When two blankets are used, a layer of air is trapped between them. Since air is the poor conductor of heat, it doesn’t allow the heat from our body to escape to the surrounding, thus keeping us warm. 

21. WHY are thermos flasks able to keep the contents inside it very hot or cold for a long time? 

A thermos flask is constructed in such a way that it reduces the loss of heat through conduction, convection or radiation. It consists of a double-walled glass container inside with a vacuum in between the two walls to prevent the loss of heat by conduction and convection which requires a medium to transfer heat energy. The inner surfaces of the walls enclosing the vacuum are silvered so as to reduce the loss of heat by radiation. A plastic or wooden cork used on the top curtails the loss of heat by convection.

 

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious”- Albert Einstein
  

Some Common Uncommon Whys- 2

8. WHY do we have sex?

Seriously, sex is not only for pleasure!

A myriad of scientific studies has revealed the psychological,   physical and mental boosts due to this fantastic exercise. The enhancement of the immune system which ultimately ensures longevity, warding off cancer, reduction of stress and depression are reported by various empirical studies among others. One vigorous sex episode is calculated to have burnt almost 300 calories thereby losing a considerable amount of weight besides improving circulation and lowering cholesterol.

But most importantly of all, humans are classified to be a very slow producer. We need a minimum of years to bear the offspring. So abstinence of sex might mean lowering the rate of reproduction and hence jeopardizing the extinction of the human species.     

 9. WHY do men want sex?  

The main hormone that induces sexual drive in men is testosterone. This hormone is almost 10-20 times more in men than women, making the sex drive in males so strong. Women prefer more love than sex because they have a higher level of oxytocin – a hormone responsible for people falling in love. It is revealed that when people fall in love, the level of testosterone decreases and oxytocin increases which enhances the lovemaking process to be faster. Among men, the one who is married and bears the role of a father is reported to have a significantly lower amount of testosterone and more oxytocin than singles – because of their nurturing roles and parental associations.

10. WHY do women talk more and listen more than men?

A study conducted at the University of Maryland concluded that women talk more – almost 20,000 words per day which is 13,000 times more than an average man. They are talkative and chattier because their brain contains more Foxp2 protein, popularly known as ‘language protein’. Females are reported to have 30% more Foxp2 protein than boys. This is also one reason why girls learn to speak faster than boys.    

11. WHY do we close our eyes when we kiss?

A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance by psychologists Dalton and Murphy have revealed that closing our eyes while kissing is more natural to appreciate the physical feeling experienced due to kissing. Any visual stimuli caused due to non-closure of eyes might distract our brain to focus on taking the task at hand. So to gather the feelings and intensify the intimacy between the kissers, we close our eyes while kissing.

12. WHY do we close our eyes when we pray?

The primary logic behind closing our eyes when we pray is to enhance focus (concentration) and limit distractions. The visual distractions are so strong that they can last in our brain even if we close our eyes for some time. When we close our eyes, not only can we notice any kind of visual distractions, but also can concentrate religiously on our prayers to God.

13. WHY do we wear watches on the left hand?  

There isn’t any general rule that we have to wear a watch on the left hand. A right-hander usually wears it on the left while the left-hander on the right hand because it is easier for one to see the time and manoeuvre the work simultaneously with our preferred hands with ease. Wearing watches on the left hand was apparently popular as the majority of the watches designed during that time were operated by a wind-up clock mechanism. The crown – part of the watch used to wind and located at the right side of the clock, making it easier to rotate if worn on the left hand.   

 

Courtesy: Click LINK

14. WHY do people shake hands with the right hand?

Even if one is left-handed, we ended up shaking hands with the right hand. Ever asked why?

Many probable theories are put in, to explain this phenomenon that exactly does not have concrete findings as yet. However, considering it as disgraceful, some cultures forbid shaking hands with the left hand – the hand that usually wipes. One doing with it is an affront. Another postulate believes that during ancient times, weapons were dominantly used with the right hand as a majority of the people were supposedly right-handed. So shaking with the right hand was a sign to indicate that one is free of weapons.

But in Scouting, the scouts always shake hands with the left hand as a sign of trust and friendship. A story has it that, when colonel Baden Powell, Founder of the scouts visited Kumasi, the capital city of Ashanti in Africa, he met with one of the great chiefs. On seeing him, Powell saluted and then offered a handshake with his right hand as a gesture of friendship. But the chief, after transferring the shield and armours from his left to the right hand offered his left hand in return. Traditionally, the left hand was used to hold armours and shield for one’s defence and protection. By offering the left hand, it indicated that the person is no more armed and that he trusted the person with whom he shakes the hand.

