InfoWorld

Intro On any train journey, you have almost surely  seen those endless piles of stones that line the railway tracks. At a casual glance,  they might look like regular pebbles, but if you ride on trains frequently,  you may have noticed that regardless of the country in which you’re travelling, the  shape and texture of those stones are almost always the same—all across the globe! So what’s the reason behind that?  The crushed stones that line railroad tracks  are collectively called track ballast. More specifically, the track ballast constitutes  the trackbed upon which sleepers or railroad   What is track ballast? ties are laid. As you may have seen, these  stones are packed below, between and around the railroad ties. The thickness of the track  ballast usually ranges between 25-30 cm, and varies depending on certain conditions pertaining  to the geographical location of the railway track. Tra...

Intro In the world of math, many strange results are possible when we change the rules. But there’s one rule that most of us have been warned not to break: don’t divide by zero. How can the simple combination of an everyday number and a basic operation cause such problems? Why cant you divide by zero Normally, dividing by smaller and smaller numbers gives you bigger and bigger answers. Ten divided by two is five, by one is ten, by one-millionth is 10 million, and so on. So it seems like if you divide by numbers that keep shrinking all the way down to zero, the answer will grow to the largest thing possible. Then, isn’t the answer to 10 divided by zero actually infinity? That may sound plausible. But all we really know is that if we divide 10 by a number that tends towards zero, the answer tends towards infinity. And that’s not the same thing as saying that 10 divided by zero is equal to infinity. Why not? Well, let’s take a closer look at what division really means. What divisi...

A petition is a way for you to make the Scottish Parliament aware of an issue and request action on what you want us to do about it and why. The petition's process is open, accessible and encourages participation. There's no age limit to who can submit a petition and you only need one signature.  It can be submitted in any language and may have a template to assist with layout. You can do a hard copy petition using the template or you can use the online system which can help you gather support. Proposed petitions will be considered by the Public Petitions Committee clerking team.  The committee is made up of seven members of the Scottish Parliament who decide what to do with every petition lodged. What's your issue? Think about what you want to say. Ask yourself whether the issue you want to raise is something the Parliament can do something about.  Petitions should be relevant at a national level, not just a personal or local one. Have you spoken to your MSP or local cou...

What is Thanksgiving?  Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day is a holiday that is celebrated both in Canada and in the USA. It has been a holiday in many places in Canada since 1957 and in all of the American states since 1863. In Canada, it is celebrated on the second Monday in October While in the US, it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. No one is sure exactly when the first Thanksgiving was celebrated, but many Americans think it was in 1621. In a small town in North America called Plymouth, it was celebrated by a small group of people who had arrived from England, called Pilgrims. It was celebrated because one of the Native American people, people who first lived in North America, taught them how to catch fish and how to grow corn. This man's name was Squanto. The Pilgrims were very thankful for this help. Many Pilgrims' lives had been saved. The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted for three days, and it included 50 English men, women, and children, and about ...