Science Facts

1. For humans, the normal pulse is 70 heartbeats per minute. Elephants have a slower pulse of 27 and for a canary it is 1000!

2.    The blood vessels in human body would reach about 60,000 miles if laid end to end.

3.    Half of body’s red blood cells are replaced every seven days.

4.    A common bacterium, E. Coli, found in the intestine, helps us digest green vegetables and beans.       These same bacteria also make vitamin K, which causes blood to clot.

5.    It takes food seven seconds to go from the mouth to the stomach via the esophagus.

6.    A human’s small intestine is 6 meters long.

7.    The human body is 75% water.

8.    The strongest bone in your body is the femur (thighbone), and it’s hollow!

9.    Tongue has 3,000 taste buds.

10.    The Sun is over 300,000 times larger than the earth.

11.    Halley’s Comet was last seen in the inner Solar System in 1986, it will be visible again from Earth sometime in 2061.

12.    Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system with a surface temperature of over 450 degrees Celsius.

13.    Saturn isn’t the only ringed planet, other gas giants such as Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have rings; they are just less obvious.

14.    In 2006, astronomers changed the definition of a planet. This means that Pluto is now referred to as a dwarf planet.

15.    Because of lower gravity, a person who weighs 200 pounds on earth would only weigh 76 pounds on the surface of Mars.

16.    The only planet that rotates on its side like a barrel is Uranus. The only planet that spins backwards relative to the others is Venus.

17.    The first manmade object sent into space was in 1957 when the Russian satellite named Sputnik was launched.

18.    It is because of the Sun’s and Moon’s gravity that we have high & low tides.

19.    Hydrogen is the first element on the periodic table. It has an atomic number of 1.
It is highly flammable and is the most common element found in our universe.

20.    Around 1% of the sun’s mass is oxygen.

21.    Helium is lighter than the air around us so it floats, that’s why it is perfect for the balloons.

22.    Carbon comes in a number of different forms (allotropes), these include diamond, graphite and impure forms such as coal.

23.    Under normal conditions, oil and water do not mix.

24.    Things invisible to the human eye can often be seen under UV light, which comes in handy for both scientists and detectives.

25.    Chemical reactions occur all the time, including through everyday activities such as cooking.

26.    Above 4°C, water expands when heated and contracts when cooled. But between 4°C and 0°C it does the opposite, contracting when heated and          expanding when cooled. Stronger hydrogen and oxygen bonds are formed as the water crystallizes into ice. By the time it’s frozen, it takes up around 9% more space.

27.    The highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica is 14.6°C (59°F), recorded on January 5, 1974.

28.    The most rainfall ever recorded in one year is 25.4 metres (1000 inches) in Cherrapunji, India.

29.    The highest snowfall ever recorded in a one-year period was 31.1 metres (1224 inches) in Mount Rainier, Washington State, United States, between      February 19, 1971 and February 18, 1972.

30.    The Earth experiences millions of lightning storms every year; they are incredible discharges of electricity from the atmosphere that can reach temperatures close to 54,000°F (30,000°C) and speeds of 60,000 m/s (130,000 mph).

31.    The word ‘nuclear’ is related to the nucleus of an atom, it is often used to describe the energy produced when a nucleus is split (fission) or joined with another (fusion).

32.    The nucleus is positively charged and found at the central core of an atom.

33.    Nuclear power provides around 14% of the world’s electricity.

34.    While many nuclear weapons have been used in testing, only 2 have been used as part of warfare. In August 1945, near the end of World War 2, the United States used atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to the death of approximately 200000 people.

35.    Enriched uranium is a crucial element of both nuclear weapons and nuclear power production.

36.    Energy from food is usually measured in joules or calories.

37.    Light from the Earth takes just 1.255 seconds to reach the Moon.

38.    Sound travels at a speed of around 767 miles per hour (1,230 kilometres per hour).

39.    A magnifying glass uses the properties of a convex shaped lens to magnify an image, making it easier to see.

40.    1921 Nobel Prize in Physics was won by Albert Einstein for his work in the field of theoretical physics.

41.    Most types of energy are either a form of kinetic energy or potential energy.

42.    Energy can be transformed from one form to another. In lightning, electric potential energy transforms into light, heat and sound energy.

43.    The law of conservation of energy states that energy can only be transformed, it can’t be created or destroyed.

44.    Food contains chemical energy which is used by living organisms such as animals to grow and reproduce.

45.    Plants use energy from sunlight during an important process called photosynthesis.

46.    During chemical reactions, chemical energy is often transformed into light or heat.

47.    The Higgs Boson or Higgs particle, an elemen    tary particle, was initially theorised in 1964.

48.    On 4 July 2012, it was announced that a previously unknown particle with a mass between 125 and 127 GeV/c2 (134.2 and 136.3 amu) had been detected

49.    The Higgs boson is named after Peter Higgs, one of six physicists who, in 1964, proposed the mechanism that suggested the existence of such a particle.

50.    In 1967, Steven Weinberg and Dr Abdus Salam independently showed how a Higgs mechanism could be used to break the electroweak symmetry of Sheldon Glashow’s unified model for the weak and electromagnetic interactions, forming what became the Standard Model of particle physics.