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Why astronauts float: the space station never stops falling
Astronauts on the International Space Station look weightless, but at 400 km up, Earth's gravity is still about 90% as strong as on the ground. The trick is…
Why seven shuffles are enough to mix a deck of cards
A 52-card deck can be put in about 8 × 10^67 different orders, yet a few quick shuffles leave a lot of the old order behind. In 1992 Dave Bayer and Persi…
Why English spelling doesn't match how words sound
Around 1400, English spelling roughly matched speech. Bite sounded close to "beet", meet roughly like "mate", and house like "hoose". Then, over about three…