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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Culture / We’re Taller In The Morning Than Evening - True Of False? (972 Views)
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We’re Taller In The Morning Than Evening - True Of False? by kultimate009: 10:58am On Oct 09, 2014 |
Hamburgers were invented in Hamburg, right? In fact, the hamburger was first sold in America. Well, at least Napoleon was a dwarf, wasn’t he? Erm, no. At 5ft 6in, he was the average height of a European man in the 1800s. These are some of the myths exploded in a new book, True Or False. But, as it also reveals, some of the great urban myths are, in fact, true. Falling cats do tend to land on their feet. And, sadly, pessimists are right - toast does usually land butter-side down. Here are some of the most famous myths - and the truth that lies beneath... 1) There are seven seas FALSE: The expression was coined by sailors thousands of years ago, but it is as mythical as the mermaid. In truth, there are five oceans and more than 50 seas. 2) A cockroach can live without its head TRUE: Cockroaches survived the extinction of the dinosaurs. And, yes, they can live without air for 45 minutes, and without their heads for at least three days. 3) A coin dropped from a high building can kill you FALSE: However high the building, a coin is very unlikely to kill you if it lands on your head. Because it is small and flat, it is subject to lots of wind resistance and won’t hit lethal speeds. If hit, you’re more likely to end up feeling as though your head’s been stung. 4) Camels store water in their humps FALSE: A camel’s hump is really a huge lump of fat. This is a food store, allowing the camel to survive for long periods in the desert. 5) It is warm in summer because Earth’s orbit is closest to the sun FALSE: This cannot be true — after all, when it is summer on one side of our planet, it is winter on the other. The changing seasons are a result of the tilt in Earth’s axis, with the northern hemisphere turning towards the sun in our summer, and away in our winter. 6) We’re taller in the morning than evening TRUE: We are bigger after a spell lying in bed. The backbone doesn’t have to support your body weight, so the discs between the vertebrae aren’t squashed, as they are during the day. So you are 0.2in taller in the morning than in the evening. 7) An opera singer can shatter glass TRUE: Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso claimed his high notes could shatter champagne flutes. He was right — ear-piercing tones have been known to break glass. Glass has a natural resonant frequency — the speed it will vibrate when tapped, or disturbed by a sound-wave. If a professional sings at the right pitch and volume to vibrate the air particles around the glass at its precise resonant frequency, the glass will vibrate. Raising the volume can result in the glass breaking altogether. A rainbow has seven colours FALSE: The reality is not so black and white. Reflecting sunlight off water droplets,a rainbow bounces back every wavelength from infrared to ultra-violet, with colours running into millions of kaleidoscopic shades. 9) The sun is yellow TRUE: Children’s drawings of bright yellow sunshine capture its true colour. This big ball of glowing gas is indeed a yellow star. The Sun looks yellow from space, but it is more yellow from Earth due to it being seen through our planet’s atmosphere. If you viewed the Sun from a mountain-top, the yellow intensity would reduce because the atmosphere is thinner. We are so familiar with depictions of the yellow Sun that astronomers enhance images to make them more yellow. 10) Starlight is millions of years old TRUE: When you look up at the stars, you’re seeing their original light created many thousands or even millions of years before. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year — 5.88 million-million miles. So the light of a star millions of light years away has indeed taken millions of years to reach us. 11) Goldfish have three second memories FALSE: Goldfish have a reputation for stupidity. But it’s an unfair one. In truth, they are fast learners and punctual time-keepers, with the ability to remember colours and music months later. 12) Elephants never forget TRUE: Elephants do have exceptional memories. They recognise old friends after long periods apart, and they know the scent of around 30 relations. Mourning elephants touch the skulls and tusks of dead elephants, and return to the site in a grieving ritual. 13) A black hole sucks in everything near it FALSE: The gravitational pull of a black hole (a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can’t get out) is undeniably strong, but it cannot absorb all matter. Mysterious so-called dark matter (undetectable matter known to make up perhaps 90 per cent of the mass of the universe) seems able to resist it. 14) We use only 10 per cent of our brains FALSE: This is a myth dating back to the 19th century when scientists had many strange ideas about the human brain. In fact, sensors and scanners reveal that we use all of our brain, and most tasks involve activity in many different areas at the same time. 15) Neanderthals were very hairy and spoke in grunts FALSE: This unflattering description comes from popular stereotypes of early peoples. Scientific studies reveal that Neanderthals were not overly hairy and talked similarly to people today. Source: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2785876/Opera-singers-shatter-glass-true-false-You-surprised-answers-new-book-explodes-myths.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
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