50 TRIVIAS ABOUT

SCIENCE
1. The speed of light is generally rounded down to 186,000 miles per second. In
exact terms it is 299,792,458 m/s (meters per second – that is equal to
186,287.49 miles per second).

2. It takes 8 minutes 17 seconds for light to travel from the Sun’s surface to the
Earth.

3. October 12th, 1999 was declared “The Day of Six Billion” based on United
Nations projections.

4. 10 percent of all human beings ever born are alive at this very moment.

5. The Earth spins at 1,000 mph but it travels through space at an incredible
67,000 mph.

6. Every year over one million earthquakes shake the Earth.

7. When Krakatoa erupted in 1883, its force was so great it could be heard 4,800
kilometres away in Australia.

8. The largest ever hailstone weighed over 1kg and fell in Bangladesh in 1986.

9. Every second around 100 lightning bolts strike the Earth.

10. Every year lightning kills 1000 people.

11. In October 1999 an Iceberg the size of London broke free from the Antarctic
ice shelf .

12. If you could drive your car straight up you would arrive in space in just over
an hour.

13. Human tapeworms can grow up to 22.9m.

14. The Earth is 4.56 billion years old…the same age as the Moon and the Sun.

15. The dinosaurs became extinct before the Rockies or the Alps were formed.

16. Female black widow spiders eat their males after mating.

17. When a flea jumps, the rate of acceleration is 20 times that of the space
shuttle during launch.

18. A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

19. If our Sun were just inch in diameter, the nearest star would be 445 miles
away.

20. The Australian billygoat plum contains 100 times more vitamin C than an
orange.

21. Astronauts cannot belch – there is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in
their stomachs.

22. The air at the summit of Mount Everest, 29,029 feet is only a third as thick as
the air at sea level.

23. One million, million, million, million, millionth of a second after the Big Bang
the Universe was the size of a …pea.

24. DNA was first discovered in 1869 by Swiss Friedrich Mieschler

25.The molecular structure of DNA was first determined by Watson and Crick in
1953

26. What type of organism makes up the oldest known fossil?Blue-green algae
from South Africa at 3.2 billion years old.

27. What does the Scoville Heat Unit Scale measure?The heat of chilies

28. Is a tomato a fruit or vegetable?A fruit.

29. Why do bubbles pop? They get too dry from the surrounding air.

30. What is the Law of Conservation of Energy? The energy of the Universe is
constant; it can neither be created or destroyed but only transferred and
transformed.

31. What is the name given to planets outside our solar system? Extrasolar
planets

32. Which is the rarest blood type in humans? AB negative. <1% of the
population

33. Why does eyesight change as you get older? The eye’s lens continues to
grow throughout life, becoming thicker and less transparent.

34. True or false; nitroglycerine can be used to treat heart attacks? True. It
dilates blood vessels.

35. What Australian timber made the London docks?Turpentine; Syncarpia

glomulifera

36. What is Xylem?The hollow woody tissue in plants that carries water and
minerals from the roots to throughout the entire plant

37. What is the scientific name of a Sydney Blue Gum?Eucalyptus saligna

38. Where is the largest known meteorite crater on Earth? Vredefort Ring in
South Africa, 299km diameter!

39. What causes an Aurora? Charged particles from solar wind

40. What temperature and pressure is needed to convert graphite into a

diamond? 3000 degrees celsius and 100,000 atmospheres. That’s 10132500
kPA, at least 20,000 times more pressure than the pressure inside the average
bike tire!

41. What is a buret? A long tube of glass usually marked in 0.1mL units that’s
equipped with a stopcock for the controlled addition of a liquid to a receiving
flask

42. What is the hardest substance in the human body? Tooth enamel.

43. What is trepanning? An ancient form of medicine which involved making

holes in human skull to relieve pressure; don’t try at home!

44. What is the longest type of cell in the body? The nerve cell (neuron).

45. What does bile do in you body? Emulsify fats in the small intestine

46. Which is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature? Mercury (melting
point of -38.87 deg Celsius). Room temperature is usually defined as 25 deg.
Celsius. Gallium gets close to also melting at room temperature > it’s melting
temperature is 29.78 deg. Celsius… almost made it!

47. Who invented the first battery? Count Alessandro Volta

48. What is a Pyrogen? A substance that causes fever.

49. Where would you find your pinna? It’s your outer ear (the bit you see made
out of cartilage)

50. Who has more hair follicles, blondes or brunettes? Blondes.