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Showing posts with label HUman Facts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HUman Facts. Show all posts

Monday, November 29, 2010

Some More Amazing Facts

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capo ne’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the
back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps; they don’t appear until the child
reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full
moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line
would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an
average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears
never stop growing.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

“Stewardesses” is the longest word typed with only the left hand and
“lollipop” with your right.

The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of die! sel
that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The sentence: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter of the alphabet.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely
solid.

The words ‘racecar,’ ‘kayak’ and ‘level’ are the same whether they are
read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”:
tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in
order: “abstemious” and “facetious.”

There’s no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewable Vitamins.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks;
otherwise it will digest itself.

You May Not Know……

1. Coca-Cola was originally green.

2. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

3. The name of all the continents ends with the same
letter that they start with.

4. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

5. There are two credit cards for every person in the
United States .

6. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made
using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

7. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!

8. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath..

9. It is impossible to lick your elbow.

10. People say “Bless you” when you sneeze because
when you Sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

11. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up
into the sky.

12. The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is
said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

13. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib.
If you try to Suppress a sneeze; you can rupture a blood vessel in
your head or neck and die.

14. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents
great king from History. “Spades” – King David; “Clubs” – Alexander
the Great; ” Hearts” – Charlemagne; “Diamonds” – Julius Caesar.

15. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

16. If a statue of a warrior on a horse has both
front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the
horse has one front leg in the air, the person died
as a result of wounds received in battle.
If the horse has a all four legs on the ground, the
person died of natural causes.

17 What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes,
windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common?
Ans. – All invented by women.

18. Honey – This is the only food that doesn’t spoil.

19. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

20. A snail can sleep for three years.

21. All polar bears are left handed.

22. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by
eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

23. Butterflies taste with their feet.

24. Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.

25. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been
domesticated.

26. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

27. Shakespeare invented the word ‘assassination’ and ‘bump’.

28. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only
the left hand.

29. The ant always falls over on its right side when
intoxicated.

30. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

31. The human heart creates enough pressure when it
pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

32. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two
rats could have over million descendants.

33. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase
the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

34. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

35. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

36. Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different

37. And finally 99% of people who read this will try
to lick their elbow.

Feel Proud To Be An Indian

* The number of companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, at more than 6,000, is second only to NYSE.

* Four out of 10 Silicon Valley startups are run by Indians.

* With 800 movies per year , India’s film industry overshadows Hollywood.

* The organized lottery market in India is US$7bn (2% of GDP)

* India consumes a fifth of the world’s gold output.

* Indians account for 45% of H1-B visas issued by the US every year

* Growing at 6%, in 25 years Indian GDP(on a PPP basis) will be at the same level the US is at today

* Six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years.

* Bank deposits in India roughly equal 50% of its GDP C again, among the highest in the world.

* Indian Railways is the largest railway network in the world under single management

* India has the third largest army in the world, nearly 1.5 million strong.

* India is the largest producer and consumer of tea in the world, accounting for more than 30% of global production and 25% of consumption.

* India is the world’s premier center for diamond cutting and polishing. Nine out of every 10 stones sold in the world pass through India.

* India has the highest number of annual bulk drugs filings (77) with USFDA.

* India is home to the largest number of pharmaceutical plants (61) approved by USFDA outside the US.

* India’s Hero Honda is the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer, with 2002 production of 1.7m units.

* Other than US and Japan, India is the only country to have built a super computer indigenously.

* Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world, with a staff of 1.6 million people.

* India is the second largest cement producing country in the world, producing more than 110 m tones.

* Of the fortune 500 companies, 220 outsource their software-related work to India.

* There are 8,500 Indian restaurants in the U.K.15% of the country’s total dining-out establishments.

* India is the largest democracy in the world, with nearly 400m voting in the last national elections.

* India has the second-largest pool of scientists and engineers in the world.

* India has the third largest investor base in the world

* According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds.

* The Kumbh Mela festival, held every 21 years in the city of Allahabad, attracts 25 million people CE more than the population of 185 of the 227 countries in the world.

* The Indian city of Varanasi, also known as Benares, is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world today.

