What is an e-cigarette?

It is a battery-operated cigarette which looks and feels like a real cigarette but it isn’t bad for health. It is being marketed by a Chinese company in the hope that China’s 40 million smokers will quit. Beijing-based SBT Co. first developed the e-cigarette technology in 2003 and it is now controlled by Golden Dragon. The cigarettes sell for around $208 apiece and are already available in China, Israel, Turkey, and a number of European countries. It is not yet sold in Australia or the United States.

Is it all right to cook food in aluminium vessels?

Aluminium has good thermal conductivity for cooking. However, it can react with acidic foods and change the flavour and colour of the food cooked. Sauces containing egg yolks or vegetables such as asparagus may cause oxidation of non-anodised aluminium. Sometimes, Alzheimer’s disease is linked to the use of aluminium but to date there is no proof that the metal is involved in causing the disease.

What are sniglets?

A sniglet is a word that should be in the dictionary but isn’t. Sniglets are the brainchild of comedian Rich Hall who, with a little help from his friends, wrote a series of books containing sniglets in the mid-1980s. Sniglets are actually a long-running popular joke in which people make up their own humorous words to define things or concepts that have no “official” definitions.

Which country first introduced paper currency?


Paper currency was introduced by the Chinese around 600 A.D. Back then, the Chinese would string copper coins together and carry them around. As the economy grew, people found it difficult to carry too many coins and paper money was introduced as an alternative.

What is the pigeonhole principle?

The exact statement of the pigeonhole principle is ‘If you want to put N+1 pigeons in N pigeonholes, then at least one of the pigeonholes must contain more than one pigeons’. This is just a very obvious fact moulded into a principle. But its applications are vast. Its proof by contradiction is very simple: suppose no pigeonhole contains more than one pigeon. Then, there are no more than N pigeons, which contradicts the fact that there are N+1 pigeons.

What is an extended periodic table?

An extended periodic table was suggested by Glenn T Seaborg in 1969. It’s a logical extension of the principles behind the standard periodic table to include undiscovered chemical elements. All of the undiscovered elements are named by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The systematic element name is the standard of creating a generic name until it has been discovered, confirmed and an official name approved.

Where did acrobatics originate?

Acrobatic traditions are found in many cultures. In the West, Minoan art from circa 2000 B.C. contains depictions of acrobatic feats on the backs of bulls, which may have been a religious ritual. In China, acrobatics have been a part of the culture since the Han Dynasty, over 2500 years ago. During the Tang dynasty, acrobatics saw much the same sort of development as European acrobatics saw during the Middle Ages with court displays during the 7th through the 10th century dominating the practice. The first use of acrobatics as a specific sport was in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and the first world championships were in 1974.