Fast Facts
February 15, 2006
- A fetus in the womb can hear. Tests have shown that fetuses respond to various sounds just as vigorously as they respond to pressures and internal sensations.
Midgets and dwarfs almost always have normal-sized children, even if both parents are midgets or dwarfs.
Twins are born less frequently in the Eastern hemisphere than in the West.
An eagle can attack, kill, and carry away an animal as large as a young deer. The harpy eagle of South America feeds on monkeys.
The optimum depth of birdbath water, according to the Audubon Society of America, is 2 1/2 inches. Less water makes it difficult for birds to take a bath; more makes them afraid.
A sneeze can travel as fast as 100 mph.
Blue eyes are the most sensitive to light, dark brown the least sensitive.
The human tongue tastes bitter things with the taste buds toward the back. Salty and pungent flavors are tasted in the middle of the tongue, sweet flavors at the tip.
A skin graft can be taken only from the skin of one’s own body or from the body of an identical twin.
The older a person gets, the less sleep he requires. A child should get from 8 to 9 hours a night. An elderly adult can do well with 4 to 6 hours.
The liver is a gland, not an organ.
Tongue prints are as unique as fingerprints.
There is a 6-foot-high stone monument dedicated to the comic-strip character Popeye in Crystal City, Texas.
When using the first pay telephones (installed in an office building in New Haven, Conn., in June 1880) a caller did not deposit his coins into the machine. He gave them to an attendant who stood next to the telephone. Coin-operated telephones did not appear until 1899.