* There are 3.22 million Indians in the US.

* Indians are the richest immigrant class in the US, with nearly 200,000 millionaries.

* India is ranked the sixth country in the world in terms of satellite launches.

* There are over 70,000 bank branches in India among the highest in the world.

Do You Know….?

Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than men in the United States

The smallest man ever was Gul Mohammed (1957-1997) of India, who measured 1 feet, 10? inches

500,000 tons of dog excrement are dumped annually on the streets of Paris

Hydrogen gas is the least dense substance in the world, at 0.08988g/cc

In Belgium, there is a museum just for strawberries

The Simpsons is the longest running prime-time animated series on television history

The more a person struggles to get out of quicksand the faster they will sink. Staying still, and being calm will actually make the body float in the quicksand because the body is less dense than the quicksand is

On average, a Canadian girl owns seven Barbie dolls, whereas an American girl owns eight

A piece of French toast that was partially eaten by Justin Timberlake sold on eBay

The Olympic was the sister ship of the Titanic, and she provided twenty-five years of service

Atari had to bury millions of unsold “E.T.” game cartridges in a New Mexico desert landfill in 1982

The biggest disco ball in the world has a diameter of 2.41 meters and 137.89 kilograms. It also has 6,900 mirror squares on it

The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses

An average city dog lives approximately three years longer than an average country dog

On average, falling asleep while driving results in 550 accidents per day in the United States

Scatologists are experts who study feces. (aka. crap, dung, dookie, dumps, feces, excrement, etc.)

Pumpkins contain potassium and vitamin A

The greatest mountain range is the Mid-Ocean Ridge, extending 64,374 km from the Arctic Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean

Pepsi got its name from the ingredient pepsin, which is said to aid in digestion, however, it is not known

The spray WD-40 got its name because there were forty attempts needed before the creation of the “water displacing” substance

Contrary to popular beliefs, chocolate does not cause acne

Detroit, Michigan has more registered bowlers than any other city in the USA

The fastest moving land snake is the Black Mamba, which can move up to 7 miles per hour

Annually Americans eat 45 million turkeys at Thanksgiving

Rabbits can live up to ten years

The average life span of a single red blood cell is 120 days

Over 250 million Slinky toys have been sold since its debut in 1946

In 1961, Italian artist Piero Manzoni packed his feces in cans, signed and mounted them, and then sold them as art

The last thing Elvis Presley ate before he died was four scoops of ice cream and 6 chocolate chip cookies

Some Chinese chopsticks contain gold as on of their materials

Some More Facts

The chances of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf are one in 67 million

The watch was invented by Peter Henlein of Nuremberg in 1510.

In North America there are approximately 618 roller coasters

The concept of Boxing Day, which is on December 26th, was to give boxes of food and clothing

to the poor. It is now viewed in some countries as a time to get merchandise from stores at

reduced prices

Crayola is a French word that means “Oily chalk.”

Every year, Burger King restaurants prepare over 950,000 pounds of bacon for their breakfast

customers

Isaac Newton used to be a member of parliament

Dumbest Dog: Afghan hound

At just four years old Mozart was able to learn a piece of music in half an hour

It would take twenty new mid-size cars to generate the same amount of pollution that a

mid-size 1960′s car did.

The honey badger can withstand hundreds of bee stings that would otherwise kill another

animal

There are 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year

Black pepper is the most popular spice in the world

In Greece, the climate is so warm that many of the cinemas do not even have roofs

The word “moose” comes from the native Algonquian Indian word meaning “twig eater.”

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill

An armadillo can walk under water

There are over one hundred billion galaxies with each galaxy having billions of stars

The Uape Indians, who live in the Amazon, mix the ashes of their recently cremated relatives

with alcohol, then all members of the family drink the mix with fond memories of the

deceased

The word “diamond” comes from the Greek word “adamas,” which means “unconquerable.”

