Do You Know? -Ep 2

 1. Hyperion is the world's tallest known living tree.

      Hyperion is known as the world's tallest known living tree. It belongs to the species Sequoia sempervirens ( Common name: Coast Redwood ). This species includes the tallest living trees on Earth. These trees are also among the oldest living things on Earth living 1,200 - 1,800 years or more.

     

     Hyperion was discovered on August 25, 2006 by naturalists Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor. The tree was verified as standing 115.55 m ( 379.1 ft ) tall by Stephen Sillett. The tree was found in a remote area of Redwood National and State Parks in California. The Park also houses the second tallest tree Helios and third largest Icarus.

(Note: The exact location of Hyperion is kept secret to protect the tree from growing taller )

2. History of Moon

  

      The Moon formed 4.5 billion years ago when a Mars-sized object called Theia slammed into the proto-Earth when our planet was 1 billion years old, according to leading theories. Debris from the collision coalesced into the Moon, while other remnants reincorporated themselves into the Earth. Because of gravity, the presence of the Moon stabilized the Earth's spin axis. At that time, our planet was spinning much faster, with one day lasting only 5 hours.

     And in the early days, the Moon was a lot closer too. As the Moon's gravity pulls on our oceans, the water is slightly heated, and that energy gets dissipated. This results in the Moon moving away from Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year. Over times, that really adds up. By 4 billion years ago, the Moon was three times closer to Earth than it is today -about 80,000 miles away, compared to the current 238,000 miles.

3. Martin Cooper is known as father of the handheld cell phone.

     On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment, placing a call to his rival Dr. Joel S. Engel. He is cited as the first person in history to make a handheld cellular phone in public.

     The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Copper weighed 1.1 kg and measured 23 cm x 13 cm x 4.5 cm. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to recharge.