We’ve all grown up with bits of “fact” that have been passed down to us by our elders, gleaned from our favorite movies or picked up during random conversations with friends. The important question though is, how many of those facts are true and which ones need to taken out back and burned with the rest of the rubbish?
Water From A Cactus
We Only Have Five Senses
Some scientists insist on 21, including pain, balance and temperature
Bananas Grow on Trees
Actually bananas grow on massive herbs that just resemble trees.
Wake Sleepwalkers
They’ll probably be very confused, but they should be okay. They’re more likely to hurt themselves if they are not woken.
Bulls Hate Red
Bulls are colour blind. They actually perceive the motion of the bullfighter’s cloth as a threat.
Mount Everest Is the Tallest Mountain In The World
A mountain is highest in regard to how far it soars above sea level. But technically it is tallest from base to summit. And Mauna Kea kills it at being the tallest.
Here’s the deets: Above sea level, Mauna Kea (in Hawaii) is only 13,799 feet (4,206 meters). But when you count the crazy enormous portion of it that’s underwater, it’s 33,465 feet tall (10,200 meters).Mount Everest is only 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) above sea level, with none of it below sea level.
Hair And Fingernails Continue To Grow After Death
No, actually they don’t.
Firstly, our hair. Each strand of our hair ‘grows’ when new cells are created at the base of each hair follicle. The process is a rapid, but also one that is entirely dependent on an energy source, in this case, the burning of glucose. But the glucose will only burn when oxygen is present and oxygen can only be present while the heart is still beating. As soon as the heart stops, the oxygen dries up, the glucose doesn’t burn, the cells stop dividing out into the follicles and, to all intents and purposes, our hair stops ‘growing’.
It’s a similar story with out fingernails, which also rely on glucose. Glucose feeds into the tissue at the base of each nail where new cells are created and push the older ones forwards – in other words, our nails ‘grow’. Without glucose to feed the process it simply doesn’t happen.