On average, a typical dairy cow lies down and stands up about 14 times a day

For the movie “Tootsie” actor Dustin Hoffman thought of the title. His mother used to call

him that as a child

The world record for rocking non-stop in a rocking chair is 480 hours held by Dennis

Easterling, of Atlanta, Georgia

The Sears Tower consists of nine framed tubes, which connects nine skyscrapers as one

building

The first subway system in America was built in Boston, Massachusetts in 1897

There are approximately 45 billion fat cells in an average adult

To make one pound of butter, 29 cups of milk are needed

The dot that appears over the letter “i” is called a tittle

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments

Close to 73% of girls in Bangladesh are married by age 18

Nerve impulses for muscle position travel at a speed of up to 390 feet per second

In the summer of 1858, the smell of the sewage in the Thames River in London was so bad that

the Members of Parliament had to leave from the chamber of the House of Commons. This was a

result of two million people dumping all their sewage into the river

Do You Know These Facts….

Every day, over 1,300 babies are born prematurely in the USA

The sun is approximately 149 million kilometres from the earth

The Great White Shark can grow to be more than twenty feet long and can weigh approximately 4,000 pounds

In 1832, in Paisley, Scotland the first municipal water filtration works was opened

The only popcorn museum in the world is lcoated in Marion, Ohio, USA

Any animal that has skin hair or fur can get dandruff, but in animals it is called “dander.”

The average ice berg weighs 20,000,000 tons

In 1819, the USA purchased Florida from Spain for the cancellation of a $5 million debt

In a lifetime, the average driver will honk 15,250 times

Jewelers Tiffany & Co., based in New York, are responsible for making the Super Bowl trophy

Skippy Peanut Butter is sold more in the world than any other peanut butter

The highest bridge in the world is located in the Himalyan mountains. It was built by the

Indian Army, in 1982, and is about 5,600 metres above sea level

In 1893, the first mosque in the United States was built

Apples are part of the rose family

Every eleven minutes in the U.S., a woman dies of breast cancer

Mr. Butts invented the game SCRABBLE. The game was originally called “Criss Cross Words.”

Actress Meryl Streep holds the record for the most Oscar nominated actress, with a record of 13 nominations

In a year approximately 900 million trees are cut down to make the raw materials needed for American pulp mills and paper

Enamel is hardest substance in the human body

A leech has 32 brains

Thomas Edison designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder. It ended up blowing up and also blew up his factory.

In the late 1800′s, washing machines and butter churners were sometimes powered by dogs walking on treadmills.

In China, people eat a bar of chocolate for every 1,000 chocolate bars eaten by the British

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors

Clarence Crane the inventor of “Crane’s Peppermint Life Savers” sold his rights to the popular candy for less than three thousand dollars.

Namco, who are the manufacturers of Pac Man the video game, has estimated that the original arcade game has been played over 10 billion times by individuals

In Ivrea, Italy, thousands of citizens celebrate the beginning of Lent by throwing oranges at one another

The sloth moves so slowly that green algae grows in the grooves of their hair

In the world, the United States and France have the most pet dogs. Approximately one out of every three families has a pet dog. Switzerland and Germany are the lowest only having one dog per every ten families

There are 50% more males that are left handed compared to females

Armadillos breed in July, but get pregnant in November after delaying implantation. This allows the young to be born during the spring when there is an abundance of food

Carbon monoxide can kill a person in less than 15 minutes

Really Great

The Nobel Peace prize was first awarded in 1901 to Jean Henry Dunant, who was the founder of the Swiss Red Cross

In August 1999, Lori Lynn Lomeli set a record by spinning 82 Hula Hoops at the same time for three full revolutions

The wheelbarrow was invented by the Chinese.

The colour blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones

Over 20 million BluBlocker sunglasses have been sold since its debut in 1986. They now come in over 100 different styles

Crabs have very small hairs on their claws and other parts of their body to help detect water currents and vibrations

In 1962, the first Wal-Mart opened up in Rogers, Arkansas

Duracell, the battery-maker, built parts of its new international headquarters using materials from its own waste

Vampire bat saliva has been responsible for many advances in research into stroke recovery

During the making of the the movie “Fight Club,” actor Brad Pitt chipped his tooth. However, he did not get his tooth capped until after the movie was done filming as he thought it would look better chipped for his character

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted peoplewithout killing them used to burn their houses down – hence theexpression “toget fired.”

