Part 11 (1/2)

Submitted by Dave Bohnhoff of Madison, Wisconsin.

Why Do We Dream More Profusely When We Nap than We Do Overnight?

According to the experts we consulted, we dream just as much at night as we do when we take a nap. However, we recall our afternoon-nap dreams much more easily than our dreams at night.

While we are dreaming, our long-term memory faculties are suppressed. During the night, our sleep is likely to go undisturbed. We tend to forget dreams we experience in the early stages of sleep. The sooner that we wake up after having our dreams, the more likely we are to remember them.

Any situation that wakes us up just after or during the course of a dream will make the sleeper perceive that he or she has been dreaming profusely. Dr. Robert W. McCarley, the executive secretary of the Sleep Research Society, told Imponderables that women in advanced stages of pregnancy often report that they are dreaming more frequently. Dr. McCarley believes that the perceived increase in dreaming activity of pregnant women is prompted not by psychological factors but because their sleep is constantly interrupted by physical discomforts.

Why Do Place Kickers and Field-Goal Kickers Get Yardage Credit from Where the Ball Is Kicked and Yet Punters Only Get Credit from the Line of Scrimmage?

Well, who said life was fair? It turns out that this blatant discrimination occurs not because anyone wants to persecute punters particularly but for the convenience and accuracy of the scorekeepers. Jim Heffernan, director of Public Relations for the National Football League, explains: Punts are measured from the line of scrimmage, which is defined point, and it sometimes is difficult to determine exactly where the punter contacts the ball. Field goals are measured from the point of the kick because that is the defined spot of contact.

Submitted by Dale A. Dimas of Cupertino, California.

How Does a Gas Pump ”Know” When to Shut Off When the Fuel Tank Is Full?

A sensing device, located about one inch from the end of the nozzle, does nothing while fuel is flowing into the gas tank, but is tripped as soon as fuel backs up into the nozzle. The sensing device tells the nozzle to shut off.

Because of the location of the sensing device and the relatively deep position of the nozzle, a gas tank is never totally filled unless the customer or attendant ”tops off” the tank. Topping off tanks is now illegal in most states and is a dangerous practice anywhere.

Submitted by Stephen O. Addison, Jr. of Charlotte, North Carolina.

How Does the Treasury Know When to Print New Bills or Mint New Coins? How Does it Calculate How Much Money Is Lost or Destroyed by the Public?

There are more than two hundred billion dollars in coins and currency in circulation today in the United States. Determining the necessary timing for the minting and printing of new monies is therefore far from a simple task.

Most of the demand for new money comes from banks. When a bank receives more checks to cash than it can comfortably accommodate with its cash on hand, the bank orders new money from one of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks. Of course, the bank doesn't get the new money for free; it uses a special checkbook to order new cash. When a bank has excess cash, it can deposit money into an account at the Federal Reserve Bank to offset its withdrawals.

What happens when the Federal Reserve Bank itself runs out of coins or notes? It places an order with the U.S. Mint for new coins or the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for the new currency. So demand from individual banks, funneled through a larger ”distributor”-a Federal Reserve Bank-is responsible for the decision to issue new currency.

The average life-span of a dollar bill is fifteen to eighteen months. Larger denominations tend to have a longer life because they are circulated less frequently. The perishability of paper notes is the second major factor in calculating the requirements for new currency. In 1983 alone, the twelve Federal Reserve Banks destroyed more than 4.4 billion notes, worth more than $36 billion. The constant retirement of defective bills explains why almost one out of every four notes the Federal Reserve Bank sends to local banks is a newly printed one.

Every time a Federal Reserve Bank receives currency from a local bank, it runs the notes through high-speed machines designed to detect unfit currency. The newest machines can inspect up to sixty thousand notes per hour, checking each bill for dirt by testing light reflectivity (the dirtier the note, the less light is reflected) and authenticity (each note is tested for magnetic qualities that are difficult for counterfeiters to duplicate).

Notes valued at $100 or less are destroyed by the local Federal Reserve Bank. Unfit bills used to be burned and processed into mulch (we kid you not), but they are now shredded and compressed into four-hundred-pound bales. Most of these bundles of booty are discarded at landfills. Federal Reserve notes in denominations of $500 or more are canceled with distinctive perforations and cut in half lengthwise. The local Federal Reserve Bank keeps the upper half of each note and sends the other half to the Department of Treasury in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. When the Treasury Department verifies the legitimacy of the notes, it destroys its halves and informs the district bank that it may destroy the upper halves.

Coins have a much longer life in circulation, but the Mint still produces more than 50 million coins a day (compared to ”only” twenty million notes printed per day). A U.S. Mint official told us that s.h.i.+pping coins across country is not a trivial task logistically-five-hundred-thousand pennies, for example, are a tad bulky. Huge tractor-trailer trucks, up to 55 feet in length and 13 1/2 feet high, are used to transport coins from the Mint to Federal Reserve Banks. Dimes, quarters, and half dollars are transported by armored carriers.

The demand process for coins works the same way as for paper notes. Although the Mint has learned that seasonal peaks run true from year to year (the demand for coins goes up during prime shopping seasons, such as Christmas), the Mint yields to the demands of its const.i.tuent Federal Reserve Banks.

Submitted by Hugo Kahn of New York, New York.

What Is the Purpose of that Piece of Skin Hanging from the Back of Our Throat?

No, Ka.s.sie Schwan's ill.u.s.tration to the contrary, the purpose of that ”hanging piece of skin” is not to present targets for cartoon characters caught inside other characters' throats. Actually, that isn't skin hanging down, it's mucous membrane and muscle. And it has a name: the uvula.

The uvula is a sort of anatomical tollgate between the throat and the pharynx, the first part of the digestive tract. The uvula has a small but important role in controlling the inflow and outflow of food through the digestive system. Dr. William P. Jollie, chairman, Department of Anatomy, the Medical College of Virginia, explains: ”The muscle of both the soft palate and the uvula elevates the roof of the mouth during swallowing so that food and liquid can pa.s.s from the mouth cavity into the pharynx.”

Dr. L.J.A. DiDio, of the Medical College of Ohio, adds that the uvula also helps prevent us from regurgitating our food during swallowing. Without the uvula, some of our food might enter the nasal cavity, with unpleasant consequences.

Submitted by Andy Garruto of Kinnelon, New Jersey.

Why Don't Birds Tip Over When They Sleep on a Telephone Wire?

A telephone wire, of course, is only a high-tech subst.i.tute for a tree branch. Most birds perch in trees and sleep without fear of falling even during extremely windy conditions.