Tidbit #28 - April 27, 2011

Ahh, the wonders of the stars. Astronomy helps us to understand one of the most beautiful, romantic things in the world: the night sky. One of the most beautiful aspects of the night sky is that giant ball of cheese in the sky: the moon. Astronomers have given many names to the "phases" of our moon, or how much sunlight reflects off of it to Earth at what time of the month. My question is:

Question: Why is a visual half-moon called a quarter-moon?


Answer: Well, I was hoping to have another long tidbit like our analysis of the dollar bill, but thanks to WikiAnswers, our answer is once again cut short to a small quote and condensed answer:

A half moon looks like half a circle. It is sometimes called a quarter moon because this moon has completed one quarter of an orbit around the Earth from either the full or new position and one quarter of the moon's surface is visible from Earth. (Re: WikiAnswers Question)

 Well, you were probably able to get the answer from that, but just in case you didn't:

A visual half-moon is called a quarter-moon because only a quarter of the moon's entire surface is lit.


That makes enough sense, right? If we see a 2-D half moon, it means we're only seeing a quarter of the 3-D full moon!

Tidbit #11 - April 6, 2011

I was just recently hired at my local amusement park, Six Flags Magic Mountain. I was all jazzed when I found out where I was working, because I was working at a place called Suzette's Bakery, which was the place where they make funnel cakes! I thought about how tasty-smelling my job was going to be, working with funnel cakes every day. But then I got to wondering after I served my first cake, "Why is it called a funnel cake?" So, naturally, I searched it up.

Question: Why is it called a funnel cake?

Answer: I searched it up, and I found a couple possible solutions:

1. "It is made from an oil funnel like the one you use in your garage." (Re: WikiAnswers)
2. The batter that is fried to create the funnel cake has to be poured out in a certain indistinguishable pattern to create that uneven plaid-checkered pattern. My guess is that, in most cases, you use any type of funnel to pour the batter in that uneven pattern, so as to get more control over the shape instead of having it just be a plain circle. (In a nutshell, using a funnel to pour the batter out) Although this might just be the original or most common way people make their funnel cakes, because my work area uses a pitcher to pour the batter into the fryer.

So, what do we have here?

Our delicious fried treat is so aptly named because a funnel is used to make one, in most cases.

I could have guessed that!