No.0002 - America

MYTH: America
America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian merchant.

(Possible) True Story: (1) In those days, new countries and continents were not named after a forename, but always after a surname. For example, Tasmanian Island named after Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer and Cooks Islands were renamed after James Cook, a British navigator.

(2) It was likely to be named after Richard Ameryk, a Welshman. Ameryk was a wealthy merchant based in Bristol, who sponsored John Cabot's second transatlantic voyage. John Cabot* was an Italian navigator, and in May 1497** he reached North America***, becoming the first recorded European to set foot in America. Ameryk would have expected Cabot's discoveries to be named after Ameryk as he was the chief patron of the voyage.

* His real name was Giovanni Caboto, but the English called him John Cabot
** Vespucci's voyage to South America was between 1499 and 1502
*** The exact location is disputed, but it was very likely to be somewhere in North-Eastern Canada of today


NUMBER: 4.184 Joules
That's what is equivalent to 1 calorie (a.k.a. small calorie and gram calorie, abbrev: cal). 1 gram calorie defined as the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram water by 1 centigrade. The definition of kilogram calorie (a.k.a. big calorie; abbrev: Cal) is similar, just replacing kilogram with gram. Conveniently 1 kilogram calorie is equal to 1 kcal (kilocalorie), which is most often used in food energy. So 1 kcal is equal to about 4.2 kJ.

Calorie was used as a unit of energy before SI-metric units were adopted. But annoyingly somehow it stuck, especially relating to food energy, as other non-metric systems are struck, like pint and pound.