Curiosity Daily

How to Improve Your Sense of Direction

Episode Summary

Learn about how to improve your sense of direction; the true story of the pied piper; and how our planets got their names. The stories in this episode originally aired May 1, 2018 “How Improve Your Sense of Direction, Pied Piper Mysteries, Planet Name Origins” https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/how-to-improve-your-sense-of-direction-pied-piper  Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Episode Notes

Learn about how to improve your sense of direction; the true story of the pied piper; and how our planets got their names.

The stories in this episode originally aired May 1, 2018 “How Improve Your Sense of Direction, Pied Piper Mysteries, Planet Name Origins” https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/how-to-improve-your-sense-of-direction-pied-piper

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

 

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-to-improve-your-sense-of-direction

Episode Transcription

CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.

ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today you’ll learn about how you can improve your sense of direction; why the pied piper isn’t just a fairy tale; and where our planets got their names. We originally ran these stories on May 1, 2018, and they’re so good, we remastered them just for you.

CODY: Plus, stick around for a brand-new recap segment at the end of today’s episode to hear our fresh takes on all of today’s stories. Let’s satisfy some curiosity.

RECAP

Let’s recap the main things we learned today

  1. CODY: You, too, can improve your sense of direction. Try using major landmarks, like mountains or lakes or oceans or monuments. If you can’t see landmarks, then pay attention to where the sun is, since it rises in the east and sets in the west. And pay attention to what’s around you when you’re driving — even if you’re using a GPS.
  2. CODY: The Pied Piper may not have been just a fairy tale. The story goes that in the year 1284, the German town of Hamelin was dealing with a rat problem. A colorfully dressed piper played music to get rid of the rodents, but the residents didn’t pay him, so he played his pipe again, and this time, the children of the town followed him away. There’s a lot of evidence from history suggesting something like this actually did happen, from an entry in the village records referencing that time “the children left” to the fact that some Medieval laws outlawed music in certain areas to honor victims. One of history’s weirdest unsolved mysteries.
  3. ASHLEY: Pluto was named by an 11-year-old girl named Venetia Burney. She won a contest held by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, after they discovered the celestial body in 1930. She won a prize of 5 British pounds, worth more than $400 today.
    1. **ADD WHERE WE GOT THE NAMES FOR URANUS AND NEPTUNE FOR AD LIB AT END** - History.com https://www.history.com/news/who-named-the-planets
    2. URANUS https://www.space.com/18704-who-discovered-uranus.html#:~:text=Ultimately%2C%20German%20astronomer%20Johann%20Elert,for%20the%20father%20of%20Saturn. 
    3. Ultimately, German astronomer Johann Elert Bode (whose observations helped to establish the new object as a planet) named Uranus after an ancient Greek god of the sky. Bode argued that as Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the new planet should be named for the father of Saturn. (Uranus is also the only planet to be named after a Greek god rather than a Roman one.) Bode's colleague, Martin Klaproth, supported his choice and named his newly discovered element "uranium."
    4. NEPTUNE https://www.universetoday.com/75693/how-did-neptune-get-its-name/ “Shortly after its discovery, Neptune was only referred to as “the planet exterior to Uranus” or as “Le Verrier’s planet”. The first suggestion for a name came from Johann Galle, who proposed the name Janus. Another proposal was Oceanus. Urbain Le Verrier, who discovered the planet, claimed the right to name his discovery: Neptune. Soon Neptune became the internationally accepted name.”

[ad lib optional] 

CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer.

ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Reuben Westmaas and Cody Gough, who’s also our producer and audio editor.

CODY: You don’t need a good sense of direction to know where to find us. Just come back to your favorite podcast app — or curiosity-daily-dot-com. And join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.

ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!