The Wise Book of Whys

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Book: Read The Wise Book of Whys for Free Online
Authors: Daven Hiskey, Today I Found Out.com
whose sole goal was to get the eight-hour workday established. Their biggest victory came when they managed to convince the Trades Union Congress, which represented the majority of unions in Britain (and does so even to this day), to establish the eight-hour workday as one of their primary goals, which they subsequently began to work towards.
    The push for a shorter workday began earlier in the United States, in 1791, with workers in Philadelphia striking for a ten-hour total workday that would include two hours for meals. By the 1830s, support for eight-hour workdays was shared among the majority of the working-class people in the United States, but still failed to find support among business owners. Over the next few decades, workers continued to hold strikes demanding shorter working hours and gradually things improved.
    Momentum for the cause particularly picked up with several “Eight Hour Leagues” forming in the United States, as Mann had formed in Britain around this same time . In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions declared that May 1, 1886 would be the first day that an eight-hour workday would be made mandatory. This, of course, was neither backed by any federal mandate nor the businesses themselves, and it relied on workers striking and raising a general ruckus to drive the point home. When May 1, 1886 arrived, the first ever May Day Parade was held with 350,000 workers walking off their jobs protesting for the eight-hour workday.
    Progress was still slow though , and it wasn’t until 1905 that industries began implementing the eight-hour workday on their own accord. One of the first businesses to implement this was the Ford Motor Company, in 1914, which not only cut the standard workday to eight hours, but also doubled their worker’s pay per hour. To the shock of many, this resulted in Ford’s overall output per workday increasing significantly, despite the fact that the company was using the same workers, who were now working fewer hours. This encouraged other companies to adopt the shorter, eight hour workday as a standard for their employees.
    Final ly, in 1937 the eight hour workday was standardized in the United States and regulated by the federal government according to the Fair Labor Standards Act. It stipulated that workers were not to work more than 44 hours per week and any hours over the 40 required of the workers were to be paid with overtime bonuses added to their normal pay rate.
     
     
     
    BONUS FACT
     
    Despite some groups in the United States, such as the Boston Ship Carpenters, managing to achieve an eight hour workday as early as 1842, the average work week in the United States in 1890 was around 90 to 100 hours per week for most building tradesmen, according to a survey done by the federal government at that time.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Why Golf Balls Have Dimples
     
    Somewhat counter intuitively, dimples in golf balls significantly decrease the drag on the golf ball as it flies through the air, compared to a smooth ball . Not only that, but the dimples also increase the lift somewhat. These two things combined can make the golf ball go as much as three times farther than the same ball without dimples.
    The dimples on golf balls accomplish both of these things by creating turbulence in the layer of air around the golf ball, called the boundary layer . In simple terms, the dimples more or less scoop the air and direct it inwards towards the back of the golf ball. This effectively increases the net air pressure in the back of the ball, which reduces the drag by reducing the pressure pulling back at the ball from behind. This can reduce drag by as much as 50% over a smooth ball.
    More technically, the streamline flow of air on a smooth ball separates fairly quickly from the ball as it passes over the surface of the golf ball . This ends up maximizing the size of the wake behind the golf ball,

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