Science and Technology - Bizarre facts Page 3

Bizarre Fact #101:
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According to experts, large caves tend to "breathe"; they inhale and exhale great quantities of air when the barometric pressure on the surface changes, and air rushes in or out seeking equilibrium.

Bizarre Fact #102:
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According to security equipment specialists, security systems that utilize motion detectors won't function properly if walls and floors are too hot. When an infrared beam is used in a motion detector, it will pick up a person's body temperature of 98.6 degrees compared to the cooler walls and floor. If the room is too hot, the motion detector won't register a change in the radiated heat of that person's body when it enters the room and breaks the infrared beam. Your home's safety might be compromised if you turn your air conditioning off or set the thermostat too high while on summer vacation.

Bizarre Fact #103:
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Air is denser in cold weather. A wind of the same speed can exert 25 percent more force during the winter as compared to the summer.

Bizarre Fact #104:
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All organic compounds contain carbon.

Bizarre Fact #105:
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An iceberg contains more heat than a match.

Bizarre Fact #106:
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An ordinary TNT bomb involves atomic reaction, and could be called an atomic bomb. What we call an A-bomb involves nuclear reactions and should be called a nuclear bomb.

Bizarre Fact #107:
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At a glance, the Celsius scale makes more sense than the Fahrenheit scale for temperature measuring. But its creator, Anders Celsius, was an oddball scientist. When he first developed his scale, he made freezing 100 degrees and boiling 0 degrees, or upside down. No one dared point this out to him, so fellow scientists waited until Celsius died to change the scale.

Bizarre Fact #108:
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At a jet plane's speed of 1,000 km (620mi) per hour, the length of the plane becomes one atom shorter than its original length.

Bizarre Fact #109:
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At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the earth's atmosphere.

Bizarre Fact #110:
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Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator, probably because of the fact that it is one of the hardest programs to get running.

Bizarre Fact #111:
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Bacteria can reproduce sexually.

Bizarre Fact #112:
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Bacteria, the tiniest free-living cells, are so small that a single drop of liquid contains as many as 50 million of them.

Bizarre Fact #113:
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Because of a large orbital eccentricity, Pluto was closer to the sun than Neptune between January 1979 and March 1999.

Bizarre Fact #114:
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Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west.

Bizarre Fact #115:
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Because of the salt content of the Dead Sea, it is difficult to dive below its surface.

Bizarre Fact #116:
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Bill Gates' first business was Traff-O-Data, a company that created machines which recorded the number of cars passing a given point on a road.

Bizarre Fact #117:
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Blood is 6 times thicker than water.

Bizarre Fact #118:
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Carolyn Shoemaker has discovered 32 comets and approximately 800 asteroids.

Bizarre Fact #119:
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Clothes that are dried outside DO smell better because of a process called photolysis. What happens is this: sunlight breaks down compounds in the laundry that cause odor, such as perspiration and body oils.

Bizarre Fact #120:
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Clouds fly higher during the day than the night.

Bizarre Fact #121:
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Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.

Bizarre Fact #122:
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Dating back to the 1600's, thermometers were filled with Brandy instead of mercury.

Bizarre Fact #123:
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Dirty snow melts faster than clean.

Bizarre Fact #124:
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Dissolved salt makes up 3.5 percent of the oceans.

Bizarre Fact #125:
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Earth's atmosphere is, proportionally, thinner than the skin of an apple.

Bizarre Fact #126:
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ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster.

Bizarre Fact #127:
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Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox, Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.

Bizarre Fact #128:
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Every cubic mile of seawater holds over 150 million tons of minerals.

Bizarre Fact #129:
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Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

Bizarre Fact #130:
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Every year about 98% of atoms in your body are replaced.

Bizarre Fact #131:
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Experiments conducted in Germany and at the University of Southampton in England show that even mild and incidental noises cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons, watchmakers, and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by noise. The sounds cause their pupils to change focus and blur their vision.

Bizarre Fact #132:
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Figlet, an ASCII font converter program, stands for Frank, Ian and Glenn's LETters.

Bizarre Fact #133:
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From bridges to rebar, rust is everywhere. According to a recent study, the annual cost of metallic corrosion in the U.S. is approximately $300 billion. The report, by Battelle, Columbus, Ohio, and the Specialty Steel Industry of North America, Washington, D.C., estimated that about one-third of that cost could be avoided through broader application of corrosion-resistant material and "best anti-corrosive practice" from design through maintenance.

Bizarre Fact #134:
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From the smallest microprocessor to the biggest mainframe, the average American depends on over 264 computers per day.

Bizarre Fact #135:
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George Ellery Hale was the 20th century's most important builder of telescopes. In 1897, Hale built a 40 inch wide telescope, the largest ever built at that time. His second telescope, with a sixty inch lens, was set up in 1917 and took 14 years to build. During the 14 years Hale became convinced that he suffered from "Americanitis" a disorder in which the ambitions of Americans drive them insane. During the building of his 100 inch lens Hale spent time in a sanatorium and would only discuss his plans for the telescope with a "sympathetic green elf".

Bizarre Fact #136:
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German chemist Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus while he was examining urine.

Bizarre Fact #137:
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Glaciers store about 75% of the world's freshwater. In Washington State alone, glaciers provide 470 billion gallons of water each summer.

Bizarre Fact #138:
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Hale's 100 inch lens built in the early 1900s was the largest solid piece of glass made until then. The lens was made by a French specialist who poured the equivalent of ten thousand melted champagne bottles into a mold packed with heat maintaining manure so that the glass would cool slowly and not crack.

Bizarre Fact #139:
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Hot water is heavier than cold.

Bizarre Fact #140:
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If the world were tilted one degree more either way, the planet would not be habitable because the area around the equator would be too hot and the poles would be too cold.

Bizarre Fact #141:
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If you stand in the bottom of a well, you would be able to see the stars even in the daytime.

Bizarre Fact #142:
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If you went out into space, you would explode before you suffocated because there's no air pressure.

Bizarre Fact #143:
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In 1980, Namco released PAC-MAN, the most popular video game (or arcade game) of all time. The original name was going to be PUCK MAN, but executives saw the potential for vandals to scratch out part of the P in the games marquee and labeling.

Bizarre Fact #144:
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In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than 100 years before either moon was discovered.

Bizarre Fact #145:
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In the Durango desert, in Mexico, there's a creepy spot called the "Zone of Silence." You can't pick up clear TV or radio signals. And locals say fireballs sometimes appear in the sky.

Bizarre Fact #146:
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It takes a plastic container 50000 years to start decomposing.

Bizarre Fact #147:
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Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.

Bizarre Fact #148:
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Lab tests can detect traces of alcohol in urine six to 12 hours after a person has stopped drinking.

Bizarre Fact #149:
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Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Bizarre Fact #150:
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On average, half of all false teeth have some form of radioactivity.