Why do we call them "Piggy Banks"?

This entry is in the series Deep Questions

No one invented the piggy bank. The piggy banks’ origin owes more to the history of language, than to an individual inventor. In old english (around the 15th century) there was a word “pygg” which referred to a type of orange clay. People made all kinds of useful objects out of clay, including dishes and jars to hold spare change. Around the 18th century, the word “pygg” now sounded the same as the word for the animal “pig”. An unknown person(s) thought to shape a “pygg” jar, to look just like a real “pig”. Perhaps an order came in for a “pygg” jar and the potter misunderstood.

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Can you really count the seconds between lightening and thunder to determine how far away it is?

This entry is in the series Deep Questions

I’ve always heard the wives tell that you count the seconds between seeing a lightening flash and the sound of the thunder to figure out how far away it is. Living here in Florida, we get lots of both. So is it true or an old wives tale?

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