From Volume "A"

1. Aluminum is the third most common element after oxygen and silicon.
2. The Amazon River is the second longest river in the world after the Nile. The Amazon is 4,000 miles long. It begins about 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean in the Andes in Peru. The Amazon falls 16,400 feet in its first 600 miles, and only 800 feet during the rest of its course. Ocean ships can sail 2,300 miles up the Amazon to Iquitos, Peru. The Amazon carries more water than the Mississippi, Nile, and Yangtze rivers together. High tides at the river's mouth occasionally overpower the river's current which creates a wall of water, called a bore, that measures up to 15 feet high and rushes upstream.
3. Humans need 20 amino acids. Eight must be derived from foods, and the body can then make the rest. Children must get nine.
4. During the Vietnam War 93,000 U.S. Servicemen deserted or went A.W.O.L.
5. Roald Amundsen originally planned on discovering the North Pole. He organized an Arctic expedition and was about to leave when he learned that Commander Robert E. Peary, an American, had just reached the pole. He changed his plans and went to the South Pole instead, racing Robert F. Scott, an Englishman. He beat Scott by 5 weeks. Scott's party all perished.
6. Oxygen is the most common element in the earth's crust—1/2 of the crust's weight.
7. English has a larger vocabulary than any other language—600,000 words. It is the international language of science and technology and of business and diplomacy. (Compare this with the fact that the Bislama language has about 5,000 words).
8. Hans Christian Anderson wrote 168 fairy tales for children, but never had any children himself. He never found a wife, and never married.
9. The Andes Mountains are the longest (4,500 miles) mountain range in the world.
10. The Central Andes in Bolivia and Argentina splits into two ranges. Rain that falls on the high plateau between them does not flow to either the Pacific or the Atlantic. It flows into Lakes Titicaca and Poopó. Water from the lakes either evaporates or overflows into a swamp.
11. Andorra is one of the smallest countries in the world. It lies in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. Its borders have not changed since the Middle Ages. It is jointly ruled by the Spanish bishop of Urgel and the president of France.
12. Ants' legs have nine segments connected by movable joints. Most ants can lift objects that are 10 times heavier than their bodies. Some can lift objects that are 50 times heavier than their bodies. Queen ants live 10-20 years. There are about 10,000 species of ants.
13. Antarctica is larger than Europe or Australia. It is the highest continent in terms of average elevation (7,500 feet average). The coldest temperature ever recorded was minus 128.6 degrees. The inland plateau has one of the driest climates on earth. (2” of snowfall/year). Antarctica has coal and petroleum. Antarctica was first sighted in 1820, though it had previously been long believed that a continent was there. Antarctica was once ice-free. Fossils of trees, dinosaurs, and small mammals have been found. 70% of the world's fresh water is trapped in the Antarctic icecap. The icecap can be up to 15,700 feet thick. Its weight causes it to spread out and slide toward the coasts where it moves as much as 490 feet a year. The south magnetic pole (not the South Pole) may move as much as 5 to 10 miles in a year.
14. The first successful medical treatment with penicillin didn't occur until 1941.
15. The Revolutionary War began 19 April 1775, and ended 15 April 1783—8 years later.
16. The saltier the water, the heavier it is. Surface water in the Arctic Ocean is the lightest. Pacific water lies below that. Atlantic water is lower yet, and saltier. 60% of water entering the Arctic Ocean comes via the North Atlantic Current between Iceland and Norway. 35% comes from the Pacific through the Bering Strait. Sea ice on the Arctic Ocean gets 10 feet thick.
17. Arctic terns migrate farther than any other bird—from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
18. The nine-banded armadillo gives birth to four babies at a time, always of the same sex.
19. Armenia was the first nation to accept Christianity as a state religion—300 A.D.
20. The Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan from 1206-1368 was the largest land empire in history. It included China, Korea, Northern India, Persia (Iran), and parts of Europe to the Danube River.
21. About 6,000 stars shine bright enough to be seen without a telescope. (This probably means 3,000 in each hemisphere). Only 3 galaxies other than the Milky Way are visible without a telescope—Andromeda in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Magellanic Clouds in the Southern Hemisphere.
22. For mapping purposes astronomers divide the sky into 88 constellations.
23. All planets in the solar system have one or more moons except Mercury and Venus.
24. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are rocky and relatively small. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are gaseous and relatively large. They also have rings.
25. An astronomical unit is the distance from earth to the sun (93 million miles). Jupiter is 5 AU from the sun.
26. A light year is about 5.88 trillion miles. The star nearest the sun (Proxima Centauri) is 4.3 light years away.
27. Electrons circle the nucleus at fantastic speeds. They complete billions of trips around the nucleus each millionth of a second. (My question: Does this exceed the speed of light?)
28. The most important word in the English language is arguably “Atonement.” Yet “The Atonement” of Jesus Christ gets only one sentence in the World Book Encyclopedia.
29. According to the 1988 World Book Encyclopedia autism “is a rare, severe developmental disorder occurring in about one child in every 700. I believe it's much more common now. Why?
30. Austria-Hungary was a European nation from 1867-1918. It was composed of many disparate ethnic groups that were not united, and which desired independence. In 1914 a Serbian from Bosnia assassinated Austria-Hungary's crown prince, so Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia promised to support Serbia. Germany was allied with Austria-Hungary, so Germany declared war on Russia and its ally, France. To get to France, Germany had to invade Belgium. Great Britain joined the fight to support Belgium. This is how WWI began.
31. One of the first automated devices was a float used in toilets invented by the ancient Romans. It is still in use today.
32. The U.S. Entered WWI in 1917 with about 110 military planes. Almost 15,000 had been built by the end of the war.

From Volume "B"

