Science and Technology - Bizarre facts Page 4

Bizarre Fact #151:
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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.

Bizarre Fact #152:
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On December 23, 1947, Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., held a secret demonstration of the transistor which marked the foundation of modern electronics.

Bizarre Fact #153:
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Only one satellite has been ever been destroyed by a meteor: the European Space Agency's Olympus in 1993.

Bizarre Fact #154:
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Out of all the senses, smell is most closely linked to memory.

Bizarre Fact #155:
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Outside the USA, Ireland is the largest software producing country in the world.

Bizarre Fact #156:
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Plutonium - first weighed on August 20th, 1942, by University of Chicago scientists Glenn Seaborg and his colleagues - was the first man-made element.

Bizarre Fact #157:
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Portland cement is used for underwater work. It hardens because of a chemical reaction it has with the water, not because the water mixed with it evaporates. The amount of water that reacts with the cement is crucial for this process, and the physical structure of this cement enables it to control exactly how much water gets into the reaction. So it doesn't matter at all how much water surrounds the cement as long as it has enough to set.

Bizarre Fact #158:
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Rain contains vitamin B12.

Bizarre Fact #159:
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Scientists recently announced the discovery of a new planet orbiting a star that's practically next door - relatively speaking. There's also the possibility that the system might contain a second planet. The star, Epsilon Eridani, is only 10.5 light years away — which is just down the block in astronomical terms — making it the nearest star known to have such a planet. The new planet appears similar to Jupiter, but half again as big. The discovery was made by a team of researchers led by scientists at the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin.

Bizarre Fact #160:
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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.

Bizarre Fact #161:
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Sound at the right vibration can bore holes through a solid object.

Bizarre Fact #162:
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Sound travels 15 times faster through steel than through the air.

Bizarre Fact #163:
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Starch is used as a binder in the production of paper. It is the use of a starch coating that controls ink penetration when printing. Cheaper papers do not use as much starch, and this is why your elbows get black when you are leaning over your morning paper.

Bizarre Fact #164:
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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.

Bizarre Fact #165:
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Sterling silver is not pure silver. Because pure silver is too soft to be used in most tableware it is mixed with copper in the proportion of 92.5 percent silver to 7.5 percent copper.

Bizarre Fact #166:
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The clock at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., will gain or lose only one second in 300 years because it uses cesium atoms.

Bizarre Fact #167:
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The color black is produced by the complete absorption of light rays.

Bizarre Fact #168:
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The densest substance on Earth is the metal "osmium."

Bizarre Fact #169:
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The Earth gets heavier each day by tons, as meteoric dust settles on it.

Bizarre Fact #170:
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The earth rotates on its axis more slowly in March than in September.

Bizarre Fact #171:
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The fastest moon in our solar system circles Jupiter once every seven hours - traveling at 70,400 miles per hour.

Bizarre Fact #172:
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The final resting-place for Dr. Eugene Shoemaker - the Moon. The famed U.S. Geological Survey astronomer, trained the Apollo astronauts about craters, but never made it into space. Mr. Shoemaker had wanted to be an astronaut but was rejected because of a medical problem. His ashes were placed on board the Lunar Prospector spacecraft before it was launched on January 6, 1998. NASA crashed the probe into a crater on the moon in an attempt to learn if there is water on the moon.

Bizarre Fact #173:
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The first "technology" corporation to move into California's Silicon Valley was Hewlett-Packard, in 1938. Stanford University engineers Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started their company in a Palo Alto garage, with $1,538. Their first product was an audio oscillator bought by Walt Disney Studios for use in making Fantasia.

Bizarre Fact #174:
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The first atomic bomb exploded at Trinity Site, New Mexico.

Bizarre Fact #175:
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The first fossilized specimen of Australopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the paleontologists' favorite song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," by the Beatles.

Bizarre Fact #176:
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The first full moon to occur on the winter solstice, Dec. 22, commonly called the first day of winter, happened in 1999. Since a full moon on the winter solstice occurred in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth), the moon appeared about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in it's elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth). Since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at that time of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon was about 7% stronger making it brighter. Also, this was the closest perigee of the Moon of the year since the moon's orbit is constantly deforming. In places where the weather was clear and there was a snow cover, even car headlights were superfluous.

Bizarre Fact #177:
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The first man-made insecticide was DDT.

Bizarre Fact #178:
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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.

Bizarre Fact #179:
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The first portable calculator placed on sale by Texas Instruments weighed only 2-1/2 pounds and cost a mere $150. (1971)

Bizarre Fact #180:
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The first U.S. census to be tallied by computer was in 1950. UNIVAC did the tallying.

Bizarre Fact #181:
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The hardness of ice is similar to that of concrete.

Bizarre Fact #182:
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The Leaning Tower of Pisa is predicted to topple over between 2010 and 2020.

Bizarre Fact #183:
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The nearest galaxy to our own is Andromeda.

Bizarre Fact #184:
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The opposite of a "vacuum" is a "plenum."

Bizarre Fact #185:
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The original IBM-PCs, that had hard drives, referred to the hard drives as Winchester drives. This is due to the fact that the original Winchester drive had a model number of 3030. This is, of course, a Winchester firearm.

Bizarre Fact #186:
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The planet Saturn has a density lower than water. If there was a bathtub large enough to hold it, Saturn would float.

Bizarre Fact #187:
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The planet Venus has the longest day.

Bizarre Fact #188:
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The pressure at the center of the Earth is 27,000 tons per square inch.

Bizarre Fact #189:
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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".

Bizarre Fact #190:
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The radioactive substance, Americanium - 241 is used in many smoke detectors.

Bizarre Fact #191:
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The shockwave from a nitroglycerine explosion travels at 17,000 miles per hour.

Bizarre Fact #192:
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The speed of sound must be exceeded to produce a sonic boom.

Bizarre Fact #193:
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The Sun has a diameter of 864,000 miles.

Bizarre Fact #194:
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The sun is estimated to be between 20 and 21 cosmic years old.

Bizarre Fact #195:
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The whirling cloud, a flat cloud hovering over the peak of an extinct volcano, Mount Jirinaj in Indonesia, affected by hot air rising from the crater, spins swiftly around and around.

Bizarre Fact #196:
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The wick of a trick candle has small amounts of magnesium in them. When you light the candle, you are also lighting the magnesium. When someone tries to blow out the flame, the magnesium inside the wick continues to burn and, in just a split second (or two or three), relights the wick.

Bizarre Fact #197:
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There are 3 golf balls sitting on the moon.

Bizarre Fact #198:
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There are 7 stars in the Big Dipper.

Bizarre Fact #199:
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There are five tillion trillion atoms in one pound of iron.

Bizarre Fact #200:
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Three astronauts manned each Apollo flight.