Weird But True (7 page)
T
he British Automobile Association, or AA, was founded in 1905 as an organization dedicated to helping its members avoid police speed traps. Today it advocates for road safety and provides members with services such as driving directions, roadside assistance, and vehicle insurance.
I
n the United States, someone runs a red light at an intersection once every twenty minutes.
H
ow fast is fast? You've probably heard of a nanosecond, which is a billionth of a second. Well that's just the beginning. One second can be divided into:
⢠a trillion picoseconds
⢠a quadrillion femtoseconds
⢠a quintillion attoseconds
* * *
The fastest laser light pulses ever recorded measured eighty attosecondsâthat's eighty quintillionths of a second.
“ L
aser” is an acronym created by one of the pioneers of laser technology, Gordon Gould. It stands for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.” The predecessor of the laser was the maser (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) developed by a team led by Columbia University physicists Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow. The two camps filed patents for their laser technology processes within nine months of each other, sparking one of the fiercest patent wars in history. Ironically, neither side can take credit for building the first working laserâthat goes to Theodore Maiman of Hughes Research Labs, who successfully tested the ruby laser in May 1960.
D
evelopment of laser technology was instigated by the U.S. military, which envisioned lasers as “death ray” weapons. That's one task for which lasers have never proved useful.
I
n addition to lasers, a number of life enhancers were introduced in 1960:
⢠Etch A Sketch drawing toy
⢠Downy fabric softener
⢠Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) technique
⢠Bubble Wrap cushioning material
M
arc Chavannes and Alfred Fielding created Bubble Wrap after experimenting unsuccessfully with an idea for plastic, textured wallpaper.
T
he last Monday in January is officially designated Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day in the United States.
M
arch 14 is Pi Day, so designated because the dateâ3-14â corresponds (at least in the way Americans write dates) to 3.14, the first three digits of pi, the mathematical ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
* * *
The sequence of the digits in pi will not repeat, even if you calculate pi to the trillionth number past the decimal point. (It's been done!)
T
he Caribbean island of Montserrat is the only place other than Ireland that celebrates St. Patrick's DayâMarch 17âas a national holiday. The first Irish Catholic settlers arrived on the island in 1632, ferried in from the island of St. Kitts, after the British Protestant governor ordered them to be driven out. Montserrat soon became a refuge for Irish Catholics, and by 1678 more than half the island's population had Irish roots.
M
ontserrat is a magnet for volcanologists (people who study volcanoes) from around the world. The island's Soufrière Hills volcano showed pre-eruptive seismic activity in 1992, and it's been erupting regularly ever since.
W
alking across hot coals hurts less than running across hot coals. Quick, light steps limit contact between the foot and the hot surface; running thrusts the foot against the ground more forcefully.
O
n average, 1.7 of every 1,000 babies are born with polydactylyâthe presence of six or more toes on one foot, or six or more fingers on one hand.
O
ne of the oldest examples of a prosthetic appendage is an artificial big toe discovered on a female mummy found in Thebes in 2000. The toe is made from wood, carved and painted to look realistic, and attached to the woman's body with leather laces.
Finding artificial limbs on mummies and in tombs is not unusualâthese nonfunctional prostheses were sometimes worn for purely cosmetic reasons or even attached after death so the body would appear whole in the afterlife. What makes this toe unusual is evidence of wear on the underside, indicating that the lady was walking around on it some three thousand years ago.