1. Almost 80 Bachs are known to have been musicians.
2. Johann Sebastian Bach had 7 children by his first wife. She died in 1720. In 1721 he remarried and had 13 more. His complete works fill about 60 volumes.
3. J.S. Bach and C.P.E. Bach deeply influenced Joseph Haydn and Haydn's pupil, Beethoven.
4. Babi Yar—A ravine near Kiev, Ukraine, the site of one of the largest massacres in history. The Nazis murdered 35,000 Jews there on Sept. 29-30, 1941 when they captured Kiev. By 1943, when the Germans retreated, the ravine had become a mass grave for more than 100,000 persons.
5. Ground-nesting birds in Australia dwindled when rabbits were introduced. With no predators to control them they multiplied rapidly, destroying food and cover. Foxes were introduced to control the rabbits, but foxes further reduced the bird population.
6. The Balkan Peninsula includes the countries of Greece, European Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, and the nations that recently formed when Yugoslavia broke up. The Balkans are known as the "Powder Keg of Europe" because so many wars have begun there. "Balkan" means "mountain" in Turkish. It is a mountainous area. The maps of the Balkans in 1912, 1987, and today are all very different.
7. Bamboo is a grass with more than 700 species. Laminated bamboo has a breaking point nearly equal to steel. One bamboo grew 36 inches in 24 hours. Many bamboo species flower only once every 30 years—some flower synchronously every 100 years even when transplanted to another continent.
8. A banyan tree in Sri Lanka has 350 large trunks and over 3,000 small ones.
9. Barnacles are saltwater shellfish that attach themselves to wharves, rocks, turtles, whales, ships.
10. Barnburners were a political group whose name came from the story of a man who burned down his barn to free it of rats.
11. Atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1,031 millibars. It is half that at about 18,000 feet.
12. There are two major baseball leagues, the American and the National League. The American League has 14 teams, and the National League has 12. Every major league team plays 162 games during the regular season. The season starts in early April and ends in early October. The World Series pits the top team of each league against the other. (I never knew these things).
13. The Mississippi drains a basin that includes 2/5 of the U.S. Other great basins include the Congo, the Amazon, and the Yangtze.
14. 40 of the more than 900 species of bats live in Canada and the U.S. Flying foxes (largest bats) have wingspans over 5 feet. The smallest bat species weighs only 1/14 oz. (the size of a bumblebee) and is the smallest known mammal. Many bats eat half their body weight each day. Some live 15-25 years.
15. Baton Rouge (red stick) Louisiana has been ruled by 7 governments: France, Great Britain, Spain, Republic of West Florida, the U.S. the Republic of Louisiana, the Confederate States of America, and then the U.S. again. The city is 230 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River and is one of the busiest inland ports in the world.
16. Battleships have steel armor 16 inches thick.
17. A beaver's favorite foods are the barks and twigs of aspens, cottonwoods, and willows--also the roots and sprouts of water lilies.
18. A bee has five eyes--three small ones that form a triangle on top of its head, and a large compound eye on each side of its head. Each of a bee's 6 legs has 5 main joints, plus tiny foot segments. For the first 3 days of its adult life, a worker cleans the hive. It spends the next several days feeding developing honey bees. Then the worker begins to produce wax to build honeycomb cells. After building the honeycombs, the worker stands guard at the hive entrance and receives nectar collected by other bees. Finally, when a worker is about three weeks old, it begins to hunt for food. It continues this job for the rest of its life. They live about six weeks. There are approximately 20,000 species of bees. Most kinds of bees are solitary. Bumblebees are social, like honey bees, and also make honey. Their honey has a pleasant flavor, but they only make small amounts. 50 to several hundred live in a colony.
19. The insect order Coleoptera (beetles) includes 300,000 species. It is the largest insect order including nearly 40% of all insect species.
20. Belgrade, Serbia, because of its crossroads location, has been conquered and destroyed more than 30 times.
21. Belgium, too, is in a crossroads location, and has variously been controlled by Spain, Austria, France, and the Dutch. It borders France, Germany, the Netherlands, and is just across the channel from England. The northern half of the country (Flanders) speaks Flemish (a form of Dutch), and the southern half of the country (Walloon) speaks French. One corner of the country speaks German.
22. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament in Greek. Jesus and His disciples spoke Aramaic.
23. Astronomers believe that most stars are binaries, that is, two stars that orbit one another. They may be so close to one another that they look like single stars. (Question: What about planets that orbit such stars? Could binaries have planets?) Some stars are probably 60 times as massive as the sun. Others are so small that 15 of them together would barely equal the sun in mass. Some stars appear to orbit around an invisible companion, possibly a black hole, a star whose gravity is so strong that not even light can escape from it.
24. There are more than 2 million species of living things on earth.
25. Enzymes are protein molecules that speed up reactions in cells. A cell contains hundreds or thousands of enzymes.
26. Since the 1600s, about 80 species of birds have died out.
27. A bobwhite eats up to 15,000 seeds per day.
28. More than 700 species of birds live in North America north of Mexico.
29. The cardinal is the state bird of 7 states. The meadowlark of 6.
30. Because birds have a higher body temperature than mammals, they require more food in relation to their size. A tiny bird might eat a third of its weight in food each day. Starlings eat only about an eighth.
31. Most tree-nesting birds hop rather than stride on the ground. Ostriches run 40 MPH. Peregrine falcons dive at 200 MPH, but most birds fly 20-35 MPH.
32. Baby birds hatched naked and blind are altricial. Baby birds covered with down and which are able to walk are precocial.
33. Many North American birds migrate all the way to Chile and Argentina, but no South American birds migrate to North America.
34. Most small birds migrate at night, and rest and feed during the day. Most large birds do the opposite. Most birds migrate at 3,000-6,000 feet, but some geese fly at 20,000 feet or higher.
35. Most birds' feet have 4 toes, but killdeer and fast-running birds have only 3, lacking the hind toe. Woodpeckers have 2 forward-pointing, and 2 backward-pointing toes enabling them to climb.
36. The body temperature of birds averages about 106-degrees F.
37. An ostrich's heart beats 70 times per minute. A hummingbird's over 1,000.
38. Black holes are believed to be caused by stars collapsing from their own weight. Their density is so great that even their light can't escape. Some astronomers think black holes make up a third of the material in our galaxy.
39. Most young black sea bass (along U.S. Atlantic coast) are females. At about 5 years of age they change sex and become males.
40. Boa constrictors are 10-14 feet long, but smallerthan king cobras and anacondas. They can swallow animals much larger than their heads because their jaws can be stretched far apart. Their young are born alive!
41. Simón Bolivar liberated Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia from Spain.
42. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German, was "one of the most influential Christian philosophers born since 1900" (1906-1945). "He wrote that the human race had 'come of age' and should create a 'religionless Christianity' that could preserve Christian values without the traditional ideas of a supernatural God." (World Book, pg. 471) !!!
43. The book ranks as one of humanity's greatest inventions. Johannes Gutenberg printed Europe's first book between 1453-1456.
44. The only substance that can scratch a diamond is borazon (BAWR-uh-zawn), an artificially made crystal. Boron and nitrogen are heated to 3,300 degrees F. under a pressure of 1 million pounds per square inch. Diamonds burn at 1,600 degrees F., but borazon withstands temperatures over 3,500 degrees.
45. There are over 300,000 different species of plants.
46. Boxer Rebellion—A bloody uprising in northern China in 1900 which opposed foreign influence. The Boxers set out to destroy everything they considered foreign including Chinese Christians, missionaries, schools, and churches. A rescue force from 8 nations crushed the uprising.
47. Louis Braille, a 15-year-old French boy who was blinded at age 3 in an accident, invented the Braille system of reading and writing. Braille consists of cells potentially each containing up to 6 raised dots. The cells are three dots high and two dots wide. Adding or removing dots from the cells allows for 63 different characters to be formed representing letters, punctuation, letter combinations, and short words.
48. The human brain makes up about 2% of the total body weight, but uses about 20% of the oxygen used by the body when at rest. The brain can go without oxygen for only 3-5 minutes before serious damage results.
49. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. The first brass was made on the island of Rhodes as early as 500 B.C. (Wrong! The Brass Plates predate that considerably).
50. Bread is the most widely eaten food. It provides a larger share of energy and protein than any other food. In the 1930s the U.S. had a large number of cases of beriberi and pellagra, caused by a lack of B vitamins. Bakeries began adding B vitamins to bread in 1941. White bread had become common by 1900. Up until then most bread was whole wheat, and contained the B vitamins.
51. Beriberi is a Sinhalese word meaning "I cannot," because victims can't do anything. They have stiff lower limbs, paralysis, pain, and nerve damage. It is caused by a lack of vitamin B, or thiamine. China, Japan, and the Far East suffered from beriberi because of their diets of white rice.
52. In 1963 Craig Breedlove set a world land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats of 407 MPH. In 1964 he raised the record to 526 MPH, and to 600.6 MPH in 1965.
53. The Church of the Brethren does baptism by trine, or triple immersion.
54. I really like Jules Adophe Breton's painting, "The Song of the Lark." The painting depicts a peasant girl, scythe in hand at sunrise, transfixed by the song of a lark. Her facial expression is perfect.
55. The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine is the world's longest-living tree. They grow in AZ, CA, CO, NV, NM, and Utah. Methuselah, a tree in eastern California is the world's oldest tree at over 4,600.
56. British Columbia is larger than California, Oregon, and Washington combined.
57. In 1844 the U.S. wanted to claim all the area of British Columbia up to 54 degrees 40' latitude, halfway up into British Columbia. The British wanted to claim everything west of the Columbia River, which would have included all of western Washington. President James K. Polk proposed a compromise which put the border at the 49th parallel in 1846, except for Vancouver Island, part of which lies south of the 49th parallel.
58. Bubonic Plague is spread by the fleas on rats. It killed a fourth of the population of Europe in the 1300s during the Black Death. In 1894 it appeared in Hong Kong, spread to India by rats on ships, and killed 10 million people in India during the next 20 years.
59. By 1889, only 551 bison could be found in the U.S.
60. How to tell a butterfly from a moth:
61. Butterflies fly during the day, moths generally at night.
62. Most butterflies have knobs at the end of their antennae.
63. Most butterflies have slender hairless bodies. Moths are plump and furry.
64. Butterflies rest with wings held upright. Moths hold theirs spread out flat.
65. In 1705 20-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach walked 230 miles to hear Dietrich Buxtehude (BUKS-tuh-hoo-duh) play compositions on the organ.
66. Byzantium became Constantinople in A.D. 330 when Constantine made it the capital of the Roman Empire. It was renamed Istanbul in 1453 when the Turks captured it.

