·
The waste hierarchy or 3 R’s are (in order of importance) reduce,
reuse and recycle.
·
Around 75% of the volcanoes on Earth are found in the Pacific Ring of
Fire, an area around the Pacific Ocean where tectonic plates meet.
·
Despite it name, the Killer Whale (Orca) is actually a type of
dolphin.
·
The largest individual flower on Earth is from a plant called Rafflesia
arnoldii. Its flowers reach up to 1 metre (3 feet) in diameter and weigh
around 10kg.
·
Unlike humans, cows and horses sleep while standing up.
·
When an insect touches the hairs of a Venus Fly Trap it triggers the plant to close, trapping its
victim before killing and dissolving it in acid.
·
Although Polar Bears have white, fluffy fur, their skin is
actually black.
·
Around three quarters of the increase in CO2 levels from human activity over the
last 20 years is from the burning of fossil fuels. The rest is made up largely
of land use changes such as deforestation.
·
Born in 1809, Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who developed the
idea of natural selection and changed the way we think about evolution.
The Great
Barrier Reef is the
largest living structure on Earth, made up of around 2900 individual reefs and
900 islands which stretch over an area of 2600 kilometres. It is home to
billions of small organisms known as coral polyps as well as thousands of different
species of marine life.
Giant Water Lilies
. Water lily plants in
the Amazon produce giant flowers and leaves that stretch out six feet across
the water, absorbing light from the sun and making it difficult for other
plants to live below the surface.
Their edges are turned
up to fight for position and they feature nasty spines on the underside to
prevent fish from eating them. As well as having giant leaves, these plants
also have giant flowers which grow to around a foot in length.
Biggest Flower in the World
Enjoy this video featuring the biggest flower in the world. Rafflesia arnoldii produces the largest individual flower of any plant on Earth, featuring a diameter of up to 1 metre (3 feet), a weight of 10kg and an intense smell of decaying flesh that gives it the nickname “corpse flower”.
Fun Fact
Fans of Pokemon might
have seen the Rafflesia arnoldii flower before. A Pokemon known as Vileplume
features a flower on its head that is based on the Rafflesia flower. The
original Japanese name for Vileplume is pronounced "Ruffresia".
Venus Fly Trap
Watch the Venus Fly Trap
in action with this great video about carnivorous plants. David Attenborough helps
explain how the Venus Fly Trap and Pitcher plants catch animals and eat them
for food.
When hairs on the Venus
Fly Trap are touched by an insect it triggers the plant to close on its victim,
giving them no chance of escape, closing tighter and tighter as the insect
struggles to escape. Acids on the inner surface are then produced which kill
and dissolve the unlucky insect.
·
The word dinosaur comes from the Greek language and means ‘terrible lizard’. The
word was coined by English paleontologist Richard Owen in 1842 and was meant to
refer to Dinosaurs impressive size rather than their scary appearance.
·
Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for over 160 million years, from the
Triassic period around 230 million years ago through the Jurassic period and
until the end of the Cretaceous period around 65 million years ago.
·
The time period from 250 million years ago until around 65 million
years ago is known as the Mesozoic Era. It is often referred to as the Age of
the Dinosaurs because most dinosaurs developed and became extinct during this
time.
·
It is believed that dinosaurs lived on Earth until around 65
million years ago when a mass extinction occurred.
·
Scientists believe that the event leading to the extinction may
have been a massive asteroid impact or huge volcanic activity. Events such as
these could have blocked out sunlight and significantly changed the Earth’s
ecology.
·
The first dinosaur to be formally named was the Megalosaurus, back
in 1824.
·
A person who studies dinosaurs is known as a paleontologist.
·
Rather than being carnivores (meat eaters), the largest dinosaurs
such as the Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus were actually herbivores (plant
eaters).
·
To help fight meat eaters such as the Allosaurus or Spinosaurus,
many plant eaters had natural weapons at their disposal. Examples of this
include the spikes on the tail of the Stegosaurus and the three horns attached
to the front of the Triceratops’s head shield.
·
Pterodactyls are not dinosaurs, they were flying reptiles that
lived during the age of dinosaurs but by definition they do not fall into the
same category. The same goes for water based reptiles such as Plesiosaurs.
·
Birds descended from a type of dinosaurs known as theropods.
·
Despite being long extinct, dinosaurs are frequently featured in
the media. One of the more memorable examples of this is Michael Crichton’s
1990 book Jurassic Park. Adapted to movie in 1993, the story features cloned
dinosaurs brought to life with the help of DNA found in mosquitoes trapped in
amber.
·
Mathematics is
important in many different types of jobs, including engineering, business,
science, medicine and more.
