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SCMP Reporter

Do Olympic-sized swimming pools have to be of standard depth as well as length and width? An Olympic-sized swimming pool has to be 50 metres in length and have a minimum of eight lanes, which should be 2.5 m wide.

  World records can only be set in a 50 m or 25 m pool. The Federation Internationale De Natation Amateur (FINA) introduced 25 m records in 1991.

  According to FINA, for Olympic competitions and world championships, pools must be a minimum of 2 m deep.

  For competitions in the United States, the pool has to be a minimum of four feet (1.2 m) deep, according to the US Olympic Committee. But most top US pools are between six and nine feet (1.8 to 2.7 m) deep.

Why do some clothes shrink after washing? MANDY KAM Sacred Heart Canossian College Most things expand with heat and contract, or shrink, with cold. Shrinkage in clothes is caused by a combination of agitation in the washing process, high temperature of the water and the action of detergents (which act as a lubricant between fibres). Clothes also shrink as they dry especially if high temperatures are involved.

  Woollen garments can shrink irreversibly if not washed with care.

   The shrinkage of cotton clothes depends on both the diameter and length of fibres that make up the fabric and the changes caused by moisture and temperature.

   Cotton yarns are first twisted to make threads before it is woven to make fabric. When the cotton threads get wet, they expand and increase in diameter, resulting in an overall decrease in length. When the threads are dry again, they decrease in diameter but do not quite reach their original length.

  After several washes, the fibres will settle down until no further shrinkage will occur.

  To minimise shrinkage, it is best to wash clothes at cool temperatures and not to use tumble dryers.

Why do birds not fall off branches when they are asleep? Birds have a special arrangement of tendons in their legs that allows them to grip branches tightly with their feet while asleep. The flexor tendon from the thigh muscle extends to the knee, down the leg, round the ankle and under the toes. When the bird is sleeping, the weight of its body causes the knee to bend which tightens the tendon and closes the claw tightly around a branch.



Ask Mr Brain ... all will be explained