From the depths of space to the incredible miniaturisation of computer technology, our modern world is built upon fascinating scientific milestones. Here are 27 intriguing facts spanning physics, astronomy, and technology that highlight how far we have come.
Technology and Inventions
- To have your picture taken with the very first camera, you would have had to sit perfectly still for 8 hours.
- No one has received more US patents than Thomas Edison. The inventor accumulated 2,332 patents worldwide for his inventions. 1,093 of Edison’s patents were in the United States, but other patents were approved in countries around the globe.
- A chip of silicon a quarter of an inch square has the capacity of the original 1949 ENIAC computer, which occupied an entire city block.
- The first computer mouse was introduced in 1968 by Douglas Engelbart at the Fall Joint Computer Expo in San Francisco.
- The computing technology contained in a single Game Boy unit from the year 2000 exceeds all the computing power that was used to put the first man on the moon in 1969.
- The Ericsson Company first produced cellular mobile phones in 1979.
- Roughly 80 percent of the microwaves emitted from mobile phones are absorbed by your head.
The Rise of the Internet
- On 11 July 1962, France received the first transatlantic transmission of a TV signal from a twin station in Andover, Maine, via the TELSTAR satellite.
- The Internet began as a single page at CERN which contained information about the World Wide Web project and how you too could make a hypertext page full of wonderful hyperlinks.
- The Internet is the fastest growing communications tool ever. It took radio broadcasters 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million, television 13 years, and the internet just 4 years.
- Although the MP3 standard was invented in 1991, it was not until 1998 that the first music file sharing service, Napster, went live and changed the way the internet was used forever.
- Amazon became the number one shopping site because in the days before the invention of the search giant Google, Yahoo would list the sites in their directory alphabetically.
Physics and Chemistry
- Albert Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect, the phenomenon by which electrons are knocked out of matter by electromagnetic radiation such as light.
- Sound travels about four times faster in water than it does in air.
- Windmills always turn anti-clockwise, except for the windmills located in Ireland.
- A typical hurricane produces the energy equivalent of 8,000 one megaton bombs.
- The fastest speed a falling raindrop can hit you is 18 miles per hour.
- No matter its size or thickness, no piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven times.
- No matter how cold the temperature gets, petrol will not freeze.
- The only letter not appearing on the Periodic Table is the letter J.
- Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, making up roughly 75 percent of all normal matter.
Space and Astronomy
- If our Sun were just one inch in diameter, the nearest star would still be 445 miles away.
- If you could drive your car straight up into the sky, you would arrive in space in just over an hour.
- Skylab, the first American space station, fell to the Earth in thousands of pieces in 1979.
- Venus spins in the opposite direction compared to the Earth and most other planets. This means that the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East on Venus.
- The planet Saturn has a density lower than water. If you could find a bathtub big enough, Saturn would float in it.
- Due to subtle gravitational effects, you weigh slightly less when the moon is directly overhead.
- Some large asteroids in our solar system even have their own tiny moons orbiting them.
