10 Random Facts - February 2020 Edition
1. Green is the second most popular color.
Green is the runner up to the color blue, which is the most common favorite color. And it's no wonder, green is used all over the world to signify things like nature, life, safety, and hope. Although if you're a stock holder in East Asia then green isn't what you want to see, because there green indicates a drop in stock prices.
2. Tennis hasn't always looked like what we know.
Back in the old days tennis courts were actually hourglass shaped. It wasn't until 1875 that they were replaced by rectangular ones. And tennis balls weren't always yellow either. They used to be white, but then research showed that yellow balls were more visible to those watching the matches on television at home, and then in 1986 Wimbledon adopted the new color palette making it official.
3. Sweden is home to the world's first "sustainable" dance floor.
In 2008 at Club Watt in Rotterdam, Sweden the first "sustainable" dance floor opened to the public. The way this was accomplished was to sit each tile on springs that were connected to a generator, the end result was that the harder people danced, the more the springs were compressed therefore making energy that ran the LED lights. Now that sounds lit! ;)
4. Mickey Mouse has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Mickey received the star in 1978 for his 50th anniversary. In 1928 he had made his debut in Steamboat Willie. He was the first animated character to ever have the honor. Go Mickey! (Although my heart lies with Donald Duck.)
5. The sun is really far away.
To be exact it is on average 150 million kilometers away. It's so far away that the light that you see around you left the sun roughly 8 minutes before it reached you, and it traveled at the speed of light literally. Another way that you can tell how far away it really is is to think about how small it seems to us and then think about how big it actually is. If the sun was hollow then it could fit approximately 960,000 perfectly spherical earths.
6. People with brown eyes are considered more trustworthy.
There was a study performed in Czech Republic in which university students were told to look at pictures of their classmates and rate their trustworthiness on a 10-point scale. There were only pictures of people with either blue or brown eyes. Overall people with brown eyes were chosen to be the most trustworthy, but it wasn't due to their eyes only. People with brown eyes have different facial structures than those with blue eyes, and that contributes to their look of trustworthiness.
7. Bilingual people do better in school.
That might sound self-explanatory, but they aren't just better with verbal tasks. They also out-score their mono-lingual counterparts in math portions of standardized tests, especially when it comes to problem solving.
8. Bread means money?
In Jazz slang it does! And there are plenty more interesting terms Jazz player use where that came from. For instance: Jazz players are called cats, their houses are called cribs, and axe means a musical instrument. There are even terms for good and bad at Jazz. Finger Zingers are people who can play fast, and Rusty Gates are musicians that aren't very good.
9. It's safe for an airplane to get hit by lightening.
I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. An airplane hasn't crashed because of lightening since 1963 despite the fact that is estimated that a plane is hit by lightening about once every year, per plane! The reason for this is that planes are specifically designed to let the electric charge of a lightening bolt go through the plane and out the other side.
10. Smiling is healthy.
Smiling is one of the easiest things in the world to do, and science says that it pays off. Even a forced smile can lift your mood by releasing endorphins. And since your body is relaxed when you smile the action actually strengthens your immune system. As an added bonus it can also make people around you happier, in fact it can help people up to 300 feet away because that's the distance of which a smile is recognizable. So everyone, keep smiling!
Green is the runner up to the color blue, which is the most common favorite color. And it's no wonder, green is used all over the world to signify things like nature, life, safety, and hope. Although if you're a stock holder in East Asia then green isn't what you want to see, because there green indicates a drop in stock prices.
2. Tennis hasn't always looked like what we know.
Back in the old days tennis courts were actually hourglass shaped. It wasn't until 1875 that they were replaced by rectangular ones. And tennis balls weren't always yellow either. They used to be white, but then research showed that yellow balls were more visible to those watching the matches on television at home, and then in 1986 Wimbledon adopted the new color palette making it official.
3. Sweden is home to the world's first "sustainable" dance floor.
In 2008 at Club Watt in Rotterdam, Sweden the first "sustainable" dance floor opened to the public. The way this was accomplished was to sit each tile on springs that were connected to a generator, the end result was that the harder people danced, the more the springs were compressed therefore making energy that ran the LED lights. Now that sounds lit! ;)
4. Mickey Mouse has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Mickey received the star in 1978 for his 50th anniversary. In 1928 he had made his debut in Steamboat Willie. He was the first animated character to ever have the honor. Go Mickey! (Although my heart lies with Donald Duck.)
5. The sun is really far away.
To be exact it is on average 150 million kilometers away. It's so far away that the light that you see around you left the sun roughly 8 minutes before it reached you, and it traveled at the speed of light literally. Another way that you can tell how far away it really is is to think about how small it seems to us and then think about how big it actually is. If the sun was hollow then it could fit approximately 960,000 perfectly spherical earths.
6. People with brown eyes are considered more trustworthy.
There was a study performed in Czech Republic in which university students were told to look at pictures of their classmates and rate their trustworthiness on a 10-point scale. There were only pictures of people with either blue or brown eyes. Overall people with brown eyes were chosen to be the most trustworthy, but it wasn't due to their eyes only. People with brown eyes have different facial structures than those with blue eyes, and that contributes to their look of trustworthiness.
7. Bilingual people do better in school.
That might sound self-explanatory, but they aren't just better with verbal tasks. They also out-score their mono-lingual counterparts in math portions of standardized tests, especially when it comes to problem solving.
8. Bread means money?
In Jazz slang it does! And there are plenty more interesting terms Jazz player use where that came from. For instance: Jazz players are called cats, their houses are called cribs, and axe means a musical instrument. There are even terms for good and bad at Jazz. Finger Zingers are people who can play fast, and Rusty Gates are musicians that aren't very good.
9. It's safe for an airplane to get hit by lightening.
I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. An airplane hasn't crashed because of lightening since 1963 despite the fact that is estimated that a plane is hit by lightening about once every year, per plane! The reason for this is that planes are specifically designed to let the electric charge of a lightening bolt go through the plane and out the other side.
10. Smiling is healthy.
Smiling is one of the easiest things in the world to do, and science says that it pays off. Even a forced smile can lift your mood by releasing endorphins. And since your body is relaxed when you smile the action actually strengthens your immune system. As an added bonus it can also make people around you happier, in fact it can help people up to 300 feet away because that's the distance of which a smile is recognizable. So everyone, keep smiling!
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