You’ve probably heard about the Coriolis effect many times. And maybe you’ve even, like me, watched in awe, on your first day in Australia, after being to the toilet… Staring down the drain to see if it’s any different. Well, I’ve never seen it… The difference that is. It’s a toilet, it swirls and it flows. Same with the sink… It swirls and it goes out the hole in the bottom. Maybe I haven’t really been paying attention. But I haven’t noticed anything extraordinary.
The Coriolis effect
There is in fact a physical and measurable reason why the water in the northern hemisphere swirls anti-clockwise and the water in the south swirls clockwise. And the reason is called the Coriolis effect. This is how it works:
If you stand on a merry-go-round in motion and throw a ball towards the center. Because you’re not still but moving, the ball subjectively will not travel in a straight line but turn. This is the case also if you throw the ball outwards.
The Coriolis effect and huge things like the Earth.
The mystical, swirling force isn’t really a force at all. It doesn’t do anything with the agent, it just looks that way. The subjective doing is caused by the earth’s rotation.
Now imagine you stand on the Equator and throw your ball towards the north pole. The Earth moves to the right, from west to east. Now, since you, at the Equator, have a higher vertical speed than the north pole, the ball will conserve that higher vertical speed and travel towards the east. The subjective eastward, vertical speed will be higher the closer to the pole it gets. Because of the Coriolis effect, it will turn right, towards the east.
If you stand on the north pole and throw the ball towards the equator, the ball will subjectively travel west. This is because at the north pole it has no vertical speed whatsoever. But the further south it travels, the more speed the earth has. For every mile the ball travels, the earth travels toward the east, and it will seem, because of the Coriolis effect, as if the ball turns right, towards the west.
Weather, winds, and currents.
So going north the ball travels east, subjectively towards the right. Going south the ball travels west, subjectively towards the right. And this gives an anti-clockwise vortex to things moving inwards in the northern hemisphere. And consequently, a clockwise motion to things moving inwards in the southern hemisphere. Inwards meaning low-pressure weather systems e.g.
High-pressure systems obviously swirl the other way. In the northern hemisphere, they turn clockwise, because the pressure pushes the air outwards. And in the south they go anti-clockwise.
This Coriolis effect has an important role to play when it comes to winds, ocean currents, hurricanes, etc. For example, the trade winds have brought sail ships over the oceans for centuries. The persistence and stability of these winds are caused by this force.
The Coriolis effect and small things like toilets and sinks.
But let’s get back to our toilet. A sink, a bowl, or a toilet is small. It’s very small compared to a weather system or a trade wind. It’s so small, in fact, that the Coriolis effect has no measurable effect whatsoever.
It’s a strong myth, and it is hard to debunk. Many sustain that even if the effect is small, it would be possible to show it in a controlled environment… Like a laboratory for example. Until today, that hasn’t happened. Nobody has ever shown that the Coriolis effect could have any impact on water draining from a small container. (Please take me up on that one. I’d love to be wrong here…)
To better understand how small the Coriolis effect really is, imagine you’re standing on the north pole. You wash your hands and then you pull the plug at the bottom of the sink. Could the circular movement of the ground on which you stand, one complete turn in 24 hours, make the water move?
Conclusion
The Coriolis effect is very real and has an enormous impact on our daily life in the form of weather, winds, airplane routes, currents, and more. But it couldn’t move such a small quantity of water. The swirling depends on many other things, like the form of the container, the initial instability of the water volume, the position of the drainage, even the difference in temperature in the water, from left to right, from the surface to bottom.
The Coriolis effect has no measurable effect on such a small quantity of water.
As always, discussing the Bible, or any other religious text is a delicate matter. My conclusions are based on facts that are as correct as I can find them. These facts when it comes to the Bible very often boil down to believing or not believing that it’s actually the unchangeable word of God. I look at it from a historical, and anthropological point of view… Not from a religious standpoint.
Who was King David?
In the Bible King David was the youngest son of Jesse and became King of the Jews after the death of Saul. He was picked by the prophet Samuel, who sent by God, traveled to Bethlehem. There he inspected all of Jesse’s sons only to ask if there wasn’t yet another. So, they called the youngest, not more than a boy, And Samuel declared that this youngster shall be the King of Israel.
Then there is the story about how David kills the giant, Goliath with a sling and a stone. After that, he suffers the jealousy of Saul, who tries to kill him for quite some time before he himself dies by the hand of the Philistines. Actually, he kills himself at the end of the battle as a result of the defeat.
David and Jonathan
Jonathan is the son of Saul, the first King of Israel. Jonathan is a very close friend of David’s and he defends him and helps him when his father, in his jealousy, tries to find David and kill him. And it is in this context that the supposedly homosexual relationship between David and Jonathan appears.
The friendship/love between David and Jonathan is described in
1 Samuel 18, 1-4
1 Samuel 19, 1-7
1 Samuel 20
1 Samuel 23, 16-18
2 Samuel 1, 17-27
Of these, the most interesting is the passage in 2 Samuel. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
And the 1 Samuel 18, 4. And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more home to his father’s house. 3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.
David and Jonathan, were they really homosexual?
The friendship of David and Jonathan is problematic for Christians, as well as for Hebrews, to say the least. It’s none other than King David, one of the most important figures in the whole Bible, and the forefather of Jesus Christ. And he turns out to be gay…?
Some modern scholars claim that the mentioning of the covenant, and the thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women, makes it passionate love rather than just friendship. Covenant meaning marriage.
On the negative side are the facts that David had many wives and many children. God is punishing him for his adultery affair with Bathsheba, but God doesn’t say anything about Jonathan.
Text analysis
Courtesy of reibal
The Hebrew word used when describing the love between David and Jonathan is aheb. Aheb means love, but all kinds of love… passionate love as well as friendship. In the original Latin Bible Vulgata, the word used is Diligĕre. This also indicates all kinds of love, brotherly, fatherly, as well as erotic love. Diligĕre is used when Jesus talks about love for your neighbor, love for God, and love for his disciples.
Both words are used many times in the Bible indicating both passionate and non-passionate love. For example, when Abraham is told by the Lord that he must sacrifice his beloved son, the word aheb is used. So this doesn’t get us anywhere.
What the Old Testament says about homosexuality.
There are a few verses commenting on this:
Leviticus 18, 22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Leviticus 20, 13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
There is also the story about Sodom and Gomorrah where two angels visit Lot and all the men in the city of Sodom shows up to rape them.
Keep in mind that many other things in the Bible are abominations.
Eating with an Egyptian.
Eating shrimps or pork.
