Unique Ten Fun Facts About BikesPlace

Whether you rely on your bike for transportation or exercise, you�ll enjoy these ten fun facts on this two-wheeled vehicle.

1. In 1817, Karl von Drais, a German baron, invented a horseless carriage that would help him get around faster. The two-wheeled, pedal-less device was propelled by pushing your feet against the ground, The machine became known as the �draisine,� and led to the creation of the modern-day bicycle.


2. The term �bicycle� was not introduced until the 1860s, when it was coined in France to describe a new kind of two-wheeler with a mechanical drive.


3. Orville and Wilbur Wright, the brothers who built the first flying airplane, operated a small bike repair shop in Dayton, Ohio. They used their workshop to build the 1903 Wright Flyer.


4. Fred A. Birchmore, 25, circled the globe by bicycle in 1935. The entire trip, through Europe, Asia, and the United States, covered forty thousand miles. He pedaled about 25,000 miles. The rest was traveled by boat. He wore out seven sets of tires.


5. There are over a half billion bicycles in China. Bikes were first brought to China in the late 1800s.


6. About 100 million bicycles are manufactured worldwide each year.


7. Over the past 30 years, bicycle delivery services have developed into an important industry, especially in cities, where the couriers have earned a reputation for their high speed and traffic-weaving skills.


8. Americans use their bicycles for less than one percent of all urban trips. Europeans bike in cities a lot more often�in Italy 5 percent of all trips are on bicycle, 30 percent in the Netherlands, and seven out of eight Dutch people over age 15 have a bike.


9. The Tour de France is one of the most famous bicycle races in the world. Established in 1903, it is considered to be the biggest test of endurance out of all sports. Lance Armstrong, an American cyclist, is the only rider to have won seven titles (1999�2005) after surviving cancer.


10. Bicycle Moto Cross (BMX), an extreme style of bicycle track racing, became a sport in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Maris Strombergs, of Latvia, received the gold medal for Men�s BMX, and Anne-Caroline Chausson, from France, took home the gold in the first Women�s BMX Olympic event.

Facts taken from:
 
Bicycle: The History by David Herlihy
The World Almanac Book of Records: Firsts, Feats, Facts & Phenomena by Mark Young

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Unique Make a Groovy Lava LampPlace

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The secret behind the lamp�s �lava� is science. Oil is lighter, or less dense, than water, so it rises to the surface. Salt is heavier, or more dense, than water, and sinks to the bottom. When you add the salt, blobs of oil attach to the grains and sink. Then the salt dissolves, and the oil returns to the top. The result? A liquid show for the eyes.

YOU WILL NEED

• Clear jar with lid
• Water
• Food coloring
• Glitter
• Vegetable oil
• Salt
• Flashlight
  

Fill the jar three-quarters full of water. Add drops of food coloring until you like the color you see. A few drops go a long way! Sprinkle in glitter for extra sparkle. Fill the jar almost to the top with vegetable oil and let the mixture separate. Pour salt into the jar until you see the cool lava lamp effect. When the bubbles stop, add more salt to see it again. Shine a flashlight behind the jar to watch your lava lamp really glow!

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Unique Eggs-Periments: Balancing EggPlace

First get permission to use kitchen equipment and eggs.

YOU WILL NEED

• One raw egg
• Salt

HERE�S HOW

1. Take the raw egg and try to balance it on a hard surface (you will have a difficult time keeping the egg balanced).
2. Now, make a tiny mound of salt on a hard, smooth surface.
3. Very carefully balance the egg on top of the salt, then gently blow the excess salt away. With patience and a steady hand, you should succeed.

Note: Try this experiment without the salt about March 20, on the spring equinox, or about September 23, on the autumn equinox. During the equinoxes the sun appears directly overhead at the Equator, and the length of night and day are nearly equal worldwide. Carefully balance the egg on a hard smooth surface. If it doesn't balance, then try the experiment with some salt.

WHY?

Some people believe that the gravitational pull of the sun that occurs on the equinoxes can help keep an egg standing on its end. This idea is unproven, but it's interesting to test it. Another way to stand an egg up�on any day�is to use salt.
The salt crystals are almost perfect cubes, and they help form a pedestal that supports the egg.

 

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Unique Peppermint BarkPlace

Make your own delicious peppermint bark to eat or give as a gift.

YOU WILL NEED

• 15 to 20 red-and-white peppermint candies
• Resealable freezer bag
• Hammer
• 11-ounce (311-gram) bag of white chocolate
• Medium-size, microwave-safe bowl
• Red or green food coloring (optional)
• Cookie sheet
• Waxed paper
• Cellophane (optional)

HERE'S HOW

1. Unwrap the mints and seal them inside the freezer bag. Ask your parents to help you crush the mints by gently hitting them with a hammer.  Remove larger pieces of candy from the bag and set aside.
2. Pour the white chocolate chips into the bowl and microwave on 70 percent power for two to three minutes. Stir frequently until the chips are melted and smooth.
3. Add the crushed mints from the bag. To create holiday colors, slowly mix in drops of food coloring until you like the color.
4. Line the cookie sheet with waxed paper and spread out the chocolate. Decorate with the larger mint pieces. Refrigerate for about an hour. Break the hardened chocolate into pieces.
5. Wrap the candy in cellophane to give as a gift!

