Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy your body needs to function at rest. This accounts for about 60 to 70 percent of calories burned in a day and includes the energy required to keep the heart beating, the lungs breathing, the eyelids blinking and the body temperature stabilized.
Vasco Da Gama Found a route from Portugal east to India by going around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa. He set up trade in India and eventually became the Portuguese Viceroy in India.
Simple answer: He was looking to find another route to get spices from Asia. He thought it was a lot shorter than it actually was. When he found the West Indies he initially thought he was in Asia. A slightly less simplified answer to an actually very complicated question: Christopher Columbus set sail looking for a way to get to Asia.