For a woman to wear men’s clothes or for a man to wear women’s clothes,
To wear linen and wool together….
We can’t say for sure what the general idea was back then. Though, It’s beyond doubt that both Christians and Jews during the centuries that followed, all the way until the last decades have treated homosexuality with resistance, disgust, and even violence.
The scholars’ opinion – David and Jonathan as friends
Saul and David by Rembrandt
The mainstream view among scholars has been that this is an excellent example of platonic love between two men. Close friends who love each other for no gain or winning’s sake. But again, most scholars are believers, Christians, or Jews.
Being close and expressing it, isn’t something that automatically would imply a sexual relationship in the ancient Levant culture. North Americans and Europeans sometimes have a hard time understanding how people (men) can be very close, even touching each other without that having any sexual implement whatsoever. But in many parts of the world, men can be close without being gay.
Abraham Rihbany, a Bible scholar of Lebanese origin writes about this in his book The Syrian Christ: Easterners can use “terms of unbounded intimacy and unrestrained affection” to one another: “my soul,” “my eyes,” “my heart”. with no homosexual intent.
Israel Weisfeld calls the love between David and Jonathan the “classic description of genuine unselfish love”
Jerry M. Landay (1998): “The friendship of Jonathan and David was the embodiment of the sheer love of man for man, an intimacy based on shared experiences and danger.”
The scholars’ opinion – David and Jonathan as lovers
Tom Horner wrote his book Jonathan Loved David, in 1978. In it, he argued for a homosexual relationship and motivated it as following a path of close friendship/love relationships between men in ancient literature. “The love of Jonathan does not have to be nailed to the mast of a late capitalist liberation front whose members, after centuries of sinister suppression of homosexuals, wish to designate homosexual love the highest form of humanity. It would be even less sound to assure us in suspiciously strong tones that Jonathan and David were most definitely not gay.”
Danna Fewell and David Gunn wrote the book In Gender, Power, and Promise, in 1993. “Until recently, most writing on the Jonathan and David story has come out of a strongly homophobic tradition” … “On the contrary, far from stretching probability, a homosexual reading … finds many anchor points in the text.” for example Jonathan’s covenant of love made with David (1 Sam 18:1-4), Saul’s sexual insult hurled at Jonathan (20:30-31), and David’s lament for his lost beloved (2 Sam 1:26).
So, why is the story even there?
Before we decide if it’s true or not, let’s look into what it all means. Why is this so important?
The Book of Ruth and the Book of Samuel tell the story of David, how he was chosen to be King and his ancestry. To both Jews and Christians, this is of extreme importance. Jesus is of the house of David, and the Gospels go through lengthy measures to put him at Bethlehem, the city of David.
But David isn’t the legitimate King, because he is not the son of Saul. If you keep this in mind, the story about Jonathan becomes logical. Saul is described as jealous, unbalanced, vindictive, and not following God’s commands. We can easily agree to David being a much better King than Saul. But he’s still not legitimate.
The story isn’t about love. it’s about the legitimacy of David as King
So, the story about Jonathan describes how the legitimate heir to the throne practically gives away his right in favor of David. The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. and Thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth, are verses that confirm this. The covenant would be a pact to pass the crown to David. As would the following verse, And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.
It’s not David who strips himself, but it is Jonathan.
There are other analogic verses in the Bible e.g.Numbers 20, 28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.
The long story about David, Jonathan, and Saul is supposed to legitimize the Kingdom of David.
The authenticity of the old testament.
The Aleppo Codex
The Old Testament is very old. But unfortunately, we don’t have the original, and we’re not even close. The oldest complete Hebrew Bible is from around the year 1000 A.D and it’s called the Leningrad Codex. Another complete Hebrew bible was the Aleppo Codex about 100 years older. This latter was damaged during the Aleppo fire in 1947 and is now incomplete. The Leningrad Codex has been corrected against the Aleppo Codex and is regarded as less accurate.
David lived around 1000 B.C. From that time, the tales of him and his life were told through generations for some five hundred years. It was then written down together with much of the other stories of the Old Testament during the Babylonian exile or shortly after. Approximately 500 B.C. (500 years. That’s as distant as from today as to when Columbus discovered America…).
After that is was copied by hand for 1500 years (that’s as far back as the fall of the Roman Empire). And we know that copying by hand generates errors, misinterpretations, and simple changes.
There are many older fragments like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Silver Scrolls, but these are fragments. They are not complete.
David and Jonathan – Vulgata
Vulgata Sixtina
The Christian tradition has its Vulgata from the 4th century, probably based on the contemporary Greek uncial codices, as well as ancient Hebrew texts. But it’s still handwritten from a handwritten copy. And it is at least partly from texts transferred into Greek from the original narratives in Hebrew… And it is written in Latin.
If you want an English Bible, you can choose the King James Bible… Or you can have one of the 60 (!) other versions available in English.
All this to explain that the text has been changed. We don’t know exactly how much, but knowing that the early Catholic church made quite an effort to create a book that they could promote by editing the material.
It is not controversial to imagine that the story about David and Jonathan has been edited, changed, and overhauled during the centuries, just like many of the other stories in the Holy Bible.
The authenticity of David, Saul, and Jonathan.
On the Tel-Dan Stele, there is an inscription that could be interpreted as … House of David, This is about all of the historical evidence we have. And there’s nothing that suggests that he was King over more than a small people in southern Palestine. The great United Kingdom of Israel could have been a myth about an ancient, powerful, and united Jewish Kingdom. Just like the King Arthur Myth in England.
We have no historical evidence that Saul ever existed.
We have no historical evidence that Jonathan ever existed.
Conclusion
In the end, it comes down to if you believe that the Bible you read today, after 3000 years, is the word of God, or not. If you do, then you will have to determine what God wants to tell you with this story.
Courtesy of Sara Alaica
If, on the other hand, you look at the long line of circumstantial evidence I’ve put up here, then it is obvious that there is no homosexual relation between David and Jonathan. And the reason is this:
There is no way first the Hebrew scribes, and then the Catholic church would have let these small fragments of Gay love live on for 3000 years. There’s just no way the censorship could have allowed it, knowing what effort the religious community has made to prevent homosexuality during the centuries.
This is a story about how the King of all Kings, the creator of the glorious Kingdom of Israel and Judah, came to be. From his ancestors in the Book of Ruth, until the death of Saul and the resignation of the throne by Jonathan. It just couldn’t have lived on if it was about Gay love. It would have been cut out long before it first came into writing if it was meant as anything else than the legitimate King renouncing his throne to David
Then again, does it really matter? We don’t even know if they existed, let alone if they were this or that, tall or small, gay or straight. It could have been a story to tell us that Gay love is Okey, It could have been a way for God to say: “Your love is as good as anybody else’s. I’m totally cool with that”… But it’s not. Homosexuality is not widely accepted. Not among Christians, not among Jews, and not among Muslims.
