Curiosity

New Year is here and we all are set to bid farewell to 2019 and welcome 2020 with open arms, resolutions, hopes and wishes for the time to come. As we progress into the new year lets enjoy some interesting facts about the New Year?

We all know that if its night in India its day in America, so isn't it amusing that we usher in the New Year at different times. Well its better than, one welcoming the New Year in the day and the other in the night, and then there would be the confusion of whose day and whose night.

To resolve this some smart people divided the earth evenly into 24 one-hour time zones i.e. the lines of longitude, so that morning would be morning, afternoon would be afternoon, and evening would be evening no matter where you live.

So, how many New Year countdowns are there in our world?

There are 40 different countdowns to the new year! Interestingly the expanse of China has only 1 time zone, U.S. and Russia have more than a half- dozen time zones each.

Which country is the first to celebrate the New Year and which is the last?

New Years is first celebrated on the small island nation of Kiribati/Chritmas and ends with the Baker Island in the middle of Pacific Ocean.

When do astronauts celebrate New Year's Day?

Well, astronauts celebrate the New Year's Day as per the GMT timing. Though, its interesting to know that whereas the new Year comes only once a year on Earth, for astronauts aboard the International Space Station, the New Year's Day comes 16 times, as they orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes. That is, 16 sunsets and sunrises 250 miles (402.3 kilometres) above the Earth, according to a post published by NASA.

What is the history of the New Year?

The New Year was first celebrated on January 1st in 153 BCE in Rome by the civil Roman calendar, which marked the beginning of tenure for new Roman consuls. However, the celebration was not strictly adhered to as many Romans still celebrated their new year on March 1st. In 46 BCE Julius Caesar started using a solar-based calendar which maintained January 1st as the New Year day and was widely observed in the Roman Empire. In medieval Europe, January 1st as the New Year was briefly abolished as it was considered a pagan holiday. January 1st was later restored as the New Year following the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582.

So, you see, the New Year is generally a very recent concept as compared to the human civilisation on this Earth. Anyway, Cheers to the New year and Wishes for a wonderful Year ahead.

That year, in the local school, there was a new Math teacher, as well as some new pupils. One of the new kids was the stupidest child anyone had ever seen. It made no difference how quickly or how slowly they tried explaining numbers to him; he would always end up saying something enormously dumb. Like two plus two was five, seven times three was twenty-seven, or a triangle had thirty corners...

Before this boy arrived, Maths lessons had been the most boring of all. Now they were great fun. Encouraged by the new teacher, the children would listen to the pieces of nonsense spouted by the new kid, and they would have to correct his mistakes.

They all wanted to be the first to find his mistakes, and then think up the most original ways to explain them. To do this they used all kinds of stuff: sweets, playing cards, oranges, paper planes...

It didn't seem like any of this bothered the new kid.
However, little Lewis was sure that it was bound to make him feel sad inside.
So, one day, he decided to follow the new kid home after school; Lewis was sure he would see him crying.

On leaving school, the new kid walked a few minutes to a local park, and there he waited for a while, until someone came along to meet him...

It was the new teacher!

The teacher gave the new kid a hug, and off they went, hand in hand. Following from a distance, Lewis could hear they were talking about Math.

And that stupid new kid knew everything about it, much more than anyone in the class!

By:Pedro Pablo Sacristan