From Volume "C"

1. The cahow is a rare sea bird found only in Bermuda. British colonists there in 1615 saved themselves from starvation by eating cahows. A few years later the birds disappeared and were not seen again until 1906. Only about 100 survive today, and they all nest in a 5-acre area.
2. Cairo, Egypt gets about one inch of rain per year.
3. Calypso music originated on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean Sea. The best calypso singers make up rhymes on the spot. African slaves in the plantation fields were forbidden to talk to one another so they sang in a French-Creole dialect that their taskmasters couldn't understand, and could thus communicate feelings, information, and gossip. "Day-O," "Banana Boat Song," and "Mary Ann" are popular calypso songs.
4. "Regions of calm" exist just north of the equator and at the "horse latitudes" which are located about 30-degrees north and south of the equator. These places usually have little or no wind. Sailing ships sometimes were becalmed in the doldrums for weeks.
5. Arabian camels have one hump. Bactrian camels have two. The humps store up to 80 pounds of fat which is used for energy when there is no food. Camels may go months without water, getting their water from their food. They don't sweat. A camel's gait is different from that of most animals. The legs on one side move simultaneously. Only Arabian camels are used as beasts of burden. They carry packs weighing 400 pounds. A 1,600-pound camel can carry 1,000 pounds. They can travel about 25 miles per day. They have three sets of eyelids for keeping out blowing sand.
6. The busiest canal in the world is the Panama Canal. 12,000 ships pass through it annually. It is 51 miles long, and shortens the distance from New York to San Francisco by more than 7,800 miles. The Suez Canal is 100 miles long and shortens the distance from England to India by 6,000 miles.
7. The first processed food in sealed containers (canning) was about 1795. John L. Mason, an American glass blower, introduced the first glass jar with a screw-on cap in 1858. In 1860 Louis Pasteur discovered that organisms caused food spoilage.
8. Pure carbon exists in nature as diamonds and graphite. Carbon makes up less than 0.03% of the earth's crust. Life couldn't exist without it. Organic chemistry is primarily a study of carbon compounds. They make up the tissues of all animals and plants. There are over 1 million known carbon compounds.
9. Cascade Tunnel in Chelan and King Counties, Washington is the longest tunnel in the Western Hemisphere. It is a 7.79 mile-long railroad tunnel which cuts through granite under the Cascade Range.
10. The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water. It lies between Europe and Asia, and is the size of California. It is 92 feet below sea level, but is less salty than the ocean.
11. A cat's vision is not as keen as a human's. Cats have another sense organ in its mouth that detects scents. Cats hear a broader range of sounds than do humans.
12. Ancient Egyptians worshiped cats. An ancient cat cemetery in Egypt contains more than 300,000 cat mummies. When a cat died, Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows as a sign of mourning. In Europe during the Middle Ages cats were considered a symbol of evil, and were associated with witchcraft. Hundreds of thousands were killed. The rat population exploded, contributing to the spread of black death (bubonic plague) that killed a quarter of Europe's people during the 1300s.
13. The catacombs outside Rome were made for burials in the 200s and 300s A.D., and were used in the periods of Christian persecution to hide in. Their existence was forgotten after about 400. They were accidentally rediscovered in 1578.
14. Catfish have no scales. One catfish in Asia can move overland, walking as long as 12 hours.
15. The Mammoth-Flint Ridge cave in Kentucky is over 190 miles.
16. About 500 human cells would fit within the period at the end of a sentence. An optical microscope can magnify a cell up to 2,000 times. An electron microscope can magnify a cell more than 200,000 times.
17. Every minute about 3 billion cells in your body die. 3 billion others are born. White blood cells live about 13 days. Red blood cells live about 120 days. Liver cells live about 18 months. Nerve cells can live about 100 years.
18. It takes 11 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of cheese.
19. More than half of all cheetah cubs are killed by hyenas, leopards, and lions.
20. Empedocles, a Greek philosopher who lived during the 400s B.C., argued that there were four primary elements—air, earth, fire, and water. This theory prevailed for centuries.
21. Carbon dioxide was the first gas discovered to have different properties than air. It was discovered by a Scottish chemist, Joseph Black, in the 1750s. Oxygen was discovered in the early 1770s. Hydrogen was discovered in 1766.
22. "The Chicago River flows westward from Lake Michigan near the center of Chicago. It is famous as the river that flows backward. The river flowed into the lake until 1900. That year, engineers reversed the flow to prevent sewage in the river from polluting the lake, which provided Chicago's water supply."
23. Chicago-O'Hare International Airport is the world's busiest. The world's largest post office is in Chicago, and the world's largest concentration of medical facilities. It has the largest grain market and the world's tallest building (1988) (Chicago Board of Trade--world's largest commodity exchange). Chicago also has the world's largest indoor aquarium.
24. (1988) Almost half of the black men of working age in Chicago are unemployed. Many have no job skills. About half of all the black households in Chicago with children have no father in the home. More than 65 percent of all black babies in Chicago are born to unmarried women.
25. Chicago is one the the busiest ports in the nation. It became a seaport in 1959 upon the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway which linked the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes. Ice closes the St. Lawrence Seaway in winter, but in April after the ice has thawed, ships from dozens of countries come to pick up Midwest grain.
26. Because of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal which connects with the Mississippi River, Chicago is also linked with the Gulf of Mexico.
27. The great Chicago fire started 8 October 1871 after an unusually dry summer wherein only about one-fourth of the usual rain fell. The city was built entirely of wood, which acted like kindling. A strong wind quickly pushed the fire to the north and east causing the people to flee in panic as they tried to outrace the flames.
28. Winston Churchill, as a schoolboy, was the worst student in his class. He also stuttered. He became a noted speaker.

