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Curious Questions from Curious Minds!
Welcome to Curiopedia, where imagination and discovery take shape! Discover something new today with these curious questions from children. Click on the ‘View Answer’ button to find out the answer! If you want your (child’s) curious question answered and featured here, submit it now.
Month Year
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Time to cool off
Why does water in a pot become cold?
Deepika , Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
View AnswerThe pot is made of mud, and has many minute pores. Through these pores, water inside the earthen pot oozes out. The water oozing out of the earthen pot turns into vapour by absorbing heat from the liquid within the pot. This way, the heat inside it is continuously absorbed, thus making the water inside cool, in a few hours.
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What’s in a name?
How did America get its name?
Sriniket Deepak , Bengaluru, Karnataka
View Answer“America,” a Latinised version of “Amerigo.” The continent is named after Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer who visited the mainland, following Christopher Columbus’s voyage. Vespucci sailed to what is now known as America in 1492. The name first appeared on a 1507 map by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, who applied it to the region of South America that is now Brazil.
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It’s plane and simple!
Why are airplane windows round?
Harshini , Erode, Tamil Nadu
View AnswerIn early airplane designs, you will see that the windows were square. But in the 1950s, when they could fly at greater speeds and higher altitudes, two planes fell apart, mid-air. It was discovered that the square windows with their sharp corners were natural weak spots where stress concentrated, and further weakened by air pressure. When subjected to repeated pressurisation, four corners on a square window spell disaster. So, curved windowpanes were used as they had no focal point, distribute stress and reduce the likelihood of cracks or breaks. Circular shapes are also stronger and resist deformation, and can survive the extreme differences in pressure between the inside and outside of the aircraft.
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Excellent mimics
How do parrots talk?
Rithika , Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu
View AnswerAccording to recent scientific evidence, parrots can talk because of key structural differences in their brains which allows them to imitate sounds and human speech. Parrots are one of the few animals considered ‘vocal learners’, meaning they can imitate sounds. The brain of the parrot is structured differently from that of songbirds and hummingbirds, which also exhibit vocal learning. In addition to having defined centres in the brain that control vocal learning called ‘cores’, parrots have what the scientists call ‘shells’, or outer rings, which are also involved in vocal learning.