Q: Why are wreaths hung at Christmas although they are associated with death?
A: The wreaths circular shape is actually a symbol of immortality, so there’s no contradiction between its use at Christmas and funerals. Ancient pagan worships in Eastern Europe are believed to have meet wreaths of evergreen leaves in the midst of dark cold winters to symbolize their hope of a coming spring and renewed light. It is from this tradition that early Christians are thought to have come up with the advent of wreath, a symbol of Christ’s immortality and everlasting light.
Q: If carbon dioxide is bad for us, why doesn’t mouth to mouth resuscitation do more harm than good?
A: Too much carbon dioxide blown into the mouth certainly do you harm. But at the concentrations found in normal breath; you’d have to be inhaling for so long that it would be too late to resuscitate you anyway. CO2 normally makes up 0.03 percent of the air we breathe in. The air we exhale has levels of about four percent, which can be dangerous to humans, but the 16 percent oxygen that comes with it is life in the short term.
Q: How often is “once in a blue moon”?
A: A blue moon is defined as a second full moon with in a calendar month; it occurs only once every two and half years or so. Astronomers have borrowed the phrase “blue moon” to describe this phenomenon from the tradition expression meaning rarely or never. A second full moon in a month is not actually blue in color, yet there have been a number of occasions when the moon did appear to be blue.
Q: During eye operation, is it true that surgeons sometimes pop your eye out, places it on your cheek and then pop it back in again?
A: No, this is a myth. Surgeons never remove the eye from its socket unless it is being taken out permanently, a procedure called enucleating. This is usually performed only if a patient has a malignant tumour, a blind eye that is causing pain, or a severe injury to the area surrounding the eye.
Q: Why do we clink glasses when making a toast?
A: It’s an ancient act used to ward off evil spirits. We refer to alcohol as spirits and the ancients believed that evil spirits might enter the body along with the drink and make mischief. People hoped that by making some noise first, they would frighten the demons away.
Q: Why, when we have got a cold, do we often have just one nostril blocked?
A: Something called the nasal cycle is to blame. Even if we are healthy, this cycle means that airflow alternates between the nostrils, so one gets a rest while the other takes over. When we get a cold, the resulting inflammation exaggerates this process, meaning one nostril can become very swollen while the other remains open.
Q: If hot air rises, why is there snow at the top of mountains?
A: Air that makes its way up to higher altitudes also increases in volume, as all gases do when they move from areas of higher to lower pressure. The total heat of the air packet is conserved, but its spread over a greater area, resulting in an air temperature at the mountaintop that’s cold enough for snow.