bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

Which is the world's tallest animal? It's the giraffe, which roams in small herds throughout Africa.

  The okapi, the giraffe's only living relative, is a solitary forest- dweller.

   Giraffes are easy to identify with their long, graceful necks and legs and their unmistakable patterned coat.

   Both sexes are born with short horns on their heads.

   These are used by the males when fighting, but are not shed each year.

   A single horn may grow from the middle of the forehead, in addition to the horns on the crown.

   Like other mammals, the giraffe's flexible neck contains just seven vertebrae, but these bones are greatly elongated.

   The tail, tipped with long hairs, is used as a fly whisk to keep insects and other pests away.

   Giraffes use their height to feed on leaves, twigs, shoots, and other vegetation at the top of trees.

   Trees provide food all year, unlike grasses which die out in the dry season.

  Because it has such long legs, a giraffe is unable to drink without getting into an awkward position, which leaves the animal vulnerable to attack. For this reason, giraffes usually visit waterholes in small herds, so that one can keep a lookout while the others drink.

Does water really go down plugholes the opposite way in the southern hemisphere? Many people, myself included, have been wrongly taught at school that water drains out of plug holes anti- clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

 Presumably it is supposed to go straight down at the equator.

 The coriolis force is usually accused of causing this 'phenomenon'.

  Coriolis force is the centrifugal force which causes weather patterns and ocean currents to deflect from their course.

   The force is created because the earth spins faster - travels a greater distance in the same time - at the equator than at higher or lower latitudes.

  While the coriolis force does affect weather patterns and ocean currents, it does not affect household plumbing. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.

   The force is so small and slow that it does not affect which way water drains out of a sink.

   It affects clouds and ocean currents because it is slowly but surely acting on them all the time.

   Regardless of other factors, water drains out of a sink too fast to be affected by coriolis force.

  The way water drains out of a sink or toilet is determined by the way it is filled, its shape and the position of the drain hole.

   Check your own sinks, chances are they drain in opposite direc tions, or not in the direction they are supposed to. If you want to learn how to do your own fake drainage changing direction tricks, go to http://www.ems.psu.edu/ ~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html for instructions and examples of famous coriolis frauds.



Ask mr Brain...all will be explained