Air Brakes

We just learned about the Sand Dome.

Another part of steam locomotives is the Air Brakes.

When the engineer wants to stop the train, he pulls a lever to use the brakes.
The lever opens up something called an air reservoir which is a place where high pressured air is stored.
It is kind of like a really tight balloon filled with air, and opening it up causes the air to come blowing out.

The air goes through some tubes to get to a piece of metal called the brake shoe, and the air pressure pushes the metal brake shoe up against the wheel to stop the train.



(from: wikipedia - railway air brake)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Rotor

Chinese Mountain Cat

We just learned about the Sand Cat.

Another type of wild cat is the Chinese Mountain Cat, also called the Chinese desert cat or felis bieti.

This type of cat lives in western China, and there are less than 10,000 of them left in the world.
These cats have sandy colored fur with some dark stripes on their face and legs, and black tipped ears.

They are about 3 feet long, and weigh around 20 pounds.
Their tail is big and bushy and has black rings on it.


(from: wikipedia - chinese mountain cat)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Marrus Orthocanna

Haematopoiesis

We just learned about the Bone Marrow.

The bone marrow that makes blood cells is part of Haematopoiesis which comes from the Greek words αἷμα (aima) "blood" and ποιεῖν (poieín) "to make", so it means "to make blood".

A normal human body can make from one hundred billion to a trillion blood cells every day!


(from: wikipedia - haematopoiesis)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Retina

Outlet Glacier

We just learned about the Antarctic Glaciers.

There are a lot of different types of glaciers. One type is called a Outlet Glacier.

This type of glacier is usually on the outside of another glacier called an inland glacier.
The inland glacier drains water to the outlet glacier, that then drains water when it melts to some other place.

It is an outlet glacier because it is at the end of a glacier and gives the water an outlet to leave the glaciers and go onto land or an ocean.


(from: wikipedia - helheim glacier)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hoarding

Divine Comedy - Inferno

We just learned about the Divine Comedy.

Another part of early Christianity is Divine Comedy - Inferno.

We've learned that the Divine Comedy was a story about a man named Dante getting to see what heaven and hell are like.

Because this story was so popular, many people came to believe the things he wrote about are actually what heaven or hell are like.

When he wrote about hell, which he called inferno, he said there were 9 levels, called circles.

Each of the circles was bad, and had terrible things like terrible storms, freezing smelly rain, heavy stones to carry, smelly slimy swamps, fires, boiling rivers, burning sand, and many monsters.

This story uses a lot of things from Greek mythology like the river Styx, the dog cerebus, medusa and the minotaur.

Even though it was just a story and mixed things together like Christianity and Greek mythology, a lot of people believed that maybe he was right, and so for a long time people have talked about the circles or levels of hell and the different types of monsters and punishments there.


(from: wikipedia - inferno (dante))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Monasticism

Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial - Hancock

We just learned about the Astor Memorial Doors by Karl Bitter.

Another famous American scultpure is the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial made by Walker Hancock in 1952.

After many people died in world war II that worked for the railroad, they wanted to put up a memorial to remember the people who served in the war.

Walker Hancock was born in Missouri and later went to school for art in Pennsylvania.
He was born in 1901 served in World War II, and was one of the people known as Monuments Men who helped save famous works of arts that had been stolen by the Nazis.


(from: wikipedia - pennsylvania railroad world war ii memorial)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Serpent Labret with Articulated Tongue

Russian - Counting to Eighty Nine

We counted to 79 in Russian, let's keep going!

80 восемьдесят (vosem'desyat) - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t 文A

81 восемьдесят один (vosem'desyat odin) - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t oh-dee-n 文A

82 восемьдесят два (vosem'desyat dva) - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t d-vah 文A

83 восемьдесят три (vosem'desyat tri) - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t t-dee 文A

84 восемьдесят четыре (vosem'desyat chetyre) - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t cheh-tee-dee 文A

85 восемьдесят пять (vosem'desyat pyat') - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t pee-yah-t 文A

86 восемьдесят шесть (vosem'desyat shest') - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t sheh-s-t 文A

87 восемьдесят семь (vosem'desyat sem') - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t seh-m 文A

88 восемьдесят восемь (vosem'desyat vosem') - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t voh-seh-m 文A

89 восемьдесят девять (vosem'desyat devyat') - sounds like voy-sehm-day-s-yah-t day-v-yah-t 文A



(from: wikipedia - russian academy of sciences)

Norwegian: åtti, åttiett, åttito, åttitre, åttifire, åttifem, åttiseks, åttisyv, åtti οκτώ, åttini

Greek: ογδόντα (ogdónta), ογδόντα ένα (ogdónta éna), ογδόντα δύο (ogdónta dýo), ογδόντα τρεις (ogdónta treis), ογδόντα τέσσερις (ogdónta tésseris), ογδόντα πέντε (ogdónta pénte), ογδόντα έξι (ogdónta éxi), ογδόντα επτά (ogdónta eptá), ογδόντα οκτώ (ogdónta októ), ογδόντα εννέα (ogdónta ennéa)

ASL: eighty, eighty one, eighty two, eighty three, eighty four, eighty five, eighty six, eighty seven, eighty eight, eighty nine

Italian: ottanta, unottanta, ottantadue, ottantatre, ottantaquattro, ottantacinque, ottantasei, ottantasette, ottantotto, ottantanove

German: achtzig, einundachtzig, zweiundachtzig, dreiundachtzig, vierundachtzig, fünfundachtzig, sechsundachtzig, siebenundachtzig, achtundachtzig, neunundachtzig

Spanish: ochenta, ochenta y uno, ochenta y dos, ochenta y tres, ochenta y cuatro, ochenta y cinco, ochenta y seis, ochenta y siete, ochenta y ocho, ochenta y nueve

French: quatre-vingts, quatre-vingts-un, quatre vingt deux, quatre vingt trois, quatre vingt quatre, quatre vingt cinq, quatre vingt six, quatre vingt sept, quatre vingt huit, quatre vingt neuf