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Showing posts from April, 2018

BANG in the Candy!

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It's really boring these days and finally Jack Nohis squint at one thing- the piggy bank. Breaking of the piggy bank is an annual event for tweens for ages. Rush to the Honeydukes Sweetshop in Hogsmeade to purchase Pop Rocks, a popping candy that produces a 'pop' sound when dissolved in one's mouth. What makes pop rocks 'pop'? Do they have an atom bomb inside? Is it a Big Bang Theory? This sounds ridiculous! Grasp your wand and say 'Reveal your secrets'... Pop Rocks are small candy crystals that are made using sugar, water, corn syrup and little drops of chemical flavouring. These ingredients are blent together. Later, the resulting solution is heated up to 150 degree Celsius (300 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature increases and this leaves the water to evaporate. This mixture is then cooled down and forms a hard candy. Well, what is the secret ingredient that makes the pop sound? To make the Pop Rocks pop, the mixture is ex

Are antibacterial soaps much effective than the regular ones?

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Hey look! I am standing here. Pass the ball, man! Two goals to one. We won the match! Hip Hip Hurray! Hip Hip Huray! But the difficult part of this happy scenario is how you are going to answer your mom about your jersey. Back home, with the muddy face. Mom is still squinting from the kitchen and her eyeballs are about to pop out. "You little tyke! Enough of your heebie-jeebies. Go and take a good bath." It was just a blessing in disguise and finally you are left unpunished. Shower on and you take your soap. Every parent's choice is said to be good for their child. But why anti-bacterial soap? Is it really good for your skin? Maybe not. Anti-bacterial soaps are said to be brave knights that kill germs and other bad guys. Dermologists say that there is no evidence that anti-bacterial soaps provide protective shield to the skin. Anti-microbial soaps mostly contain triclosan , also known as TCS, an anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agent found in some consu

Walking in the Lane

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Riding to the shop nearby, have to cross a track on the way. Stop at the signal for the train to pass by. Noticing random things and questioning why? About what all? One among them is- Have you ever noticed a gap between the railway tracks? Looks like the train moves straight with no interruption. Ain't it? Railway tracks are made up of steel, an alloy of iron , carbon and other materials. Steel expands on heating and it contracts on cooling. They get exposed to Sun: the ball of heat and light. These tracks are made up of rails joined together by fishplate. A fishplate , or joint bar, is a flat metal piece that helps in connecting the rails. These rails are joined together with a gap between them. Do you wonder why? If the rails are joined without gap, the rail expand and bend due to the heat of the Sun. The expansion of material due to heat is called thermal expansion. The bend can lead to train accidents. To avoid this catastrophe, the rails are connected to