In ancient Rome, it was considered a sign of leadership to be born with a crooked nose

The word “checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah-Mat,” which means the king is dead

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee

A common drink for Tibetans is Butter Tea which is made out of butter, salt, and brick tea

Bourbon was first made by a Baptist minsister from Bourbon County in Kentucky in 1789. That is where it got its name

The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites

McDonald restaurants serve food and drink to an amazing 43 million customers on a daily basis

The game Monopoly was once very popular in Cuba; however, Fidel Castro ordered that all games be destroyed

Nearly half of all Americans suffer from symptoms of burnout

During the era of Louis XIV, women used lemons to redden their lips

70% of the poor people in the world are female

The thickness of the Arctic ice sheet is on average 10 feet. There are some areas that are thick as 65 feet

The adult human body requires about 88 pounds of oxygen daily

The biggest pumpkin the world weighs 1,337.6 pounds

The highest consumption of Pizza occurs during Super Bowl week

During World War II, condoms were used to cover rifle barrels from being damaged by salt water as the soldiers swam to shore

Facts For You

The Roman emperor Domitian took great pleasure in being secluded in his room for hours and catching flies and stabbing them with pens

Tarantulas can live up to 30 years

On average redheads have 90,000 hairs. People with black hair have about 110,000 hairs

More than half the time spent in United States courts is cases that involve automobiles

One barrel of petroleum holds 42 gallons

The smoke that is produced by a fire kills more people than a burn does because of carbon monoxide and other dangerous gases

The Saguaro Cactus, found in South-western United States does not grow branches until it is 75 years old.

In Belgium, 172,000 tons of chocolate are produced in a year

The word Nike comes from Greek Mythology. Nike is the goddess of victory and was often depicted as a small winged figure whom the goddess Athene carried

The biggest bug in the world is the Goliath Beetle which can weigh up to 3.5 ounces and be 4.5 inches long

Leaving the water running while brushing your teeth can waste four gallons of water in a minute

Steve Fletcher holds the record for the largest gum wrapper collection. His collection has 5300 gum wrappers from all across the world

There was once a country called Prussia. After World War II, it was divided among Poland, Germany, and the USSR

The word Spain means “the land of rabbits.”

In 1936, the first practical helicopter was invented. It was the German Focke-Wulf Fw 61.

The word tulip comes from the Turkish word for turban

Psychokinesis refers to the ability of moving objects through psychic power

The fat that comes from sheep, which is called tallow, can also be used to produce soap and candles

In Britain, one out of every four potatoes is eaten in the form of french fries

In the movie Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, chocolate syrup was used for blood in the shower scene

The movie “Chicken Run” made in 2,000 had the most plasticine used in an animated movie. They used 2,380 kg of plasticine for the movie

During WWII, because a lot of players were called to duty, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles combined to become The Steagles

The titan arum flower is the largest flower in the world and gives off a horrible odor that smells like rotting flesh when it blooms

Every day, the average person swallows about a quart of snot

When the only queen ant dies, so does the entire colony, because no new workers are born

The Dutch people are known to be the tallest people in Europe

Facts For Your Knowledge

The average American kid will eat approximately 1.500 peanut butter sandwiches by high school graduation

Goats do not have upper front teeth

It has been suggested that shepherds are responsible for inventing the game golf. It is said that they used to use their staffs to hit the stones

There are about 6,800 languages in the world

Studies have shown that by putting on slow background music it can make a person eat food at a slower rate

By walking an extra 20 minutes every day, an average person will burn off seven pounds of body fat in an year

Ironically, when doctors in Los Angeles, California went on strike in 1976, the daily number of deaths in the city dropped 18%

Octopus and squid are thought to be the most intelligent of all invertebrates

On average, a beaver can cut down two hundred trees a year.

The name of the first menthol cigarette in the United States was “Spud.”

A world record 328 pound ovarian cyst was removed from a woman in Galveston, Texas, in 1905. updated

The fastest shark is the “Shortfin Mako,” which can swim as fast as sixty miles per hour

The flatulation from domesticated cows produce about 30% of the methane on this planet

Ironically, watermelons, which are 92% water, originated from the Kalahari Desert in Africa

The first tattoo machine was invented by Samuel O’Reilly. He did this by using equipment

that Thomas Edison used to engrave hard surfaces.