From Volume "Ci-Cz"

1. Decimals came into use in the 1600s.
2. Thomas Jefferson asked George Rogers Clark to explore the land west of the Mississippi River. He refused. The job went to his younger brother, William, in 1803.
3. Kaolin, a white clay, is used to make porcelain, and also is used as a filler that adds whiteness and strength to paper.
4. Henry Clay (1777-1852) was sent to the U.S. Senate from Kentucky when he was not quite 30 years old, the minimum age required by the Constitution. No one investigated his age. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1811. He had become known as an outstanding leader and was chosen speaker of the House on the first day of the session. He was reelected to the speakership five more times. He became known as the "Great Compromiser." He ran for president five times. He was the Whig candidate in 1844, but lost to James K. Polk. Other candidates in that election included the sitting president, John Tyler; a past president, Martin Van Buren; and Joseph Smith, who was assassinated in June before the election.
5. Mount Waialeale, Hawaii—Heaviest average annual rainfall in the world—460 inches. Arica, Chile—Lightest average annual rainfall in the world—0.03 inches.
6. The James Baines, a clipper ship, crossed the Atlantic in 12 days, 6 hours. The Andrew Jackson, a clipper ship, sailed from New York, around Cape Horn, to San Francisco in 89 days, 4 hours.
7. Clocks were probably developed in the late 1200s. Atomic clocks are based on the extremely stable vibrations of certain atoms. The best atomic clocks do not lose or gain more than a second in 250,000 years. Most of the mechanisms found in modern mechanical clocks had been developed by the mid-1700s.
8. The Sumerians lived in the southern part of Mesopotamia, the Babylonians in the center, and the Assyrians in the north. (In the South Pacific, Polynesians live in the south, i.e. New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa; Melanesians in the center, i.e. Vanuatu; and Micronesians in the north, i.e. Marshall Islands, for example).
9. The Middle Ages were from about A.D. 400 to 1400. The Renaissance began in Italy about 1300 and spread throughout Europe.
10. Cotton, flax, silk and wool are natural fibers, silk being the strongest. Rayon, the first artificial fiber, was invented in 1884. People largely had to make their own cloth until later in the Renaissance.
11. Six men signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
12. Coal formed from swamps where plants died and made thick beds of peat. The peat was overlaid by sedimentary rock which supplied pressure to eventually turn the peat to coal. It took about 3 to 7 feet of compact plant matter to produce a 1-foot-thick bed of coal.
13. Most electric power plants are steam-turbine plants. All nuclear power plants and almost all plants fueled by coal, gas, or oil are steam-turbine plants. They use high-pressure steam to produce electricity. The steam spins the wheels of turbines which drive the generators that produce electricity. Coal-burning power plants produce most of the world's electricity.
14. The U.S. has about 5,300 coal mines. The U.S. is the world's leading coal exporter (about 1/4 of all coal exports). Japan buys about a third of the world's coal exports.
15. Since 1900 more than 100,000 workers were killed in coal mine accidents. About 3.5 miners per 1,000 were killed annually. About .5 today.
16. Wood, and charcoal made from wood, were the preferred fuels in Europe until the 1600s when wood became scarce. Wood and charcoal remained chief fuels in America throughout the 1700s.
17. Herring and cod, in that order, are the most commonly caught fish. A codfish is about three feet long. It spawns 3 to 7 million eggs at a time. Spawning takes place deep in the ocean, and then the eggs rise to the surface and become part of the plankton, upon which the newly hatched fish feed until they reach 3 inches. Then they move to the ocean's bottom.
18. Population of U.S.: "The birth rate in America during the 1700's was probably higher than that of any other country. The birth rate and increased immigration caused the population of the colonies to grow rapidly. It was about 250,000 in 1700, and increased to more than 1 million by 1750. The population doubled to over 2 million by 1770. In 1775, there were nearly 2 1/2 million people in the colonies."
19. Swedish colonists who came to Delaware in 1638 built the first log cabins in America.
20. Our visible spectrum goes from the shortest wavelength (violet) to the longest (red). Bees can see ultraviolet light, but not red.
21. Objects that appear white are white because they reflect nearly all the light that strikes them. Black objects are black because they absorb almost all the light striking them. A blue object is blue because it absorbs most wavelengths of light except blue.
22. Violet has the shortest wavelength on the spectrum, and red has the longest. Below violet are ultraviolet rays, x rays, and gamma rays. Beyond red are infrared rays and radio rays.
23. Mixing white with a color produces a tint. Mixing black with a color produces a shade. Mixing gray with a color produces a tone.
24. It is estimated that we can distinguish perhaps as many as 10 million colors.
25. More than 50 dams make the Columbia River's drainage basin the greatest center of water power in the world.
26. The Snake River, which drains into the Pacific Ocean, and the Yellowstone River, which drains into the Gulf of Mexico arise just opposite one another over the Continental Divide in Yellowstone National Park. Just west of there is where the Missouri River begins, and just south is where the Green River arises, which empties into the Colorado River, and then into the Gulf of California.
27. The dams on the Columbia River generate about a third of the hydroelectric power in the U.S.
28. A comet's tail always points away from the sun. No comet comes from beyond the limits of the solar system. Halley's Comet approaches on average every 77 years. 1986 was the last approach.
29. The War of 1812 would have been avoided if there had been telegraphs or telephones or other modern methods of communication. Great Britain was interfering with U.S. shipping. The U.S. declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812. Two days before that Britain announced that it would stop interfering with U.S. shipping, but the news had to cross the Atlantic Ocean by ship. Similarly, the chief battle of the war was fought at the battle of New Orleans 15 days after a peace treaty had been signed in Europe. About 315 persons were killed and 1,290 wounded in the battle.
30. Most communications satellites are placed in synchronous orbits about 22,300 miles above the Earth. They circle the Earth at the same speed as the Earth's rotation, and thus appear motionless. Such a satellite is always within range of its Earth stations, and can cover about 1/3 of the Earth's surface.