·
It is believed that Ancient Egyptians used complex mathematics
such as algebra, arithmetic and geometry as far back as 3000 BC.
·
It wasn’t until the 16th century that most mathematical symbols
were invented. Before this time math equations were written in words, making it
very time consuming.
·
What comes after a million, billion and trillion? Why a
quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion and nonillion of
course.
·
Cutting a cake into 8 pieces is possible with just 3 slices, can
you work out how?
·
An icosagon is a shape with 20 sides.
·
A three dimensional parallelogram is called a parallelpiped.
·
Trigonometry is the study of the relationship between the angles
of triangles and their sides.
·
The smallest ten prime numbers are: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19,
23, 29.
·
The name of the popular search engine ‘Google’ came from a
misspelling of the word ‘googol’, which is a very, very large number (the number
one followed by one hundred zeros to be exact).
·
A ‘googolplex’ is the number 1 followed by a googol zeros, this
number is so big that it can’t be written because there isn’t enough room in
the universe to fit it in! It would also take a length of time far greater than
the age of the universe just to write the numbers.
·
The number pi (the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a
circle) can’t be expressed as a fraction, this means it is an irrational
number. When written as a decimal it never repeats and never ends.
·
Here is pi written to 50 decimal places:
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
·
If two quantities have a ratio of approximately 1.618, they are
said to be in the golden ratio. This ratio has been used throughout history to
design aesthetically pleasing art works such as the Parthenon. It also
appears in paintings, music, the design of books, and even in nature.
The Parthenon was built nearly 2500 years ago as a temple to the
Greek goddess named Athena. Built on the Athenian Acropolis it remains to this
day as an important symbol of ancient Greece.
·
Recycling is the
process of turning used waste and materials into new products. This prevents
potentially useful materials from being wasted as well as reducing energy use
and pollution.
·
Recycling is part of the waste disposal hierarchy - Reduce, Reuse,
Recycle.
·
A wide variety of different materials can be recycled, including
paper, plastic, glass, metal, textiles and electronic equipment.
·
The idea of recycling isn’t something new, historical evidence
shows that humans have been recycling various materials for thousands of years.
·
There are different methods of waste collection. These include
drop off centers (where waste materials are dropped off at a specified
location), buy back centers (where certain materials are exchanged for money),
and curbside collection (where recycling vehicles are used to pick up waste
material intended for recycling along residential streets).
·
Powerful magnets are used to sort through different types of
metals.
·
Recycled paper can be made from three different types of paper;
mill broke (paper scrap and trimmings), pre-consumer waste (paper that was
discarded before consumer use), and post-consumer waste (paper discarded after
consumer use, such as old newspapers).
·
Recycling plastic can be more difficult than other materials and
plastics are not typically recycled into the same type of plastic.
·
Different types of plastics are labeled by numbers (plastic
identification code), for example polyethylene (PET) is number 1 and polyvinyl
chloride (PVC) is number 3.
·
Recycling old aluminum uses only 5% of the energy used to make new
aluminum.
·
Aluminum can be recycled from cans, bicycles, computers, cookware,
wires, cars, planes and other sources.
·
Glass recycling is often separated into colors because glass keeps
its color after recycling.
·
For every ton of recycled glass turned into new products, 315
kilograms of extra carbon dioxide that would have been released during the
creation of new glass are saved.
- The noise that is thunder is created when the air
around lightning gets rapidly heated and expands at a rate faster than the
speed of sound.
- Rather than putting on weight from eating celery you
actually lose it, you burn more calories from the chewing than you put on
from the food itself.
- Sound travels 4 times faster in water than it does
through air.
- Cranberries can be tested for ripeness by bouncing
them, if they are ripe they should have a bouncing quality.
- Travelling at 80 kilometres per hour, a car uses half
its fuel to overcome wind resistance.
- The largest living structure on Earth is the Great
Barrier Reef. Found in Australia, it is over 2000 kilometres long.
- The QWERTY keyboard layout used on most computers was
invented way back in the 1860's.
- Some types of bamboo can grow nearly a metre a day!
- Diamonds are
the hardest known substance.
- Light from
the sun can reach a depth of 80 metres in the ocean.
- When you crack a whip, it makes a loud noise because
the tip is actually moving faster then the speed of sound!
