1. Music was sent down a telephone line for the first time in 1876, the year the phone was invented.

2. Sound travels through water 3 times faster than through air.

3. A square piece of dry paper cannot be folded in half more than 7 times.

4. Air becomes liquid at about minus 190 degrees Celsius.

5. Liquid air looks like water with a bluish tint.

6. A scientific satellite needs only 250 watts of power, the equivelant used by two hour light bulbs, to operate.

7. The thin line of cloud that forms behind an aircraft at high altitudes is called a contrail.

8. Radio waves travel so much faster than sound waves that a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 18,000 km away than in the back of the room in which it originated.

9. A US ton is equivalent to 900 kg (2000 pounds). A British ton is 1008 kg (2240 pounds), called a gross ton.

10. Industrial hemp contains less than 1% of THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana.

11. Since space is essentially empty it cannot carry sound. Therefor there is no sound in space, at least not the sort of sound that we are used to.

12. The Space Shuttle always rolls over after launch to alleviate structural loading, allowing the shuttle to carry more mass into orbit.

13. The word "biology" was coined in 1805 by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

14. Most of the air is about 78% nitrogen gas. Only 21% consists of oxygen. The remaining 1% consists of carbon dioxide, argon, neon, helium, krypton, hydrogen, xenon and ozone.

15. Argon is used to fill the space in most light bulbs. Neon is used in fluorescent signs. Fluorescent lights are filled with mercury gas.

16. Hydrogen gas is the least dense substance in the world.

17. Water expands by about 9% as it freezes.

18. The surface of hot water freezes faster than cold water but the rest of the water will remain liquid longer than in a cold sample.

19. The smallest transistor is 50-nanometres wide - roughly 1/2000 the width of a human hair.

20. A compass does not point to the geographical North or South Pole, but to the magnetic poles.

21. The double-helix structure of DNA was discovered in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick. The length of a single human DNA molecule, when extended, is 1.7 metres (5 ft 5 in).

22. In a desert, a mirage is caused when air near the ground is hotter than air higher up. As light from the sun passes from cooler to warmer air, it speeds up and is refracted upward, creating the image of water.

23. The typical bolt of lightning heats the atmosphere to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

24. An electric oven uses one kilowatt-hour of electricity in about 20 minutes, but one kilowatt-hour will power a TV for 3 hours, run a 100-watt bulb for 12 hours, and keep an electric clock ticking for 3 months.

25. In the 6th century BC Greek mathematician Pythagoras said that earth is round - but few agreed with him.

26. Greek astronomer Aristarchos said in the 3rd century BC that earth revolves around the sun - but the idea was not accepted.

27. In the 2nd century BC Greek astronomer Erastosthenes accurately measured the distance around the earth at about 40,000 km (24,860 miles) - but nobody believed him.

28. In the 2nd century AD Greek astronomer Ptolemy stated that earth was the centre of the universe - most people believed him for the next 1,400 years.


29. In 1750 there were about 800 million people in the world. In 1850 there were a billion more, and by 1950, another billion. Then it took just 50 years to double to 6 billion.

30. Half the world's population earns about 5% of the world's wealth.

31. There are more than 600 million telephone lines, yet almost half the world's population has never made a phone call on a land line. However, more than half the world's population has made a cell phone call. There are more than 2 billion cell phones in use.

32. More personal telephone calls are made on Mother's Day in the USA than on any other day in any other country.

33. One in ten people in the world live on an island.

34. The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven.

35. In the US, murder is committed most frequently in August and least frequently in February.

36. In 1870 there were more Irish living in London than in Dublin.

37. In 1870 there also were more Catholics living in London than in Rome.

38. The chance of being born on Leap Day is about 684 out of a million, or 1 in 1461. Less than 5 million people have their birthday on Leap Day.

39. The odds of being struck by lightning are about 600,000 to one.

40. About 27% of food in developed countries are wasted each year. It's simply thrown away.

41. Almost 1,2 billion people are underfed - the same number of people that are overweight to the point of obesity.

42. The world average of egg consumption per capita is 230.

43. In the US, about 280 million turkeys are sold for the Thanksgiving celebrations.

44. Half the world's population is under 25 years of age.

45. On average in the West, people move house every 7 years.

46. US Post Office handles 43% of the world's mail. Its nearest competitor is Japan with 6%.

47. In the developed countries, the proportion of adults married has declined from 72% in 1970 to 60% in 1996. The chance of a first marriage ending in divorce is between 50% and 67%. The chance that a second marriage will end in divorce is about 10% higher than for the first marriage.

48. The world's average school year is 200 days per year. In the US, it is 180 days; in Sweden 170 days, in Japan it is 243 days.

49. Since 1972, some 64 million tons of aluminum cans (about 3 trillion cans) have been produced. Placed end-to-end, they could stretch to the moon about a thousand times. Cans represent less than 1% of solid waste material.

50. More than a billion transistors are manufactured... every second.

51. 92% of Chinese belong to the Han nationality, which has been China's largest nationality for centuries. The rest of the nation consists of about 55 minority groups.

52. According to the US Census Bureau, 19% of US children live in poverty. (1999)


53. According to the US Weather Service, their one day forecasts are accurate more than 75% of the time. They send out 2 million forecasts a year.

54. There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, a nation of 17 million people.

55. New Zealand is home to 4 million people and 70 million sheep.

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