What are some interesting facts about birds?
Flamingos pair for a lifetime. Some stay with their mates for 50 years or moreMost male birds do not have a penis, but the Argentine Lake Duck’s penis can extend 17 inches, the longest of any bird known. Even funnier is that the duck itself is only about 16 inches tallOstriches have the largest eye of any land animalMost birds do not have bladders to store urine to make them more lightweightA bird’s lungs compose about 1/5 of its body. To give you an idea, human’s lungs compose only 1/20 of their bodyOwls cannot swivel their eyes. Instead, they move their heads completely around to see straight behind themThe most talkative bird in the world is the African grey parrot. One parrot could say over 800 words. Most species of parrots can learn only 50A bird’s feathers weigh more than its skeletonThe ostrich is the only bird that willingly takes care of other females’ eggsThe heart of bird beats 400 times per minute while resting and up to 1000 beats per minute while flyingHummingbird is the smallest bird which measures around 5 cm and weighs 3 grams can fly backwardsPenguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the airThe Peregrine Falcon, when in its hunting dive can reach a maximum recorded airspeed of 389 km/h (242 mph)An albatross can sleep while it flies. It apparently dozes while cruising at 25 mphA woodpecker can peck twenty times a second(that’s insane)Ostriches are flightless birds but they can run up to sixty miles per hour(almost as fast as a tiger)The shell of an ostrich egg is about six times thicker than a chicken egg and an adult human could stand on one without it crackingKiwi birds are blind, so they hunt by smellChickens that lay brown eggs have red earlobes. There is a genetic link between the twoCrows have the largest cerebral hemispheres (brains), relative to body size, of any bird family
Two trains, 300 miles apart are traveling towards each other with one with a constant speed of 70mph and other 50 mph.How long does it take for both to meet/crash?
The speed of the 2 trains are 50 mph and 70 mph and coming towards each other.So over all they cover 70+50=120 miles in a hour . In order to meet/crash 300 miles they will require 300/120=2.5 hours.
Why doesn't an airplane traveling in the opposite direction of the Earth's rotation move faster than one traveling in the same direction of the Earth's rotation?
Contrary to what everyone else is saying, it does take longer to fly east that it does to fly west.Its called the Coriolis effect, and it only applies to rotating reference frames.This is why examples of driving in a car and tossing a ball, or walking the length of a ship while its underway, dont apply. Those aren't rotating reference bodies.The air mass of the atmosphere does spin in relative synch with the earth, which is why your airspeed doesn't register differently, but it has nothing to do with the length of the trip.Ignoring things like the jet stream and assuming you were flying in a perfectly static air mass, a trip from NY to LA would take less time than the return trip from LA to NYC if the pilot were flying the same airspeed. But the ground speed will be different in those cases.When you fly west from NYC, LA is physically getting closer to you due to the rotation of the earth while you are in the air. The reverse is true flying east. NYC is constantly moving away from you while you are en route to it.The reason you dont notice is that the pilots have a schedule to keep and a flight plan to stay on. If its supposed to take them 4 hours each way, they adjust the speed of the plane so they get there in 4 hours. They do this because gates have to be empty and waiting, air traffic control is expecting you at a certain time, you have to meet other connecting flights……ect.Compound this in the real world with things like moving air masses and the jet stream, which over N America can sometimes make it faster to fly east ( or much more fuel efficient) and the effect of the Coriolis force is lost in the noise. But it is still there and very real.So real in fact that snipers have to account for it when taking long shots. A sniper shooting while facing N, E, S or W has to account for the fact that the target will have moved several feet due to the spinning of the earth during the few seconds the bullet is in the air. A few feet is not much, but its enough to make you miss if you dont factor it in.