 

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Unique Ice Cream Sandwiches NightPlace

Ask your parents to join you when you make these homemade, ice cream sandwiches!

YOU WILL NEED (SERVES FOUR)

• 2 cups (475 mL) of your favorite ice cream or frozen yogurt
• 8 large cookies

RECOMMENDED COOKIE/ICE CREAM COMBOS

• Chocolate cookie/mint chocolate chip ice cream
• Peanut butter cookie/chocolate ice cream
• Vanilla cookie/strawberry ice cream
• Chocolate chip cookie/vanilla ice cream

HERE'S HOW

1. Let ice cream sit out for ten minutes.

2. Top four cookies with 1/2 cup (120 mL) ice cream.

3. Top each one with another cookie to form ice cream sandwiches!

4. Wrap the four cookies in plastic or wax paper and freeze until firm.

5. Break out these ice cream-filled sandwiches for dessert on a hot night.

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Unique A Different Way to Wake UpPlace

When Matty Sallin, 34, was working on a degree in art and technology at New York University, he got an interesting assignment in electronics class: Create something for the household. He decided to create an alarm clock.

"Everybody has to deal with these every day, and they are extremely unpleasant!" he says. He asked different people what they'd like to wake up to instead of a clanging, noisy alarm. A lot of them said, "The smell of bacon."

So Sallin and two classmates invented a new kind of alarm clock: a wooden box with a pig face and a digital clock that uses the smell of cooking bacon rather than sound to wake someone up. He explains, "There's no danger of burning, because I built it carefully. It uses halogen light bulbs instead of a flame for cooking and turns off automatically after ten minutes." Just a few easy steps are required to set the "alarm."

"What you do is put a couple of frozen strips in the night before," says Sallin. Bacon is cured, or preserved, so there is no danger of it spoiling overnight.

"If you set the alarm for 8:00, it will turn on at 7:50 and slow cook for ten minutes under the halogen bulbs," he says. Then the bulbs turn off and a fan blows the scent out through the nostrils of the pig.

"So instead of an alarm or a beep or a radio, you smell yourself awake," says Sallin. "Then you can open the door on the side and pull the bacon out and eat it."

When Sallin was a kid, he spent a lot of time making drawings of inventions. "I wanted to make an elevator in my back yard and a special tree house," he says. "But I never really thought I'd be called an inventor!"

Sallin got an A in the class and went on to other things�but people continue to hear about his invention and email him every day asking where they can buy his alarm clock.

These days he designs computer software, but if he decides to produce and sell his aroma alarm, maybe he can develop some other models. Any votes for cinnamon buns?

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Unique Rattlesnake RustlersPlace

When Heather Ramirez of Auburn, California, went to the dentist recently with her husband Len, she wasn�t there to have her teeth cleaned. She and her husband are professional snake removers. They were there to catch and return to the wild a rattlesnake that had slithered indoors.

She describes her work as �protecting people from rattlesnakes�and protecting rattlesnakes from people.� In her part of the country, the northern Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus virudis oreganos) often comes face-to-face with humans.

Studies show these snakes generally only bite people who are trying to catch or kill them. Keeping your distance prevents bites, which are serious but not usually fatal with today�s medicines.  A rattlesnake can even give a loud warning that says, �I am here, stay away� with the rattles located at the tip of its tail.

 �We find rattlesnakes everywhere,� says Ramirez. �In houses, in yards and woodpiles, under decks.�  She says that the snakes aren�t invading human homes�it�s the other way around: �These animals were here first, and we humans came in and built houses. We are living in their territory.�

Many people are frightened when they see a rattler and call for help right away. When the Ramirez phone rings, the couple drops whatever they are doing and rushes to work, often leaving a meal half-eaten on the table.

The team is good at finding snakes that have gone into hiding. A tool that looks like long spaghetti tongs allow them to handle the snakes without harming them (see photo), and the tongs are long enough that the snake cannot reach them to bite.

�Never pick up a rattlesnake,� says Ramirez. �I�ve been doing this job for 12 years, and I have never touched one with my hands. There�s no reason to take that risk.�

�We put the snakes in wooden crates in our pickup truck. Those crates are bolted to the floor and locked for safety,� explains Ramirez. She takes the captives to holding pens at her house until she can let them go far away from human activity.

Ramirez tells people to read all they can about snakes so they understand these amazing animals. For example, snakes actually help humans. Small mammals like rats, mice, and gophers carry fleas and ticks that spread serious illnesses like bubonic plague and Lyme disease to people. A snake might eat a dozen rodents a year, helping control the population�and the spread of disease.

Ramirez and her husband relocate more than a thousand snakes a year. �The longest was 5 feet 9 inches (1.8 meters), and I�m only five-foot-three, so that was amazing to see.� She enjoys every day working with snakes. �I just love my job!�

Snake Safety Tips

• If you see a snake, don�t touch it.  Go tell an adult.

• Snakes like warmth, and they often curl up at night next to big plastic toys outside that hold the warmth of the sun.  Look carefully when you go out to play.

• Never put your hands into woodpiles or dark corners of the garage in case a snake is hiding there.

• When you�re out playing, step on rocks and logs, not over them.  You don�t want to surprise a snake that might be hiding underneath.

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