Ships are not very fast, compared to ground vehicles. Even an old beater car can easily go 130 km/h (or much faster) on the highway, while most ships travel four or five times slower. But what about submarines – what maximum speed can they reach?| Nodum.org
Cook Strait, which separates the North and South islands of New Zealand, has never been the safest place for shipping. Particularly dangerous was the French Pass (Te Aumiti), which is framed by sharp jagged rocks and characterized by strong underwater currents. Today, navigating this dangerous stretch of water is easier thanks to the modern navigational aids. But once upon a time a completely wild dolphin helped ships to get through there safely.| Nodum.org
If you love looking through classifieds of classic cars, you’ve noticed that some of them have fender-mounted side mirrors. The conventional door-mounted mirrors are easy to adjust and clean so why would manufacturers mount the side mirrors on the fenders?| Nodum.org
Peugeot 406, produced in 1995-2004, is a fairly simple everyday family car. Laurent Rossi’s design looked sharp and modern in its day, but now it’s an easily forgettable vehicle. Except for the 406 Coupé – this two-door beauty is slowly becoming a classic.| Nodum.org
Parts of Europeans cars are pretty much always in metric: 10 mm nut, 15 mm diameter hose and so on. After all, most of the world uses metres, centimetres, kilograms, watts, and other Si system units. However, for some reason rims are still measured in inches, regardless of where you live. And that’s a little weird.| Nodum.org
Iceland is one of the few countries in Europe that does not have a railway. There were never any train stations, intercity railways, subways or trams. And no wonder – the country’s natural conditions and distribution of the population are not ideal for railways. The only strange thing is that in the history of Iceland’s transport there were three train accidents.| Nodum.org
A lot of tractors, bulldozers and some trucks use exhaust flappers – small metal plates that can be seen and heard flapping on top of vertical exhaust pipes. They are more common in older equipment. Do you know what the function of these flappers is?| Nodum.org
You may have noticed that some pressure gauges are liquid-filled. These measuring devices are often installed in industrial equipment, hydraulic and other systems. What is that liquid inside and what function does it perform?| Nodum.org
Unique does not necessarily mean beautiful. The Goliath Pionier is not necessarily a beautiful car, but it is so unique that it looks like it came straight out of a cartoon. On the other hand, it was a very important and well-loved machine.| Nodum.org
Some cars have front-hinged bonnets, but most hoods open towards the rear. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these designs? Why one is more popular than the other?| Nodum.org
