Roman Empire__

Q: How vast was the Roman Empire?

A: At its peak, the Roman army extended all around the Mediterranean Sea and most of the rest of Europe. Much of what is now England and France, Belgium and The Netherlands, Spain and Protugal, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, part of Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey Israel, Syria, Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco constituted the Roman empire. All this was ruled by the Romans from their base in Italy.

***

A huge army was needed to maintain control over these regions and the costs involved were tremendous. There were continual minor wars and skirmishes along the edges of the empire, which meant that large garrisons of soldiers had to be maintained.

***

C O M E T S

Q: How are comets formed?

A: There are two main theories about how comets are formed. According to one theory, as the Sun moves through clouds of interstellar dust, its gravity pulls the particles together to form a dense stream that trails behind the Sun like the wake of a ship. Occasionally, an enormous clump of particles is drawn towards the Sun to become a comet. According to the other theory,t he Sun's planets are surrounded by a permanent whirling cloud of particles containing billions of clumps, a cloud that extends halfway to the nearest star. The gravitational influence of nearby stars deflects the path of a clump, causing it to swing close to the Sun and become visible on the earth as a comet. Comets have no trails until they get close to the Sun. When they come closer to the Sun the intense heat vapourises portions of them and the gas blows out to form a glowing, smoke like streamer. The tails vary enormously in shape and size. Because a comet loses part of its substance every time a tail is formed, it is sure to burn itself out eventually.

Political positions_LEFT_RIGHT

Q: Why are political positions referred to as 'left' and 'right'?

**

A: More than two hundred years ago, King Louis XI of France was compelled to convene a new form of parliament for the first time. While sitting at the assembly the more radical delegates took up their seats to the left of the King while their conservative counterparts took their seats to his right thus starting the practice of calling radicals as 'left' and conservatives as 'right'. Since then, liberal ideas have been referred to as from the left and conservative views as from the right.

Metric System

Q: Where did the metric system develop?
**

A: The metric system was developed in France during the eighteenth century to provide a uniform system of measurement to replace widely differing systems then in existence. Metric measurement includes weight, volume, length, area, capacity and temperature and is based on multples being to the power of ten. The intention was to make measurements uniform throughout the world and introduce a set of universal standards in places such as research laboratories. Frenchman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, Prince de Benevent, Bishop of Autun and Sir John Riggs Miller of England, jointly championed the metric system in the 1790s. By 1840 France made metrication mandatory. At the Metric Conference of 1875 in France, seventeen additional countries signed the Treaty of the Meter.