Pocket Genius Science: The living world – Amazing science facts

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Facts At Your Fingertips: The living world – Amazing science facts

MOST COMMON ELEMENTS

In the universe:

  • Hydrogen—75%
  • Helium—23%
  • Other elements—2%

In the Earth’s crust:

  • Oxygen—47%
  • Silicon—28%
  • Aluminum—8%
  • Iron—5%
  • Calcium—4%
  • Sodium—3%
  • Potassium—3%
  • Magnesium—2%

In the human body:

  • Oxygen—61%
  • Carbon—23%
  • Hydrogen—10%
  • Other elements—6%

RAREST ELEMENT

  • The rarest element naturally occurring on Earth is francium. Only about 1 oz (25 g) of francium exists on the Earth at any one time. It is highly radioactive and turns into other elements just minutes after it has formed.
  • The fastest land animal is the cheetah, which can run at 71 mph (114 kph).
  • The fastest fish is the sailfish, which can swim at 68 mph (110 kph).
  • The fastest unpowered human was skydiver Felix Baumgartner who, on October 14, 2012, reached a top speed of 834 mph (1,342 kph) when he jumped from a high-altitude balloon. He was the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound without a powered vehicle.
  • The fastest manned aircraft was the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which was clocked at 2,193 mph (3,530 kph).
  • Spacecraft are even faster—the Space Shuttles have traveled at 17,400 mph (28,000 kph) when orbiting the Earth.
  • The fastest passenger train is the JR-Maglev, an experimental Japanese train that has reached a top speed of 361 mph (581 kph) on test runs.
  • The fastest unmanned train is a rocket sled. Powered by rockets, these can slide along rails at more than 6,200 mph (10,000 kph).
  • The water speed record is 317 mph (511 kph). The record was set in 1978 by Ken Warby in a specially designed boat called Spirit of Australia.

MASSIVE MOLECULES

  • The largest man-made molecule, PG5, is made up of thousands of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms bonded together. One molecule of PG5 has the same mass as 200 million hydrogen atoms.
  • The largest molecules found in space are made of 60 carbon atoms joined together in patterns of hexagons and pentagons, like a soccer ball.
  • One strand of DNA, the molecule that contains the code for life, can contain as many as 220 million pairs of instructions.

SPEED RECORDS

  • The fastest-moving stuff in the universe is light. A particle of light, called a photon, travels 983,571,056 ft (299,792,458 m) every second.
  • The fastest animal is the peregrine falcon, which reaches speeds of 200 mph (325 kph) when it dives on its prey.

ENERGY MATTERS

  • The largest power plant in the world is the hydroelectric power plant at Three Gorges Dam in China. It produces enough electricity to power an area the size of the Netherlands.
  • The largest solar power plant is Nevada Solar One in the Mojave Desert. It covers an area of more than 400 acres (162 hectares).
  • A single bolt of lightning contains 5 billion joules of energy. If you could find a way to harness that energy, it would power a house for more than a month.
  • Just 5 percent of the energy used by an incandescent lightbulb is used to make light. The other 95 percent produces heat.
  • Energy-saving lightbulbs are four times more efficient.
  • The world’s strongest magnet is an electromagnet made by the Florida State University. It is 500,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field.

Of the 118 elements known to scientists, only 94 are found naturally on Earth.