In a lifetime, an average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva

A slug has four noses

Chili Powder was invented in the 19th century in the American Southwest

The sea cucumber spills its internal organs out as a defense mechanism

Approximately 25,000 workers died during the building of the Panama Canal and approximately 20,000 of them contracted malaria and yellow fever

Braces were first invented by Pierre Fauchard in 1728. The braces were made by a flat strip of metal, which was connected to the teeth by thread.

Marilyn Monroe had six toes

There is a town in Texas called Ding Dong. In 1990, the population was only twenty-two people

The total volume of mail that went through the Canadian postal system in 1950 was 1,362,310,155 items

The highest toll paid by a ship to cross the Panama Canal was by the Crown Princess on May 2, 1993 in the amount of $141,349.97 U.S. funds

The name of the famous snack “Twinkies” was invented by seeing a billboard in St. Louis, that said “Twinkle Toe Shoes.”

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Amazing Facts..

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capo ne's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the
back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps; they don't appear until the child
reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".


February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full
moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line
would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an
average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears
never stop growing.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and
"lollipop" with your right.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of die! sel
that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and
a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every
letter of the alphabet.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely
solid.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are
read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous":
tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in
order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewable Vitamins.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only
on one row of the keyboard.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks;
otherwise it will digest itself.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Amazing Earth Facts 1

1. What is the hottest place on Earth?

Count one wrong if you guessed Death Valley in California. True enough on many days. But El Azizia in Libya recorded a temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius) on Sept. 13, 1922 — the hottest ever measured. In Death Valley, it got up to 134 Fahrenheit on July 10, 1913.

2. And the coldest place around here?

Far and away, the coldest temperature ever measured on Earth was -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius) at Vostok, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983.

3. What makes thunder?

If you thought, “Lightning!” then hats off to you. But I had a more illuminating answer in mind. The air around a lightning bolt is superheated to about five times the temperature of the Sun. This sudden heating causes the air to expand faster than the speed of sound, which compresses the air and forms a shock wave; we hear it as thunder.

4. Can rocks float?

In a volcanic eruption, the violent separation of gas from lava produces a “frothy” rock called pumice, loaded with gas bubbles. Some of it can float, geologists say. I’ve never seen this happen, and I’m thankful for that.

5. Can rocks grow?

Yes, but observing the process is less interesting than watching paint dry. Rocks called iron-manganese crusts grow on mountains under the sea. The crusts precipitate material slowly from seawater, growing about 1 millimeter every million years. Your fingernails grow about the same amount every two weeks.

6. How much space dust falls to Earth each year?

Estimates vary, but the USGS says at least 1,000 million grams, or roughly 1,000 tons of material enters the atmosphere every year and makes its way to Earths surface. One group of scientists claims microbes rain down from space, too, and that extraterrestrial organisms are responsible for flu epidemics. There’s been no proof of this, and I’m not holding my breath.

7. How far does regular dust blow in the wind?

A 1999 study showed that African dust finds its way to Florida and can help push parts of the state over the prescribed air quality limit for particulate matter set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The dust is kicked up by high winds in North Africa and carried as high as 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), where it’s caught up in the trade winds and carried across the sea. Dust from China makes its way to North America, too.

8. Where is the worlds highest waterfall?

The water of Angel Falls in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters).

9. What two great American cities are destined to merge?

The San Andreas fault, which runs north-south, is slipping at a rate of about 2 inches (5 centimeters) per year, causing Los Angeles to move towards San Francisco. Scientists forecast LA will be a suburb of the City by the Bay in about 15 million years.

10. Is Earth a sphere?

Because the planet rotates and is more flexible than you might imagine, it bulges at the midsection, creating a sort of pumpkin shape. The bulge was lessening for centuries but now, suddenly, it is growing, a recent study showed. Accelerated melting of Earth’s glaciers is taking the blame for the gain in equatorial girth.