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Why a piano has 12 notes: the circle of fifths that never quite closes
Stack pure 3:2 fifths, the most consonant interval after the octave, and you'd expect to eventually land back on your starting note. You never do. After twelve…
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…
Why popcorn pops, and why some kernels never do
A popcorn kernel is a tiny, sealed pressure vessel. Its hard shell traps water inside the starchy core until heat turns that water to steam, and pressure…