“Every day learn something new and just as important, relearn something old” – Robert Brault

Some Common Uncommon Whys - 1

Despite my infant limbs of linguistic and semantic understanding, I was fortunate to have embarked on working as an editor for 2 class magazines under the professional guidance of Mr K.C Jose, Senior Lecturer, which was further reinforced by a collegial cohort of fanatical classmates. The 2 magazines published successively within a year in 2007, nearly a decade ago today, was the first of its kind in the history of Samtse College of Education then. For undertaking such academic enterprise – a brainchild of Mr Jose, I was even privileged to have been crowned with the most coveted Institute Prize for Valuable Contribution award. 

“Sometimes it is uncomfortable to leave even the slightest things which are common in our life: They remain as little things in life that are too small to be discerned, yet too big to be overlooked” wrote the editorial.

Today as I revisited the contents of its publication, I found it worth sharing. This publication attempted to cover a range of common questions that we encounter in our daily life which are often omitted to hunt why. Thus, this uncommon practice of being oblivious is what stimulated our curiosity to stuff those life’s infrequently asked questions with their stunning answers into the magazine entitled, “Some Common Uncommon Why’s”.      

However, the contents contained within are highly compressed, which in a process might have lost some limbs of absolute and factual interpretations. As like begets like, the inclusion here is only intended to trigger and breed curiosity in the minds of readers so that they can do the home works of their own.  

 

The cover page of our Magazine, "Some Common Uncommon Whys?"

1. WHY do we wear a ring on the 4^th finger on the left hand?

Before the medical sciences have discovered the circulatory system, people in ancient times believed that a vein ran directly from the 4^th finger of the left hand to the heart. In Latin, it is called vena amoris, meaning ‘vein of love’. Since the heart is on the left side of the body, the 4^th finger on the left hand is considered as the closest to it.   

2. WHY do fingernails grow faster than the toe nail?

Our fingernails grow two or three times faster than toe nails. A better blood supply probably helps them grow. Since the feet are the farthest in the circulatory arrangement as compared to hands, it is perhaps due to this reason that it grows slowly. Interestingly, some studies have also suggested that the nails grow faster in hot weather, during the times of pregnancy, on our dominant hand (middle finger), and faster in men than women.

3. WHY do we close our eyes when we sneeze?

We sneeze whenever an irritant comes into contact with the nasal mucosa, which in turn stimulates the pons and medulla of the brain, thereby setting additional nerve reactions. As a result, immense stress is placed on our body in general and huge pressure on our eyes in particular. This pressure is enough to pop our eyes out of our heads. To avoid this, we close our eyes to prevent it from extruding.

4. WHY can’t we smell someone else’s garlic breath if we too have eaten garlic?

The garlic has a powerful odour due to the presence of a compound called organosulphorous allicin. As we eat garlic, this compound affects and overpower our sense of smell and taste, thus, making us incapable to smell garlic breath in others, if we too have been eating it.

5. WHY some blinds see dreams while some don’t?

Studies suggest that for a blind to see a dream one needs some visual imagery. So, a child born as blind from their birth cannot see it as it does not have one. People who were blinded in adolescence, adulthood or afterwards usually see dreams because their mind retains some visual imagery.

6. WHY do we close our eyes while aiming at the target?

It is important to have a proper line of alignment while aiming at a target. As we aim, we experience 2 lines of alignment due to our eyes that are set apart from each other. This confuses our brain to concentrate. So to correct this confusion, we close one of our eyes to form only one alignment.  

7. WHY do we yawn?

To be more precise, it is to inject oxygen into our blood. When we are at rest, tired or bored, we don’t breathe as usual to the lung capacity resulting in an increase of carbon dioxide and a decrease of oxygen. In such situations, we use an air sac called alveoli. These air sacs tend to collapse and the lungs in turn become stiff if it doesn’t get fresh air. So as to have a supply of fresh air into the lungs, our brain signals the body to either yawn or sigh.

“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning” – William A. Ward

Making into its Maiden Publication

Writing is seriously a task that many of us put off doing unless we have specific reasons. If one is an amputee of opulent vocabulary or handicapped of nuts and bolts of writing, it certainly aggravates our writing fluency and injures our interest in investing time for it.

