1. Why are people in the public eye said to be “in the limelight”?
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Limelight was invented in 1825. It was used in lighthouses and stage lighting by burning a cylinder of lime, producing a great light. So, when all of the public put an eye on someone, they certainly set the limelight on him. On theater shows or concert shows the performers are “in the limelight” when they’re the center of attention.
2. Why dimes, quarters and half dollars have notches, while pennies and nickels do not?
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Dimes, quarters and half dollars are notched because they used to have silver. The US Mint wanted to discourage holders of the coins to shave off small amounts of the precious metals. Unlike them, pennies and nickels don’t contain such metals and are not valuable enough to shave.
3. Why do men’s clothes have buttons on the right while women’s clothes have buttons on the left?
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As everything recently invented, buttons were used only by the rich people long ago. Because woman in that times were dressed by their maids, buttons were put on the maids’ right side. Men dressed on alone, so while most of them are right handed, their buttons were put on the right.
4. Why are many coin banks shaped like pigs?
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Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of dense orange clay called “pygg”. People used to save their money in jars made of this clay. When an English potter misunderstood the word he made a bank the corresponded to a pig. Everybody accepted that.
5. Why is blue for boys and pink for girls?
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In ancient times people tried to fight the evil spirits everyway that they could. As boys were considered as the most valuable resource to parents, the blue color was used to protect them because it associates with good spirits. Girls were dressed in black, obviously missing the care that boys had. Pink became associated with them in the Middle Age.
6. Why does water not calm the tongue after eating hot spicy food?
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Most of the spices are oily, and, as it’s well known, water and oil don’t mix. Drinking water after tasting an oily spice could produce only rolling the water on the oil on the tongue. The solution is eating bread. It absorbs the oily spices. Milk and alcohol also contain substances that could help you.
7. Why is it called a “loo?”
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In medieval Europe people didn’t care too much about hygiene. They threw all the contents out the window down on the street below. In France when the danger was on the rise people shouted “garde l’eau,” which means “watch out for the water.” Later this phrase was Anglicized, first to “gardy-loo!”, then just “loo.”
8. Why do onions make you cry?
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Cells of the onion contain two sections divided by membrane. One section contains enzyme which helps chemical processes occur in your body, while the other contains molecules that contain sulfur. When an onion is cut, enzymes mix themselves and cause eyes watering.
9. Why is the sky blue?
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When sunlight travels through the atmosphere, it collides with gas molecules, which scatter the light. The shorter the wavelength of light, the more it is scattered by the atmosphere. Because it has a shorter wavelength than the other colors, blue light is scattered more, ten times more than red light, for instance. That’s why the sky is blue.
10. If blood is red, why are veins blue?
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Blood appear to be bright red when oxygenated and dark red when deoxygenated. When it leaves the lunges full of oxygen, while it’s dark when returns for refuel. Veins are blue because light penetrating the skin is absorbed and reflected in high energy wavelengths back to the eye. Higher energy wavelengths are blue.
