Dolphins Intelligence facts - strangefacts

• Dolphins locate objects by using sound. They bounce high pitched sounds off of objects to sense where they are. This is called "echolocation" and it is the way that bats 'see' as well

• Dolphins have sophisticated hearing and navigate and hunt by using sound

• Like whales a Dolphin has a blow hole at the top of its head and must come up to breathe. So a Dolphin normally stays about 10-15 feet from the surface so it can come up to breathe often. However, a Dolphin can dive to over 500 feet if they want to

• Dolphins have a complicated system of communication using clicks and sound. They coordinate their hunting and social group using sound

• A dolphin sleeps with half of its brain shut down and one eye closed

• They have been playing and communicating with people from ancient times and still do

• Dolphins use sonar, because their eyes are on the sides of their bodies. They can't see ahead

Facts About Hydrogen - strangefacts

• The Sun is made out of 92% hydrogen, 7% helium and the rest is other low number gasses

• The odor of farts comes from small amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas and mercaptans in the mixture 

• Joseph Priestley not only discovered oxygen, but he also discovered ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, sulphur dioxide, and nitrous oxide. He was also the first person to isolate chlorine

• Most people know what pH means, but few people know that it stands for pondus hydrogenii which means potential hydrogen and that each unit is a phidron

• Hydrogen is the lightest, simplest and most commonly found chemical element in the Universe, making up around 75% of its elemental mass

The pink Glowish layer in space is composed of Hydrogen

• Hydrogen is found in large amounts in giant gas planets and stars, it plays a key role in powering stars through fusion reactions

• The chemical symbol of hydrogen is H. It is an element with atomic number 1, this means that 1 proton is found in the nucleus of hydroge

• Hydrogen is commonly used in the petroleum and the chemical industries and is also widely used for many physics and engineering applications such as welding or as coolant

• Hydrogen gas is extremely flammable. It is used as a fuel by the space shuttle main engine and was associated with the famous explosion of the Hindenburg airship
• Hydrogen compounds commonly are called hydrides
  

Facts About Volcanoes - strangefacts

• The biggest volcano in the world is the Mauna Loa, in Hawaii. It rises off of the seafloor to 13,000 feet above sea level or about 29,000 feet above the seafloor

• Most volcanoes are 10,000 to 100,000 years old

• There are at least 1,500 active volcanoes around the world

• Indonesia has the most volcanoes about more then 200 alive

• Common volcanic gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen sulfide

• Volcanic eruptions can send ash high into the air, over 30km (17 miles) above the Earth’s surface

• The lower 48 states in the U.S. have about 40 volcanoes

• Scientists has estimated the ocean contains 10,000 volcanoes

• The oldest volcano is the Etna at 350,000 years old

• About 500 million people live close to active volcanoes
  

Facts About Oxygen - strangefacts

• The adult human body requires about 88 pounds of oxygen daily

• The grass and trees along the U.S. interstate highway system release enough oxygen to support 22 million people

• The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air

• Oxygen-poor blood (shown in blue) flows from the body into the right atrium

• If you are locked in a sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning before your brain starves from oxygen deprivation

• Joseph Priestley not only discovered oxygen, but he also discovered ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, sulphur dioxide, and nitrous oxide. He was also the first person to isolate chlorine

• Your brain uses 20% of the total oxygen in your body

• It is thought that a yawn works to send more oxygen to the brain, therefore working to cool it down and wake it up

• The brain can live for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen, and then it begins to die. No oxygen for 5 to 10 minutes will result in permanent brain damage

• Ted A. Batchelor, a professional stuntman endured a full-body burn without oxygen supplies for 2 min 38 sec on an island at Ledges Quarry Park, Nelson, Ohio, USA, on July 17, 2004

• Oxygen is a very reactive element that easily forms compounds such as oxides
  

Facts About Tobacco - strangefacts

• 5% of the $40,700,000,000 received by states from the lawsuit against the tobacco companies has actually been spent on fighting smoking

• One out of every 11 workers in North Carolina depends on tobacco for their livelihood

• The first American advertisement for tobacco was published in 1789. It showed a picture of an Indian smoking a long clay pipe

• A study of 450 individuals found that people who smoke marijuana frequently but do not smoke tobacco have more health problems and miss more days of work than nonsmokers. Many of the extra sick days among the marijuana smokers in the study were for respiratory illnesses

• Mother Bernardina Matthews established a Carmelite convent near Port Tobacco, Maryland, the first community of Roman Catholic nuns in the Thirteen Colonies

• Tobacco kills one person every ten seconds

• Approximately 10 million cigarettes are purchased a minute

• About 15 billion cigarettes are sold each day

• About 5 trillion cigarettes are produced and used on an annual basis

Facts About Halley's Comet - strangefacts

• Mark Twain was born on and died on days when Halley’s Comet can be seen. During his life he predicted that he would die when it could be seen

• A comet is a relatively small solar system body that orbits the Sun. When close enough to the Sun they display a visible coma (a fuzzy outline or atmosphere due to solar radiation) and sometimes a tail

• The coma is created as the comet gets closer to the Sun, causing water, carbon dioxide and other compounds to sublime (quickly changing from solid to gas) from its surface

• Comets are made of ice, dust and small rocky particles

• The name comet comes from the Greek word meaning ‘hair of the head’, it came from the Greek philosopher Aristotle who observed comets as ‘stars with hair

• Short term comets (also known as periodic comets) have orbital periods of less than 200 years while long term comets have orbital periods of over 200 years

