10 Amazing Scientific “Facts of The World” interesting facts for Class 10 and 12 Part 27

Facts of The World – 27

921. Prince Jozef (1763-1813) of Poland had been warned by a gypsy that he would be killed by a magpie. He avoided birds all his life but was drowned while crossing the river Elster in Germany. ‘Elster’ means magpie.

922. Pollution is not a new problem. In 1306, King Edward I of England complained of the ‘unbearable stench’ caused by burning coal in London and prohibited its use.

923. Electricity produces heat and fires can start if electrical wiring overheats. Fire fighters use foam instead of water to put out electrical fires. This is because water conducts electricity and could give the fire fighters electric shocks.

924. The ancient Greeks believed that everything was made of atoms. The word ‘atom’ comes from the Greek word ‘atomos’, meaning, ‘uncuttable’.

925. The people of ancient Greece believed in a Sun god called Apollo. They thought, he drove the Sun across the sky each day in his chariot.

926. Hollywood’s ‘Universal Motion Pictures’, produced three movies titled ‘Jaws’. They were Jaws-1, Jaws-2 and Jaws-3. In all the three movies, the central character was a great white shark.

927. ‘May Day’ is actually an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal. Some say that it was derived from the French “M’aidez”, meaning ‘Help me’. Many official sources say that the word was made up like the distress signal SOS- because it is easy to remember and can be understood even if the strength of the radio signal is weak. Today, May Day is observed as Workers’ Day (or Labour Day) in almost all counties of the world.

928. Umbrellas were first used as sunshades. The Chinese used them as early as the 11th century B.C. the Chinese umbrellas had frames made of cane or sandalwood with a covering of leaves or feathers.

929. The word ‘umbrella’ comes from the Italian word, ‘Ombrello’, meaning, ‘little shade’.

930. Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur (1699-1743) was the first to build an observatory in India and is the only one in the world to have built five observatories – at Delhi, Jaipur , Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura. While the ones at Ujjain and Vranasi are in ruins, the one at Mathura no longer exists. The ones that are preserved are at Delhi and Jaipur. These are known as the Jantar Mantars.