Facts and figures of Science

Some of the facts and figures of science. This can be used for the general public in particular. But the basics are always fun to know. I was a science student but of late after going through books and articles I came to know many things which I learnt before. I don’t want my son to have the same mistake as I did. So I am gathering information and try to teach him as easy as possible. The below points are picked from some other articles and I am sure whoever reads may find it easy and useful.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10.   Human tapeworms can grow up to 22.9 m.

11.   The Earth is 4.56 billion years old which is the same age as the Moon and the Sun.

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

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

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

15.   If our Sun were just inch in diameter, the nearest star would be 453 miles away.

16.   The Australian Billy goat plum contains 100 times more vitamin C than an orange.

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

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

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

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

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

22.   The first synthetic human chromosome was constructed by US scientists in 1997.

23.   The thermometer was invented in 1607 by Galileo.

24.   Englishman Roger Bacon invented the magnifying glass in 1250.

25.   Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866.

26.   Wilhelm Rontgen won the first Nobel Prize for physics for discovering X-rays in 1895.

27.   The tallest tree ever was an Australian eucalyptus – In 1872 it was measured at 435 feet tall.

28.   Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant in 1967 – the patient lived for 18 days.

29.   The wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer than the Wright brother’s first flight.

30.   An electric eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts.

Drop me some reviews so I can gather few more points. See you soon. Happy reading.