---
title: "What are some wonderful facts?"
url: "https://www.geeklord.com/2022/03/19/what-are-some-wonderful-facts/"
author: "Shobhit Prabhakar"
date: "2022-03-19"
modified: "2022-03-19"
reading_time_minutes: 9
word_count: 1774
schema_type: "TechArticle"
categories: ["General"]
---

# What are some wonderful facts?

Here are a few facts which blew my mind when I came to know about them:

1. We only see one side of the moon. The rotation and revolution period of the moon around the earth is equal.

2. You dig a tunnel through the center of the earth, it will take you 42.2 minutes to travel from one point to other. In fact, you dig a tunnel along any chord of sphere earth, it will take the same time, 42.2 minutes. ([A Journey Through the Earth!!!](http://worldischangingblog.blogspot.in/2014/08/a-journey-through-earth.html))

3. F1 cars at high speed generate enough downforce that they can be driven upside down (for example upside down under a bridge).

4. Around 1920, a wind tunnel experiment was carried out on a car. It showed that car experienced lesser drag (resistive force) while moving in the reverse direction at the same speed.

5. Aircrafts reaching the speed of sound and going beyond it took flight in the early 1940s.
And we are still using technologies developed in the '60s in most aircraft, however, Avionics is quite advanced today.

6. We have never been to the moon after the Apollo mission. It has been decades!!!!

7. Voyager spacecraft was sent into deep space in 1977 and that was the last time we did something like that.

8. Cassini's mission trajectory is just mind-blowing. From earth, it goes to Venus, uses its gravity to get back to earth, takes a turn back using earth's gravity back to venus and to earth again. Then it uses Jupiter to turn slightly and finally reaches Saturn.
([http://www.nicolascretton.ch/Ast...](http://www.nicolascretton.ch/Astronomy/Cassini-Huygens/Cassini_orbit_Earth_to_Saturn_from_above.jpg))

9. When we look at a star that is X light year away from us. We are actually looking into the past. We are looking at a star, the way it was X years ago. It may not even exist now!!!

10. This one is from a lecture by Lawrence Krauss.

The universe is expanding and everything we see out there in the cosmos is going away. In a near astronomical year, we may not be able to see anything out there as there is only a tiny fraction of the universe which is observable and after some time everything will disappear in dark leaving us alone. A list of 50 interesting facts that will amaze you.

1) If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

2) Researchers have found out that doctors playing video games make 37% fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery than surgeons who don't play.

3) The average person spends about two years on the phone in a lifetime.

4) The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's Gum.

5) Hawaii is moving towards Japan four inches every year.

6) Hong Kong holds the most Rolls Royce's per capita.

7) A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate.

8) There is no such thing as naturally blue food.

9) For the first time in history, the number of people on the planet aged 60 or above will soon surpass those under five.

10) Mount Olympus Mons on Mars is three times the size of Mount Everest.

11) Newborn babies are given to the wrong mothers in the hospital 12 times a day worldwide.

12) Estonia holds the record for the highest per capita consumption of alcohol. The Czech Republic has the highest per capita beer consumption.

13) About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30.

14) A strand from the web of a golden spider is as strong as a steel wire of the same size.

15) Chicago is closer to Moscow than it is to Rio de Janerio.

16) Rice is the staple food for 50% of the world's population.

17) Napoleon's penis was sold to an American Urologist for $40,000.

18) When you sneeze, air and dust particles travel through the nostrils at speeds over 100 mph.

19) Money is the number one thing that couples argue about.

20) When a Hawaiian woman wears a flower over her left ear, it means that she is not available.

21) There are about 1008 McDonald's franchises in France.

22) Humans have had dogs as companions and workers for more than 14000 years.

23)  People are 50% more likely to agree to do what you ask them if you speak into their right ear and lightly touch their forearm.

24) There are more plastic flamingos in the United States than real ones.

25) A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

26) All the blinking in one day equates to having your eyes shut for 30 minutes.

27) In the Philippine jungle, the yo-yo was first used as a weapon.

28) The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

29) According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.

30) There are 2,000,000 millionaires in the United States.

31) Grapes explode when you put them in a microwave.

32) The average North American will eat 35,000 cookies during their life span.

33) There is a bar in London that sells vaporized vodka, which is inhaled instead of sipped.

34) The chance that you will die on the way to buy a lottery ticket is greater than the chance of you winning the big prize in most lotteries.

35) In a deck of cards, the King of Hearts is the only King without a mustache.

36) In medieval France, unfaithful wives were made to chase a chicken through the town naked.

37) Count the number of cricket chirps in a 15-second period, add 37 to the total, and your result will be very close to the actual outdoor Fahrenheit temperature.

38) The Spanish word 'esposa' means wife. The plural, 'esposas' also means handcuffs.

39) If you put a can of Diet Coke in water, it floats. Regular Coca-Cola sinks.

40) The amount of computer memory required to run WordPerfect for Win95 is eight times the amount needed aboard a space shuttle.

41) Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.

42) A new study found that math and science homework doesn't help improve grades.

