06. Fact Check #3: 10 Interesting Science facts

Hey everyone

Check out my third Fact check video.

In this blog post, I will be providing the explanation of each facts presented in my fact check video.

• Venus is the only planet to spin clockwise.

Current theory holds that Venus initially spun in the same direction as most other planets and, in a way, still does: it simply flipped its axis 180 degrees at some point. In other words, it spins in the same direction it always has, just upside down, so that looking at it from other planets makes the spin seem backward. [source]

• If you spin a ball as you drop it, it flies.

This is due to the Magnus effect. This phenomenon occurs because the air on the front side of a spinning, falling ball is going in the same direction as the ball's spin, which means it gets dragged along with the ball and deflected back. The air on the other side, however, is moving in an opposite direction to the ball's spin, and so the flow separates instead of getting deflected. [source]

• Popping your knuckles isn't necessarily bad for you.

One of the most convincing bits of evidence suggesting that knuckle cracking is harmless comes from a California physician who reported on an experiment he conducted on himself. Over his lifetime, he regularly cracked the knuckles of only one hand. He checked x-rays on himself after decades of this behavior and found no difference in arthritis between his hands. A larger study came to a similar conclusion. [source]

• The Eiffel Tower can be 15 - 17 cm taller during the summer.

One of the reasons the Eiffel Tower is still as dazzling as ever is because it adapts to its environment and all types of weather conditions: wind, cold, rain, snow, frost, heat, etc. Like any metal, puddled iron is sensitive to variations in temperature and so reacts to high temperatures in summer and low or even negative temperatures in winter.

When temperatures rise, the Tower increases in size! This is a natural physical phenomenon called thermal expansion. Heat causes an increase in volume that makes the Eiffel Tower a few centimeters taller. This expansion also causes the Tower to tilt slightly away from the sun. The sun only hits one of the 4 sides of the Tower creating an imbalance with the other 3 sides, that remain stable, thus causing the Eiffel Tower to lean. In this way, the sun’s movement over the course of a clear day can cause the top of the Tower to move in a more or less circular curve measuring approximately 15 centimeters in diameter. [source]

• Hawaii moves 7.5cm closer to Alaska every year.

Hawaii’s shifting towards Alaska is caused by the movement of tectonic plates. These plates are in constant motion, propelled by currents caused by rising and sinking rock beneath them. Hawaii sits in the middle of the Pacific Plate, which is slowly drifting north-west towards the North American Plate, back to Alaska. Although this seems dramatic, the plates’ pace is roughly the same speed at which our fingernails grow.

• Polar bears are nearly undetectable by infrared cameras.

Polar bears living in the Arctic Circle survive in one of the harshest climates in the world. Winter temperatures can fall to -40 °C, but polar bears manage to keep their internal body temperature at a steady 37 °C.

One physical feature that helps the polar bear stay warm is its fur coat. The coat is made up of two distinct layers: a short and dense underfur layer right next to the skin, and an outer layer of longer and coarser guard hairs. The guard hairs are transparent but the polar bear’s coat appears white because the hairs scatter sunlight.

Research on these transparent guard hairs has revealed a key property that helps to prevent heat loss in the cold Arctic air. The guard hairs appear to be very effective at absorbing infrared radiation, which makes up a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that most mammals (including humans) cannot see but can feel as heat. This means that heat emitted from the polar bear’s warm body could be absorbed by the hairs instead of transmitted through them, where it would be lost to the cold environment.

A polar bear appears invisible in the infrared if the temperature at the surface of its coat matches the temperature of the ice and snow around it. [source]

• In 2.3 billion years, it will be hot for life to exist on Earth.

In one to two billion years the sun will be so hot that all ice on earth will melt again, forming boiling oceans and an atmosphere composed mostly of water vapor. [source]

• Stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve stainless steel.

According to Science, our stomach digests food because of highly corrosive acid with a pH of two to three. This stomach corrosive is sufficiently able to break down treated steel in barely any days. This corrosive additionally assaults your stomach lining, which secures itself by emitting a soluble base bicarbonate arrangement. the liner still must get replaced continually, and it entirely renews itself every four days. [source]

• The Ocean is about 8 Empire state buildings deep on average.

• You can prove Pythagoras theorem with fluid.