Largest Earthquakes in History
|
Number
|
Location
|
Date
|
Magnitude
|
|
1.
|
Valdivia, Chile
|
May 22, 1960
|
9.5
|
|
2.
|
Sumatra, Indonesia
|
December 26, 2004
|
9.3
|
|
3.
|
Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA
|
March 27, 1964
|
9.2
|
|
4.
|
Kamchatka, USSR
|
November 4, 1952
|
9.0
|
|
4.
|
Arica, Chile
|
August 13, 1868
|
9.0
|
|
4.
|
Cascadia subduction zone, Canada
and USA
|
January 26, 1700
|
9.0
|
|
7.
|
Maule, Chile
|
February 27, 2010
|
8.8
|
|
7.
|
Ecuador and Colombia
|
January 31, 1906
|
8.8
|
|
7.
|
Sumatra, Indonesia
|
November 25, 1833
|
8.8
|
|
10.
|
Rat Islands, Alaska, USA
|
February 4, 1965
|
8.7
|
|
10.
|
Lisbon, Portugal
|
November 1, 1755
|
8.7
|
|
10.
|
Valparaiso, Chile
|
July 8, 1730
|
8.7
|
Closest
Stars to Earth
|
Number
|
Star name
|
Distance from Earth in light years
|
|
1.
|
0.0000158
|
|
|
2.
|
Proxima Centauri
|
4.2421
|
|
3.
|
Alpha Centauri (binary star)
|
4.3650
|
|
4.
|
Barnard's Star
|
5.9630
|
|
5.
|
Wolf 359
|
7.7825
|
|
6.
|
Lalande 21185
|
8.2905
|
|
7.
|
Sirius (binary star)
|
8.5828
|
|
8.
|
Luyten 726-8 (binary
star)
|
8.7280
|
|
9.
|
Ross 154
|
9.6813
|
|
10.
|
Ross 248
|
10.322
|
Longest Rivers in the World
|
Number
|
River name
|
Kilometres
|
Miles
|
Location
|
|
1.
|
6650
|
4132
|
North East Africa
|
|
|
2.
|
6400
|
4000
|
South America
|
|
|
3.
|
Yangtze
|
6300
|
3917
|
China
|
|
4.
|
Mississippi -
Missouri
|
6275
|
3902
|
USA
|
|
5.
|
Yenisei - Angara - Selenga
|
5539
|
3445
|
Russia, Mongolia
|
|
6.
|
Yellow
|
5464
|
3398
|
China
|
|
7.
|
Ob - Irtysh
|
5410
|
3364
|
Russia, Kazakhstan, China,
Mongolia
|
|
8.
|
Congo - Chambeshi
|
4700
|
2922
|
Central Africa
|
|
9.
|
Amur - Argun
|
4444
|
2763
|
Russia, China, Mongolia
|
|
10.
|
Lena
|
4400
|
2736
|
Russia
|
Tallest People in History
|
Number
|
Name
|
Height (metres)
|
Height (feet)
|
Year of birth
|
Gender
|
Country
|
|
1.
|
2.78
|
8ft
11in
|
1918
|
Male
|
USA
|
|
|
2.
|
John Rogan
|
2.67
|
8ft
9in
|
1868
|
Male
|
USA
|
|
3.
|
Trijntje Keever
|
2.54
|
8ft
4in
|
1616
|
Female
|
Netherlands
|
|
4.
|
Edouard Beaupre
|
2.51
|
8ft
3in
|
1881
|
Male
|
Canada
|
|
4.
|
Vaino Myllyrinne
|
2.51
|
8ft
3in
|
1909
|
Male
|
Finland
|
|
6.
|
Don Koehler
|
2.49
|
8ft
2in
|
1925
|
Male
|
USA
|
|
6.
|
Zeng Jinlian
|
2.49
|
8ft
2in
|
1964
|
Female
|
China
|
|
8.
|
Sultan Kosen
|
2.47
|
8ft
1in
|
1982
|
Male
|
Turkey
|
|
9.
|
Patrick Cotter O'Brien
|
2.46
|
8 ft
1in
|
1760
|
Male
|
Ireland
|
|
10.
|
Gabriel Estevao Monjane
|
2.46
|
8ft
1in
|
1944
|
Male
|
Mozambique
|
Fastest Male 100m Sprinters in
History
|
Number
|
Time (seconds)
|
Athlete name
|
Nationality
|
Date
|
Location
|
|
1.
|
9.58
|
Usain Bolt
|
Jamaica
|
16 August 2009
|
Berlin
|
|
2.
|
9.69
|
Tyson Gay
|
USA
|
20 September 2009
|
Shanghai
|
|
3.
|
9.72
|
Asafa Powell
|
Jamaica
|
2 September 2008
|
Lausanne
|
|
4.
|
9.79
|
Maurice Greene
|
USA
|
16 June 1999
|
Athens
|
|
5.
|
9.84
|
Donovan Bailey
|
Canada
|
27 July 1996
|
Atlanta
|
|
5.