43) Genghis Khan’s many wives and his penchant for rape and pillage might have seen him sire hundreds or even thousands of children. According to a famous 2003 genetic study, around one in 200 living men carry a form of the Y chromosome that may have originated with the Great Khan himself. If true, that would mean that 0.5 percent of the world’s male population are his direct descendants. Also, Genghis Khan is famous for the number of people he killed in his quests. His attacks may have reduced the entire world population by as much as 11 percent.

44) 'E.g.' stands for "exempli gratia" which is Latin for 'for example. Likewise, 'OK' stands for "Ol Korrect" which means 'all correct'.

45) Chocolates, Oysters, Avocados and Bananas make people horny.

46) Our fingers get wrinkly in water because wrinkled fingers can give us a stronger grip on slippery objects underwater.

47) Children laugh about 400 times a day, while adults laugh on average only 15 times a day.

48) Students who chew gum have better maths scores than those who do not.

49) Kissing burns 6.4 calories a minute. A horror movie burns nearly 200 calories. Whereas, sex burns 360 calories an hour.

50) Russia didn't consider beer as an alcoholic beverage until 2011. Any drink under 10% volume was considered a soft drink.

**The Fibonacci sequence:**
The Fibonacci sequence is named after Italian mathematician [Fibonacci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci).
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987 …
Each element in the sequence comes by adding the last two elements. Considering the numbers as squares and joining all the points will give this picture, a **Fibonacci spiral**.

*

This spiral is found surprisingly in our nature.

For example,

1] Natural Fibonacci Spiral* From **an Elephant’s Spout**.

 

*

2] **Rabbits reproduce** in a Fibonacci series.*

 

3] The** number of petals in many flowers**, and stems in trees are all in Fibonacci series numbers.
**3 petals**: lily[Shown below], iris

 

**5 petals**: buttercup, wild rose, larkspur, columbine (aquilegia), pinks (shown below)

**8 petals**: delphiniums
**13 petals**: ragwort, corn marigold, cineraria, some daisies
**21 petals**: aster, black-eyed susan, chicory
**34 petals**: plantain, pyrethrum

4] Fibonacci numbers can also be seen in the arrangement of **seeds on flower heads**. Shown below is** cone flower**. You can see that the orange "petals" seem to form spirals curving both to the left and to the right. At the edge of the picture, if you count those spiralling to the right as you go outwards, there are 55 spirals. A little further towards the centre and you can count 34 spirals.

Picture: Tim Stone

**Sunflower** has the same **Fibonacci pattern**.

 

4] The **Nautilus Seashell**. Below are images of cross-sections of a Nautilus seashell. They show the spiral curve of the shell and the internal chambers that the animal using it adds on as it grows. The chambers provide buoyancy in the water.

If we take the ratio of two successive numbers in Fibonacci's series, (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ..) and we divide each by the number before it, we will find the following series of numbers:
1/1 = 1,   2/1 = 2,   3/2 = 1·5,   5/3 = 1·666...,   8/5 = 1·6,   13/8 = 1·625,   21/13 = 1·61538.
It is easier to see what is happening if we plot the ratios on a graph:

The ratio seems to be settling down to a particular value, which we call **the golden ratio** or **the golden number**. It has a value of approximately **1·618034[**Φ,'Phi'**].**
Φ or "Phi" is a golden numeric ratio that is found throughout nature, the human body and the cosmos. It mathematically expresses the way plants grow, galaxies spiral, and is seen as a key to the grand design of the universe. It is known as the "golden proportion" for this reason.

 

This is a sacred ratio.
Leonardo da Vinci made a close study of the human figure and had shown how all its different parts were related by the golden section.

 

Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of the human body emphasized its proportion. The ratio of the following distances is the Golden Ratio:

> (foot to navel) : (navel to head)= 1.618[approx]

Human Beauty is based on divine proportion.
See the photo below which illustrates the following golden ratio proportions in the human face:

- Center of pupil: Bottom of teeth: Bottom of chin
- Outer & inner edge of the eye: Center of nose
- Outer edges of lips: Upper ridges of lips
- Width of center tooth: Width of the second tooth
- Width of eye : Width of iris

The photo below is from a [2009 University study on perceptions of attractiveness](http://www.goldennumber.net/facial-beauty-new-golden-ratio/), and also illustrates a variety of golden ratio proportions in the images chosen as most attractive by study participants:

The ear reflects the shape of a Fibonacci spiral.

Even the dimensions of our teeth are based on phi.

This website [Phi 1.618: The Golden Ratio - Golden Ratio, Phi, 1.618, and Fibonacci in Math, Nature, Art, Design, Beauty and the Face](http://www.goldennumber.net/) is dedicated only to the golden ratio and its appearance in our daily life.

This link @[Page on goldennumber.net](http://www.goldennumber.net/beauty/has) a video that
shows the golden ratio on Britain's most perfect face of 2012.

Thanks to [**Sahaj Ramachandran**](https://www.quora.com/profile/Sahaj-Ramachandran) for mentioning the golden ratio on the human face.

Nature is Beautiful.

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*Published on GeekLord.com - Original URL: https://www.geeklord.com/2022/03/19/what-are-some-wonderful-facts/*