 |
Having an education is not impressive, using it is! |
Tag: Education
Why Do We Only See One Side Of The Moon?
A simple explanation on why we only see one side of the Moon from Earth.
Enjoy!
Only one side of the Moon is visible from Earth because the Moon rotates about its spin axis at the same rate that the Moon orbits the Earth, a situation known as synchronous rotation or tidal locking. The Moon is directly illuminated by the Sun, and the cyclically varying viewing conditions cause the lunar phases. The unilluminated portions of the Moon can sometimes be dimly seen as a result of earthshine, which is sunlight reflected off the surface of the Earth and onto the Moon. Since the Moon’s orbit is both somewhat elliptical, and inclined to its equatorial plane, librations allow up to 59% of the Moon’s surface to be viewed from Earth (but only half at any instant from any point).
The Origin Of The Word “OK”
Linguist Arika Okrent explains the origin of the word “OK.”
Enjoy!
“OK” is one of the most common words in the English language, but linguistically it’s a relative newbie. It’s just 150 years old, and traces its roots back to 19th century Boston. Rather than anyone purposefully inventing “OK,” it’s actually editorial joke that inadvertently went viral.
It all began in the office of Charles Gordon Greene at the Boston Morning Post, Good Magazine writes. The year was 1839, and among writerly folk, abbreviations were all the rage (think LOLZ, OMG or NBD today). “This trend,” Good continues, “produced many unsuccessful terms such as OW—an OK-like term for “oll wright” (all right) that flopped.”
OK first appeared as an abbreviation for “Oll Korrect,” printed in a satirical article about grammar, the Economist continues. The word’s origins were only revealed in the 1960s, however, when etymologist Allen Read did some digging—through suggestions that the word might come from Europe, a Civil War nickname for biscuits, or an abbreviation for the telegraph term Open Key. Still others falsely thought that president Martin Van Buren had invented the term in his presidential campaign, which used the slogan “Vote for OK” in reference to both his hometown and his nickname, Old Kinderhook, the Economist writes. But Van Buren only popularized the term, Read found, not invented it.
Although Read showed “how, stage by stage, OK was spread throughout North America and the world to the moon, and then took on its new form AOK, first used by space people and frowned on by purists,” the Economists writes, some doubters continue to insist that the word in fact has a much earlier origin. We’ll just have to be OK with never knowing for absolute sure.
Load More