We can just hope that all the different religions of this world evolve.
Is true love really the best ground plate for a happy marriage?
Love marriage vs Arranged marriage.
Getting married. For billions of people around the world, it’s a milestone, a doorway, a passage to the mature part of your life. Before-After. Child-Adult. And billions of us dream about that special person who is going to conquer our hearts. Or we sip the teacup and lovingly gaze at our partner, happy and grateful for a long life spent together in harmony.
But how do we get there?
How do we find that special one? How do we connect to that perfect stranger who then has to take part in the fullness of our life? … Birthdays, work, holidays, parents, siblings… And our children, the children that are half me and half that other human being that I call my wife/husband. It’s an incredible commitment. How do we choose the winning candidate?
How do we find the perfect partner?
For the sake of this article, we will define the two ways to find your life partner. Love marriage vs arranged marriage.
The love marriage is a term often used in the past to define a marriage of choice. It was often frowned upon as foolish and shortsighted, as two young people clearly didn’t have the experience and wisdom to make a rational choice of partner. The love marriage could also be motivated by money or power, a marriage by convenience, but it’s difficult to distinguish one love from another. Most people wouldn’t admit to choosing money and wealth anyway. So love marriage, by definition, is when the couple decides for themselves. Today, marrying for love is the norm in the western world.
The arranged marriage is everything that isn’t of the pair’s own choice. The parents could choose a partner based on honest concern for their children. It could also be for political, or religious reasons… Or even for money. It can also be outside the parents’ control and totally be decided by other members of the clan or the family. In some countries, it is common to have a third party who evaluates and matches the potential bride and groom.
Marriage in different cultures
There are great differences in how people get together in various parts of the world. Not only that, but the cultural differences can be overwhelming also within one country. We are all different and we seek different things in a partner.
In very general terms, one can say that the stronger the position of the woman is in a community and the more gender equality there is – the more that community tends to promote love marriage.
One can also say that the richer a society is – the more love marriages it shows.
More very general tendencies are, in Europe and in America, it’s often regarded as obvious, that anyone has a free will, with whom to marry, when to marry, or even whether or not to marry at all.
In many parts of Asia and Africa, it is regarded as common sense to let the more experienced choose the right person.
Love marriages are connected to the idea that marriage matters only for the people involved. While arranged marriages are something that concerns the family, and the community, as well.
Love marriage vs Arranged marriage. Which is better?
Looking at the literature, films, and theater plays, there is no doubt which is the preferred system. But it’s evident that a book about passionate love is more selling than a partnership based on rational consideration.
The idea of marrying for love is also rather new. It’s been growing for no more than two centuries:
Stephanie Coontz: People have always fallen in love, and throughout the ages, many couples have loved each other deeply. But only rarely in history has love been seen as the main reason for getting married.
But, is it always better to trust love? To trust your instincts?
What do psychologists say?
Love marriage vs arranged marriage. Most psychologists agree upon love not being nearly enough for a long and happy marriage. And the love they mean is the typical blood-pumping passion that makes us fly two feet off the ground and behave like morons. It takes much, much more than that.
Communication is a keyword. In all interactions between individuals, communication is extremely important and difficult. But in a marriage it’s fundamental. And in a hetero-marriage, you also have the problem to try to understand someone who has a different signal system than you. It takes a lot of work.
Jonathan Robinson: The number one thing is that people want to be understood and they want to feel like their emotions are being valued.
Integrity – Honesty – Trust. We need space, and we need to know that the other person loves us even when we grow, something that will happen inevitably. But to have space we need trust, and to have trust we need the partner to be reasonably honest.
Barton Goldsmith: Honesty builds your internal security so that you not only feel good about your partner, but you also feel better about life…
Commitment. If you want a relationship to last, you have to work on it. And work hard. We’re looking at a lifetime of struggle here. You also need to know that your partner is committed. Invest in your marriage and show that you’re investing.
Thomas Bradbury: There are two kinds of commitment. “I like this relationship and I’m committed to it” and “I’m committed to doing what it takes to make this relationship work”. “The second kind of commitment predicts lower divorce rates and slower rates of deterioration in the relationship.”
The two objections to love marriages
Marriage is a framework of living that includes other important factors besides love.
Passionate love is a short-term experience in our lives.
What do the statistics say?
In 2012 Dr. Pamela Regan of California State University performed a study on two groups of American couples. All of Indian origin, 35 years of age on average, and married for 10 years. In one group the participants had married for love, while the other consisted of arranged marriages. All marriages were conducted in the US.
The result was that there were no differences between the level of satisfaction in the two groups. And both groups scored very high.
In 2005 Jayamala Madathil, Jane E. Myers, and Lynne R. Tingle interviewed 22 couples and one widowed person in arranged marriages in India. They then compared the data to couples in the US who had married for love. Love marriage vs arranged marriage.
Even here the outcome was similar. While differences could be seen in the importance the participants gave to the love aspect of a marriage and the loyalty they felt towards their partner, no difference could be seen in satisfaction levels.
Dr. Robert Epstein studied more than 100 Indian, Pakistani, and Orthodox Jew couples all in arranged marriages. He compared the results to the research on love-based marriages in western countries. His study suggests that feelings of love in love marriages begin to fade by as much as a half in 18 months. The arranged marriage, on the other hand, has a growing curve. In about five years it surpasses the love marriage. After ten years, the affection felt by those in arranged marriages is typically twice as strong as those in love marriages.
The importance of choosing wisely
Most psychologists agree that one very important issue is the choice you make. Whether you marry by love, or by arrangement, or not marry at all… Choosing a partner is a very important step. And although in many countries it’s easy to divorce, and maybe you don’t intend to spend the rest of your life with one single person anyway. It’s still a good idea to think chose wisely.
Courtesy of Kenny Holston
Child marriages
In many parts of the world, child marriages are common. This is a violation of Article 16(2) of the Universal Declaration of human rights. In the world today there are around 650 million women who were married under the age of 18. Every year more than 5 million girls under 18 are forced to marry.
Girls who marry before 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to remain in school.
They have worse economic and health outcomes than their unmarried peers.
Pregnancy during adolescence increases the risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
Child marriage isolates the girl from family and friends and excludes her from participating in her community.
Child marriages are all arranged marriages.