31. Sodium is a soft metal that reacts violently with water. Chlorine is a poisonous, yellowish gas. Together they make table salt.
32. Insects and crustaceans have compound eyes. Some species have more than 20,000 lenses. Many can see ultraviolet light.
33. Congo River is the fifth longest river in the world, and carries more water than any other river except the Amazon. Unlike other large rivers it has no delta, because it empties its muddy waters into a deep trench that extends far into the Atlantic Ocean. Sir Henry M. Stanley became famous for being the first to explore the 2,900-mile-long river from its source to its mouth.
34. In the 1980s only 22 California condors survived. The last one was captured in 1987. They lay only one egg every year or every other year. They're bred in captivity and are released. Today (2019) there are 312 in the wild, and 173 captive. Condors have 10-foot wingspans and live 60 yrs.
35. Joseph Conrad, who wrote some of the greatest novels of the English language, was born in Poland and arrived in England at the age of 20, unable to speak English.
36. Earth's population doubled between 1650-1850. Between 1850-1980 population quadrupled.
37. By 1889 only 550 live bison could be found.
38. The Constitution, "Old Ironsides," a frigate, was launched in 1797. It was twice rebuilt. It is docked at Boston, and is the oldest warship afloat in any of the world's navies.
39. Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the U.S. "was a shy, silent New England Republican." As vice president to Warren G. Harding he became the 6th vice president to become president upon the death of the chief executive. Shortly after his marriage he returned "home from his office with a bag containing 52 pairs of socks, all with holes. When his bride asked if he had married her to darn his socks, Coolidge, with characteristic bluntness, replied, 'No, but I find it mighty handy.'" As governor of Massachusetts three-fourths of Boston's 1,500 police officers joined a union and went on strike. Hoodlums smashed windows and looted stores for two nights. Coolidge mobilized the state guard, restored order, and declared, "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." Quotation: "And be brief; above all things, Be Brief."
40. James Fenimore Cooper was reading a novel aloud to his wife when he told her he could write a better one. She challenged him to try. His immediate success caused him to devote himself to writing. He was the first author to seriously portray American scenes and characters. His first book was in 1820.
41. Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who died in 1543. Until that date most astronomers accepted the theory proposed 1,400 years earlier by Ptolemy that the Earth was at the center of the universe and was motionless. (Compare Alma 30:44 which speaks of the earth's motion). Copernicus developed the theory that the Earth is a moving planet.
42. Silver is the only metal that is a better conductor of electricity than copper, but silver is too expensive for common use. Copper alloys don't conduct electricity nearly as well as pure copper. Any impurities in refined copper also reduces conductivity. Just .05% of arsenic in copper cuts conductivity by 15%. Copper was one of the first metals used by man. Copper is malleable. It can be rolled into sheets 1/500 inch thick without cracking or breaking. It possesses great ductility. A bar 4 inches square can be drawn into a wire that is thinner than a human hair. The wire would be more than 20 million times longer than the bar that was used to make it. Copper is 14% heavier than iron.
43. Captain James Cook in 1768-1771, his first of three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, became the first ship commander to prevent scurvy. He did it by feeding the crew fruits and sauerkraut. A purpose of his voyages was to discover an unknown continent that was thought to exist in the South Pacific. His second voyage circled Antarctica in 1772-1775 but he never discovered the continent because of being unable to penetrate the ice. The existence of Antarctica wasn't proven until 1840.
44. Wheat, corn, and rice, in that order, are the main crops grown in the world, and are the chief sources of energy in the human diet.
45. A typical supermarket might carry over 1,000 foods that contain corn.
46. Europeans knew nothing about corn until Columbus brought seeds back in 1492.
47. Corundum is the second hardest pure mineral after diamonds. Rubies, sapphires, Oriental amethysts, Oriental emeralds, and Oriental topaz are all corundum. Rubies are red because of the presence of chromium oxide. Sapphires are blue because of iron and titanium.
48. Mount Mazama was about 12,000 feet high when it blew up and collapsed into the crater that forms Crater Lake. It happened about 6,600 years ago. Crater Lake is about 6,000 feet above sea level, and is surrounded by volcanic walls that rise 500 to 2000 feet higher. The lake has no outlets and no streams flowing into it. It is 1,932 feet deep. Its national park was created in 1902 by Theodore Roosevelt.
49. Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872—the first in the world.
50. 55 delegates attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787. 39 signed. Rhode Island sent no delegates. British statesman William E. Gladstone described the Constitution as "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."
51. All states but Nebraska have a two-house state legislature.
52. The Constitution came close to never being signed because of an argument between large states and less populous states over how many representatives each state would send to Congress. The Connecticut Compromise or Great Compromise decreed that each state would have two senators, and that the House of Representatives would be composed of representatives based on population.
53. The Constitution originally allowed one representative to the House for every 30,000 population in the state. In 1929 Congress fixed the total number of representatives at 435. Each representative, therefore, now represents over 500,000 people.
54. Of all impeachments that the Senate has heard, there have been only five convictions—all of them judges.
55. Congress has considered more than 7,000 amendments to the Constitution, but has passed only 33 and submitted them to the states. Of these, only 26 have been ratified.
56. The development of hybrid corn and improved farming practices increased U.S. corn yields over 300% per acre since the early 1930s.
57. John Creasey was an English author who wrote almost 600 detective novels under 28 names.
58. The 1346 Battle of Crecy was won by outnumbered English archers who proved more effective than armor-clad French knights on horses. Almost half the French force was killed including more than a thousand knights.
59. Cuba is surrounded by more than 1,600 islands, most uninhabited.
60. Cuckoos differ from most birds because two of their toes point forward and two backward. In most species of birds, three toes point forward and one toe points backward.

