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Hey there, Who Smarted Plus subscribers.
Welcome to another edition of Smarty Qs, where I, the trusty narrator, answer questions from you, the smarty pants listeners.
Remember, anyone can submit a question simply by emailing me at whosmarted at whosmarted.com.
Before we begin, a few quick shout-outs to some smarty fans who have written to us on Spotify.
There's Willow and her mom in Qualicum Beach, Lilia in Australia, Maddie, a.k.a.
Galanick, and Julian from Oregon.
Thanks for listening, laughing, and learning to Who Smarted?
Now, without further ado, let's start the SmartyQ.
Smarty listener Kai in Great Barrington Massachusetts asks, why is the ocean salty?
Great question, Kai.
The salt in the ocean comes from two main sources, dry land and vents in the sea floor.
But how do these two sources make the ocean so salty?
Let's start with dry land and rain.
When rain falls over land, it erodes rocks and picks up small amounts of dissolved minerals like salt.
The rainwater is still essentially fresh, but once it reaches the ocean, the minerals pool together.
Organisms in the ocean use some of the minerals, which removes them from the water, but they tend to leave the salt alone, so it remains.
Then we have the vents in the sea floor.
How do they make the ocean saltier than a potato chip, you ask?
Well, ocean water that has seeped through the sea floor and been heated by Earth's core gets released back into the ocean through the sea vents.
Similar to rainwater, these hydrothermal fluids, aka hot water, pick up minerals and metals from surrounding rocks that contribute additional salt to the ocean.
How much salt, you ask?
Try 120 million tons per cubic mile of seawater, of which there are about 332,519,000 cubic miles.
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
A happy belated birthday to our next smarty questioner, Hamilton in Houston Texas, who asks what is rope made from?
I'll ask you one better Hamilton, what isn't rope made of?
Because rope can be made of pretty much any fiber.
For starters, there's natural fibers like cotton, hemp, linen, silk, wool, or even hair.
Then there's synthetic fibers like nylon, polyester, or acrylic.
Even metals like steel.
As it turns out, many ropes are made of ropes.
How's that?
Well, a standard rope, like one you might see on a pirate ship, is called a laid or twisted rope.
Essentially, you can take different kinds of ropes and twist them around each other to make a thicker rope.
But you always have to have one rope that twists in the opposite direction in order to hold it in place.
And that's all the time we have for this question about ropes.
But if you want more, maybe I can pull some strings.
Get it?
Pull some strings?
Okay, our final question comes all the way from France.
Smartypants named Wilf wrote to ask us, will Earth one day be covered in water?
Wow, great question.
In short, it is possible that Earth may one day be entirely covered in water.
However, it won't be because of sea level rise caused by climate change, at least not in the coming years.
Tragically, coastal areas will experience unprecedented flooding, and certain islands will be lost.
However, much land will remain.
So why may Earth one day be covered in water?
Because it may have been before.
In a 2021 study, Harvard scientists found that geochemical calculations of the planet's water storage capacity suggested that three to four billion years ago that's right, billion Earth could have been covered in water.
So it could happen again, but I wouldn't hold your breath.
Unless you're underwater.
And there you have it another fun fact-filled episode of Smarty Qs, made up of questions submitted by you, the Smarty Pants listeners.
Again, if you have a question you'd like answered by me on Smarty Qs, or if you just want to say hi Trosty, you can email me at whosmarted, at whosmartedcom.
That's whosmarted at whosmarted.com.
Thanks for subscribing to Whosmarted Plus and for supporting Whosmarted.
Who Smarted is brought to you by Squarespace.
Now, you know I'm good about creating new adventures and episodes of Who Smarted, but you don't know that I procrastinate on other stuff, like a website for one of our new projects.
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This episode is sponsored by IXL.
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Hey, Who Smarted Plus subscribers.
Welcome to another edition of Smarty Qs, where I, the trusty narrator, answer questions from you, the smarty pants listeners.
Remember, you can submit your questions to me by emailing me at whosmarted at whosmarted.
Or have your adult send us a message on our Facebook Messenger page, which is WhoSmarted.
Before we begin, a few quick shout-outs to some amazing Smarty Pants.
There's Colin in Lafayette, Colorado, who teaches his mom everything they learn from Who Smarted?
Also, a shout-out to Elva in Massachusetts, who thinks the trusty narrator is so fun.
Aw, thanks, Elva.
I also want to give a shout-out to Audrey in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, who thinks it's funny that we say Smarty Pants.
Well, thanks to all you Smarty Pants for smarting with us and for supporting Who Smarted?
And speaking of smarting, it's time to start this month's Smarty Q.
The first question comes from frequent contributor Olivia and sounds a lot grosser than it really is.
Olivia asks, what is a vomitorium?
I know, I know, but hear me out.
Contrary to popular belief, a vomitorium is not a place where ancient Romans allegedly purged during feasts.
Instead, it refers to a passage or corridor in an amphitheater or stadium through which crowds can enter and exit quickly.
The term comes from the Latin word vomitorium, which means to spew forth.
These passages allowed large numbers of people to enter or leave a venue quickly, preventing congestion.
And this architectural feature is still used in modern stadiums and theaters for similar purposes.
Okay, for our next question, my friend Finley would like to know why the Earth is round.
Well, Earth is approximately spherical due to the force of gravity and its rotation.
You see, gravity pulls all objects towards the center of mass.
When a planet forms, the material is pulled inward by gravity.
And because a sphere has the smallest surface area for a given volume, it is the shape that is most likely to form thanks to gravity.
But that's not all.
The Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours.
This rotation causes the material on the surface to spread out evenly, which also contributes to the spherical shape.
This means Earth isn't perfectly round and is actually a shape known as an oblate spheroid.
In summary, the combination of gravitational forces and Earth's rotation has shaped it into a roughly spherical form over billions of years.
Our final question comes from Eli in Central Texas, who asks, what is dry ice and how does it work?
First dry ice is solid carbon dioxide or CO2, at a temperature of approximately negative 785 degrees Celsius, which is around negative 1093 degrees Fahrenheit.
It's called dry ice because it transfers directly from a solid to a gas without passing through a liquid phase, hence it appears to dry out the surrounding air.
So how does it work?
Well, dry ice undergoes a change as it warms up.
Because the dry ice is much colder than the air, it immediately begins to change from a solid form into CO2 gas.
And as it turns into carbon dioxide gas, it causes the surrounding area to cool down.
This makes dry ice useful for refrigeration, food preservation, shipping perishable items and other freezing purposes where regular ice, which is frozen water, might not be suitable or effective.
Oh, it is often used in movies or shows to look like fog or smoke.
Oh, and one more thing because dry ice is so, so cold, it should only be handled with special insulated gloves or tongs by an adult.
Whatever you do, don't touch it.
And there you have it.
Another fun, fact-filled episode of SmartyQs made up of questions submitted by you, the SmartyPants listeners.
Again, if you have a question you'd like me to answer on SmartyQs, simply email me at whosmarted at whosmarted.com.
That's whosmarted at whosmarted.com.
Thank you so much for subscribing to Whosmarted Plus and supporting Whosmarted.
