Fast facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Things you always never wanted to know
Though Venus is an elusive planet ÷ it is the morning and the evening star ÷ its path was calculated by the Mayans with an error of only 14 seconds per year.
A single lightning bolt may give off 3,750 million kilowatts of electrical energy. About 75 percent of this energy is dissipated as heat, raising the temperature of the surrounding air to about 27,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
As each additional person walks into a cocktail party, it is the equivalent to turning on another 120-watt electric bulb. A human being, living on 2,500 calories per day, is delivering (in the form of heat, eventually) about 104 calories per hour, which is equal to 120 watts.
To survive, every bird must eat at least half of its own weight in food each day. Young birds need even more. A young robin, for example, eats as many as 14 earthworms per day.
Perfectly still water can be lowered to a temperature several degrees lower than zero degrees Celsius and remain liquid.
In the later 1600s, the people of Salem, Mass., tried 150 "witches and wizards."
Rattlesnake venom was a popular treatment for epilepsy in the early 20th century.
Army doctors frequently used opium as a painkiller during the Civil War. By the end of the war, according to conservative estimates, 100,000 soldiers were addicted to opium ÷ at a time when the total population of the country was only 40 million.