"Some amazing facts", Series-1

• An animal epidemic is called an Epizootic.

• The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator in his kingom.

• While the Chinese invented gunpowder, they were not the first to develop firearms.

• The naval rank of "Admiral" is derived from the Arabic phrase :amir al bahr", which means "lord of the sea".

• The Cruise Liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

• In Chinese, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same.

• Britain are the only stamps in the world not to have the name of the country of origin.

• The name JEEP came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" Vehicle, G.P.

• No word in the English rhymes with the month.

• The only "real" food that U.S Astronauts are allowed to take into space is pecan nuts.

• The word "modern" is a cobtraction of the words " modulate, demodulate".

• The pupil of an Octopus' eye is rectangular.

• The term "Soda Water " was coined in 1798.

• To make one Kilo of honey,honeybees have to visit 4 million flowers,travelling a distance equal to 4 times around the earth.

• Botanically speaking,the banana is a herb and the tomato is a fruit.

• There are more than 10,000 varieties of tomato.

• Watermelons are 97% water. tomatos 95%,carrots 90%and bread 30 %.

• Bananas are the world's most popular fruit after tomato.

• The first Cola-flavoured beverage was intoduced in 1881.

• Dr.John S.Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in Atlanta,Georgia in 1886.Pepsi-Cola was invented by Caleb Bradham in 1898.

• In the Middle Ages,sugar was treasured luxury costing 9 times as much as milk.

• Wine is sold in tinted bottles because wine  spoils when exposed to sunlight.

• A person can survive without food for more than 30 days,but less than a week without water.

• An ounce of chocolate contains about 20 mg of caffeine.

• 75% of the fish caught are eaten-the rest is used to make things such as glue,soap,margarine, and fertilizer.

• The worlds oldest existing eatery(restaurant) was opened in Kai-Feng,China in 1153.

• Approximately one billion Snails are serves in restaurants annually.

• One carrot provides more than 200% of recommended daily intake of Vitamin-A .

• Thomas Cook,the world's first travel agency was founded in 1850.

• Carrots have zero fat content.

• The Bible is still the world's best selling book.

• About 50 Bibles are sold in a minute.

• The Statue of Liberty is the largest hammered copper statue in the world.

• 2 billion people in the worls still cannot read.

• Water is the only substance on earth naturally found in all the three forms:solid,liquid and gas.

• Bones are 25% water,Human blood is 83% water.

• Berlin (Germany) has more than 1200 bridges.

• An everage 40 kilos of skin is shed during a lifetime.

• Dead skin cells make up about 90% of household dust.

• Tea is said to have been discovered in 2723 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidently blew into a pot of boiling water.

• The tea bag was introduced by Thomas Sullivan of New York.

• An onion,apple amd potato all have the same taste.The differences in flavour are caused by their smell.

• Thomas Edison filed 1,093 patents, including those for the light bulb,electric railways and the movie camera.

• When Thomas Edison died in 1931,he held 34 patents for telephone,141 for batteries,150 for telegraph and 389 for electric light and power.

• A baseball has exactly 108 stitches,a cricket ball 70 stiches.

• A soccer ball is made up of 32 leather panels,held together by 642 stitches.

• Earth orbits the Sun at an average speed of 29.79 km/s (18.51 mes/s), or orbit 1,07,000km/h (about 67,000 miles/hour).

• A storm officially becomes a hurricane when cyclone winds reach 119 km/hour (74 mph).

• In a 100 year period,a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean,20 months as ice,about 2 weeks in lakes and rivers,and less than a week in the atmosphere.

• Fish don't have ears,yet they hear or feel vibrations along the lateral line of their bodies.

• Penguins group together for protection while swimming,but most work alone while hunting.

• Fast food is often high in calories,sodium,fat and cholestrol.A Cheesburger at McDonalds averages at about 320 calories.

• The Great Chinese Wall is about 20 feet wide and 26 feet high.Parts of the wall are so broad that 10 soldiers can wall abreast.

• Bar codes ( Parallel line strips on packs) were invented by Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland in 1948.

• The greatest number of children that have been born by one mother is 69!She gave birth to 16 pairs of twins,seven sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets.

• China uses 45 billion chopsticks per year.25 million trees are chopped down to make them sticks.

• Traffic lights were used even before the advent of the motarcar.

• Coca-Cola contains neither Coca nor Cola.

• 36% of NASA employees are Indians.

• Elizabeth1 of England suffered from anthophobia,fear of roses.

• The 16th century Escorial Palace of King Phillip 11 of spain had 1200 doors.

• The everage person falls asleep in 7 minutes.

• An elephant can be pregnant for 2 years.

• Starfish do not have brains.

• Impotence is legal grounds for divorce in 24  American states.

• Men can read smaller print than women,women can hear better.

• Keeping our blood at an essentially neutral pH is a top priority for the body.

• Sharks have very good eyesight.In fact Sharks can see extremely well in dark areas,have fantastic night vision,and can see colours.

• Milk Chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter who sold the concept to his neighbour Henri Nestle.

• Alexender Graham Bell never phoned his wife or mother because they were deaf.

• 50% of the world's population earns about 5% of the world's wealth.

• In New Zealand there are 4 million people and 70 million sheep.

• Soccer is the most attended or watched sport in the world.

• The Sahar desert expands at about 11 km per month.

• Oceanography,the study of oceans,is a mixture of biology,physics,geology and chemistry.

• The Sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth.

• All the planets in the solar system rotate anticlockwise,except Venus.Venus rotates clockwise.

• Earth is the densest planets in the solar syatem.

• Each day the sun evoporates 1,000,000,000,000 (a trillion) tons of water.

• There is no record of a person being killed by a meteorite but animals are occassionally hit.

• No word in the English rhymes with month.

• Great Britain was the first country to issue postage stamps on 1 May,1840

to be continued in series-2