When is it least likely to rain?
Want to know about the first text message ever
sent?
These are just some of the fascinating facts
chosen by a group of teachers to inspire
youngsters to pick a career in science and
engineering.
They are launching a “guerilla science”
campaign, posting up a range of amazing and
amusing facts in parks, chippies and skate
parks.
The project has been organised with The Big
Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair to
be held at Birmingham NEC on March 13-16 next
year.
Vasu Krishnaswamy from London’s Stanmore
College has been involved and says: “This is a
fun and different way to remind pupils that
science and engineering are part of our lives –
from the games they play on their iPhone, to the
bus they get on each day.
“We hope to capture young people’s
imaginations – the first step to really engaging
in and enjoying a subject.”
For more fascinating facts about the scientific
world around us, read on…
Technology
The first computer mouse was made of
wood.
In 2011, a 75-year-old Georgian woman
stole some fibre optic cables and cut off
the internet to two entire countries.
The words written on Twitter every day
would fill a book of 10 million pages.
The technology behind smartphones relies
on up to 250,000 separate patents.
A typical microwave oven uses more
electricity keeping its digital clock on
standby than it does heating food.
The entire internet weighs about the same
as one large strawberry.
Science
On average, every square mile of sea on
the planet contains 46,000 pieces of
rubbish.
If humans were capable of hearing bass
frequencies lower than 20 Hz, we would
be able to hear our own muscles moving.
Humans share 50% of our DNA with a
banana.
Twenty five per cent of all of your bones
are in your feet.
The average person walks the equivalent
of three times around the world in a
lifetime.
The average lavatory seat is much cleaner
than the average toothbrush. That’s
because your teeth are home to around
10,000 million bacteria per square cm.
The Inca measurement of time was based
on how long it took to boil a potato.
Mosquitoes have killed more humans than
all the wars in history combined.
Cats have more than one hundred vocal
sounds, while dogs have only about 10.
If you drilled a tunnel straight through the
Earth and jumped in, it would take you 42
minutes 12 seconds to get to the other
side.
Light travels 18 million times faster than
rain.
8.95% of the underwater world remains
unexplored.
Under extreme high pressure, diamonds
can be made from peanut butter.
If the Sun was scaled down to the size of a
white blood cell, the Milky Way galaxy
would be the size of the United States.
There are more living organisms in a
teaspoonful of soil than there are people
alive on Earth.
Japan has a network of roads that play
music as you drive over them.
The world’s smallest test tube has a
diameter 10,000 times narrower than a
human hair.
A single bolt of lightning contains enough
energy to cook 100,000 pieces of toast.
The ozone layer smells faintly of
geraniums.
Engineering
The Eiffel Tower’s height varies by up to
six inches with the temperature.
Work at the 2012 Olympic Park took 700
million hours by 30,000-plus building
workers and engineers.
The first ever text message said “Merry
Christmas”.
Machines as long as two football pitches
moving at 76m a day took 3 years to drill
the Channel Tunnel.
Sherman Poppen glued two skis together
to make a “snurfer”, the first snowboard,
in 1965.
Engineers have made bionic hands
controllable by an iPhone app.
A nightingale’s song can be louder than a
chainsaw.
Aircraft engines suck in 1.25 tons of air
per second on take-off – that’s about the
volume of a squash court.
The hollow bit in the middle of a brick is
called a “frog”.
Maths
The average pencil writes 45,000 words or
a 35-mile long line.
Going to work is statistically three times
more dangerous than war.
It is most likely to be raining at 7am and
least likely at 3am.
Google was named after “googol” (one
with 100 zeros) was mistyped.
The “Arabic” numbering system was
actually invented in India.
You are 1% shorter in the evening than in
the morning.
2,520 is the smallest number that can be
exactly divided by all the numbers 1 to
10.
In a room of 23 people there’s a 50-50
chance of two people sharing a birthday.
With a group of 75 people there’s a 99%
chance
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