Conclusion
It’s difficult, close to impossible to determine if a marriage is to become successful, harmonic, and happy beforehand. There are so many different issues to account for. And, it depends on factors like traditions, religion, nationality, welfare, wealth, social community structure, and others.
Love marriage vs arranged marriage, which one is the winner?
Interestingly, it seems to be the consensus among psychologists, marriage counselors, as well as scientists, is that passionate love doesn’t make a better platform to build a lasting relationship upon. A happy marriage depends on many other things.
Most important of all is maybe the knowledge that it doesn’t come for free. You have to work on it.
No, it seems that passionate love at the beginning of a marriage doesn’t determine how it’s turning out. There are many other circumstances that are more important.
The human voice is a strange and unique instrument. No other species has the capability to vary the sound as much as a human being. That’s, of course, because we communicate with words. And to pronounce words we need a lot of variations to the sound of the voice… The vowels. There are five vowels in English, but 20 vowel sounds. In other languages there can be many more, And then there are all the consonants. The jaw moves up and down, and the tongue in all directions.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons, human beings like to sing. We are actually very good at it, at least some of us are.
The thing about the voice is that it can’t produce very strong sounds. The Opera-singer doesn’t really sing in a loud voice. It’s more of a very focused voice, one that has a metallic ring to it. That ring passes through the sound of the orchestra. Then the audience’s brains put an imaginative voice to the high-pitch ringing sound that they hear. And suddenly the small vocal cords of 1,5 centimeters sound all the way to the back of the concert hall. It’s magic.
The frequency
Every sound has a frequency. That’s what the black and white keys on the piano are for. When there’s a sound, all the information of that sound travels through the air as sound waves. When a sound wave hits the eardrum, the latter vibrates with the soundwave. All the information about the sound is then transmitted to the brain. And we can tell if the voice was good, bad, soft, powerful, and we understand the frequency. We know if it’s in tune.
And every object has its own frequency. If you knock on it, it will put out some sort of sound, a tune. The frequency depends on the material and the shape. That’s why a Stradivarius Violin costs several million dollars and a new handmade Chinese Violin can cost a few hundred, although they’re both handmade out of wood. The Violin’s own frequency, the resonance is different.
The breaking theory
If you want to start breaking glass with your voice, here’s how you do it. When an elastic body vibrates, it vibrates at the body’s natural frequency. These vibrations are called Natural Vibrations. Forced Vibrations are vibrations coming from an external source, a voice or a loudspeaker for example. If the Forced Vibration is the same as the Natural Frequency, the vibrations’ amplitude increases manifold. If the increase of the vibration from the external force is more than the decrease from the resistance in the material, the vibration builds up.
To start breaking glass with your voice, you need to find the glass’ natural frequency. Then you have to put more sound energy into the glass than the glass is able to dampen. In that case, the vibrations will build-up, and if you continue, eventually it will break.
Break glass by singing – This is what you need
You need a glass. Choose one with a big cup and thin walls. It should have a good ring, natural frequency, to it. Knock on it or move your wet finger on the rim, to hear the sound. The vibration mustn’t die out fast but continue for a while.
Then you need to prepare the surroundings, protect your mouth, eyes, and body, and get children and dogs out of the way. You’re breaking glass here… (Actually, you should keep your mouth as close as possible, and doing so is risky. You shouldn’t do it alone. And use some sort of protection for your eyes.)
Put it on a table at the height of your mouth. Or hold it in your hand. The glass has to be empty.
Find the frequency and sing that note. When you sing the right note and stop suddenly, the glass should continue for a few seconds. If it doesn’t, it’s not the right frequency. You could try different vowels.
When you got the frequency right, you just have to produce a loud sound. You would need a very strong voice to break the glass by singing… At least 100 -105 dB. And you need to keep the exact frequency for a long time, to make it build up.
If the glass has some small defect, a very small undetectable crack, it’s much easier. A perfect glass is close to impossible to break. Try another one if you don’t succeed.
Enrico Caruso
Now, to who actually can do it
It is said that the famous tenor Enrico Caruso was able to break a glass with his voice. His wife claimed he never did it though.
Many other Opera singers have had that epithet too, like the Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson, the famous Maria Callas, and others. Even Ella Fitzgerald remembered in an interview how she in 1972 at an audition for Memorex, cracked a glass by singing How high the moon by Morgan Lewis.
And in the end, if you just want to get the glass broken, it’s not difficult at all. I do it all the time…
The Wall that separated imperial China from the barbarians of the north, is not one, but many. And it wasn’t built in one moment but in the arc of thousands of years.
The beginning of the Wall-building started as far back as in the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC). At that time China wasn’t united but various Chinese KIngdoms fought one another for the sovereignty. The simple walls from stone or stamping earth were more to divide the different dynasties from east to west than to defend from attacks outside the Chinese territory.
When Qin Shi Huang unified China in 206 BC, he started to tear down the parts of the wall within his united Empire. And he reinforced and connected the parts facing north.
The danger to the newborn Chinese Empire was coming from the steppe in the form of invasions or raids from the one or more of the nomadic tribes.
Courtesy of Keith Roper
Later, the following Dynasties all repaired, rebuilt, and expanded sections of the Great Wall. As the borders of China changed during the centuries, the stretch of the wall changed. Some Dynasties who were closer to today’s Mongolia built walls. The Khitan- and Jurchen (Manchu-) Dynasties built walls as far north as inside Russia. These parts do not connect to the Great Wall we see today.
There’s even a wall to the south, close to the ancient town of Huangsiqiao,
The Ming Dynasty
In 1279, the Mongols and Kublai Kahn conquered all of Chine and brought it under control of the Yuan Dynasty. When the Mongols were defeated in 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty came to power. He and all the Emperors after him reinforced and enlarged the Wall. They felt the need to defend China against the Mongols, against whom they had failed to get a definitive military upper hand. The parts of the Wall that are from the Ming Dynasty, are stronger, and better defended. These are the best-preserved parts. And these are where tourists come in thousands every day to visit and take pictures.
The Ming Dynasty Wall alone is 8850 kilometers (5500 miles). And it is not only a wall, but transportation routes, barracks, fortifications, toll stations as well. It is a huge defense construction.
Courtesy of Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) / CC BY-SA
The numbers
The Great Wall of China from space, or from walking on top of it, is this big:
The total length is 21.196 kilometers (13.170 miles).The Ming Dynasty-part (The widest, highest, most intact, and best-preserved part of the Wall) is 8,850 kilometers (5,500 miles) long.
