Science Trivia and Facts

1. Flea's can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms this is equal to a 6ft.
person jumping 780 ft. into the air.

2. The most dangerous animal in the world is the common housefly. Because of their habits of
visiting animal waste, they transmit more diseases than any other animal.
3. Snakes are true carnivorous because they eat nothing but other animals. They do not eat any
type of plant material.
4. The world's largest amphibian is the giant salamander. It can grow up to 5 ft. in length.
5. 100 years ago: The first virus was found in both plants and animals.
6. 90 years ago: The Grand Canyon became a national monument & Cellophane is invented.
7. 80 years ago: The food mixer and the domestic refrigerator were invented.
8. 70 years ago: The teletype and PVC (polyvinyl-chloride) were invented.
9. 60 years ago: Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission by splitting uranium, Teflon was invented.
10. 50 years ago: Velcro was invented.
11. 40 years ago: An all-female population of lizards was discovered in Armenia.
12. 30 years ago: The computer mouse was invented.
13. 20 years ago: First test-tube baby born in England, Plutos moon, Charon, discovered.
14. 10 years ago: First patent for a genetically-engineered mouse was issued to Harvard Medical
School.
15. 5 years ago: The first successful cloning of human embryo
16. The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear.
It is approximately .11 inches (.28 cm) long.
17. The longest cells in the human body are the motor neurons. They can be up to 4.5 feet (1.37
meters) long and run from the lower spinal cord to the big toe.
18. There are no poisonous snakes in Maine.
19. The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a
living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles.
20.The largest man-made lake in the U.S. is Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam.
21. The poison arrow frogs of South and Central America are the most poisonous animals in the
world.
22.A new born blue whale measures 20-26 feet (6.0 - 7.9 meters) long and weighs up to 6,614
pounds (3003 kg).
23.The first coast-to-coast telephone line was established in 1914.
24.The Virginia opossum has a gestation period of only 12-13 days.
25.The Stegosaurus dinosaur measured up to 30 feet (9.1 meters) long but had a brain the size
of a walnut.
26.The largest meteorite crater in the world is in Winslow, Arizona. It is 4,150 feet across and
150 feet deep.
27.The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.
28.Skylab, the first American space station, fell to the earth in thousands of pieces in 1979.
Thankfully most over the ocean.
29.It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest.
30.Human jaw muscles can generate a force of 200 pounds (90.8 kilograms) on the molars.
31. The Skylab astronauts grew 1.5 - 2.25 inches (3.8 - 5.7 centimeters) due to spinal lengthening
and straightening as a result of zero gravity.
32.An inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain water is equivalent to 15 inches (38.1 centimeters) of dry,
powdery snow.
33.Tremendous erosion at the base of Niagara Falls (USA) undermines the shale cliffs and as a
result the falls have receded approximately 7 miles over the last 10,000 years.
34.40 to 50 percent of body heat can be lost through the head (no hat) as a result of its
extensive circulatory network.
Mercury Facts
Mercury is a small planet which orbits closer to the
other planet in our solar system. As well as being very
features a barren, crater covered surface which looks
Earth's moon.
sun than any

hot, it
similar to
The surface of Mercury is very similar to our

moon. It has a
very barren, rocky surface covered with many
craters.
Being so close to the Sun, the daytime
temperature
on Mercury is scorching - reaching over 400 Degrees Celsius.
At night however, without an atmosphere to hold the heat in, the temperatures plummet,
dropping to -180 Degrees Celsius.
Mercury has a very low surface gravity.
Mercury has no atmosphere which means there is no wind or weather to speak of.
There is also no water on the surface of Mercury, it is possible however that there could be
water underneath the surface.
Likewise, there is no air on the surface but it could be trapped underneath.
Mars Facts
Mars, or the 'Red Planet' as it is sometimes known,
rocky surface and a thin atmosphere. Its relatively
and close proximity to earth make it the most likely
future planet exploration by humans.
It has already been visited by a number of Mars
successful (and unsuccessful) robotic missions. These
advanced robots gather samples and record important
for scientists back on Earth to study.
has a dusty,
calm conditions
destination for
Rovers in
highly
scientific data
Mars is nicknamed the

red
planet
because it is covered with rust-like dust. Even the atmosphere is a pinkish red, colored by
tiny particles of dust thrown up from the surface.
Mars experiences violent dust storms which continually change its surface.
Mars has many massive volcanoes and is home to Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our
solar system, it stands 21km high and is 600km across the base.
Mars has a very thin atmosphere made mostly of carbon dioxide. It is not thick enough to
trap the sun's heat like Venus, so the planet is very cold. Temperatures range from -120
Degrees Celsius on winter nights to 25 Degrees Celsius in the summer.
Mars has many channels, plains and canyons on the surface which could have been caused by
water erosion in the past.
Mars has very weak gravity which cannot hold onto the atmosphere well.
The polar ice caps consist of frozen Co2 (dry ice) which lies over a layer of ice.
Earth Facts
Children will love the cool trivia, did you know

