Perhaps these factoids will interest you:
How is the gauge of a shotgun determined?
The gauge of a shotgun barrel is determined as follows: A lead ball that fits snugly in the muzzle of a cylinder bore is taken as the standard of measurement. The number of these lead balls in a pound determines the gauge. For instance, suppose the maximum diameter of a lead ball that will fit in the bore of a shotgun barrel is 0.730 inches, and further suppose it requires twelve such lead balls to make a pound. It is a twelve gauge shotgun. Of course, the diameter of the bore proper and not the "choke" determines the gauge.
Why do we hear a noise when we strike the shuttlecock with the battledore?
Because the percussion of the shuttlecock upon the parchment of the battledore causes it to vibrate, and the vibrations are imparted to the air.
Do rabbits swim?
Ordinary rabbits and hares, like most other mammals, swim naturally when thrown or forced into the water, but their fur and skin are not impervious to water and they gradually drown as they swim. The swamp rabbit, a native of swamp, marshes and low woodlands in the South, is a good swimmer and it often takes to the water when pursued, even swimming across rivers. Its trails frequently lead through shallow water and it has been observed to swim back and forth across creeks and bayous to elude dogs. The arctic hare is said to swim freely across the small streams common in its habitat. A common European hare readily takes to water and swims well. One was seen swimming across an arm of the sea a mile wide.
How did "in the limelight" originate?
"In the limelight", meaning a conspicuous position in the public eye, was originally theatrical slang. The system of lighting known as the limelight was invented in 1825 by a British army officer, surveyor and administrator named Thomas Drummond.
After serving in the royal engineers, Captain Drummond became assistant to the chief of the British trigonometrical survey. He learned of the brilliant luminosity of lime when incandescent while attending a series of lectures on chemistry and physics delivered before the Royal Institution of London by the great scientists William Thomas Brande and Michael Faraday. It occurred to him that a lime light might be used to make distant surveying stations visible, and he produced a steady, intense white light by directing an oxyhydrogen flame on a cylinder of lime. In 1825, while surveying in northern Ireland, he put his new "Drummond light," as it is sometimes called, to a practical test by making successful observations between two mountains sixty-seven miles apart. A few years later Captain Drummond adapted his limelight for use in lighthouses.
In those days before the use of electricity there was no satisfactory or adequate system of lighting the stage in theaters. Stage lights, footlights, floodlights and spotlights as we know them were not yet developed. Naturally the new limelight was quickly adapted for theatrical use. The stage lighting instrument was equipped with a lens to concentrate on a particular point on the stage a beam of light produced by oxyhydrogen flame on a cylinder of lime. That part of the stage where the most important action was taking place came to be referred to as the "limelight." In process of time the leading player in the piece was said to be "in the limelight."
This phrase passed into general speech and still survives, although the system of lighting to which it refers has long been supplanted by other systems. Thomas Drummond, inventor of the limelight, became undersecretary for Ireland in 1836 and proved an able and successful administrator. "Property," he told the Irish landlords, "has its duties as well as its rights." He died in Dublin in 1840 at the age of forty-three.