The average height is 6 to 7 meters (20 to 23 feet).The tallest parts are 14 meters (46 feet). The lowest part is only 1 meter (3,3 feet)
The average width is 4 to 5 meters (13 to 16 feet).The widest part is 16.7m (54.8ft) and the narrowest is only 70 centimeters (2,3 feet). That’s the same part of the Juyongguan Great Wall that has a height of 1 meter. The width is greater at the base.
The human eye
The human eye is a wonderful tool. It can function in bright sunlight, and it can see in almost complete darkness. It can focus on a tiny insect, or it can watch the stars, It can determine distance, and it can see all the colors of the rainbow. But can it see the Great Wall of China from space?
A human eye has a maximum angular resolution of approximately 280 microradians. From 10.000 meters a pixel would be big as a bus. But there’s more to it than just the eye. The brain can compensate for the lack of pixels by moving the eye slightly. Then we have two eyes, and both of them face the same direction. Together they can determine distance, although that only works up close. But they can compensate for each other and increase the details further on objects far away.
Courtesy of Ana Sofia Guerreirinho
So, maybe you can see not only a bus from 10.000 meters but even a small car. But that would probably be the smallest detectable object, and you would have to have 20/20 vision.
Great Wall of China from space and beyond
So, can you see the Chinese Wall from the moon? A very unscientific way to test it could be to go out at night and look at the full moon. If there was a Great Wall of China up there, would you be able to see it? No, it would be impossible. Most people would agree to that.
How small objects can you see on the Earth’s surface from the moon? The theoretical calculation gives a minimum size of about 800 kilometers (500 miles) width. Adjusted for the brain’s excellent way of handling the multiple information from the two eyes, gives a minimum size of about 350 kilometers (200 miles) in two directions. Given the viewing angle, the atmosphere with clouds, and the fact that most people don’t have 20/20 vision, it could very well be difficult to detect Florida. Let alone a stone wall that is less than 10 meters (30 feet) wide.
The Hubble Space Telescope. Altitude 60 km (37 miles)
Great Wall of China from space
Let’s get a bit closer. The International Space Station has a target altitude of 40 km (25 miles). At that level, a theoretical minimum detectable object of over 100 meters, could possibly become 50 with the arguments mentioned above. But that’s still more than 5 times the width of the Great Wall of China from space.
Another unscientific experiment you could try is to look at the Wall with Google Earth. There you notice that at a height of around 25 kilometers you lose it. In fact, astronauts from the ISS claim that you can’t see it with the naked eye. It’s simply too far away, and it’s too small.
From the ISS you can see the Palm islands of Dubai, the Pyramids, the Kennecott Copper Mine in the US, the Greenhouses at Almería in Spain, some very big roads, and bridges, and dams… And a whole lot of other stuff.
From the moon… Well, it’s just too far away to see anything man-made. Man is just too insignificant.
No, you can’t see the Great Wall of China from the moon. You can’t see it even from the International Space Station. You could probably detect it from an airplane at 10.000 meters (33.000 feet), on a clear day.
Tyrannosaurus Rex was one of the biggest carnivorous dinosaurs that ever walked on planet earth. Recent discoveries show that it could have reached more than 40 feet (12 meters) in length and weighed almost 10 metric tons. It had enormous, centrally placed back legs but the front legs were very small. Scientists still argue if they were of any use at all. The most probable explanation would be this: As the head, with time, grew bigger and stronger, much of the muscles holding and moving the heavy skull and working the powerful jaws interfered with the upper arm- and shoulder musculature. Natural selection promoted the head over the arms. Much like modern times birds. It was a bite, pull, shake and twist kind of movement. And for that, no arms were needed.
The head was 5 feet (1,5 meters) long with a monstrous mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, which could reach 6 inches (15cm) in length. New computer models show that it had a rigid skull, much like modern days Alligators. This would increase the estimated power of the jaws, and the bite force could have been as much as 60.000 Newton. That’s about four times the saltwater crocodile chomping record of about 16.000 Newton.A T-Rex would have had no problem eating the cars in Jurassic Park. It had the most powerful bite force of any land-living animal ever.
Where, and when did it live?
The T-Rex lived in North America, which at the time was cut off from South America and much closer to Europe. It preferably inhabited semi-tropical, open forests or coastal habitats. It fed on big dinosaurs and carcasses. A lot of discussions are going on about if it ate live prey or if it was more of a scavenger. The size and the T-rex’s relatively slow running speed have questioned if it could hunt at all. Nowadays consensus is that it probably did both. Just like any of today’s big predators, it wouldn’t refuse a meal if it was already served.
It lived during the late Cretaceous period, 85 million to 65 million years ago.
It was extinct 65 million years ago when a huge asteroid hit Mexico, the so-called Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event. In a very short period, three-quarters of all living species on earth died. All land-living dinosaurs, with the exception of avian species, perished.
But I’ve seen it chase a jeep in the film Jurassic Park…
The truth is that we can’t know everything about the dinosaurs. It’s a guessing game based on fossils and chemical analysis. It is difficult to determine the color for example. We have to try and find substances on and around the fossils and go from there. Lately, it’s been discovered that the gigantic beasts probably had feathers. Not like birds, but still some sort of hairy covering on top of the trunk.
The jeep scene in Jurassic Park is regarded by most scientists today as non-realistic. There’s just no way a T-rex could run that fast. And it probably wouldn’t even try to chase the jeep. The hunting technique wasn’t up for it. It was more of a big elephant than a lion.
So, how fast can a T-rex run?
Recent studies consider not only muscle mass, weight, and size, but also bone resistance for example. The huge muscles would also require anaerobic combustion during acceleration. As it couldn’t keep that up for very long, the time available for reaching top speed was limited. It would also have to use a considerable amount of energy to move all that weight. Put into computer models, all this new data gives that the T-rex could run 15 mph (24 km/h) at most. Steady jogging rather than sprinting.
In fact, among all reptiles, mammals, and sea animals the fastest animals are of small to medium size.
And how fast can an average man run?
The world record for 100 meters is 9,58 set by Usain Bolt in 2009. Calculating the time for acceleration, reaction to the start signal, and slowdown at the end of the track, the top speed during his world record race is 27 mph ( 43,5 km/h). That’s phenomenal. And not everybody can run like that… Nobody can, not anymore.
An average, fit man in his 30s or 40s could do it in 15 seconds. Doing the exact same calculations we end up with a top speed of around 16 mph (26 km/h).
That is actually faster than the T-rex. But, it’s the absolute top speed. He probably wouldn’t be able to keep that up for more than a few seconds. After that, the Dinosaur will gain on him. And the 15 seconds is on an absolutely flat track, In terrain, he would be much slower.
