What is Qwikipedia?
Ever been on Wikipedia to look up an article? More often than not, we start with one topic, click a few links and within no time are reading about something else.
Qwikipedia is a game that tries to quench this curiosity in us. The objective is to get to a particular Wiki page, starting from a specific article, using minimal clicks. There is no single correct answer, so we might surprise ourselves by finding new routes each time!
Friday’s Freerider
>Gharial —> >Hubble Space Telescope
Gharial
Known by many names, gharial is seen mostly in the Indian subcontinent. Loss of habitat,extensive use of fishing nets and depletion of fish resources are threatening the survival of these fish-eating crocodiles. Gharial is listed as criticall endangered by the IUCN.
Gharial has 110 sharp teeth which helps it to catchfish easily. Gharials were once very prominently seen in rivers of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar but now it has become extinct. They don’t even cover 2% of their former distribution area.
Bangladesh
Think Bangladesh and the image of the battling begums immediately come to our mind. The politics of the country revolves around Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia. This south Asian country shares its borders with India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.
It is among the most densely populated countries and its capital city is Dhaka. Bangladesh was carved out of Pakistan in 1971. Bangladesh is prone to cyclones.
Cyclone
An area of circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth is known as cyclone, in meteorological terms. These winds rotate anticlockwise in Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in Southern Hemisphere.
Areas with low atmospheric pressure are mostly prone to cyclones. Tornado, Dust Devil, Water spout, steam devil are some of the different types of cyclones. The cyclone in Mars was imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble Space Telescope
In 1990, a space telescope named after astronomer Edwin hubble was launched into low Earth orbit. The Hubble Space Telescope is still in operation and focuses on near ultraviolet, visible and near infrared spectra. Even in very little background light, Hubble’s orbit allows it to take high-resolution pictures. Hubble has helped in achieving breakthroughs in astrophysics.
So the path we have travelled today is:
>Gharial —> >Bangladesh —> >Cyclone —> > Hubble Space Telescope
Three clicks! Hop over. It’s time for the next question:
Monday’s Marauder
Send in your paths for the above to school@thehindu.co.in with the subject “Qwikipedia”.
