Grasp It

What makes up a road? The construction process is more complex than you might think I t is believed that the first roads paved with bricks were created in the Indus Valley more than 5,000 years ago. Today, there are plenty of roads on Earth to circle the planet over 600 times, but bricks are no longer the material of preference when constructing new roads. In fact, the roads of today are built using layers of many different materials. Vehicles are heavy – a typical family car weighs well over a ton – which indicates that roads have to be tough enough to withstand the pressures involved. That’s why the load is spread over four layers. At the bottom is the sub-grade – this is the local soil that is compressed with a roller. Next, you have the sub-base, typically made from crushed concrete. The base comes next – another layer of finely crushed rock mixed with asphalt and slag, which is a waste product from steel production. Then comes the smelly stuff – the binder and surface...

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 ...

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...

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...

Exception Handling Mechanism in C++ To overcome the limitations of the conventional error handling mechanism, an exception handling mechanism was introduced in C++ in 1989.C++ exception handling mechanism not only guarantees the detection and handling of run-time errors but also provides a way to separate the error handling code from the rest of the program. This makes the program less complex, more readable and efficient, as the normal execution path is not interrupted for checking errors. Moreover, the error handling routine (called exception handler) is invoked automatically whenever an error occurs. Learn More:  An exception usually carries three types of information with it, namely, the type of exception , the place where the exception has occurred and the context information such as error message and other state information. C++ exception handling mechanism mainly uses three keywords, try, throw and catch. A ...