From Volume "D"

1. Columbus carried cattle on his second voyage to America in 1493.
2. The early colonists brought the dandelion to America from Europe. The dandelion blossom is really a cluster of flowers. Dandelions differ from most other plants because the ovaries of the dandelion form fertile seeds without having to be pollinated Dandelion roots can be 3 feet long. Slicing them close under the surface of the soil only encourages them to grow.
3. The Danube River is the second longest river in Europe. Only the Volga is longer. The Danube arises in southern West Germany, and after 1,777 miles empties into the Black Sea. About 35 major ports lie along this navigable river. The Main-Danube Canal connects the Danube to the Main River, which is a branch of the Rhine. This makes it possible for ships to travel between the Black and North Seas.
4. The Dardanelles Strait connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara, on the way to the Bosporus Strait leading into the Black Sea. It is 200 feet deep, and 1 mile wide at the narrowest point of its 37-mile length. It has a strong surface current in the direction of the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, and a powerful undercurrent going the other direction which carries salt water to the Black Sea, preventing it from becoming a fresh-water sea. The Dardanelles was called the Hellespont by the ancient Greeks. Xerxes I of Persia built a bridge of boats across it to invade Europe in 480 B.C. In 334 B.C. Alexander the Great did the same thing as he invaded Asia.
5. Darius I (duh Ry uhs) ruled Persia for 36 years. He tried twice, unsuccessfully, to conquer Greece. Xerxes I was his son, who also tried unsuccessfully to invade and conquer Greece.
6. The surface of the Dead Sea, at 1,310 feet below sea level is the lowest place on earth. The Dead Sea is 9 times as salty as the ocean, and is the saltiest body of water on earth.
7. Defective hearing is the most common physical disability in the U.S.
8. Death Valley, California is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere at 282 ft. below sea level.
9. Pi = circumference divided by the diameter of a circle = 3.1415926, and never ends.
10. The symbols for the numbers 1 through 9 were used in India before 250 B.C., but the symbol for zero wasn't used until A.D. 876. The Maya of Central America, however, used a zero before A.D. 300.
11. During the 700's Arabs conquered parts of India. They learned the decimal system there, and spread it throughout their empire. It was introduced to Europe about 1000.
12. The deepest point in the ocean is in the Mariana Trench 200 miles southwest of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. The ocean floor is 36,198 feet deep. Mt. Everest at 29,029 feet high. The deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean is the Puerto Rico Trench north of Puerto Rico at 28,374 feet.
13. Deer are the only animals with antlers. There are more than 60 kinds of deer, including caribou, elk, moose, reindeer, and mule deer. A moose may grow to be 7-1/2 feet tall and weigh 1,800 pounds. A white-tailed deer can run 40 MPH. Most deer have only bottom teeth.
14. John Deere built a smooth, hard moldboard plow out of a circular steel saw in 1837 which was far superior to other plows. By 1857 he was producing 10,000 plows a year.
15. Delaware, the second smallest state, and fourth smallest in population after Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming, was the first state to approve the U.S. Constitution, on 7 December 1787.
16. Soap was invented about A.D. 100. The soap industry in N. America began in the early 1800's.
17. Because of a bend in the Detroit River, Detroit, Michigan lies directly northof Windsor, Canada. The St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959, making Detroit an international seaport.
18. Synthetic diamonds were first produced in 1955. They are not sold as jewelry because they cost so much to produce that they would cost more than natural diamonds.
19. Charles Dickens became famous at age 24 when he published the Pickwick Papers.
20. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are considered the two most gifted poets in American literature.
21. The existence of dinosaurs was not known before the 1800's. In 1822 the wife of an English physician found a large tooth partly buried in rock. In 1841 an English scientist suggested the prehistoric existence of dinosaurs, and named them Dinosauria.
22. Some of the worst disasters in history include:

1556 China earthquake, 830,000 deaths

1887 China flood, 900,000 deaths

1920 China earthquake and landslide, 200,000 deaths

1970 Bangladesh cyclone and tidal wave, 266,087 deaths

1976 China earthquake, 240,000 deaths

1986 Cameroon, poisonous gas released by lake, 1,700 deaths

23. More than 100 different viruses cause the common cold.
24. Diverticulitis is a disease of the colon caused by pouches that occur along the outside of the colon which become inflamed, and might rupture. In the U.S., where most people eat relatively little roughage, nearly half of those over 60 have diverticulitis. The condition rarely occurs in underdeveloped nations where diets are higher in fiber. (This is another reason why my uncooked oatmeal breakfast is good.)
25. On Cutbank Pass in Glacier National Park, there are three brooks so close together that a person can pour water into all three at the same time. One brook carries water to Hudson Bay, another to the Pacific Ocean, and the third into the Gulf of Mexico.
26. The dodo, a flightless bird the size of a turkey, lived only on the Island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It became extinct in 1681 when European sailors killed the birds for food; and dogs, hogs, and rats brought by the Europeans destroyed the eggs.
27. There is no rabies in Hawaii.
28. Champion greyhounds can run faster than 40 MPH.
29. The Middle Ages lasted from 400 A.D. to the 1500's.
30. Dolphins and porpoises belong to the same family consisting of about 40 species, which include killer whales and pilot whales.
31. Dragonflies have four wings, and can fly up to 60 MPH. While flying they hold their legs together to form a basket, in which they catch insects like mosquitoes. They eat while flying. After hatching from its egg, the nymph remains in the water for 1-5 years, and molts about 12 times.
32. A dromedary is a one-humped camel used for transportation. It travels at 10 MPH, and can cover 100 miles in a day. No true wild dromedaries exist.
33. In 1900 most Americans did not live past the age of 47. Antibiotics did not come into use until the late 1930's and early 1940's. Before that time about 30% of all pneumonia cases died. The new drugs reduced that to less than 5%. Polio vaccine was introduced in 1955. 30,000 to 50,000 people per year were infected with polio before that time. By 1960, vaccines reduced polio to 3,000/year.
34. The last case of naturally-occurring smallpox was in 1977.
35. A Scottish veterinarian, John Dunlop, developed the first pneumatic (air-filled) tire. He made the first ones to replace solid rubber tires on his son's tricycle so it would ride more comfortably. It was patented in Great Britain in 1888.
36. The Dust Bowl was caused by a 7-year drought in the 1930's accompanied by unusually high winds. 40 big storms swept through the Dust Bowl in 1935. One of the first storms was in May 1934. It carried about 350 million tons of dirt all the way to the East Coast.
37. Dynamite was invented in 1867 by Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist, founder of Nobel Prizes.
38. During some wars, more soldiers died from dysentery than in battle.

