Curious Facts
Page 2
- The tongue of a mature blue whale has approximately the same mass as that of an entire elephant.
[Source: Sir David Attenborough - The Blue Planet.]
- There is a popular story that during the heat of the space race in the 1960's, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of about $1 million U.S. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on Earth.
The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil. Sadly, the story is not true.
[Thank you to Aaron McDaid for sending this fact to curiouser.co.uk]
- It is reported that in hot weather the Eiffel Tower grows by up to six inches, which would seem to imply that
in cold weather it can shrink by up to six inches. Draw your own analogies.
[Unconfirmed.]
- Despite a few spectacular accidents, in terms of deaths per passenger mile, space travel is still
the safest form of transport known to man. Although, it might be considered that a deaths per passenger hour
would be a more relevant statistic.
[Source: JM Roberts, The Penguin History of the World, 1995.]
- ELEVEN PLUS TWO is an anagram of TWELVE PLUS ONE
- If you are in a room of 23 people, it is more likely than not that at least two people will share the same birthday.
In a room of of 35 people, the probability of at least two people sharing the same birthday is approximately 85%.
[See curiouser.co.uk's proof.]
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In the last 200 years the population of our planet has grown
exponentially, at a rate of 1.9% per year. If it continued at this rate, with the population doubling every 40 years, by 2600 we would all be standing literally shoulder to shoulder.
[Source: The Universe in a Nutshell, Prof Stephen Hawking]
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