• In July 1994, the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet broke apart and collided with Jupiter. This event gave astronomers a unique opportunity to observe what happens when such a collision occurs

• The largest fragments were 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter and struck Jupiter at a speed of around 60 km/s (37 mi/s). The impact scars were clearly visible for months after the impact

• Shoemaker-Levy 9 was originally located by astronomers Eugene M. and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy in March 1993

• Halley’s Comet (or Comet Halley as it is also known) is the most well known comet

Facts About Dogs - strangefacts

• About 30% of Americans admit to talking to their dogs or leaving messages on their answering machines for their dogs while they are away

• Babies that are exposed to cats and dogs in their first year of life have a lower chance of developing allergies when they grow older

• During World War II, Russians used dogs strapped with explosives to blow up German tanks. They trained the dogs to associate the tanks with food and ended up destroying about 25 German tanks using this method

• Reports from owners of cats and dogs indicate that 21% of dogs and 7% of cats snore

• In total there is said to be around 400 million dogs in the world

• The domestic dog has been one of the most popular working and companion animals throughout human history

• Dogs perform many useful tasks for humans including hunting, farm work and security as well as assisting those with disabilities such as the blind

• Although experts often disagree, there is scientific evidence which shows that the domestication of dogs could have occurred more than 15,000 years ago

• There are hundreds of different breeds of dogs

• Among dogs officially registered with kennel clubs in the U.S., Labrador Retrievers are the most popular breed followed by Rottweilers and German Shepherds

Facts About Wolves - strangefacts

• The average litter of Mexican wolves is between four and seven pups

• Due to hunting, Tasmanian devils neared extinction at the beginning of the 20th century. Tasmanian wolves (also called tigers) became extinct in 1936. Today Tasmanian devils are endangered by a cancer called Devil Facial Tumor Disease

• All dogs, from the German Shepherd to the tiny Poodle, are direct descendants of wolves. They can all breed together and produce fertile offspring

• Coyotes can breed with domestic dogs and wolves and the Ethiopian wolf lives above 10,000 feet elevation

• Donkeys have a natural and aggressive dislike of coyotes, wolves and other canines (including domestic dogs)

• Biologists have found that wolves will respond to humans imitating their howls. The International Wolf Center in Minnesota even sponsors “howl nights” on which people can howl in the wilderness and hope for an answering howlWolves may use the same dens to raise their cubs year after year and wolves, bears, apes use urinate to claim territory

• Wolves do not make good guard dogs because they are naturally afraid of the unfamiliar and will hide from visitors rather than bark at them

• Wolves run on their toes, which helps them to stop and turn quickly and to prevent their paw pads from wearing down

• Wolves have about 200 million scent cells. Humans have only about 5 million. Wolves can smell other animals more than one mile (1.6 kilometers) away

Facts About Sharks - strangefacts

• The number of Americans that are killed by sharks averages about one per year

• More people die from eating sharks then from being eaten by them

• In July 1978 Walter Poenisch swam from Cuba - an island in the Caribbean Sea to Florida in the United States. The waters are so dangerous he swam inside a shark cage and took just over 34 hours to complete the 207km (129mile) journey

• Bruce was the nickname of the mechanical shark used in the "Jaws" movies

• As many as 100 million sharks are killed each year for their meat and fins, which are used for shark fin soup

• The megalodon shark became extinct about 1.6 million years ago and was double the size and weight of today's great white shark

• A mother shark can give birth to as many as 70 baby per litter

• The first sharks lived more than 400 million years ago—200 million years before the first dinosaurs. They have changed very little over the eons

• Sharks belong to a group of fish known as the elasmobranchs, or cartilaginous fishes. Rays and skates, which may have evolved from sharks, also belong to this group

• Because sharks very rarely get cancer, scientists study their cartilage in the hopes of finding a cure for the disease

• Hammerhead sharks’ heads are soft at birth so they won’t jam the mothers' birth canals
  

Facts About Girls - strangefacts

• Girls break their arms 56% more often than they did 40 years ago and there are 106 boys born for every 100 girls

• The age limit for marriage in France was, until recently, 15 for girls, but 18 for boys. The age for girls was raised to 18 in 2006

• Boys who have unusual first names are more likely to have mental problems than boys with conventional names. Girls don't seem to have this problem

• Close to 73% of girls in Bangladesh are married by age 18

• Eighty percent of 10 year old girls in the USA go on a diet

• Girls have more tastebud than boys

• More boys than girls are born during the day; more girls are born at night

• One of the Bond girls in the James Bond movie, "For Your Eyes Only," used to be a man

• There are 106 boys born for every 100 girls

• Girls are slightly more likely than boys to use home computers for e-mail, word processing and completing school assignments than playing games

• Jacob & Emily were the most popular baby names for boys and girls, respectively, in 2004

• During the 1600's, boys and girls in England wore dresses until they were about seven years old

• In 1892, Italy raised the minimum age for marriage for girls to 12

• 52% of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25: Women aged 20-24 obtain 32% of all abortions; Teenagers obtain 20% and girls under 15 account for 1.2%

• Until about the age of 12, boys cry about as often as girls

• A study reported in the New York Times suggests that one in five adolescent girls become the victims of physical or sexual violence, or both, in a dating relationship

• At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be expected to be alive are "missing" from various populations, mostly in Asia, as a result of sex-selective abortions, infanticide or neglect

• Globally, at least one in three women and girls is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime

• 4 million women and girls are trafficked annually