I easily get distracted by my mobile phone,



I’m in Class IX. I easily get distracted by my mobile phone, and as a result, my homework remains incomplete. How do I handle this?



You are capable of doing well in your studies. You have identified the factors affecting your work. Mobile phones, television, social media etc. Must be used only to keep yourself connected with society. They should not take control of your activities. If you have the determination, you can control your usage. Fix your goal and aim to achieve your best. It is healthy to set your own targets to avoid anxiety and stress. To reduce distractions, the most important thing is to plan work – make time for everything. Allot time for television and mobile phone. Keep your mobile phone away from the place of your study.

Self-discipline is very important. Visualise your goal, and imagine how would feel when you accomplish that goal. This will motivate you.



 



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What is the clipper route?



Clippers were 19th Century merchant sailing ships that sailed mainly between England and China, Australia and New Zealand. They were fast sailing ships, equipped with multiple square rigged sails supported by three masts. These ships gained in prominence because of the booming tea and opium trade between England and China. The route plied by these ships was called the clipper route.



The clipper route ran down the Atlantic Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and then went from west to east though the Southern Ocean. The ships took advantage of the Roaring Forties, the strong westerly winds that blow between the latitudes of 40 and 50 degrees in the southern hemisphere. It was the fastest route available between Europe and Asia before the opening of the Suez Canal. The ships would continue eastwards on the homeward journey from Australia and New Zealand along the Southern Ocean, sail around Cape Horn in South America and another 100 days from there back to England.



The ships plying the clipper route faced dangers like turbulent weather at Cape Horn and huge waves and icebergs in the Southern Ocean. However, ship captains still preferred the unsafe route as it offered fast passage.



The clipper route fell into disuse as a trade route with the opening of the Suez and Panama Canals. Moreover, streamships gradually phased out clippers. Though clippers were fast, their speed was largely determined by winds while streamships were more reliable in sticking to their schedules.



Today, the clipper route remains the fastest sailing route around the world. So it is popular with sailing enthusiasts, especially for modern circumnavigation attempts and yacht races like the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and Volvo Ocean Race.



 



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What is the significance of the code AII3 in animation films?



Pronounced A-one thirteen, it is the number of a classroom at the California Institute of the Arts in the U.S. CalArts is a private university founded by Walt Disney in the early 1960s. It is where legendary animation film makers learnt their craft. The mysterious code A113 figures in every Pixar film in some form or the other. The popular shows The Simpsons, American Dad, South Park, etc. feature this number. In Finding Nemo, a scuba divers camera bears this number. The Toy Story trilogy has two vehicles with license plates bearing the number A113. In Monsters Inc. it is the classroom number of Scaring 101.



It is the moviemakers’ way of showing their gratitude to their alma mater which shaped their career. Directors who passed out of this university have churned out incredible box office hits.



 



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What is piezoelectricity? How is it produced?



Electricity resulting from the application of mechanical pressure on certain crystals like quartz and tourmaline is called piezoelectricity.



When these crystals are subjected to mechanical strain, a voltage across their opposite faces.



Conversely when a voltage is applied to such crystals, they vibrate.



Piezoelectric materials are used for converting mechanical strain into an electrical signal in such devices as microphones and phonograph pick-ups. The converse effect in which a mechanical output is derived from an electrical signal output is used in such devices as headphones and quartz watches.



The phenomenon of piezoelectricity was discovered in the 1880s.



 



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What are the chief ingredients of soap?



When reading the printed matter on the wrapper of a bar of toilet soap, I saw the following: TFM = 75% written in bold letters.



What is the meaning of TFM and what is its significance?



The chief ingredients of soap are fats – manufacturers either use animals fats or a vegetable oil, like coconut oil – and an alkali, usually caustic soda. The fats are the most important part of the soap.



TFM stands for Total Fatty Matter. This expresses the real soap content in the toilet soap. If TFM is given as 75% it means that the actual soap content is 75%, while the remaining portion consists of additives, which make it foam, or give it its colour, or keep it hard.



The higher the TFM percentage, the better is the quality of the soap. It is binding on the manufacturer to state how much fatty material there is in the soap.



 



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What is the force that makes the car turn?



A car travelling in a straight line is approaching a corner. As the driver turns the steering wheel, the car begins to swing around the corner.



We know that an object in motion tends to travel in a straight line unless acted upon by a force.



The force that makes the car turn is the friction between the car tyres and the ground. If the friction is reduced by oil or water on the ground, then it may not be great enough to provide the centripetal force and then the car will not turn but carry straight on!



