Source : goodtechsystems.com
Monday, 22 October 2012
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Bullet Train
The Basics
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The bullet train is known for punctuality, often departing on the exact scheduled second. When the train ran 42 seconds late due to earthquakes and typhoons in 2004, the Japanese considered it disgraceful. In the 47 years since the train's opening, passengers have taken over 7.1 billion trips on the train. The original bullet trains, the 0 Series, which stopped running in 2008, made enough trips to circle the Earth 30,000 times. The train's five lines all center around Tokyo.
History
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The bullet train was invented by Japan's chief railway engineer, Hideo Shima, and was financed by the Japanese government and the World Bank. Shima designed the trains to feel like an airplane. The bullet train launched on October 1, 1964, as part of an event for the Tokyo Olympics. The first line ran 320 miles, from Osaka to Tokyo. Over the years, the railway added new types of bullet trains, including the Series 100 in the 1970s. In 1992, the Series 300, made of aluminum, debuted. The 2007 N700 trains have speeds that are virtually impossible to beat, making the trip from Tokyo to Osaka in 2 hours and 25 minutes.
Speed
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The secret to the train's speed is in the tracks. The trains run on even, straight tracks to prevent slowing down or stopping. The biggest cost in making the trains comes from construction of the elevated tracks and bridges needed to provide the right conditions for top speeds. The tracks run across 300 bridges and through 67 tunnels. In 1998, the new line built to cut travel time between Tokyo and Nagano cost $7 billion. It cut the previous track's travel time from three hours to 79 minutes. The trains run on electricity, which eliminates the clacking noise heard on regular trains.
Safety
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Japan is located on an active seismic area and experiences frequent earthquakes. Though the earthquakes sometimes derail trains, there has never been a fatal accident on a bullet train. The train has a computer that can sense earthquakes and slows down the car. At top speeds, the train requires three minutes and 45 seconds to come to a complete stop.
Top 15 Amazing Facts About The Human Body
1. The stomach’s digestive acids are strong enough
to dissolve zinc. Fortunately for us, the cells in the stomach lining
renew so quickly that the acids don’t have time to dissolve it.
2. The lungs contain
over 300,000 million capillaries (tiny blood vessels). If they were
laid end to end, they would stretch 2400km (1500 miles).
3. A mans testicles manufacture 10 million new sperm
cells each day – enough that he could repopulate the entire planet in
only 6 months!
4. Human bone is as strong as granite in supporting
weight. A block of bone the size of a matchbox can support 9 tonnes –
that is four times as much as concrete can support.
5. Each finger and toenail takes six months to grow from base to tip.
6. The largest organ in the body is the skin. In an
adult man it covers about 1.9m2 (20sq ft). The skin constantly flakes
away – in a lifetime each person sheds around 18kg (40 lb) of skin.
7. When you sleep, you grow by about 8mm (0.3in).
The next day you shrink back to your former height. The reason is that
your cartilage discs are squeezed like sponges by the force of gravity
when you stand or sit.
8. The average person in the West eats 50 tonnes of food and drinks 50,000 liters (11,000 gallons) of liquid during his life.
9. Each kidney contains 1 million individual
filters. They filter an average of around 1.3 liters (2.2 pints) of
blood per minute, and expel up to 1.4 liters (2.5 pints) a day of urine.
10. The focusing muscles of the eyes move around
100,000 times a day. To give your leg muscles the same workout, you
would need to walk 80km (50 miles) every day.
11. In 30 minutes, the average body gives off enough heat (combined) to bring a half gallon of water to boil.
12. A single human blood cell takes only 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.
13. A foreskin, the size of a postage stamp, from
circumcised babies take only 21 days to grow skin that can cover three
(3) basketball courts. Amazing isn’t it. Thanks to science. The
laboratory-grown skin is used in treating burn patients.
14. The eyes receive approximately 90 percent of all our information, making us basically visual creatures.
15. The female ovaries contain nearly half-a-million
egg cells, yet only 400 or so will ever get the opportunity to create a
new life.
source : http://listverse.com
Friday, 19 October 2012
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