QUESTION YOUR WORLD: What's auto racing ever done for my life?

Racecar Inventions by ScienceMuseumofVA

In the early days of auto racing a second person was used as a spotter to look for other vehicles and check the gauges. All that changed when Ray Houron won the inaugural Indy 500 in great part to his stunning new invention, the rear view mirror. This eleminated the weight of the extra person and began a tradition that is still used to this day.

Also, in 1922 Barney Oldfield installed a major safety device in his car, the seat belt. About a quarter century later the factories in Detroit took notice and started to instal them their vehicles.

Fuel additives, tire technology, disc brakes? Yep, you guessed it! All invented to make race cars run smoother and safer. Thanks to these speed hungry technichians many of these inventions can be found in your driveway!!

Want more car facts? Look no more http://waw.wardsauto.com/ar/auto_rearview_mirror/!

Drive safely everyone!

QUESTION YOUR WORLD: How many people live on Earth?

Population 7 Billion! - Question Your World by ScienceMuseumofVA

There's a pretty good chance that you've seen some other people today somewhere. Well, we are currently ushering in a new milestone for humanity, 7 billion people. That's right, the Earth is home to 7 billion of us. This is most impressive considering that it took us nearly 199,000 years to get from very few of us to 1 billion of us. 1804 marked the year when humanity reached the billions. The thought of 1 billion people in 1804 is pretty interesting, but pails in comparison to the exponential growth that our population saw soon after. Check out how we grew from 1 billion to 7 billion:
1804 - After nearly 200,000 years we reached 1 billion
1930 - 2 billion
1960 - 3 billion!
1974 - 4 Billion!!
1987 - 5 BILLION!!!
1999 - 6 BILLION!!!!!!
2011 - 7 BILLION!!!!!!!!!!

So nearly 199,000 years to get to 1 billion and only 207 years to get to 7 billion! That's some exceptional exponential growth!
http://www.worldof7billion.org - Follow the countdown and get more information on this growing population's impact on our world!

QUESTION YOUR WORLD: Happy Halloween - priceless science

Hello boys and ghouls! Once again, the equinox has happened and daylight savings time has not ended yet, which means its time for Halloween!! Check out the video clip for some fun with Halloween numbers!

That's right $2 BILLION spent on candy each year for Halloween. What a sweet research project this was! For more information check out this link from the National Retail Federation, . They've studied up and surveyed a lot of information about what flies off the shelf around Halloween.

Also, all that candy means a lot of sugar in a lot of mouths! That's the tooth folks! Our teeth are pretty amazing actually. Check out some interesting facts on teeth for all of you that want to bite into this topic a bit more:

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/dentalhealth/Pages/Toothfacts.aspx


http://www.infobarrel.com/15_Facts_about_Teeth#axzz1bFadL861


http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112820/facts.html

Whoa! Sharks have about 40 sets of teeth in their lifetime? A Chinese dentist once built a tower out of 28,000 human teeth??
Chew on that for a while!

Lastly, be sure to spot an awesome science based costume this year!! They can be as simple as a scientist or as complex as an atom! .

Be safe and have fun out there! Happy Halloween from us here at the Science Museum of Virginia!

Neptune

A lot has been discovered about Neptune since its initial sighting in 1846. The Voyager 2 spacecraft, on Aug 25, 1989, did a fly by of this blue celestial giant and sent back some photos and other data that has helped the science community understand more about the last planet on the block. Here are some interesting factoids about Neptune:
8th Planet from the sun
Gaseous Giant
13 Moons
Named after the Roman god of the oceans, Neptune
Has rings…just like all the other gaseous giants
2.68 BILLION miles from Earth at its closest point in orbit
60,190 Earth days (164.8 Earth years) for Neptune to orbit the sun once!!
Looks cool…because it is VERY cool…as in cold -330F (72 Kelvin)…(-201 C for the non-US friends of the Science Museum of Virginia)…brrr!
After 2006's demotion of Pluto, this blue gaseous giant became the last official planet in our solar system.

Their Final 4th of July...

On July 4, 1826, our nation celebrated its 50th birthday. Two old patriots, former arch rivals and now close friends, began the day but did not finish it. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day in their own homes hundreds of miles apart on the 50th anniversary of their signing the Declaration of Independence. What could explain this strange occurrence?


1. Coincidence – well, it could be a coincidence, but what a significant one! They died on the same day, a momentous date and historic anniversary, especially for them. Both had lived much longer than the average male of the time (Adams was 90); Jefferson’s health had been failing for some time. It would be an incredible coincidence; the odds are mind-boggling.

2. Conspiracy – did someone else cause their deaths? In that time, it was unlikely due to communication problems over long distances, but it could have happened...

3. Divine intervention – well, that is possible…

4. Waiting for the day – do you suppose each of them wanted to see the nation turn 50 and willed themselves to live until that day? Perhaps…

The last words John Adams uttered were “Thomas Jefferson survives,” but Jefferson had passed away a few hours earlier.

What do you think?

WWII Morale Boosters

From the collection of the Virginia Aviation Museum (a division of the Science Museum of Virginia) are two World War II era morale boosters for troops. These booklets provided entertainment for those serving overseas during the war. The “Army Song Book” was published in 1941 by the Library of Congress and contains well-known songs such as “America the Beautiful” and the “Star Spangled Banner”. It also includes the official song of the U.S. Army Air Corps. Here is an excerpt:

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder,

Climbing high into the sun;

Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,

At 'em boys, give 'er the gun!

Down we dive spouting our flame from under,

Off with one helluva roar!

We live in fame or down in flame;

Nothing'll stop the Army Air Corps!"

And for some much needed comic relief from the stresses of war, the booklet titled "The Scrapbook of Army-Navy Humor" provided just that. It was published in 1943 by Texcel Tellophane Tape and is a compiliation of funny stories, jokes and cartoons depicting life in the service. The caption of the cartoon at left reads: "Can't you hover somewhere else? It makes me nervous!"

Scheila Sports a Plume

Meet Scheila and her friends:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/asteroid-collision.html

An asteroid named Scheila lives in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter with millions of other asteroids.  Scheila is about 70 miles across and completes her orbit around the sun every five years.  Late last year, astronomers noticed Scheila had gotten noticeably brighter and was adorned with plumes.  After studying data from the Hubble Space Telescope and Swift satellite, they determined Scheila had collided with one of her fellow asteroids at 11,000 miles per hour (ouch!).  The plumes made Scheila appear comet-like and were most likely small particles of dust from Scheila’s surface.  In two months, the dust had dissipated and Scheila was back to normal.  Thanks to Hubble and Swift, astronomers could study the collision before all evidence of it disappeared, allowing them a peek inside an asteroid.  Now I wonder what Scheila thought of that…