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General Morphological Analysis: A general method for non-quantified modelling
Fritz Zwicky pioneered the development of morphological analysis (MA) as a method for investigating the totality of relationships contained in multi-dimensional, usually non- quantifiable problem complexes. During the past two decades, MA has...
Intuitive Numerology: Reading between Numbers - Part 2
A numerology report is based on one's date of birth. While numerology is the study of numbers, it can also be helpful in presenting valuable insight about specific personality traits and characteristics of individuals. By combining the sum of...
Rock of Ages
William Jennings Bryan said: "Christians desire that their children shall be taught all the sciences, but they do not want them to lose sight of the Rock of Ages while they study the age of rocks." It may seem incredible to those who do not know...
Socrates and Sages
You can easily see why it takes more than an Encyclopaedia to be able to follow what is going on from just this little quote. There are many twists and turns to follow in the pursuit of knowledge and its power that has been the purpose of many...
The Practical Power of the Shaman
Spirit of shamanism brings harmony and magic into everyday life Shamanism is a very practical spirituality. A modern-day shaman could live next door to you and the only clues you might have are that they get along well with people and animals and...
 
Walls can cool themselves!

I always start my column with a question. So why break away with tradition now?

Would you believe that walls can cool themselves when they get hot? (Actually that’s 2 questions at the beginning of this column!) Many of you, if not all of you will answer a simple and flat, ‘NO’. I would have said so too until I read it with my own eyes (I didn’t actually see these walls with my own eyes, no).

The BASF company announced in mid-year that it had managed to do the impossible. The experiments were held in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Ok, I know you are all interested in reading how these walls in fact ‘work’ but it’s sort of complicated. Anyway I’ll try my best. Read on!

The walls are filled with plastic micro-marbles, which in turn are filled with paraffin wax. Now the wax will melt at a temperature higher than 24oC something. Melting, as you might know absorbs energy, which is in this case heat. The paraffin wax in the micro-marbles absorbs heat thus cooling their surroundings (they take all the heat away).

Of course,


there’ll be millions, even billions of micro-marbles full of paraffin in only 1 wall. The walls will seem to absorb heat from their surroundings. A short nap next to one of those during a hot summer day would be great; no need to sit under trees anymore!!!

With this small invention-of-a-genius, we will be able to play computer games without sweating or even go to the toilet and not sweat there!

BASF for its part is not settling down there though. This is an invention for this summer but what will we see next. What will we see next winter? Mystery!

About the Author

K.A.Cassimally is the editor in chief of Astronomy Journal and Astronomy Journal Ezine. He is also the co-founder of the RCPL Astronomy Club. K.A.Cassimally is best known for his article 'Harry Potter and the Moons of Jupiter'.
He is also Senior Columnist at BackWash.com where he writes 'Not Scientific Science'.
Website: http://www.rcplastronomyclub.zik.mu
:http://www.backwash.com/content.php?id=358
Email: kcassimally@rcplastronomyclub.zik.mu

 

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