From Volume "E"

1. There are 48 kinds of eagles, but only the bald and golden eagles breed in U.S. and Canada.
2. Earth's 4 motions:
   1. The earth is spinning on its axis at about 1,038 MPH.
   2. The earth is orbiting the sun at 66,600 MPH, and travels 595 million miles in a year.
   3. The earth and the solar system are revolving around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at a speed of 558,000 MPH.
   4. The Milky Way Galaxy is also rapidly moving through space.
3. It takes almost two days for a jet airplane to fly around the earth. An astronaut in space circles the earth in about 90 minutes.
4. Earth's atmosphere extends about 1,000 miles. The atmosphere is composed of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% argon and other gases.
5. Earth's lowest recorded temperature was minus 127 degrees F in Antarctica. The highest was 136 degrees in Libya.
6. The earth's crust is about 5 miles thick under the oceans, and 25 miles thick under the continents. The crust consists mostly of two elements—silicon and oxygen.  The next most common elements are aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, and magnesium—in that order. Below the crust is the mantle, a layer of solid rock 1,800 miles thick.
7. The earth's magnetic north and magnetic south poles have reversed many times over millions of years. Scientists don't know why.
8. Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. This method of determining the date was set by the first Nicene Council in A.D. 325.
9. A Dutch explorer was the first European to see Easter Island. It was on Easter Sunday, 1782, hence the name.  In 1862 slave ships from Peru arrived and kidnapped 1,400 Easter Islanders and took them to Peru to work on plantations.  All but 100 died in Peru.  The 100 survivors were taken back to Easter Island in 1863.  During the voyage home, 85 died.  The 15 survivors carried home the germs of smallpox and other diseases which all but wiped out the island's population.
10. The echidna, or spiny anteater lives in Australia and New Guinea. The echidna and the platypus are the only mammals that lay eggs.
11. Thomas Edison patented 1,093 inventions, probably the greatest inventor in history. He defined genius as “1 % inspiration and 99 % perspiration.”  He had only three months of formal education.  He asked so many questions of his teacher that the teacher said he was “addled.”  Thomas told his mother.  She went to the man and told him in no uncertain terms that the boy “had more sense in his little finger” than the schoolmaster had in his whole body, and that she was taking him out of school.  She “had the notion, unusual for those times, that learning could be fun.  She made a game of teaching him—she called it exploring—the exciting world of knowledge … He began to learn so fast that his mother could no longer teach him.”  Edison  later worked for a stock ticker firm.  He patented improvements on the machine.  The president of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company asked how much he wanted for his various patents.  Edison didn't know whether to ask $5,000 or $3,000.  He said, “Suppose you make me an offer.”  The man “thought for a while and then said: 'How would $40,000 strike you?'  For a moment, Edison had trouble getting control of himself. He seized the table to steady himself, and said slowly, 'Yes, I think that will be fair.'”
12. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is 325 miles north of the U.S. Border, and is the northernmost major city in North America.
13. An oyster may produce 500 million eggs per year.
14. Egypt is the second most populous African nation after Nigeria. Ninety-nine per cent of Egyptians live along the Nile or near the Suez Canal.  The settled, farming regions of Egypt make up only 3-1/2 per cent of the nation's land.  Egypt receives hardly any rain, and its people could not exist without the Nile River.
15. The first Egyptian pyramids were built about 4,500 years ago. (2650 B.C.)  There are 35. The largest is 450 feet high.  Its base covers 13 acres.  It was built with more than 2 million limestone blocks, each weighing an average of 2-1/2 tons.
16. The electric eel of South America delivers a shock of 350 to 650 volts.
17. The filament in a light bulb is more than 4,500 degrees F.
18. Oxygen is the most plentiful element in the earth's crust, nearly half of the crust's weight.
19. Several female emus lay eggs in the same nest, and the male sits on them until they hatch.
20. Energy and matter are the two fundamental ideas in physics. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but may be developed from matter and turned into matter.  Potential energy is stored energy.  Kinetic energy is the energy of movement.
21. In 1945 coal                 supplied  51 % of U.S. energy needs—in 1985 23%.

“      “          petroleum                  “       32%   “     “       “          “        “     “    42%.

“      “          natural gas                 “       12%   “     “       “          “        “     “    24%.

“      “   hydroelectric & other       “         5%   “     “       “          “        “     “      5%.

“      “            nuclear                     “         0%   “     “       “          “        “     “      6%.

22. In 1985 the U.S. had 5% of the world's population but consumed 25% of the world's energy.
23. English has a larger vocabulary than any other language—600,000 words. It is now the international language of science and technology, and is used throughout the world in business and diplomacy.  (Bislama, used in Vanuatu, has 5,000 words).
24. England, Scotland, and Wales officially united in 1707, under the name Great Britain.
25. At the vernal and autumnal equinox the days and nights are of nearly equal length everywhere on earth. This is because the sun is directly above the earth's equator.  The time interval from the March equinox to the September equinox is longer than that between the September equinox and the next March equinox.  This is because of the earth's elliptical orbit around the sun.  The distance between the earth and the sun is shortest in January. Therefore, the earth completes the semicircle from the September equinox to the March equinox faster than it does the opposite semicircle.
26. Erotosthenes was a Greek mathematician about 200 B.C. who found a way to measure the size of the earth. He assumed the earth was round.  He knew that a vertical post in Alexandria, Egypt on the summer solstice cast a shadow at noon.  A vertical post in Syene, a town to the south, cast no shadow at the same time.  By measuring the length of the shadow, and the distance between the two posts, he was able to use Euclidean geometry to calculate angles, and determine the diameter of the earth.  He found the diameter to be 7,850 miles. The correct diameter is 7,900 miles.  He was only off by 50 miles.
27. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825. It joined the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is 363 miles long, taking 8 years to build.  It cost over $7 million to build, but New York collected over $121 million in toll charges before tolls were abolished in 1882.  The canal was originally 42 feet wide at the top and 28 feet wide at the bottom and 4 feet deep.  It was planned and engineered by DeWitt Clinton who was aboard the first boat to travel its entire length from Oct. 26, 1825 to Nov. 4.  There were no telegraphs in those days.  News of the canal's opening was sent from Buffalo to Sandy Hook, 500 miles away, in 81 minutes by firing cannons one after the other.  Passengers traveled a mile and a half per hr. on the canal.
28. “The Eskimos lived on whale, seal, and caribou meat.  They also ate fish and the meat from birds, musk oxen, and polar bears.  They occasionally ate berries and the roots, stems, and other parts of certain plants.  However, in most regions, the Eskimos could find such foods only during the warmest months and only in small amounts.  Much of the time, the Eskimos ate meat raw because they had little or no wood or other fuel for fires.  They sometimes cooked meat over lamps that burned oil made from the blubber of seals or other sea mammals.  But food took a long time to cook over the low heat of these lamps.  Usually the Eskimos ate several small meals a day.  In addition to seal and caribou meat, their favorite foods included walrus liver and the skin of white and bowhead whales.  The Eskimos also liked to eat the undigested contents of a caribou stomach, and they drank soup made by mixing hot water and seal blood.”
29. Euclid was the father of geometry. He wrote a book on elementary geometry more than 2,200 years ago which was used as a textbook until 1903.
30. Finland has 60,000 lakes.

