Answers to Questions Kids Ask! - Where "Why?" Turns to "Wow!"
Born on this day
August 25, 20101918 - Leonard Bernstein
1917 - Mel Ferrer
1930 - Sir Sean Connery
1938 - Frederick Forsyth
1942 - Howard Jacobson
1947 - Ann Archer
1949 - Martin Amis
1954 - Elvis Costello
1956 - Matt Aitken
1961 - Billy Ray Cyrus
1970 - Claudia Schiffer
Today’s roller coaster has its roots in the Russian ice slides of the mid-1600s. Popular mostly around the city of St. Petersburg, these wooden constructions looked like giant skateboard half-pipe ramps coated in ice. Happy-go-lucky Russians would shoot down the ramp on a sled, zip up the other side, and then gradually slide down to the middle. Even the Russian Empress Catherine the Great was a fan! Wheels didn’t enter the picture until the late 18th century, when primitive roller coasters were made out of carriages which ran over gentle hills. The first roller coaster built in the U.S. was called the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway and opened in 1884 in Coney Island, New York.
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What is the longest structure ever built?
A lot of long bridges and tunnels have been built in recent years, but the longest structure ever built by human beings is over 2,000 years old — it’s the…
Why do we carve pumkins on Halloween?
The jack-o’-lantern story comes from an Irish myth about a fellow named “Stingy Jack.” One night in a pub, Jack tricked the devil into buying his drinks and also made…
Where does the phrase, “Close, but no cigar” originate from?
I believe it comes from the old carnivals and street fairs. One of the many ways to lose your money was to test your strength on a tower with a…
How Big is Infinity?
Most everyone is familiar with the infinity symbol–the one that looks like the number eight tipped over on its side. The infinite sometimes crops up in everyday speech as a…
Why whenever I eat ice cream too quickly, do I get a slight headache?
That mild achin’ in your head you speak of is known, in not-so-scientific terms, as an “ice cream headache” or “brain freeze.” And while some like it cold–especially those of…