| 1541/ The
Greatest mass extinction in Earth's history was at the end of
the Permian age about 251 million years ago.
1542/ Over 900 million
people speak Mandarin Chinese, making it the most spoken first
language on Earth. By contrast, English is spoken by over
400 million people as a first language; but has a further
1.1 billion who speak it as a second language ie 1.5 billion
speakers in total, or approximately a quarter of all the people
on Earth speak at least some English.
1543/ The first standardised
system of measurement was created around 2700BC in Mesopotamia.
1544/ The word ‘Jeep’
comes from “GP” which is short for General Purpose.
1545/ In 1997, the United
States emitted about one-fifth of total global greenhouse
gases.
1546/ If emissions of
carbon dioxide were halted today, it would take more than
a century for the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide to approach
its pre-industrial level.
1547/ By 2100, in the
absence of emissions control policies, carbon dioxide concentrations
are projected to be 30-150% higher than today's levels.
1548/ The coldest known
star is an unamed star about 160 light years from Earth. Its
surface temperature is only 2600F which is 7400F cooler than
the Sun!
1549/ The largest known
Nebula (cloud of gas and dust) is the Tarantula Nebula, named
for its shape.
1550/ Our Galaxy's oldest
stars are Red Dwarfs, which are also the smallest and most
abundant, numbering 70% of the Galaxy's Stars.
1551/ The highest point
on Mars is the Olympus Mons Volcano, which has a 50-mile wide
summit and rises 13½ miles above a lava-strewn plain.
1552/ The 'Red Planet'
isn't really red at all, Nasa photographs indicate that it
is more of a tan or butterscotch colour.
1553/ A Martian day is
surprisingly similar in length to one on Earth (24 hours and
37 minutes), but a Martian year is nearly twice as long (687
days).
1554/ Laser stands for
'Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation'.
A laser beam is produced when light bounces back and forth
between two mirrors with a special medium (gas, liquid, or
solid) between them. As it bounces, the light triggers energized
atoms in the medium to release more light, some of which leaks
out through one of the mirrors to produce the laser beam.
1555/ The first laser
was constructed in 1960 by Theodore H. Maiman of the United
States using a rod of ruby. Ruby lasers are used to drill
holes in diamonds and sapphires for watch bearings.
1556/ Quicksand is formed
when sand, clay, and water are mixed in just the right way,
with a surface that seems solid until you step on it, and
it suddenly becomes liquid!
1557/ The machine to
win the first flying prize in 1901 was an airship.
1558/ The modern safety
match was invented in Sweden in 1855 by J.E. Lundstrom. It
works because one of the chemicals needed to start the fire
is in the striking surface.
1559/ It has been estimated
that sand deposits in the Sahara Desert cover about 7,000,000
square km (2,700,000 square miles).
1560/ Johannes Kepler used the recorded movement of Mars to
formulate his three laws of planetary motion in the 17th Century,
which laid the foundation for modern Astronomy.
Click on the links below for more great
facts...
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