Courtesy of the Maryland National Guard
The average man could be faster than this or he could be slower. The T-rex could be old and tired or young and strong. Any way you look at it, it would be a very close shot.
Putting emphasis on the word COULD, then it is possible. Usain Bolt definitely could outrun a T-rex, but any ordinary man could too, even if it would be close.
But if the T-rex run was so slow, how did it catch its prey?
The T-rex runs slowly, and it probably was something of an opportunist, eating what it could find, attacking young or sick animals… Or already dead ones. Its ferociousness and gigantic size put it at the top of the nutrition chain. And there it could eat about anything, as long as it wasn’t too fast or too small.
This is something we can see today as well. The biggest creatures in the sea, the whales, eat plankton. It’s a question of economy. They just wouldn’t be able to eat enough to compensate for the energy they would lose hunting. Not if they went after big, fast, and strong prey. Either you eat a lot, or you consume very little preparing your meal.
The T-rex wasn’t able to run very fast. Maybe it was the maximum possible size of a carnivorous animal on earth.Bigger than that, and you have to eat something that is sitting still… Like grass.
What else should you do if you were unfortunate enough to encounter one?
The other idea of Jurassic Park, that you should stand still, is also wrong.The T-rex had huge eyes facing partially forward. It could probably spot a man from miles away… And it could probably determine the distance at least as well as we can. It would have no problem finding you even if you stood absolutely immobile.
Running away would still be your best option. If you could find dense vegetation somewhere, that would be the place to go.
The T-rex would run with 10 tons of weight on its shoulders.
It wouldn’t be agile. So you could try the old Rhinoceros trick. Stay put, until he’s a few meters away. Then run at a 90° angle to the right or to the left. The Tyrannosaurus would probably continue straight ahead for a bit before he could turn. You would need nerves of steel for that though….
Ketchup is a sweet Tomato-sauce. Normally sold in ready-to-use bottles in glass or plastics. It contains tomatoes, sweetener (sugar, corn syrup…), and vinegar. Then there are spices and seasonings added. Various brands and types can be very different from each other and new flavors and inventions happen all the time. Without venturing into new and strange types, it’s fair to say that the classical Ketchup has a perfect balance between sweet and bitter, between sweet tomato and vinegar.
Ketchup is normally used right out of the bottle as a condiment for hot, grilled, and fried dishes. Hamburgers, french fries, hot dogs, eggs, and all kinds of meat. But it’s also used as an ingredient f.ex. in salad dressing like Thousand Island and Russian-. Even top-class chefs use Ketchup to spice up some of their prize-winning dishes.
The Origin of Ketchup
The origin of Ketchup is actually very interesting and if somebody doubts the fact that it’s a genuine American product, this would be the reason. The etymology of the name is controversial. It comes from Asia/China and the most probable origin is the word 鮭汁 kôe-chiap or kêchiap in Hokkien-Chinese. It means Salmon juice, The idea was a sauce made from fermented fish, probably anchovies.
It’s a very old concept. During the centuries kôe-chiap slowly changed, and traveled. It went to Vietnam, Cambodia, to Canton and Fukien province, and even to Indonesia before it came back to China and eventually to England with traders. At this time the word had generalized into meaning just sauce… Something runny originating from East Asia. Around 1800, in England, the main ingredient was mushrooms or walnuts.
It even turned into a remedy
In the 1830s the Assistant President of the Mormon church, John Cook Bennett, started selling Ketchup-pills as medicine. After having introduced tomatoes to the sauce, he started manufacturing and promoting the pills as a cure for diarrhea, indigestion, and rheumatism. Even postural defects could be cured.
It wasn’t a success.
Anyway, by the beginning of 1800, the tomatoes had made their entrance and a few decades after that, the anchovies were dropped.
At this point, the original Ketchup from China had changed a lot while going from one part of the world to another. It came to England and from there to America, and the newly born nation, the United States of America.
In the USA Ketchup slowly started its triumphant march over the territory. Housewives and maidens all over the nation cooked and bottled the red gold. Slowly the amount of sugar and vinegar increased. In 1837 Jonas Yerkes sold the first industrially produced bottle.
Heinz, and the origin of the American ketchup
Henry John Heinz started his company in 1876, one year after he had gone bankrupt with his first food company – A horseradish canning firm.The Heinz trademark soon became synonymous with tomato sauce – Ketchup. The slogan “Blessed relief for Mother and the other women in the household“ indicates that much time in a normal American household was dedicated to the lengthy process of cooking tomato Ketchup.
In 1906 the use of sodium benzoate as a preservative in food was banned. This forced the industry to try to find other solutions to make Ketchup last. At the end of 1800, the refrigerator for home use was still an unknown concept.
The Heinz company (and others…) made two changes that were significant for making Ketchup the standard American condiment:
The amount of sugar was increased further, making the sauce sweeter. The amount of Vinegar was also increased, creating a counterweight to the sweetness.
Instead of using unripe tomatoes that are low on pectin, they started using ripe ones. Apart from being a preservative, the pectin in ripe tomatoes also created a more creamy consistency. Before the beginning of 1900, Ketchup was much more watery and thin.
The Heinz company actually still uses an invention called the Quantifier to measure the viscosity of the sauce. You simply let the Ketchup flow down a track, and measure how long it has traveled in ten seconds.
And now, around 1910, Ketchup was more or less the product we know today.
So, can you really say it’s American?
The word “Ketchup” comes from the Chinese word kôe-chiap or kêchiap, but that’s as much Chinese as you could ever find in the red sauce. The transformation from the original fish condiment into the Ketchup we know today has been close to 100%. The Asian sauce has as much in common with modern Ketchup as a Sandwich with a tomato slice on top has with the Neapolitan Pizza. It’s a 100% American product… Or at least 99%…
The Spanish flu was a terrible disease that infected more than half a billion people at the end of, and after World War I. It was probably a flu of type A/N1H1. That might not say very much, but it was the same type of influenza as the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Although when it comes to various influenza types, they all are similar but different. They also mutate, so scientists often have a hard time predicting the next strain and finding cures and vaccines.
We don’t know as much as we would like to about the Spanish flu of 1918. Estimates have been made about death rates and how many people got sick, but they’re all very approximative. The total number of infected was around 500 million but could have been as much as 700 million. Deaths were at least 17 million, but some estimates point to 50 million or even 100 million as a possible number. That makes the death rate between 2,5% and 20%.
Why was it so deadly?
The flu came in three, maybe four waves. The first in spring 1918 and it was no more than normal seasonal flu.