facts and other
interesting Earth info that will help them learn
a thing or two
along the way. Read on and enjoy learning about
the
amazing
planet we live on.
Magma is the hot liquid rock under the surface
of the Earth, it
is known as lava after it comes out of a volcano.
Natural gas doesn't have an odour, strong
smells
are
added to it by humans so it can be detected
when there are
leaks.
Hawaii is moving towards Japan at the speed of
10cm a year.
This is because they are on different tectonic plates.
The world's largest desert (outside of the polar regions) is the Sahara, it covers about one
third of Africa!
Stretching out to an impressive length of 6696 kilometres (4160 miles) long, the Nile River is
the longest river on earth.
The volcanic rock known as pumice is the only rock that can float in water.
Mt Everest is the highest mountain on earth, its peak reaches 8,848 metres (29029 feet)
above sea level. Check out the highest mountains on each continent of the Earth.
On average the Atlantic Ocean is the saltiest of Earths major oceans.
Earthquakes that occur out at sea can cause huge tsunamis capable of reaching land and
endangering people.
Metamorphic rocks are formed by extreme pressure and heat. Read more
about metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary rocks, find information on rocks and minerals or
check out our interesting fossil facts.
Human Body Facts
The brain uses over a quarter of the oxygen used by the human body. More human brain facts.
Your heart beats around 100000 times a day, 36500000 times a year and over a billion times
if you live beyond 30. More human heart facts.
Red blood cells carry oxygen around the body. They are created inside the bone marrow of
your bones. More blood facts.
20%
The colour of a humans skin is determined by the level of pigment melanin that the body
produces. Those with small amounts of melanin have light skin while those with large amounts
have dark skin. More skin facts.
Adult lungs have a surface area of around 70 square metres! More lung facts.
Humans have a stage of sleep that features rapid eye movement (REM). REM sleep makes up
around 25% of total sleep time and is often when you have your most vivid dreams. More eye
facts.
Most adults have 32 teeth. More teeth facts.
The smallest bone found in the human body is located in the middle ear. The staples (or
stirrup) bone is only 2.8 millimetres long. More ear facts.
Your nose and ears continue growing throughout your entire life. More nose facts.
Infants blink only once or twice a minute while adults average around 10.
As well as having unique fingerprints, humans also have unique tongue prints.
The left side of your body is controlled by the right side of your brain while the right side of
your body is controlled by the left side of your brain.
Antibiotics are only effective against bacteria, they won't help in fighting off a virus.
It takes the body around 12 hours to completely digest eaten food.
of Earths oxygen is produced by the Amazon rainforest
The Amazon rainforest covers 5.5 million square kilometres (2.1

million square miles) of Earth. Our atmosphere is made up of
roughly 78 per cent nitrogen and 21 per cent oxygen, with various
other gases present in small amounts. The vast majority of living
organisms on Earth need oxygen to survive, converting it into
carbon dioxide as they breathe. Thankfully, plants continually
replenish our planets oxygen levels through photosynthesis. During this process, carbon dioxide and
water are converted into energy, releasing oxygen as a by-product. Covering 5.5 million square
kilometres (2.1 million square miles), the Amazon rainforest cycles a significant proportion of the
Earths oxygen, absorbing large quantities of carbon dioxide at the same time.
Some metals are so reactive that they explode on contact with water
This is what happens when sodium reacts with water. There are certain metals including potassium,
sodium, lithium, rubidium and caesium that are so reactive that they oxidise (or tarnish) instantly
when exposed to air. They can even produce explosions when dropped in water! All elements strive to
be chemically stable in other words, to have a full outer electron shell. To achieve this, metals
tend to shed electrons. The alkali metals have only one electron on
their outer shell, making them ultra-keen to pass on this unwanted
passenger to another element via bonding. As a result they form
compounds with other elements so readily that they dont exist
independently in nature.
A teaspoonful of neutron star would weigh 6 billion tons
Neutron stars contain some of the densest matter in the known

universe. A neutron star is the remnants of a massive star that has
run out of fuel. The dying star explodes in a supernova while its
core collapses in on itself due to gravity, forming a super-dense
neutron star. Astronomers measure the mind-bogglingly large
masses of stars or galaxies in solar masses, with one solar mass
equal to the Suns mass (that is, 2 x 1030 kilograms/4.4 x 1030
pounds). Typical neutron stars have a mass of up to three solar
masses, which is crammed into a sphere with a radius of
approximately ten kilometres (6.2 miles) resulting in some of the densest matter in the known
universe.
Hawaii moves 7.5cm closer to Alaska every year
Hawaiis pace is comparable to the speed at which
our fingernails grow. The Earths crust is split into
gigantic pieces called tectonic plates. These plates
are in constant motion, propelled by currents in the
Earths upper mantle. Hot, less-dense rock rises
before cooling and sinking, giving rise to circular
convection currents which act like giant conveyor
belts, slowly shifting the tectonic plates above them.
Hawaii sits in the middle of the Pacific Plate, which
is slowly drifting north-west towards the North
American Plate, back to Alaska. The plates pace is
comparable to the speed at which our fingernails grow.
Chalk is made from trillions of microscopic plankton fossils
Chalk is made from single-celled algae that lived in Earths oceans for
200 million years. Tiny single-celled algae called coccolithophores have
lived in Earths oceans for 200 million years. Unlike any other marine
plant, they surround themselves with minuscule plates of calcite
(coccoliths). Just under 100 million years ago, conditions were just
right for coccolithophores to accumulate in a thick layer coating
ocean floors in a white ooze. As further sediment built up on top, the
pressure compressed the coccoliths to form rock, creating chalk deposits such as the white cliffs
of Dover.

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1. Flea's can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms this is equal to a 6ft.

person jumping 780 ft. into the air.

sun than any

The surface of Mercury is very similar to our

Mars is nicknamed the

Children will love the cool trivia, did you know

Human Body Facts

The Amazon rainforest covers 5.5 million square kilometres (2.1

Neutron stars contain some of the densest matter in the known

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