According the quantum mechanical experiments, the future determines the present. Source- The first man-made item to exceed the speed of sound is the bull whip our leather whip. When the whip is snapped, the knotted end makes a "crack" or popping noise. It is actually causing a mini sonic boom as it exceeds the speed of sound.
- There is a group of people who believe that the earth is hollow, and are planning an expedition to prove it. Source
- Travelling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second, light take 6 hours to travel from Pluto to the earth
- A full moon always rises at sunset. Read More
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In the 1950s a scientist at Tulane University discovered the “pleasure centers” of the brain by zapping it with electricity and gave a woman a 30-minute orgasm. Source
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A bowl of lime Jell-O, when hooked up to an EEG machine, exhibited movement which is virtually identical to the brain waves of a healthy adult man or woman.
- If the world were tilted one degree more either way, the planet would not be habitable because the area around the equator would be too hot and the poles would be too cold.
- The opposite of a "vacuum" is a "plenum."
- Have you ever wondered what life on earth 1,900 million years ago smelled like well, it smelled a lot like rotten eggs. Source
- In 1980, Namco released PAC-MAN, the most popular video game (or arcade game) of all time. The original name was going to be PUCK MAN, but executives saw the potential for vandals to scratch out part of the P in the games marquee and labeling.
- Clothes that are dried outside DO smell better because of a process called photolysis. What happens is this: sunlight breaks down compounds in the laundry that cause odor, such as perspiration and body oils.
- South Korean scientists successfully cloned a dog in 2011 and they also genetically modified it so it can glow in the dark. Source
- Clouds fly higher during the day than the night.
- Dirty snow melts faster than clean.
- Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator, probably because of the fact that it is one of the hardest programs to get running.
- There is scientific evidence that money can buy you happiness. Source
- Some early TV screens did emit excessive X-rays, as did computer monitors, but that was fixed long ago. Doctors suggest that at worst, sitting too close might cause some temporary eye fatigue—the same for reading with insufficient light—but no permanent damage, no matter what your mother claimed.
- A "fulgerite" is fossilized lightning. It forms when a powerful lightning bolt melts the soil into a glass-like state.
- STASI, the East German secret police organization, devised a devilishly clever way to prevent someone from giving them the slip during the Cold War: they managed to synthesize the scent of a female dog in heat, which they applied to the shoes of the person under surveillance. Then they simply had a male dog follow the scent.
- Experiments conducted in Germany and at the University of Southampton in England show that even mild and incidental noises cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons, watchmakers, and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by noise. The sounds cause their pupils to change focus and blur their vision.
- After a massive power outage in Los Angeles, many residents called 911 and reported seeing strange clouds overhead – the Milky Way. Source
- A downburst is a downward blowing wind that sometimes comes blasting out of a thunderstorm. The damage looks like tornado damage, since the wind can be as strong as an F2 tornado, but debris is blown straight away from a point on the ground. It's not lofted into the air and transported downwind.
- On December 2, 1942, a nuclear chain reaction was achieved for the first time under the stands of the University of Chicago’s football stadium. The first reactor measured 30 feet wide, 32 feet long, and 21.5 feet high. It weighed 1,400 tons and contained 52 tons of uranium in the form of uranium metal and uranium oxide. Although the same process led to the massive energy release of the atomic bomb, the first artificially sustained nuclear reaction produced just enough energy to light a small flashlight.
- A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top. This is because the carbonation in the drink gets pockets of air stuck in the wrinkles of the raisin, which is light enough to be raised by this air. When it reaches the surface of the champagne, the bubbles pop, and the raisin sinks back to the bottom, starting the cycle over.
- Bacteria, the tiniest free-living cells, are so small that a single drop of liquid contains as many as 50 million of them.
- The proper name of earth's satellite is Luna. The grammar books say that "moon" (and likewise "earth" and "sun") should be lower case, with the exception of when "earth" is in a list with other planets. The earth is Terra; the sun is Sol. This is where we get the words "extraTERREstrial" and "SOLar".
- At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the earth's atmosphere.
- Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.
- Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west. If measured against a fixed point in space.
- The pitch drop experiment is the world’s longest continuously running laboratory experiment. It measures the flow of a piece of pitch by counting the drops that fall from a funnel. Since 1927 8 drops have fallen. The ninth drop is expected to fall in 2013. Live Stream for anyone interested Source
- The fastest moon in our solar system circles Jupiter once every seven hours - traveling at 70,400 miles per hour.
- George Ellery Hale was the 20th century's most important builder of telescopes. In 1897, Hale built a 40 inch wide telescope, the largest ever built at that time. His second telescope, with a sixty inch lens, was set up in 1917 and took 14 years to build. During the 14 years Hale became convinced that he suffered from "Americanitis" a disorder in which the ambitions of Americans drive them insane. During the building of his 100 inch lens Hale spent time in a sanatorium and would only discuss his plans for the telescope with a "sympathetic green elf".
- Hale's 100 inch lens built in the early 1900s was the largest solid piece of glass made until then. The lens was made by a French specialist who poured the equivalent of ten thousand melted champagne bottles into a mold packed with heat maintaining manure so that the glass would cool slowly and not crack.
- The shockwave from a nitroglycerine explosion travels at 17,000 miles per hour.
- The planet Saturn has a density lower than water. If there was a bathtub large enough to hold it, Saturn would float.
- Earth's atmosphere is, proportionally, thinner than the skin of an apple.
- The first portable calculator placed on sale by Texas Instruments weighed only 2-1/2 pounds and cost a mere $150. (1971)
- Carolyn Shoemaker has discovered 32 comets and approximately 800 asteroids.
- Because of the salt content of the Dead Sea, it is difficult to dive below its surface.
- The planet Venus has the longest day.
- The first atomic bomb exploded at Trinity Site, New Mexico.
- All organic compounds contain carbon.
- Three astronauts manned each Apollo flight.
- Out of all the senses, smell is most closely linked to memory.
- There are 7 stars in the Big Dipper.
- The hardness of ice is similar to that of concrete. Read More
- Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.
- The speed of sound must be exceeded to produce a sonic boom.
- The nearest galaxy to our own is Andromeda.
- Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.
- Blood is 6 times thicker than water.
- Dissolved salt makes up 3.5 percent of the oceans.
- Three stars make up Orion's belt.
- Glaciers store about 75% of the world's freshwater. In Washington State alone, glaciers provide 470 billion gallons of water each summer.
- To an observer standing on Pluto, the sun would appear no brighter than Venus appears in our evening sky.