The second wave started in August 1918 and this time it was much more deadly.And it was more dangerous for young healthy people than the normal case when lethality is higher for the elderly and children. The reason for this is that it had mutated into a more deadly form caused by the particular circumstances of the War.
When a pandemic hits the community in peacetime, the severely sick is isolated. He stays at home from work and doesn’t transmit his virus to others. Those who have a milder form go on with their life as normal. This way the milder strain is passed on.
In the trenches, the situation is reversed. The milder strain stays in the trenches. The soldiers with the deadlier form, on the other hand, are transported in crowded trains and packed into field hospitals with a high flow of wounded as well as flu patients.
The spread from one country to another, from one continent to another was also facilitated by troop transports.
The third wave came in the spring of 1919, and we can possibly count a fourth wave in the winter of 1919/1920. All these waves occurred with variations across the globe, as the virus traveled. In 1919 and 1920, as the war had ended, the virus turned back to a more “normal” development with fewer casualties for the reasons mentioned above.
Why was it called Spanish?
Many of the epidemic and pandemic flues get their name from where it was first detected. We do not know exactly where the Spanish flu started. It could have been in France, and it could have been in the US. The disease could also have been circulating in Europe for months, even years, without being detected.
Because of the War, the press wasn’t free to tell what was going on. The various epidemics that flourished in the trenches and elsewhere in the horrible circumstances of the war, weren’t reported to the main public. The strong censorship cut everything short.
It wasn’t until the Spanish started to get ill that the world knew about the disease. Spain was neutral during WW1 and they had a somewhat free press. So the first cases that people knew about, were the Spanish. And it got the name, the Spanish flu of 1918.
Other deadly diseases in human history
The Plague
In 1347 a ship docked in the harbor of Genova, Italy. It was a merchant ship and it came from Palestine with valuable merchandise. Unfortunately, it brought rats as well, and some of those rats had flees that were infected with the bacteria Yersinia pestis.
In the four years to come, the Black Plague traveled over Europe killing between one-third and half of its population. It’s estimated that the world population was diminished from 450 million to 325 million. Certain areas were hit harder than others. Especially those who traded frequently with the Orient.
In Venice, the Plague came 69 times from 1348 until 1799.Often they managed to contain the disease through rigorous quarantine measures. But at least on four occasions, 1348, 1423, 1575, and 1630, the pestilence killed at least one-third of the city’s population.
Smallpox
Smallpox is caused by the viruses Variola major and Variola minor. The death rate is around 30%, and even those who survive are often left with complications such as blindness, etc. It’s highly contagious.
It’s been around since the beginning of time. Some of the historical pandemics, that were attributed to the plague, could have been caused by smallpox.
A child infected by Smallpox. Courtesy of AJ Cann
Contrary to the plague, smallpox was causing enormous suffering and deaths even in modern times. It was finally eradicated in 1980. The total numbers are more than those of the plague, but less compared to the world population at the time.
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis or TB is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Only about 10% of those infected develop the disease, which if untreated has a 50% death rate. TB is treated with antibiotics although not always successfully. In later years multi-resistant strains of the disease have become a major problem.
Today about 1,5 million people die from tuberculosis every year. In 1900 that number was 9 million. In the 18th and 19th centuries, about 25% of all deaths could have been caused by tuberculosis. Today about one-fourth of the world’s population has been infected.
Tuberculosis is the one infectious disease that has killed more people than any other in absolute numbers. And contrary to Smallpox, it’s still here.
HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS has killed more than 32 million from the 60s until today. That could be more than the Spanish flu but in a longer time span.
Malaria
Although not an infectious disease,it is a parasite spread by mosquitoes, it should be mentioned. Some scientists calculate that Malaria has killed about half of every human who ever lived on this planet.That could be an exaggeration but already at a more plausible 4-5 %, the numbers reach astronomical figures.
Courtesy of Mario Yordanov
5% of the total of people who ever lived on planet earth is 5 billion. Today about 400.000 people die from Malaria every year, mostly children under 5 years of age, and mostly in Africa.
Other diseases
Then there are diseases that are much more fatal than these but are less spread… Like the Avian flu A/H5N1, Rabies, Nipah virus, and many others.
Typhusand Cholera have caused suffering and deaths for hundreds of millions of people over the centuries… And there are many, many more deadly diseases out there.
The biggest threat to humanity during the ages has never been wars, hunger, or natural catastrophes… It was always infectious diseases.
How can you classify disasters of this magnitude?
It is certainly difficult to start counting infected and deaths when every number is a personal tragedy. When every name of a deceased, to someone, is a lost father, mother, or child.Still, for the purpose of this article, we have to decide what we mean by deadly. The numbers can be counted as a total, or a total in a context. In this case as a percentage of the world population, or as the death rate of those who are infected.
We also have to consider the time aspect. Do we count deaths per year or during the full period of the disease’s timespan?
Spanish flu of 1918. Conclusion
In total numbers, the infectious disease that has caused the most deaths in human history is probably Tuberculosis.
In total numbers, in the percentage of the world population at that time, the deadliest infectious disease in human history is probably the Bubonic Plague.
Most deaths in absolute numbers in one year could have been caused by the Spanish flu from the summer of 1918 to the summer of 1919.
But the fast spread and the disastrous consequences weren’t signs of mortality that exceeded all other diseases in human history. It was an effect of extremely bad timing. When calculating numbers in a global crisis, you have to remember the tragedy behind every loss, the tears, and suffering behind every figure. We are men, women, and children… Not numbers in the statistics.
And we must try to gain experience from the past… Learn from history.
One of the deadliest diseases in human history is Smallpox. It has killed more than 500.000.000 people. On May 8, 1980, smallpox was declared eradicated, following a worldwide vaccination program that started in 1958.
Tuberculosis is still here and it’s still killing. It increased globally until 2005 after which it decreased somewhat. Many HIV-positives die from TB. It’s a deadly combination. About 500.000 die every year because of multiresistant strains. And that is an increasing issue.
No, the Spanish flu wasn’t the deadliest infectious disease in human history. It could have been the disease that has caused more deaths in absolute numbers, in one year, from summer 1918 until summer 1919, than any other disease since the beginning of time, though.
We have a limited brain. At least most of us have. We are often more prone to use common sense than to operate mathematical theorems. Even if maths sometimes is as obvious as everyday street smartness.