|
9.84
|
Bruny Surin
|
Canada
|
22 August 1999
|
Seville
|
|
7.
|
9.85
|
Leroy Burrell
|
USA
|
6 July 1994
|
Lausanne
|
|
7.
|
9.85
|
Justin Gatlin
|
USA
|
22 August 2004
|
Athens
|
|
7.
|
9.85
|
Olusoji Fasuba
|
Nigeria
|
12 May 2006
|
Doha
|
|
10.
|
9.86
|
Carl Lewis
|
USA
|
25 August 1991
|
Tokyo
|
|
10.
|
9.86
|
Frankie Fredericks
|
Namibia
|
3 July 1996
|
Lausanne
|
|
10.
|
9.86
|
Ato Boldon
|
Trinidad and Tobago
|
19 April 1998
|
Walnut
|
|
10.
|
9.86
|
Francis Obikwelu
|
Portugal
|
22 August 2004
|
Athens
|
Fastest Female 100m Sprinters in
History
|
Number
|
Time (seconds)
|
Athlete name
|
Nationality
|
Date
|
Location
|
|
1.
|
10.49
|
Florence Griffith-Joyner
|
USA
|
16 July 1988
|
Indianapolis
|
|
2.
|
10.64
|
Carmelita Jeter
|
USA
|
20 September 2009
|
Shanghai
|
|
3.
|
10.65
|
Marion Jones
|
USA
|
12 September 1998
|
Johannesburg
|
|
4.
|
10.73
|
Shelly-Ann Fraser
|
Jamaica
|
17 August 2009
|
Berlin
|
|
4.
|
10.73
|
Christine Arron
|
France
|
19 August 1998
|
Budapest
|
|
6.
|
10.74
|
Merlene Ottey
|
Jamaica
|
7 September 1996
|
Milan
|
|
7.
|
10.75
|
Kerron Stewart
|
Jamaica
|
10 July 2009
|
Rome
|
|
8.
|
10.76
|
Evelyn Ashford
|
USA
|
22 August 1984
|
Zurich
|
|
9.
|
10.77
|
Irina Privalova
|
Russia
|
6 July 1994
|
Lausanne
|
|
9.
|
10.77
|
Ivet Lalova
|
Bulgaria
|
19 June 2004
|
Plovdiv
|
|
Number
|
Country
|
Population
|
||||
|
1.
|
China
|
1336480000
|
||||
|
2.
|
India
|
1178521000
|
||||
|
3.
|
USA
|
308911000
|
||||
|
4.
|
Indonesia
|
231369500
|
||||
|
5.
|
Brazil
|
192660000
|
||||
|
6.
|
Pakistan
|
169027500
|
||||
|
7.
|
Bangladesh
|
162221000
|
||||
|
8.
|
Nigeria
|
154729000
|
||||
|
9.
|
Russia
|
141927297
|
||||
|
10.
|
Japan
|
127430000
|
||||
|
Number
|
Country
|
Area (km2)
|
Area (miles2)
|
|||
|
1.
|
Russia
|
17098242
|
6601668
|
|||
|
2.
|
Canada
|
9984670
|
3855100
|
|||
|
3.
|
USA
|
9629091
|
3717813
|
|||
|
4.
|
China
|
9596961
|
3705407
|
|||
|
5.
|
Brazil
|
8514877
|
3287612
|
|||
|
6.
|
Australia
|
7692024
|
2969907
|
|||
|
7.
|
India
|
3201446
|
1236085
|
|||
|
8.
|
Argentina
|
2780400
|
1073500
|
|||
|
9.
|
Kazakhstan
|
2724900
|
1052100
|
|||
|
10.
|
Sudan
|
2505813
|
967500
|
|||
Top Ten Countries by Life Expectancy
|
Number
|
Country
|
Overall life expectancy in years
|
Females
|
Males
|
|
1.
|
Japan
|
82.6
|
86.1
|
79.0
|
|
2.
|
Hong Kong
|
82.2
|
85.1
|
79.4
|
|
3.
|
Iceland
|
81.8
|
83.3
|
80.2
|
|
4.
|
Switzerland
|
81.7
|
84.2
|
79.0
|
|
5.
|
Australia
|
81.2
|
83.6
|
78.9
|
|
6.
|
Spain
|
80.9
|
84.2
|
77.7
|
|
7.
|
Sweden
|
80.9
|
83.0
|
78.7
|
|
8.
|
Israel
|
80.7
|
82.8
|
78.5
|
|
9.
|
Macau
|
80.7
|
82.8
|
78.5
|
|
10.
|
France
|
80.7
|
84.1
|
77.1
|