If there is a passenger in the car, he too will tend to carry straight on as the car turns the corner. But friction between him and the seat provides a centripetal force to make his direction of travel circular.



 



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Who developed the oral polio vaccine? Is it more effective than Stalk’s vaccine which is given by injection?



Salk’s polio vaccine has two main drawbacks; it is not completely effective against one of the three strains of polio and it gives immunity only for a limited time which means the child has to be re-vaccinated regularly.



The oral polio vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin at the University of Cincinnati. It uses a small amount of live virus unlike the Salk vaccine which uses samples of the virus which has been killed by formation.



The Sabin vaccine is given orally. It gives immunity against all three strains of polio. It does not have to be taken as often as the Salk vaccine – just three separate doses with intervals of one month each between each dose and then a booster some years later.



 



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Why is vibrating roller used to lay a road?



A road was being laid in front of our house and a man began pulling a heavy vibrating roller over the concrete that had been spread over the road.



Why are such vibrating rollers used in road building?



Whenever you pour rice into a tall container, you shake the container vigorously from time to time so that the grains settle down making room for more.



Similarly, when concrete is laid on roads, the road has to be shaken to enable the concrete to seep down into all the nooks and crannies and fill up all the crevices, leaving no air pockets.



The vibrating roller used by road-builders makes a lot of noise but all that it is doing is shaking up the road!



 



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What happened to the Soviet Venera probes sent to Venus?



When we speak about the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that took place in the second half of the 20th Century, we often focus on the moon missions. There were, however, various other missions during this time that had many different objectives as well. One of these was the Venera programme that corresponded to a series of probes developed by the Soviet Union – to better understand our neighbouring planet Venus – between 1961 and 1984.



Launched in 1961, Venera 1 lost radio contact before it flew by Venus. Venera 2 failed to send back any important data, but it did fly by Venus at a distance of 24,000 km in February 1966. Venera 3 too lost communication before atmospheric entry, but it did become the first human-made object to land on another planet on March 1, 1966.



With the planned mission including landing on the Venusian surface and studying the temperature, pressure and composition of the Venusian atmosphere, Venera 3 carried a landing capsule that was 0.9 m in diameter and weighed 310 kg. The atmosphere was to be studied during the descent by parachute.



Positive start



Venera 3 was launched on November 16, 1965, just four days after the successful launch of Venera 2. Things went fine for Venera 3 as ground controllers were able to successfully perform a mid-course correction on December 26, 1965 during the outbound trajectory and also conducted multiple communication sessions to receive valuable information.



Among these were data obtained from a modulation charged particle trap. For nearly 50 days from the date of launching, Venera 3 was thus able to give an insight into the energy spectra of solar wind ion streams, out and beyond the magnetosphere of our Earth.



A failure and a first



Just before Venera 3 was to make its atmospheric entry in Venus, on February 16, 1966, it lost all contact with scientists on Earth. Despite the communications failure, the lander was automatically released by the spacecraft.



At 06:56:26 UT (universal time) on March 1, 1966, Venera 3’s probe crash-landed on the surface of Venus, just four minutes earlier than planned. It wasn’t in a position to relay back any information as it had lost contact, but it was the first time an object touched by humans had struck the surface of a planet other than our own.



Success follows



Investigations revealed that both Venera 2 and 3 suffered similar failures owing to overheating of several internal components and solar panels. With regard to Venera 3, its impact location was on the night side of Venus and the site was put in an area between 20 degrees north and 30 degrees south latitude and 60 degrees to 80 degrees east longitude.



Venera 3 tasted success in what was largely a failure, but it did pave the way for several more successes as well. For, Venera 4 became the first to measure the atmosphere of another planet, Venera 7 became the first to achieve soft touchdown and transmit information from another planet, and Venera 13 and 14 returned colour photos of the Venusian surface, days within each other. Venera 13, in fact, transmitted the photos on March 1, 1982, exactly 16 years after Venera 3 had landed on Venus.



 



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How will reclassification affect India?



The removal of India from the U.S.’ list of developing nations can negatively impact Indian trade with regard to the U.S. With the classification as a developed country, India may lose other trade benefits given as part of the GSP. India is no longer eligible for preferential treatment against CVD investigations and de minimis thresholds. With many countries having been stripped of the benefits, international trade, and global economy will slow down.



The U.S. has eliminated its special preferences for a list of self-declared developing countries. Apart from India, this list includes Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Georgia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam.



 



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Why was Indian removed from the ‘developing countries’ list?




  • The U.S. said that it removed those countries that have a per capita Gross National Income of above $12,375 as per the World Bank data; those that account for more than 0.5% of the global trade share; and those that are members of either Economic, Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Union (EU), or the Group of Twenty (G20).

