Interesting & Amazing Facts
Science & Nature
Bullwhip
The tip of a bullwhip moves so fast that it breaks the sound barrier. The crack of the whip is actually a tiny sonic boom.
Chromosomes
The complexity of the organism has no bearing on the number of chromosomes it has: humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes while a species of fern holds the record for the most, with 630 pairs.
da Vinci, Leonardo
While known as a painter, sculptor, architect, and engineer, Leonardo da Vinci was the first to record that the number of rings in the cross section of a tree trunk reveal its age. He also discovered that the width between the rings indicates the annual moisture.
Earthquakes
* An earthquake on December 16, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards.
* There are more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world every year.
Energy
If 10 kilograms of matter spontaneously turned into energy there would be enough energy to power a 100 Watt light bulb for 300 million years.
Flowers
There is a flower called the Scarlet Pimpernel that can forecast the weather. If the flower is closed up, rain is coming and if it is opened up, the day will be sunny.
Forest Fires
Forest fires move faster uphill than downhill.
Gasoline (Automobile)
A car, on average, uses 1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the engine.
Glass
* When glass breaks, it showers towards, not away from the force that broke it.
* When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3.000 miles per hour.
* It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times.
Hemp
One acre of hemp will produce as much paper as four acres of trees (and can be replaced next season).
Hurricanes
The energy in one hurricane is equal to about 500,000 atomic bombs.
Hydrogen
The hydrogen molecules in water are 14 billion years old, they were created at the same time as the universe.
Ice Bergs
The average ice berg weighs 20 million tons.
Lightning
* The temperature of lightning bolts is sometimes hotter than the surface of the sun, up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
* Lightning strikes the earth somewhere more than seventeen million times every day, or about two hundred times every second.
* A lightning strike in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed all 11 members of one soccer team while leaving the opposing team in the match untouched, leading to accusations of witchcraft by the survivors.
* Lightning travels towards the earth a an average speed of 200,000 miles per hour.
* The average flash of lightning contains 125 million volts of electricity.
* 2.5% of lightning strike victims are talking on the phone, the lightning travels through the lines.
* A charge of 100 million to 1 billion volts of electricity needs to be generated in a cloud to start a cloud to earth strike.
* Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women.
Ragweed
One ragweed plant can release as many
as on billion grains of pollen.
Rainbows
Every rainbow is unique - each rainbow is formed from light hitting your eye at a very precise angle. Someone standing next to you will see light coming from a slightly different angle than you and therefore see a different rainbow.
Spores
Scientists have successfully revived some bacterial spores that were found enclosed in amber. The spores were at least 25 million years old.
Sound
Sound travels a mile in five seconds through the air, under water it travels a mile in one second.
Trees
* A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows.
* The California redwood - coast redwood and giant sequoia - are the tallest and largest living organism in the world.
* The oldest living thing in existence is not a giant redwood, but a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, dated to be aged 4,600 years old.
* A redwood trees roots are only 5-6 feet deep but they spread out over an acre.
* It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them.
Weather
Weather is a factor in about 40 percent of all aviation accidents.