Read Online Uncle John’s Did You Know? by Bathroom Readers’ Institute - Free Book Online
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
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speed.
• The background crowd noise in a movie or television show is called a walla . The term comes from the early days of radio (before TV), when dramas were performed. A group of actors would repeat the word “walla” over and over again, which was supposed to sound like the murmur of a crowd. Today’s walla actors use real words and conversations.
• In The Matrix , for the slow-motion shots where bullets slow down and the camera whips around, the sound designer put real bullets on strings and whirled them around to create the “whoosh” sound in the background.
• The ape’s roar in King Kong is a lion’s roar played at half speed, backwards.
• In E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial , the sound of E.T.’s waddling walk was created by squeezing a wet T-shirt stuffed with Jell-O.
WE’VE GOT
CHEMISTRY
• Elements named for famous scientists: einsteinium (after Albert Einstein) and fermium (after Enrico Fermi).
• Chlorine will keep your swimming pool clean, but its first use was as a chemical weapon in World War I.
• Superman’s home planet was named after the real element krypton, a gas that was discovered in 1898.
• Though it’s commonly thought to have an icky smell—kind of like rotten eggs—sulfur is nearly odorless. The stuff that smells bad is hydrogen sulfide , a gas that forms in sewers and swamps.
• Neon is colorless, but gives off a red-orange glow when it’s put in a vacuum tube and electricity is passed through it for a neon sign.
• Plastic is an organic compound, but it’s usually considered an inorganic material because it takes so long—centuries—to decompose.
• Mercury is one of only five elements that are liquid at room temperature. The others are caesium, francium, gallium , and bromine .
• The full chemical name of tryptophan synthetase (an amino acid) is 1,909 letters long.
• Metals that are resistant to corrosion—such as gold, silver, and platinum—are called “noble” metals.
WHATCHA-
MACALLIT, USA
Some real places in America .
• Deathball Rock, Oregon , was named after an especially bad batch of biscuits.
• Atlasta Creek, Alaska . A local woman was so delighted that a building had been constructed in this remote area that she exclaimed, “At last, a house!” The name stuck.
• Norwood, Massachusetts . A local man christened the town “Norwood” because it “had a pleasing sound, was easy to write, and had no i to dot or t to cross.”
• Matrimony Creek, North Carolina , got its name from an unhappy surveyor who said the creek was irritatingly noisy—the same opinion he had of marriage.
• Tesla, California’s , founding fathers named the town for inventor Nikola Tesla in hopes that their proposed power plant would supply electricity to San Francisco and make them rich. The plant was never built, and Tesla is now a ghost town.
• Hot Coffee, Mississippi , as you might imagine, was named in honor of a roadside store that sold really good coffee.
• Rego Park, New York , was named for a local construction company called Rego—short for “real good.”
ALL OVER THE MAP
• Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, is the only town in the United States that has two dashes in its name.
• Bolivia was named after Colombian-born freedom fighter Simón Bolívar (full name: Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco).
• Siberia means “sleeping land.”
• Thailand translates to “land of the free.”
• In 190 A.D., Roman emperor Commodus changed the name of Rome to Colonia Commodiana (Commodus’s Colony). After he was assassinated a year later, the Senate changed the name back to Rome.
• The Bronx, New York, was named for its first European settler, Jonas Bronck.
• Bangkok’s official Thai name is 167 letters long.
• Venezuela was named after Venice, Italy. The name literally means “Little Venice.”
• St. Paul, Minnesota, was originally called “Pig’s Eye,” which was the nickname of
• The background crowd noise in a movie or television show is called a walla . The term comes from the early days of radio (before TV), when dramas were performed. A group of actors would repeat the word “walla” over and over again, which was supposed to sound like the murmur of a crowd. Today’s walla actors use real words and conversations.
• In The Matrix , for the slow-motion shots where bullets slow down and the camera whips around, the sound designer put real bullets on strings and whirled them around to create the “whoosh” sound in the background.
• The ape’s roar in King Kong is a lion’s roar played at half speed, backwards.
• In E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial , the sound of E.T.’s waddling walk was created by squeezing a wet T-shirt stuffed with Jell-O.
WE’VE GOT
CHEMISTRY
• Elements named for famous scientists: einsteinium (after Albert Einstein) and fermium (after Enrico Fermi).
• Chlorine will keep your swimming pool clean, but its first use was as a chemical weapon in World War I.
• Superman’s home planet was named after the real element krypton, a gas that was discovered in 1898.
• Though it’s commonly thought to have an icky smell—kind of like rotten eggs—sulfur is nearly odorless. The stuff that smells bad is hydrogen sulfide , a gas that forms in sewers and swamps.
• Neon is colorless, but gives off a red-orange glow when it’s put in a vacuum tube and electricity is passed through it for a neon sign.
• Plastic is an organic compound, but it’s usually considered an inorganic material because it takes so long—centuries—to decompose.
• Mercury is one of only five elements that are liquid at room temperature. The others are caesium, francium, gallium , and bromine .
• The full chemical name of tryptophan synthetase (an amino acid) is 1,909 letters long.
• Metals that are resistant to corrosion—such as gold, silver, and platinum—are called “noble” metals.
WHATCHA-
MACALLIT, USA
Some real places in America .
• Deathball Rock, Oregon , was named after an especially bad batch of biscuits.
• Atlasta Creek, Alaska . A local woman was so delighted that a building had been constructed in this remote area that she exclaimed, “At last, a house!” The name stuck.
• Norwood, Massachusetts . A local man christened the town “Norwood” because it “had a pleasing sound, was easy to write, and had no i to dot or t to cross.”
• Matrimony Creek, North Carolina , got its name from an unhappy surveyor who said the creek was irritatingly noisy—the same opinion he had of marriage.
• Tesla, California’s , founding fathers named the town for inventor Nikola Tesla in hopes that their proposed power plant would supply electricity to San Francisco and make them rich. The plant was never built, and Tesla is now a ghost town.
• Hot Coffee, Mississippi , as you might imagine, was named in honor of a roadside store that sold really good coffee.
• Rego Park, New York , was named for a local construction company called Rego—short for “real good.”
ALL OVER THE MAP
• Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, is the only town in the United States that has two dashes in its name.
• Bolivia was named after Colombian-born freedom fighter Simón Bolívar (full name: Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco).
• Siberia means “sleeping land.”
• Thailand translates to “land of the free.”
• In 190 A.D., Roman emperor Commodus changed the name of Rome to Colonia Commodiana (Commodus’s Colony). After he was assassinated a year later, the Senate changed the name back to Rome.
• The Bronx, New York, was named for its first European settler, Jonas Bronck.
• Bangkok’s official Thai name is 167 letters long.
• Venezuela was named after Venice, Italy. The name literally means “Little Venice.”
• St. Paul, Minnesota, was originally called “Pig’s Eye,” which was the nickname of
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