One kind of writing that needs technical eloquence and structured ideas is academic writing. It is poles apart in terms of the processes involved and ideas presented from that of ‘free writing’.

Even if one is habitual in writing formal and freestyle writing at affluent ease – as many of us do, venturing into academic writing is conclusively challenging that, our free-style writing skills necessarily does not qualify us to be an academic writer.  

I have learnt that in academic writings, we need to possess and develop an armour of sound technical vocabularies for the disciplines we are engaged with. That logical sequence of arguments that is otherwise ‘OK’ for one discipline is shallowly approved in another. For instance, a typical scientific paper often seeks for lesser paragraphs with denser and factual information while papers related to Humanities is reasonable to be lengthy so as to have room for assessing structured linguistic arguments.

However, in both cases, any academic neophytes –that lacks scientific know-how, can always have a scope to fine-tune and make our dreams of publication a reality. The only tool that we need to have is an appetite to learn and befriend with patience.    

        

So for me, with persistent and vigorous academic assistance from Dr Sonam Rinchen, Dean of Research and Industrial Linkages, Samtse College of Education, Samtse, my manuscript finally found a place to get published. It took exactly a year to find space into its maiden publication of “Educational Innovation and Practice”, a biannual academic journal of Samtse College of Education, Samtse after put through a peer review.

Thank you Dr Sonam Rinchen for channelling my crude article to the experts to hone it with their research whetstone and thereby making it palatable and appetizing to the readers, particularly the researchers. Thank you for helping me add another cap to my publication catalogue.

“Learn as much by writing as by reading” – Lord Acton

Which Death is Never Painless?

While it is aching to realize that Death is inevitable, it is even more painful to accept that it occurs anytime, anywhere sans any caution.

The degree of pain is crueller and bitterly punitive beyond compare particularly when the teeth of death gnaws the life of a person who is very close to our heart. At those moments when we are fully immersed in the vessel of death and trapped within the fog of grief and sorrows, any sort of company, spiritual assistance, or psychotherapeutic arrangements which otherwise convince the acceptance of impermanence – at least in our Buddhist essence – simply remains as an act than as antidote for such despair. In a process, as one gets inconsolably drenched by the shower of grievances and mourn over the loss, the safety of our health is deemed secondary and that at times it is even forgotten to the length that we tend to fall ourselves sick.

As one of our student's mothers left to the heavenly abode due to a prolonged bodily illness, in the grief of her loss, I remembered my once-used-to-be-healthy mother put her health at risk by skipping the meals due to a high dejection for the untimely demise of her youngest daughter.

My heart which was also equally wounded found it challenging to persuade my mother that accepting death is a Herculean task, for she survives with the practical wisdom of handling death while I only possess an abstract theoretical Buddhist viewpoint of impermanence. In fact, that silent face of my younger sister was the only first encounter with death in reality.

Watching the death take away the life of my youngest sister in its own design made me realize that we need a very strong filament of courage to confront the upheaval of various emotional upsets during such moments. That theoretical knowledge and understanding about death and temporariness of life do not necessarily help to cope with death particularly when annexed by it. As a victim, our mind goes to such an extent for seeking a wish to grant a ‘stone’ heart that can sense no pain because of this inevitable visit.

The experience of being with dying does not end at the moment of death. At times that distressful grievances can even survive not only for months but for years, which is further aggravated by anniversaries or ceremonial dedications. So it is conventional for us to mourn for the loss as it is rather so natural in the first place. On the other hand, death appears like an unexpected erosion of life designed to erode the physical and emotional bridge that we share with the person who meets the tragedy. As this unfamiliar colonization of our bond takes place, we grief for the moments that we share since it can never happen the same way again. And for the persons who left some terrific memories with us, it is even more difficult to forget about it as we cannot communicate about our plans or moments thereafter, let alone see each other.

However, accepting the mourn for the loss of a life that shares a genetic or emotional bonding with us is one thing, but for how long and when is another to consider. And thus, realizing the form and physique of my mother that never regained its original stature for enduring the pain of bereavement for so long after her daughter’s death, I certainly dint want my student to consume with that same anxiety.

Who else is there that doesn't suffer the pain of losing our beloved ones?

But because death is never painless and certainly inevitable, we must understand that the denial of its visit is impossible beyond dispute. As a person who still holds some validity of living on earth, for the benefit of the demise, to our capacity, we can do is to conduct rituals and erect prayer flags for the swift rebirth in any realms of heaven.   

“The most painful goodbyes are the ones that are never said and never explained” –Anonymous