Super Park

In London there are many parks, but there is one park that is so big it dwarfs a few countries. 

Richmond Royal park, London's biggest park is absolutely huge, 9.53 km². 

Central park in new work is also huge at 3.41 km² and could also contain the area of the two smallest countries in the world. The Vatican city's area is about 0.5 km². Monaco has a surface area of about 2 km²

Central park, Vatican city state and Monaco City state would all fit inside Richmond park and there would be plenty of space left over. 

~image generated by artificial intelligence (Gemini) 

Gibraltar island is not a country but it would also fit in the area of Richmond Park. The land area of Gibraltar is 6.8 km². 

On top of everything, Richmond Park is considered to be a significant nature reserve filled with ancient trees and countless wild creatures that aren't found anywhere else in the area. 

Interesting word Facts

These words are all spelt the same if they're written backwards. 

Deified 

Racecar

Rotor

Level

Madam 

~image generated by artificial intelligence (Gemini)

The word Strengths is the Longest single Syllable word. 

The word Arsenious contains all the vowels in the correct order. It is the name of an unstable acid containing arsenic. (Arsenious acid) 

The word rhythm is the longest English word with no vowels. 

The word set is considered to have the most meanings. The word set could mean a collection of items or it could mean to prepare something or arrange into a group. It has several other meanings. 

Coventry Light Tram

In the centre of England, In the small English city of Coventry, they are currently developing a small single car battery powered tram system called CVLR (Coventry Very Light Rail). 

The idea is to obtain a tram rail network without installing overhead power lines or reinforcement in the road. They simply bolt the steel rails to the ground and the tram powers itself until it needs charging. 

They are obtaining a rail network at a small fraction of the cost. 

According to their reports they want to have the new tram system installed across the whole city. 

Hybrid Arcade Console

Have you ever wanted to have a games console that takes cartridges and is also a small arcade machine in one. 

Such a machine exists, it's called the evercade bartop 

~image generated by artificial intelligence (chatGPT) 

This is the website for the system 

Evercade. They make retro style games consoles that take multi game cartridges so you can build up a licensed game collection. 

Moon Day

One day on the moon lasts for 28 earth Days(4 weeks), Two weeks of day and two weeks of night. This has caused probes to fail their missions as they freeze in the long moon night. 

The orbital period of the moon is also 28 days so we always see the same side of the moon on Earth. They call this rotation synchronization tidal locking. The moon is tidally locked to the Earth. 

Lane Loitering

In Great Britain many people don't know it is illegal to loiter in the overtaking lanes. All lanes to the right of the first lane are earmarked for overtaking unless the first lane is closed or the lanes are bifurcating into separate roads. It is listed as one of the stipulations of the Dangerous Driving law. 

Motorists that loiter in the overtaking lanes without overtaking can receive 3 penalty points on their driving licence and receive a £100 fine. 

Grand Tree

The Giant Sequoya redwood tree is so big that it can dwarf over 40 blue whales, the largest animals known to ever exist on Earth. 

The tree is known to weigh close to 6000 tons and the average blue whale usually weighs 150 tons, still impressive considering humans usually weigh less than 100kg, a small fraction of 1 ton. 

According to scholars, the rings on the trees show an age close to biblical times, some where around before the time of Jesus, over 2000 years ago. 

~image generated by artificial intelligence (chatGPT)

Sources 

Ai estimation by Gemini. 

Let's calculate how many blue whales match the weight of a giant sequoia tree.

First, let's establish the average weights:

 * Blue whale: Blue whales can weigh between 100 to 200 tons (200,000 to 400,000 pounds), with an average often cited around 150 tons (300,000 pounds or 136,000 kg). Some sources state up to 330,000 pounds (150 tons).

 * Giant Sequoia tree: The largest giant sequoia, General Sherman, is estimated to weigh around 6,167 tons (or 2.7 million pounds). Other large sequoias can weigh over 600 tons, and some estimates go up to 1300 tons or even 2105 short tons (1,910 metric tons). We'll use the General Sherman's weight as a prominent example.

Now, let's do the math:

Using the General Sherman tree's weight of 6,167 tons and an average blue whale weight of 150 tons:

6,167 \text{ tons (sequoia)} / 150 \text{ tons (blue whale)} \approx 41.11

So, approximately 41 blue whales would match the weight of a giant sequoia tree like General Sherman.

It's important to note that these are estimates, and the exact weights can vary for individual whales and trees.

~ Website https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/blue-whale?hl=en-GB