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Facts of Life

Q: Is there a maximum size that raindrops can be?
A. Yes. Any raindrop larger than seven millimetres in diameter will split ino pieces as it falls. Raindrops are made of minute water particles that bond together in cluds. The larger raindrops become, the less effective their surface tension is at holding them together. This makes them increasingly unstable, and as they pick up speed on their way to earth, turbulence and other aerodynamic forces will rip them apart. This will normaly happen to a seven-millimetre-wide droplet when it hits a speed of around 30 kilometres per hour.



Q. How do quicksand work?
A. Quicksand is a pocket of ordinary sand that has water continuously flowing up through it from an underground source, such as a spring. The flow lifts the grains of sand apart, but is not strong enough to disperse them completely and the resultant thick soup can look like a solid mass - until you step into it and slowly start sinking.



Q. Why do we drink a "toast" to people?
A. In the 1600s, people flavoured their drinks with spiced toast. If you toasted to someone, you were saying you held them in such high esteem that the very sound of their name flavoured a drink as the spiced toast might.


Q: Is there a maximum size that raindrops can be?
A. Yes. Any raindrop larger than seven millimetres in diameter will split ino pieces as it falls. Raindrops are made of minute water particles that bond together in cluds. The larger raindrops become, the less effective their surface tension is at holding them together. This makes them increasingly unstable, and as they pick up speed on their way to earth, turbulence and other aerodynamic forces will rip them apart. This will normaly happen to a seven-millimetre-wide droplet when it hits a speed of around 30 kilometres per hour.



Q. How do quicksand work?
A. Quicksand is a pocket of ordinary sand that has water continuously flowing up through it from an underground source, such as a spring. The flow lifts the grains of sand apart, but is not strong enough to disperse them completely and the resultant thick soup can look like a solid mass - until you step into it and slowly start sinking.



Q. Why do we drink a "toast" to people?
A. In the 1600s, people flavoured their drinks with spiced toast. If you toasted to someone, you were saying you held them in such high esteem that the very sound of their name flavoured a drink as the spiced toast might.