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 The common sailboat comprises eight essential parts: hull, tiller, rudder, mainsail, mast, boom, jib and keel. The hull is the shell of the boat, which contains all the internal components.   Its symmetrical shape balances the sailboat and reduces drag, or the backward pull caused by friction, as it moves in the water. Inside of the hull in the stern, or back of the boat, is the tiller, which is attached to the rudder in the water.   Think of the tiller as the boat's steering wheel and the rudder as the tire. To maneuver a sailboat to the right, for example, you pull the tiller to the right side of the boat, causing the rudder to alter its direction.  If you think of the tiller as the steering wheel, then the sails and the keel are the engines. The mainsail is the larger sail that captures the bulk of the wind power necessary to propel the sailboat. Its vertical side attaches to the mast, a long upright pole, and its horizontal side secures to the boom, a ...

  Clouds are made up of tiny water droplets called cloud droplets. Groups of cloud droplets form water vapour (gas) or ice crystals.  Water vapour isn’t dense enough to fall to the ground as precipitation. Instead, it rises into the sky and becomes supercooled. Eventually, it condenses (turns to a liquid) around tiny particles of dust in the sky. These tiny particles are called condensation nuclei. It takes billions of these condensed water droplets to form a visible cloud.  When the water molecules are spread out, they aren’t dense enough to feel Earth’s gravity. When the molecules huddle together, they form larger, heavier droplets. Eventually, they become heavy enough to fall to the ground as precipitation.  Cloud seeding involves modifying a cloud’s structure to increase the chance of precipitation. Cloud seeding adds small, ice-like particles to clouds. Usually, silver iodide particles are used.  These particles act as additional condensation nuclei. Unatta...

There are several ways in which plant growth can be gauged, the metrics vary for different types of plants. An apparatus known as an auxanometer measures the increase in plant growth. Some other ways of assessing and measuring the plant growth are – measuring the height of the plant, examining the size and number of the leaves, estimating the rate of growth with that of fresh plants, and detecting the rate of growth with dried plants. An auxanometer is an apparatus for measuring the increase or rate of growth in plants. In the case of an arc-auxanometer, there is a wire fixed with the plant apex on one end and a dead-weight on the other. It passes over a pulley that has a pointer attached to it. When the plant's height increases, the pulley rotates and the pointer moves on a circular scale to directly give the magnitude of growth. The "rate of growth" is a derived measurement obtained by dividing the length of growth measured by the auxanometer, by the time said measureme...

Despite near-zero temperatures, acidity, solar irradiation, and minimal nutritional value, over sixty species of algae appear in the snow. The most common species of snow alga is Chlamydomonas nivalis, which colors snow red or pink. This phenomenon is called “watermelon snow” or “blood snow”. “Watermelon snow” forms as the summer sun heats up and melts winter’s leftovers. It is said to smell slightly sweet, a bit like watermelon. The red pigment helps protect them from intense UV radiation experienced at high elevations and in ecosystems with no shade protection. In spring and summer, they are mobile, green cells. Small creatures, like rotifers, nematodes, ice worms and springtails, feed on the algae in watermelon snow. When these algae – typically green organisms – get a lot of sun, they produce a natural type of sunscreen (bright red carotenoids) that paints the slopes pink and red. The addition of color to the surface darkens the snow, allowing it to heat up faster, and melt more qu...

A proper scientific name for a blood pressure monitoring device is a sphygmomanometer. For many decades, physicians used a manually inflated air-bladder cuff and a listening device called a stethoscope to listen to arterial wall sounds. This is known as the auscultatory method of measuring blood pressure. Using this method required some practice and it was typically performed by trained medical practitioners. Recent advances in medical technology paved the way for inexpensive, easy-to-use, digital BP monitors that anyone could use in the comfort of their homes without specialized knowledge or training. A digital BP monitor uses an inflatable air-bladder cuff, a battery-powered air pump, and a pressure sensor for sensing arterial wall vibrations to measure blood pressure in an artery. This is known as the oscillometer method. There are two types of digital BP monitors: the upper-arm (shown above) and the wrist models (shown below). The upper-arm model has a cuff that is placed on the up...

 What is Space Blanket?   T hermal insulation is based on the use of substances with very low thermal conductivity. But sometimes the most effective way to protect persons or devices from leakage or gain of heat is to use a thermal radiation insulator.   Thermal radiation does not require any medium for energy transfer. Moreover, energy transfer by radiation is fastest (at the speed of light) and it suffers no attenuation in a vacuum.  In contrast to heat transfer by conduction or convection, which take place in the direction of decreasing temperature, thermal radiation heat transfer can occur between two bodies separated by a medium colder than both bodies.   For example, solar radiation reaches the surface of the earth after passing through cold layers of atmosphere at high altitudes.  In order to insulate thermal radiation, space blankets (depending on the function, also known as a Mylar blanket, emergency thermal blanket or safety blanket) can...