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In the Fact File section we bring you a new collection of quick facts each week. (Click on the links below for more facts)

 
 

1581/ If you visited another world, you would notice a change in your weight, because the force of gravity acting on you there would be different from the force of gravity here on Earth. If we take a weight on Earth of 100kg; then the same object would weigh 250kg on Jupiter, 38kg on Mars and 17kg on the Moon.

1582/ There are about 1500 volcanoes on the ground and 10,000 in the sea.

1583/ The rosy periwinkle plant, found in Madagascar, is used to cure leukemia while the anti-malarial drug quinine is taken from the bark of the Andean cinchona tree. The rauvolfa shrub found in Asian and African forests is used to cure high blood pressure and mental illness.

1584/ On June 20th, 1782, the United States Congress made the "American Eagle" the national emblem of the United States.

1585/ The species of Poison Arrow Frog, Phylobates Terribilis . has enough poison to kill several adult humans and close to 20,000 small rodent like animals.

1586/ While the retina of frogs can detect movement, the retina of humans and other primates cannot. In fact, frogs and some other simple vertebrates may not even see an object unless it is moving. If a dead fly on a string is dangled motionlessly in front of a starving frog, the frog cannot sense this winged meal. The "bug-detecting" cells in its retina are wired to respond only to movement. The frog might starve to death, tongue firmly folded in its mouth, unaware that salvation lies suspended on a string in front of its eyes.

1587 In March 1999, Linda Buck of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, proved that mammals recognize and process odours through a code based on varying combinations of receptors. She likens olfactory receptors to letters of the alphabet, which can be used over and over again to compose a vast vocabulary.

1588/ Motor vehicle accidents are by far the greatest causes of brain injuries, accounting for 37-50% of all brain injuries.

1589/ Head injury is the most common cause of death in bicycle crashes accounting for 62% of all bicycle-related deaths in the US.

1590/ There are up to 1,000 spinal cord injuries each year in the United States when people dive into swimming pools or other bodies of water where the water was too shallow. (The moral of this particular tale is NOT to dive in the shallow end!)

1591/ The greatest potential for loss of life and property related to a hurricane is from the storm surge - water pushed ashore by the force of the winds accompanying a hurricane. Although hurricanes are usually described in terms of their wind speeds, historically storm-surge flooding has claimed more victims (nine out of 10) than wind. During the past 30 years, however, inland flooding has caused most hurricane-related deaths.

1592/ The hand-held pocket calculator was invented at Texas Instruments, Incorporated (TI) in 1966 by a development team which included Jerry D. Merryman, James H. Van Tassel and Jack St. Clair Kilby.

1593/ The Rubik's Cube was invented by Erno Rubik in 1974. To date over 100 million have been sold. Dave Orser broke the Unofficial World Record for solving a Rubik's cube blindfolded, with a new record of 4 minutes 5 seconds, including memorization on the 11th December 2002. more

1594/ In 1767 mapmaker John Salisbury created the first jigsaw puzzle by mounting one of his maps on a sheet of hardwood and cutting around the borders of the countries using a fine-bladed marquetry saw.

1595/ There are 18 species of Piranha, and 4 of those species are dangerous to man. They live in "schools" (a large number living together). Many times they will wait for prey to come to the shallow water of the river. Then the large group of piranhas will attack. These large groups are able to kill large animals. They are found in clouded water, slow moving water which needs to be between 24 and 27 degrees centigrade.

1596/ The first automobile was created on 29 January 1886, when Carl Benz patented a tricycle with a one horizontal cylinder engine that he designed and built. But the production of cars and the use of the automobile as a means of individual transportation had to await the Peugeot brothers in France. The first Italian automobile factory was Prinetti e Stucchi, opened in 1889. FIAT opened the next year, and Isotta Fraschini opened in 1904.

1597/ About 600 species of plants are carnivorous. Most eat insects but also on the menu are frogs, birds and even small monkeys. more

1598/ The rarest and most valuable botanical jewel is the legendary "coconut pearl" that occasionally forms inside a coconut (Cocos nucifera). Like the pearls of oysters and giant clams, it is a shiny calcareous sphere. Coconut pearls are known to form inside "blind coconuts" that lack the three characteristic germination pores at one end. The odds of finding one in a coconut are certainly less than one in a million. To put it another way, if you cracked open and thoroughly examined one coconut every 15 minutes during a normal eight hour work day, it would take roughly 80 years to go through a million coconuts. You can however see one on display at the Fairchild Tropical Garden in the city of Coral Gables, Florida.

1599/ The largest tree, named General Sherman, is 272 feet tall with a massive trunk 35 feet in diameter and 109 feet in circumference at the base. Even more remarkable is the fact that at a point 120 feet in the air the trunk of General Sherman is still 17 feet in diameter. It has been estimated to contain over 600,000 board feet of timber, enough to build 120 average-sized houses. In fact, a single giant sequoia may contain more wood than is found on several acres of some of the finest virgin timberland in the Pacific Northwest. The trunk of General Sherman alone weighs nearly 1400 tons. By way of comparison, this is roughly equivalent to 15 adult blue whales, 10 diesel-electric train locomotives, or 25 average-sized military battle tanks.

1600/ The largest visible meteorite crater in the world is in Winslow, Arizona. 4,150 feet across and 150 feet deep.

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