From Volume "F"

1. In 1940 15% of married women worked outside the home. 55% in 1985.
2. “Farming is the most important occupation in the world.”
3. In 1850 each farmer in the U.S. produced enough food for 4 people. By 1985 each farmer produced enough for 80 people, and less than 3% lived on farms.  The U.S. Is the world's chief food exporter.  In 1985 about a sixth of all food exports came from the U.S.  In 1900 a farmer had to work 135 hours to produce 100 bushels of corn.  In 1985 he could produce 200 bushels of corn with only 12 hours of work. There were 6.5 million U.S. farms in the 1930s. About 2.3 million in 1985.
4. Fiberglass is made by melting glass marbles in a furnace. The melted glass runs down through tiny holes at the bottom of the furnace. A spinning drum catches the fibers of hot glass, stretches them, and winds them on bobbins. The drum spins much faster than the glass flows, so the fibers are drawn into very fine strands. 95 miles of fiber can be drawn from one 5/8-inch diameter marble.
5. Burning is the result of the rapid union of oxygen with other substances. Heat and light are produced. This is combustion. When oxygen unites with other substances at a slow rate, this is called oxidation. Little heat, and no light, is given off. When oxygen unites with iron, for instance, rust is formed. This is oxidation. Old rags soaked with oil or paint and thrown into a corner can catch fire through spontaneous combustion. Oxygen slowly unites with the oil, and produces heat. When enough heat accumulates, combustion happens. Explosions occur through very rapid oxidation. The uniting of gunpowder or dynamite with oxygen takes place so rapidly that great volumes of gas are produced. These gases require many hundreds of times the space that was formerly occupied by the gunpowder or dynamite. The explosion is really a sudden increase in volume, caused by rapid burning.
6. There are more kinds of fish than all other kinds of land and water vertebrates put together. There are about 21,700 kinds of fish. They make up more than half of all known species of vertebrates.
7. The largest fish is the whale shark. It is harmless. It may weigh 15 tons, and be 40 feet long. It is as big as two African elephants. A sturgeon is the largest freshwater fish. The largest weighed over 2,800 pounds.
8. Key West, Florida is joined to the mainland by an overseas highway 128 miles long.
9. Flounders start out as ordinary looking fish. Then their bodies flatten, and both eyes end up on one side of the head.
10. Bread is the world's most widely eaten food. People in many countries receive more than half their nourishment from flour.
11. A house fly's wings beat 200 times/second. That's what makes their buzzing sound. The wings of some midges beat 1,000 times per second. Flies fly 4-1/2 MPH. A house fly's eggs hatch in 8 to 30 hours after being laid. House flies live about 21 days in summer.
12. Benjamin Franklin “was a jack-of-all-trades and master of many. No other American, except possibly Thomas Jefferson, has done so many things well … He was the only person who signed all four of these key documents in American history: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, and the Constitution of the United States.”
13. Frogs have lungs, but can also breathe through their skin. They can leap 20 times their body length. Their hearts have three chambers. Frogs shed their outer layer of skin many times a year. Using their forelegs they pull the old skin over their head, then eat it. Croaking frogs are males. Many species of females lack a voice. Frog eggs hatch within 3 to 25 days.
14. Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times—1924, 1931, 1937, 1943.
15. There are no fur-bearing animals in Hawaii.

From Volume "G"

1. There are 13 species of garter snakes in the Western Hemisphere. The red-sided garter snake lives farther north than any other reptile in the hemisphere. It is found as far north as Canada's Northwest Territories.
2. Geysers are formed by water filling deep cracks in the earth. The water at the bottom contacts rocks that are very hot, but is prevented from boiling because of the weight of the column of water above it. The temperature of the water at the bottom is far above the boiling point. Steam begins to form. Rising bubbles lift the water column a little, making the column weigh less. This lifts the column still more, until suddenly all the water near the bottom becomes steam and forces everything out in a steam explosion.
3. A giraffe has only seven neck bones—the same as a human.
4. Most glaciers move less than a foot per day, but some flow at more than 50 feet per day.
5. Glass making has been around for thousands of years. Nature makes glass. When lightning hits sand, glass can be formed. This is probably how glass was discovered. Glass is made by mixing fine sand (silica), about 72% of the total volume, with 15% sodium oxide (soda), 9% calcium oxide (lime), and 4% minor ingredients. The batch is melted and made into flat sheets or hundreds of other objects. Obsidian is glass made by volcanoes.
6. Glucose is a white crystalline sugar half as sweet as sucrose (table sugar). Glucose is produced by plants during photosynthesis. All living cells can use glucose as a direct source of energy. Being a monosaccaride it does not need to be digested, and is absorbed through the small intestine directly into the blood. Extra glucose is stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen. When quick energy is needed, stored glycogen can be changed back into glucose again.
7. Angora goats are raised for their silky mohair wool. Of the 3 million goats in the U.S., over 1.3 million are Angoras. Saenen and Toggenburg goats are the leading producers of goat's milk.
8. Even though graphite is extremely soft it is used to make synthetic diamonds. They are both pure carbon.
9. A grasshopper's hearing organs are on the abdomen just above the base of the hind legs. A katydid's hearing organs are on its front legs. Grasshoppers breathe through 10 pairs of spiracles along the sides of the abdomen.
10. An object weighing one pound on the surface of the earth would weigh nothing at the earth's center. It would weigh 16-½ ounces at the North Pole, and 15-9/10 ounces at the equator since the earth is not perfectly round.
11. The Gulf Stream, in the Straits of Florida, moves a volume of water more than 50 times as great as the total flow of all the rivers in the world. Its water is 11- to 18-degrees warmer than the surrounding water. It brushes far-off Norway, and tempers Norway's climate.
12. It is not known who invented the gun.
13. In the U.S., since 1900, more people have been killed by privately owned guns than have died in all the wars in the nation's history.
14. The guppy, a fish, gives birth to live, fully-formed young. Most other fish lay eggs.
15. Guyana, on the north coast of South America, has about a thousand different types of timber. Inland areas are hard to reach. Some areas have never been explored.