Grasp It

What is the best way to beat jet lag? C ontrolling your light exposure and  melatonin levels, ideally before you travel is the most efficient way of overcoming jet lag. These cues control your circadian rhythm, an internal clock that governs sleep, hunger and other cycles – and makes you to feel jetlagged when you switch time zones. A few days before traveling, use a bright light to simulate the time of day at your destination. This will help you adjust to the change in time zones more easily. When it’s early evening there, take melatonin, a hormone released naturally by your body to cause drowsiness and urge you to sleep.

What is the future of VTOL aircraft? T he enormous cargo vessels that travel the world on enormous ships are currently moved onto large trucks when they arrive the port, and directed to their final destination by road. However, British company Reinhardt Technology Research (RTR) believes it would ultimately be quicker, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly to fly them alternatively. The company has recently designed the TU 523, a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft that is proficient of transporting heavy shipping containers without the need for expensive new infrastructure. The craft uses a hybrid electric generator to provide power to a series of electric turbines on demand, which can tilt horizontally and enable vertical take-off and landing. Once in the air, the turbines turn back again, while the wings generate lift just like on an airplane. RTR has already built a 1:4 scaled model of the TU 523. It will then produce a full-scale ...

How do we fill tyres with nitrogen? W hile we typically fill our car tyres with normal air, Formula 1 teams and even airlines fill their vehicles’ tyres with purified nitrogen. They do this to boost performance and reliability, so should we be doing the same? The air you pump into your tyres is actually mostly nitrogen anyway – 78 % of it to be exact – but it’s the other 22 % that is the problem. Less than one percent is water vapour, which at very low temperatures, such as those at high altitudes, and very high temperatures, such as those produced when driving very fast can freeze or expand to make the tyre pressure unstable. For normal driving though, this shouldn’t be a problem, so dryer nitrogen won’t make much difference. However, air is also 21 percent oxygen, and as oxygen molecules are so tiny, they drip through the tyre rubber over time. Nitrogen molecules on the other hand, are bigger, so they stay inside the rubber for longer ...

Why can’t you use your phone on airplanes? M any airlines will now allow passengers to  use phones in-flight following a  relaxing of regulations. Previously, there were concerns that radio  signals transmitted by phones could interfere  with aircraft communications, flight control  or other onboard electronic devices. There was much never clear evidence of this,  but the introduction of new technologies has  reduced the risk of further interference.  Picocell devices act as a mini cell tower on  a plane, collecting signals from phones on  board and sending them down to a  communications satellite or base stations  that stay on the ground. Why does airplane food taste so bad? I t’s challenging enough to serve up meals  in flight, but these can seem even  more  unappetizing due to the impacts of low  humidity, lower air pressure, and background  noise on our sense of taste. Dry ...

What causes wind patterns? Wind paths, ocean currents, and even airplanes are governed by the same invisible force W inds in our atmosphere do not travel in straight lines due to a phenomenon is known as the Coriolis effect. As the Earth spins on its axis, the motion deflects the air above it. The planet’s rotation is faster at the equator because this is where the Earth is broadest. This difference in speed creates the deflection – for example, if you were to project a ball from the equator to the North Pole it would appear to curve off-course. If Earth didn’t spin like this, air on the planet would solely circulate back and forth between the high-pressure poles and the low-pressure equator. When the rotation of the Earth is joined into the mix, it causes the air in the Northern Hemisphere to be deflected to the right, and air in the Southern Hemisphere to the left, away from the equator. As a result, winds circulate in cells. It’s this effect that causes the rotat...

The rock cycle The forces of nature are constantly  morphing rocks into different forms 1   Igneous rock Igneous, which means ‘born of   fire or heat’, is the rock type   formed when molten magma   cools enough to become solid.   Intrusive igneous rock forms   when the magma cools slowly   under the Earth’s surface, and   extrusive igneous rock forms   when the magma cools rapidly   on the surface, such as after a   volcanic eruption.  2   Rising heat The intense heat found below   the surface – sometimes   stemming from the planet’s   superheated core – can   generate temperatures up to   1,300 degrees Celsius, causing   the rock to melt into a molten   form called magma, which   rises towards the cooler   surface via convection. The Rock Cycle   3   Metamorphic rock The combination of intense pressure   and high temperatur...

How CristalACTiV Works This clever coating can be painted on structures to help cleanse the surrounding air 1) Pollutants Photoreactive atmospheric pollutants like VOCs, NOx, and Sox come into contact with the depollution coating. Working of CristalACTiV coating 2) Depollution coating Under the sun’s UV light, the titanium dioxide (TiO2) coating forms highly reactive free radical particles, capable of breaking down pollutants. 3) Chemical reactions Photocatalytic reactions involving the free radicals convert pollutants to carbon dioxide, water, and harmless compounds that stick to the depollution surface. 4) Self-cleaning surface The soiled surface is washed clean whenever rain falls, or it is hosed down. Photocatalysis In some cases, airborne pollutants convert to harmless materials when they react chemically with other atmospheric gases. These reactions happen naturally in the presence of light but on a slow timescale...

Why are Rain Clouds Grey? The reason why overcast days are so dismal T o understand why clouds can appear grey, you first need to know why they also appear white. It’s all to do with the reflection of light. Clouds are created when air and  water vapour  near the ground warms up and rises. As it gets uplifted, the water vapour  condenses, and the droplets join together to make clouds. The more condensation there is, the more droplets there are and the bigger the clouds become. When light from the Sun passes through these large aggregations of water vapour , the droplets scatter the light in all directions. The droplets are tiny and spread out enough to scatter the entire spectrum of light, which means that they will appear white. As more water droplets accumulate and the clouds get larger, less light is able to penetrate through the cloud. What we see from the g...