A sunshower is an unusual meteorological phenomenon in which rain falls while the sun is shining. This happens as a result of cumulus cloud formation in the atmosphere. Cumulus clouds have a puffy or cotton-like appearance, often with a dark, flat base. Sunlight has partial penetration through these types of clouds. Therefore, sun can sometimes be seen while cumulus clouds are producing rain. These conditions can also lead to the appearance of a rainbow, if the sun is at a low enough angle.

A manhole cover is made round to prevent it from falling into the aperture, which could happen if the opening and cover were square or rectangle. Round tubes are the strongest and most material-efficient shape against the compression of the earth around them. Round manhole covers for sealing off the tubes are relatively easy to manufacture. The load bearing surfaces of manhole frames and covers are machined to assure flatness and prevent them from becoming dislodged by traffic.

Desalination is the process that makes salt water fit to drink. You can evaporate the water from a pan of salt water and catch the vapor, thereby removing the salt and making it drinkable. A straightforward way to distill water is to use a water distillation unit. That includes a boiling vessel, a condenser hooked to the vessel that changes steam back into liquid water, a cooling water source to provide a heat sink for the hot steam, and a collecting vessel to catch the distilled water. If you have the heat sources, piping and appropriate glassware or metal vessels, this is a relatively simple process.

Balls with dimples can be propelled for longer distances than smooth balls. Dimples help to give a golf ball lift (a slight amount of negative pressure). Dimples also help to reduce drag and allow the ball to travel farther.

Today’s electric cars can run from 25 – 40 miles on a charge. So, the recharging stations for electric cars should be located less than 25 miles apart on a highway. Perhaps having electrical re-charging stations at 12 to 20 mile intervals in urban and suburban areas would be advisable for early 21st century electric automobile technology.

While the strength of steel beams can be demonstrated by a test done on metal paper clip, it would be speculative to predict beam strength for an object much larger in scale, different in shape and possessing other metallurgical properties. What can be shown by bending a paper clip back-and-forth until it breaks is failure by fatigue. The number of cycles that it takes until it fails is not only dependent on the strength of the clip but how severely you bend it. (See To Engineer is Human by Henry Petroski)

The shortest distance between Little Diomede Island (part of Alaska) and Big Diomede Island (part of Russia) is less than three miles. The world’s longest bridge (Lake Pontchartrain Causeway) built so far is 23.87 miles in length. The bridge with the longest single span is Japan’s Akishi bridge at 1.2 miles, and the Indonesian government has recently approved plans for the Sundra Strait bridge, which will have a main span of almost two miles. So, it is technically possible to link Alaska to Russia by bridge.