Courtesy of Ana Sofia Guerreirinho
The old folded paper problem isn’t all that strange if you look at it. It’s all about doubling, and doubling builds up fast. In the beginning, it’s slow but once you reach important figures, the doubling becomes impressive. Double 2 and you get 4, but double 100.000.000… Yes, you see the trick here.
h=o x 2^(n) where h is the height of the folded paper, o is the thickness, and n is the total number of folds.
If the first fold gives you 0,2 mm, the second will give you 0,4, and the third 0,8. Already at 8 folds, you’re at an inch, 25,60 mm. And 8 is about the maximum folds you can accomplish. Disclaimer: No, you can’t fold a paper 42 times. This is all a theoretical experiment.Mythbusters folded a paper 11 times with the help of a forklift, but that’s an exceptional deed.
At 11 folds you have 204.80 mm, almost a foot. At 15 folds, 3.276.80mm. At 20, 104.857.60 and now we have to start counting in kilometers. At 25 we reach 3,35 kilometers, more than 2 miles and we’re heading out of the atmosphere. At 30 folds, we’re 107 km (67 miles), At 35 folds, almost 3500 km ( more than 2000 miles). Closing in on the moon, at 40 folds we are about 110.000 km (68.000 miles) out in space, and two more folds we arrive at the final number… The total of 439.804.651.110 mm 439.804.65 km (273.281 miles and 653,39 yards). The average distance to the moon is 384 400 km
spread-sheet Height of a folded paper
Another famous story
The magic of doubling has been used many times. By mathematicians, but also as entertaining stories.
The board game, Chess, was invented in northwest India sometime around the 3rd or 4th century. From there it spread to China and when it was introduced to the Emperor, he wanted to honor the merchant who brought this wonderful game to the knowledge of the son of Heaven. And he wanted to reward him with a gift.
– What do you want, he asked.
– Son of Heaven, said the merchant lying on his belly with his face to the ground. I am a poor man, and all I want is some rice.
– So be it. But how much do you want? asked the Emperor.
– I want only one single grain on the first square of the chess board, and two on the second, four on the third, and so on until the last square.
– Your wish shall come true, said the Emperor, who wasn’t very knowledgeable in science and mathematics.
Courtesy of Andrea Schiavon
The fact is that what he had agreed to give to the merchant was 18.446.744.073.709.551.615 grains of rice, with a weight of 1199.000.000.000 metric tons. That’s 1700 times the world production of rice today and probably more than the total of all rice that has ever been produced in all the world since the beginning of time. The Emperor wasn’t happy.
The second half of the chessboard.
“The second half of the chessboard” is a phrase and concept, introduced by Ray Kurzweil. The idea is to look ahead and understand the power of exponentiality. If the first half of the chessboard is very big, then the second half is so much bigger, that it can be difficult to even grasp. The first square of the second half is already bigger than the total of the first 32 squares. And the total of the second half is 4.000.000.000 times bigger than the total of the first half.
This idea has a significant impact on the business strategy of a company or an organization.
In the end, it’s also important to remember that, just as it would be impossible to fold a paper 42 times, the exponential growth only works within a certain interval. The merchant in China didn’t get all he was owed. But instead, he got his head chopped off.
Is it true that you can catch a cold if you get cold?
Can you catch a cold from being cold and wet?
A viral infection of the upper respiratory tract causes the common cold. Each year, there are over 15 billion cases worldwide. According to statistics, everyone on earth contracts it twice a year. The common cold is caused by about 200 different types of viruses. Fortunately, the illness is not particularly dangerous.
A runny nose, sore throat, sneezes, and coughs are typical symptoms. You may experience a fever, muscle aches and pains, a headache, diarrhea, or any number of other symptoms. It may show up in different ways. However, most people are very familiar with their typical symptoms.
How do you catch a common cold?
The same way you would catch any other upper respiratory illness, I suppose. Through fomite, an intermediary object, airborne droplets, or direct contact with infected mucosa. For an extended period of time, the virus can survive without its host. Temperature and humidity affect how long that period lasts, but a typical Rhinoivirus—the virus most frequently responsible for the common cold—can survive in the environment for at least 18 hours.
Courtesy of José R. Valverde, the rhinovirus
Rhinovirus Courtesy of José R Valverde
The rhinovirus needs to enter the new host’s mucous membrane. It is unable to pass through the skin. This is one justification for washing your hands if you should touch anything suspicious.
Is the common cold contagious?
The common cold is easily transmitted. It has a reproduction number (R0) ranging from two to three. This means that in a population where everyone is susceptible to infection, every sick person spreads their illness to 2 to 3 other people (i.e., no one has ever encountered it before and thus developed antibodies, and no one has been immunized). This infection would spread.
This is mildly contagious. Measles R0 ranges from 12 to 18.
How can you prevent getting it?
When a sick person sneezes or coughs, the virus-containing microscopic droplets erupt. The maximum distance covered by the larger droplets is typically 6 feet. You can never feel completely safe because the smaller droplets, or aerosols, can stay in the air for hours. Even though you don’t know anyone there, someone could have been there before you arrived and spread the virus throughout the air.
However, the disease still needs to enter your mucous membrane. The skin is impermeable to the virus. It comes down to a few straightforward rules:
Stay away from sick people. If you are sick, stay at home or far from others.
Avoid being sneezed upon. If you are sick sneeze in the elbow and cough away from others.
Wash your hands often, every time you’ve been close to someone who’s sick. And every time you get home or into any other constricted area where the virus is absent.
Don’t touch your eyes, your nose, or your mouth until you’ve washed your hands and you’re in a safe zone (home).
So, can you catch a cold from being cold and wet?
You can’t do it. There is some debate about why some viruses appear to be seasonal in their appearance. It is more common during the winter.
This is most likely due to the fact that we spend more time together. The wind and rain force us to take the bus instead of riding our bikes, to eat at the bar instead of having a picnic, and to play chess instead of football.
A risk factor could be a low body temperature in the winter. Less vitamin intake, as well as less vitamin D from sunlight, could all contribute. The bottom line is that you cannot catch a cold unless you are exposed to the virus. It makes no difference how exposed you are to low temperatures.
And what about the name, then?
Why is it referred to as cold?
Feeling frozen could be one of the symptoms, especially if you have other symptoms. It may also be more common when the weather is cold.
One unintended consequence of its misleading name is that many people around the world, particularly in the northern hemisphere, still believe it is caused by cold temperatures. That wouldn’t be a problem if those people didn’t frequently miss the mark. They stay warm but share food, drinks, items, and living space carelessly. It’s fine as long as it’s hot.
How do we find the perfect partner?
What do the statistics say?
The breaking theory
Where, and when did it live?
So, how fast can a T-rex run?
Heinz, and the origin of the American ketchup
