Uncle John’s Did You Know? by Bathroom Readers’ Institute Page A
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
Ads: Link
tree in the world is a coast redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens ) that lives in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California. It measures about 370 feet high.
• Sri Maha Bodhi, a sacred fig tree in Sri Lanka, is said to be a descendant of the Bodhi tree under which Buddha became enlightened. It was planted in 288 B.C., making it the oldest living human-planted tree in the world.
• L’Arbre du Ténéré (the Tree of Ténéré), an acacia tree in the Sahara desert, was once considered the most isolated tree on earth—more than 250 miles away from any other tree.
• The average Christmas tree in an American town square is 12 feet tall.
• “Dogwood” comes from “dagwood”—the tree’s slender, strong limbs were perfect for making “dags,” that is, daggers.
GOING PLACES
• Half of all journeys taken are less than two miles in distance.
• Around the world in…how many days? The record time by car: 33 days. By bicycle: 78 days.
• Special traffic lanes in the Netherlands are for bicycles only. They even have their own traffic lights.
• In 1870 it took about 29 hours to travel from New York to Chicago. Today it takes less than three.
• How fast does the average escalator travel? About .017 miles per hour.
• Laid end to end, all the roads in the United States would circle the Earth 153 times.
• The most miles ridden backward on a unicycle: 53.
• The average person in Great Britain travels a total of 36 miles by taxi each year.
• A bobsled’s top speed is about 90 miles per hour.
• One mile per hour equals 88 feet per minute.
• Things can get so hectic in Hong Kong that delivery times are influenced mostly by traffic conditions on elevators.
• The Japanese travel an average of 1,230 miles by railway per year. The British average 200.
IT’S ABOUT
TIME
• A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time: 1/100 of a second.
• If you watch TV for one hour a night between the ages of 6 and 16, you’ll have spent 8 months in front of the television.
• How long would it take to type every number from 1 to 1,000,000? It took Marva Drew of Iowa five years.
• The science of timekeeping is called horology .
• Back in 1878, Sir Sanford Fleming of Canada figured out that since the Earth rotates once every 24 hours and there are 360 degrees of longitude, there should be 24 worldwide time zones, each spaced 15 degrees of longitude apart. Simple, but brilliant!
• A queen bee lays one egg per minute.
• The part of a sundial that casts the shadow is called a gnomon , (pronounced NO-mun). Want to build a sundial? Here’s a tip: Use a compass to set the gnomon so it’s pointing north-south.
• There are 100 years in a century , 10 years in a decade , and 5 years in a quinquennium .
• Marching in “double time” is 180 steps per minute, “quick time” is 120 steps per minute, and “slow time” is 60 steps per minute.
BIBLE STORIES
• There are more than 750,000 words in the King James Bible.
• The Bible has been translated into 349 languages.
• Southpaws beware: There are 1,600 hostile references to left-handers in the Bible.
• The word “girl” appears only once in the King James Bible. (It’s in Joel 3:3.)
• According to folklore, the Adam’s apple is a reminder of man’s first sin—supposedly it’s a piece of the forbidden fruit stuck in the throat.
• How big was Noah’s ark? It was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall.
• The Bible contains some pretty long names, but the longest belongs to Isaiah’s son: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
• In the Old Testament there’s a giant—a relative of Goliath—who has six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.
• Bibliomancy is the attempt to tell the future by opening a book (especially the Bible) to a random page and reading the first verse you see.
• Zacharias was struck dumb by God until he agreed to name his son “John.” That’s the John who later became John the
• Sri Maha Bodhi, a sacred fig tree in Sri Lanka, is said to be a descendant of the Bodhi tree under which Buddha became enlightened. It was planted in 288 B.C., making it the oldest living human-planted tree in the world.
• L’Arbre du Ténéré (the Tree of Ténéré), an acacia tree in the Sahara desert, was once considered the most isolated tree on earth—more than 250 miles away from any other tree.
• The average Christmas tree in an American town square is 12 feet tall.
• “Dogwood” comes from “dagwood”—the tree’s slender, strong limbs were perfect for making “dags,” that is, daggers.
GOING PLACES
• Half of all journeys taken are less than two miles in distance.
• Around the world in…how many days? The record time by car: 33 days. By bicycle: 78 days.
• Special traffic lanes in the Netherlands are for bicycles only. They even have their own traffic lights.
• In 1870 it took about 29 hours to travel from New York to Chicago. Today it takes less than three.
• How fast does the average escalator travel? About .017 miles per hour.
• Laid end to end, all the roads in the United States would circle the Earth 153 times.
• The most miles ridden backward on a unicycle: 53.
• The average person in Great Britain travels a total of 36 miles by taxi each year.
• A bobsled’s top speed is about 90 miles per hour.
• One mile per hour equals 88 feet per minute.
• Things can get so hectic in Hong Kong that delivery times are influenced mostly by traffic conditions on elevators.
• The Japanese travel an average of 1,230 miles by railway per year. The British average 200.
IT’S ABOUT
TIME
• A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time: 1/100 of a second.
• If you watch TV for one hour a night between the ages of 6 and 16, you’ll have spent 8 months in front of the television.
• How long would it take to type every number from 1 to 1,000,000? It took Marva Drew of Iowa five years.
• The science of timekeeping is called horology .
• Back in 1878, Sir Sanford Fleming of Canada figured out that since the Earth rotates once every 24 hours and there are 360 degrees of longitude, there should be 24 worldwide time zones, each spaced 15 degrees of longitude apart. Simple, but brilliant!
• A queen bee lays one egg per minute.
• The part of a sundial that casts the shadow is called a gnomon , (pronounced NO-mun). Want to build a sundial? Here’s a tip: Use a compass to set the gnomon so it’s pointing north-south.
• There are 100 years in a century , 10 years in a decade , and 5 years in a quinquennium .
• Marching in “double time” is 180 steps per minute, “quick time” is 120 steps per minute, and “slow time” is 60 steps per minute.
BIBLE STORIES
• There are more than 750,000 words in the King James Bible.
• The Bible has been translated into 349 languages.
• Southpaws beware: There are 1,600 hostile references to left-handers in the Bible.
• The word “girl” appears only once in the King James Bible. (It’s in Joel 3:3.)
• According to folklore, the Adam’s apple is a reminder of man’s first sin—supposedly it’s a piece of the forbidden fruit stuck in the throat.
• How big was Noah’s ark? It was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall.
• The Bible contains some pretty long names, but the longest belongs to Isaiah’s son: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
• In the Old Testament there’s a giant—a relative of Goliath—who has six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.
• Bibliomancy is the attempt to tell the future by opening a book (especially the Bible) to a random page and reading the first verse you see.
• Zacharias was struck dumb by God until he agreed to name his son “John.” That’s the John who later became John the
Similar Books
