Did You Know? 10 Cool Facts Episode 1: Awesome Science!

Did You Know? Cool Facts is a new series bringing you 10 incredibly fascinating facts every episode to blow your mind and give you a whole new perspective on the world you occupy.

10 Awesome Science Facts!

1. There's no crying in space!

Astronauts cannot cry in space. There is no gravity so the tears don't flow, they just ball up and stay on the eye, a stinging and rather unpleasant experience.

2. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

The first lighters were devices converted from flintlock pistols in the 16th century. In 1823 German chemist Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner created the first lighter not converted from a pistol. But it did not have much success so cue Carl Auer Von Welsback who, in 1903, breezed in and patented the flint lighter as we know today.

John Walker of England invented the first match in 1826.

3. There are more bacteria cells in your body than human cells.

The oldest life form on Earth, bacteria have been around for at least 3.5 billion years. But we didn't discover them until 1674 when Dutch scientist Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek stumbled upon them while messing around with the just invented microscope. He was comparing pond water with cells scraped from his mouth.

Ick...I wonder if this discovery led to the invention of the toothbrush...

4. An average human walks an amount equal to five times around the Earth in their lifetime.

The moderately average person walks about 7,500 steps per day. Maintaining this at an average stride until the age of 80, they will have taken 216,262,500 steps. This comes out to about 110,000 miles, equalling 5 times around the Earths equator.

5. If you drilled a hole through the Earth and jumped in, it would take you exactly 42 minutes and 12 seconds to get to the other side.

You'd have to get away from the exit hole immediately after flying out of it, though, otherwise you'll drop right back in again, hurtling back and forth inside this gravity tunnel like a human pendulum.

6. Lazers get trapped in waterfalls.

The phenomena is called Total Internal Reflection, (it's also how fiber optic cables guide light flow) when the beam of light hits a medium that is more dense-the edge of the water- and approaching a less dense medium- the air. It happens over and over as the light hits each boundary, therefore becomes trapped in the waterfall.

7. Clear vision without glasses is possible.

If you broke your glasses simply make a pinhole with your hand. Light coming through into your retina will be forced into focus. This won't give you 20/20 eyesight, but it's good in a pinch if you need to read directions or check out that hottie strutting by.

8. Make a ball fly by spinning it as you drop it.

The Magnus Effect occurs when the air on the front side of object that is spinning, in this case the ball, is going in the same direction as its spin and dragging the air around with it at the same time the air on the other side is moving in the opposite direction.

Here's a 3 minute video explaining the Magnus Effect totally worth the watch!

9. An average of 100 people worldwide choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.

Americans, however, are more prone to choking on toothpicks.

10. A 10 year old mattress is double the weight than it was when new.

This is due to all the squatters who took up permanent residence over the years: dust, millions of dead skin cells, lint, soil, decaying dust mite bodies and droppings, mold, dandruff, pet and human hair, bodily secretions, pollen, and sweat (the average human perspires about a quart a day). Sweet dreams!

Isn't our world absolutely fascinating? Science is fun :)

Never stop learning!

Don't miss an episode of Did You Know? Cool Facts! Follow @ArbitraryKitten for more ever impressive things they probably didn't teach you in school!

Sources: NASA, The Atlantic, Popular Science, PhysicsForum.com, Giphy, Creative Commons, & LiveScience.