Funny Facts..Part 1

Fun facts on your Family, Class or Troop

> Did you know that there are 206 bones in the adult human body and there are 300 in children (as they grow some of the bones fuse together).
> Flea's can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms this is equal to a 6ft. person jumping 780 ft. into the air.
> The most dangerous animal in the world is the common housefly. Because of their habits of visiting animal waste, they transmit more diseases than any other animal.
> Snakes are true carnivorous because they eat nothing but other animals. They do not eat any type of plant material.
> The world's largest amphibian is the giant salamander. It can grow up to 5 ft. in length.
> 100 years ago: The first virus was found in both plants and animals.
> 90 years ago: The Grand Canyon became a national monument & Cellophane is invented.
> 80 years ago: The food mixer and the domestic refrigerator were invented.
> 70 years ago: The teletype and PVC (polyvinyl-chloride) were invented.
> 60 years ago: Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission by splitting uranium, Teflon was invented.
> 50 years ago: Velcro was invented.
> 40 years ago: An all-female population of lizards was discovered in Armenia.
> 30 years ago: The computer mouse was invented.
> 20 years ago: First test-tube baby born in England, Pluto’s moon, Charon, discovered.
> 10 years ago: First patent for a genetically-engineered mouse was issued to Harvard Medical School.
> 5 years ago: The first successful cloning of human embryo
The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear. It is approximately .11 inches (.28 cm) long.
> The longest cells in the human body are the motor neurons. They can be up to 4.5 feet (1.37 meters) long and run from the lower spinal cord to the big toe.
> There are no poisonous snakes in Maine.
The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles.
> The largest man-made lake in the U.S. is Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam.
The poison arrow frogs of South and Central America are the most poisonous animals in the world.
> A new born blue whale measures 20-26 feet (6.0 - 7.9 meters) long and weighs up to 6,614 pounds (3003 kg).
> The first coast-to-coast telephone line was established in 1914.
> The Virginia opossum has a gestation period of only 12-13 days.
> The Stegosaurus dinosaur measured up to 30 feet (9.1 meters) long but had a brain the size of a walnut.
> The largest meteorite crater in the world is in Winslow, Arizona. It is 4,150 feet across and 150 feet deep.
> The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.
Skylab, the first American space station, fell to the earth in thousands of pieces in 1979. Thankfully most over the ocean.
> It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest.
Human jaw muscles can generate a force of 200 pounds (90.8 kilograms) on the molars.
> The Skylab astronauts grew 1.5 - 2.25 inches (3.8 - 5.7 centimeters) due to spinal lengthening and straightening as a result of zero gravity.
> An inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain water is equivalent to 15 inches (38.1 centimeters) of dry, powdery snow.
> Tremendous erosion at the base of Niagara Falls (USA) undermines the shale cliffs and as a result the falls have receded approximately 7 miles over the last 10,000 years.
> 40 to 50 percent of body heat can be lost through the head (no hat) as a result of its extensive circulatory network.
> A large swarm of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) can consume 20,000 tons (18,160,000 kilograms) of vegetation a day.
> The largest telescope in the world is currently being constructed in northern Chile. The telescope will utilize four - 26 ft. 8 in. (8.13 meters) mirrors which will gather as much light as a single 52 ft. 6 in. (16 meters) mirror.