Category Science

Why do we find butterflies so interesting?

The butterfly has a wonderful life cycle which has four different stages. From an egg, it becomes a caterpillar, then a pupa, and finally, a butterfly.

       Butterflies in their first stage look completely different from the final stage. Fully grown butterflies lay eggs on the food plant. Their larvae, also known as caterpillars, feed from these plants. They may eat once or twice their own weight in leaves each day. The caterpillars grow very fast. They may shed their skins four or five times.

        When they become fully developed, they enter the third stage in their life cycle, called pupa. It’s a state of complete rest. Different types of caterpillars pupate in different ways. Some rest in their cocoons, which they make using thread from their mouths. Others hide in hollow parts of trees. The pupa stage may last from weeks to months.

      It is during this pupa stage, that the caterpillar grows into a beautiful butterfly. When it comes out, it will be wet. After its wings have expanded and dries, it flies away immediately.

      Some types of butterflies in the tropical areas have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation. In some cold regions, it takes them several years to complete their whole life cycle

What are the differences between butterflies and dragonflies?

Even though both butterflies and dragonflies are insects, both of them belong to different orders. Butterflies belong to the order Lepidoptera and dragonflies belong to the order Odonata.

      Butterflies and dragonflies differ in their life cycles. They also differ in their choices of habitat, diet, and morphology. Butterflies can be found in various environments ranging from rainforests to mountains.

      Dragonflies like to be around moist areas such as wetlands, ponds, streams, and lakes. Butterflies will uncoil their proboscis or feeding tube and drink nectar from flowers, whereas dragonflies much prefer flying insects like bees.

          Dragonflies have two pairs of wings that are transparent, straight, and have few veins. But the wings of butterflies are scaly

What makes butterflies different from other insects?

Butterflies are insects that belong to an order named Lepidoptera, which includes moths too.

      Even though butterflies belong to the ‘insect’ category, they are significantly different from other insects. All insects have three main divisions to their bodies: head, thorax, and abdomen. Insects have their skeleton around the bodies, not inside them, like the mammals.

      Structurally, butterflies are like all other insects, but their most important difference is the scale covering on wings and body. Unlike other insects, they also have the ability to coil up their feeding tube, or proboscis. All insects have six legs attached to the thorax, although some butterflies have shortened front legs.

     The world’s most abundant creatures are the insects, whose known species outnumber all other animals and the plants combined.

Why are butterflies known as flying flowers?

Butterflies are known as flying flowers because of their colorful bodies and wings.

     They come under the category of ‘insect’. A butterfly has six legs, four wings, and two antennae.

      The thin, delicate lines that make them colorful are called scales. Most butterflies are harmless. You can find butterflies every-where in the world, except Antarctica. Butterflies are also an important part of nature because they make the flowers bloom by cross pollination. Cross pollination means, pollinating a flower or plant with pollen from another flower or plant.

What is Polaroid photography?

Polaroid photography is a photographic process in which the processing of the exposed film takes place inside the camera and the print is ready within a minute. It is based on a diffusion-transfer process, which makes it possible to produce a film negative and a positive print in one stage. Developed in 1947 by Edwin H. Land, the process makes use of a special film pack which also contains the printing paper and the processing chemicals. The chemical in the form of a jelly is contained in tiny capsules which burst as the film is moved after exposure. The name Polaroid comes from the name of the company with which Land was associated.

In the Polaroid process, after exposure the film passes through a pair of steel rollers in the camera which releases the developing chemicals. The chemicals convert the exposed silver salts on the negative layer into metallic silver. The unexposed silver salts from the film move to the positive emulsion layer on the paper by diffusion. There they are changed into silver, forming a positive image on the print. Colour film used in Polaroid camera has layers of coloured dyes in addition to negative and positive emulsions.

What is Quartz clock?

It is a clock which makes use of the piezoelectric properties of quartz. A quartz crystal has a natural frequency of vibration which depends upon its size and shape. If such a crystal is included in an electronic circuit which applies an oscillating electric field to its opposite faces at a frequency very close to its natural frequency, the entire circuit will resonate or vibrate at the natural frequency of the crystal. Moreover, this frequency of vibration will remain constant over considerable time. In a clock or a wrist-watch, this constant frequency of vibration is converted into electric pulses to drive a motor which in turn drives a gear train to operate the hands or alternatively, the pulses activate a digital display.

Quartz clocks are much more accurate than spring or pendulum clocks. They may accumulate an error of a few tens of seconds in one year. They are used in computers and microprocessors.