  • India was removed from the list on account of it being a G-20 member and having a share of 0.5% or more of world trade. India’s share in global exports was 1.67% in 2018. In global imports, it was 2.57%.

  • However, India’s per capita GNI is below $12,375. Despite this, the U.S. has reclassified India as a ‘developed country’.

  • Further, the U.S. administration under President Trump has repeatedly accused fast-growing countries such as India and China of wrongly claiming trade benefits that are reserved for the truly developing countries.



 



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What is CVD?



Countervailing Duties (CVDs) are tariffs levied on imported goods when such products enjoy benefits like export subsidies in the country of their origin. This regulation, under WTO rules, is meant to neutralize the negative effects that subsidies on the production of a good in one country have on the same industry in the importing country. Simply put, CVD is a tax levied by a country on imports. For instance, let’s assume that India is importing a particular brand of mobile phone from China. This product enjoys export subsidies from the Chinese government, making its price lower than similar products made in India and available in the Indian market. This will be unfavouarble to the Indian product. To overcome this, the Government of India can impose a countervailing duty on Chinese imports.



According to the WTO rules, a country can determine CVD charges. However, a CVD investigation is ruled out if the subsidy is de minimis (too small to warrant concern) or if import volumes are negligible. The de minimis thresholds and import volume allowance are more relaxed for developing and least-developed countries.



The de minimis standard is usually a subsidy of 1% or less and valorem (proportion to the estimated value of goods) and 2% in special cases. India was eligible for the 2% de minimus standard until the USTR reclassification. (It is to be noted the WTO allows countries to declare themselves ‘developing’, ‘developed’ or least-developed countries. India has declared itself a developing country. The self-declaration, however, can be challenged by member states.



 



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What does the ‘developing countries’ classification mean?



The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) maintains a list of countries that it classifies as ‘developing’, ‘developed’, and ‘least-developed’ for trade purposes. Countries categorized as ‘developing’ receive preferential trade benefits in export of certain goods to the U.S. The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a trade preference programme of the United States launched in 1976, provides opportunities for ‘developing’ countries to ‘use trade to grow their economies out o poverty’. That is, the GSP is a preferential tariff system, extended by developed countries to developing countries, that allows zero or concessional tariff on imports from developing countries into the U.S. The rule comes under the purview of the World Trade Organisation. Other developed countries such as the EU and Japan also offer the GSP.



 



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What is USTR?



On February10, the office of the United States Trade Representative (UST) eliminated a host of countries including India from its list of ‘developing economies’ and reclassified them as ‘developed countries’. But that is not something to be happy about. Because India (and the other countries) stands to lose certain trade benefits such as preferential treatment with respect to countervailing duty (CVD) investigations.



The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is responsible for developing and coordinating U.S. international trade, commodity, and direct investment policy, and overseeing negotiations with other countries.



 



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Who became the first bowler to bowl 7 maidens in T20Is?



In the fifth and final T20I between New Zealand and India that was played at Mount Maunganui, New Zealand on February 2, 2020, India won by 7 runs to complete a 5-0 series sweep.



The match saw Jasprit Bumrah bowl a wicket maiden, thereby becoming the bowler with the most number of maiden overs in T20 internationals history. The match also witnessed Shivam Dube concedes 34 runs in a single over, the second-most ever in T20I history.



Bowling the second over of the New Zealand innings, Jasprit Bumrah started off with a wicket maiden.



His first two balls to Martin Guptill were dot balls and Guptill was out LBW off the third ball. Tim Seifert, who came in as the one-down batsman, didn’t score a run off the remaining three deliveries in the over.



It was Bumrah’s seventh, maiden over in 50 T20 internationals, helping him break gis tie with Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Kulasekara, who has six maidens.



Bumrah gave away just 12 runs in his four overs in the match, picking up three wickets. He was declared as the player of the match for his efforts.



While Shivam Dube now has the ignominy of having conceded the second-most number of runs in a single over in T20Is, it is an Indian who hit a bowler for the maximum number of runs as well. The credit goes to Yuvraj Singh, who hit Stuart Broad for six sixes off a single over, for a total of 36! Yuvraj’s feat is even more special because he did it in a T20 World Cup game between India and England played at Durban in 2007.



Coming in to bowl the 10th over of the New Zealand innings, Shivam Dube was torn apart as the Kiwi batsmen scored four sixes and two fours in the over. A no ball in the fifth delivery of the over meant that Dube had to bowl an extra ball, rounding out a rather expensive over.



 



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