BlueJeans Books brings you our first ever Trivia Tuesday.
Oh Mr Tallyman tally me banana…
Written by Wanda Hartzenberg with the help of ChatGTP
First ever Blujeans Books Trivia Tuesday.
- Fact: The Eiffel Tower can grow by up to 15 cm (6 inches) during summer.
- Background: This happens due to thermal expansion. When metal heats up, it expands. In the heat of Parisian summers, the iron structure of the Eiffel Tower lengthens, making it slightly taller.
2. Bananas are radioactive
- Fact: Bananas contain potassium-40, a radioactive isotope.
- Background: While the radioactivity in a single banana is harmless, it’s a quirky fact! Bananas contain potassium, and about 0.01% of that potassium is a naturally occurring radioactive isotope. It would take eating an impossible number of bananas to feel any real effects.
And since when I told wifey about this fact, her first question was.. how many bananas do you need to eat before you feel an effect of radio activity—
To feel the effects of radiation from bananas, you would need to eat an astronomical amount within 24 hours.
Bananas contain potassium-40, a naturally occurring radioactive isotope. The radiation dose from one banana is about 0.1 microsieverts (μSv), which is an extremely small amount compared to normal background radiation that humans are exposed to daily (about 10 μSv per day).
To cause acute radiation sickness, a person would need to absorb at least 1 sievert (Sv) of radiation. This means you’d need to consume about 10 million bananas in a single day to reach this level! It’s physically impossible to eat that many bananas, so you’ll never feel any harmful effects from banana radioactivity under normal circumstances.
In summary: no realistic number of bananas eaten within 24 hours would cause radiation sickness. The radiation dose from bananas is minuscule and harmless.
3. Cleopatra lived closer to the moon landing than the building of the pyramids
- Fact: Cleopatra lived about 2,000 years closer to the first moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
- Background: The Great Pyramid was completed around 2560 BCE, while Cleopatra reigned from 51-30 BCE. By the time she lived, the pyramids were already ancient history, and she lived less than 2,000 years before 1969’s moon landing.
4. Sharks predate trees
- Fact: Sharks have existed for about 400 million years, while the earliest trees appeared around 350 million years ago.
- Background: The first sharks appeared in the Devonian period, long before trees took root in the late Carboniferous period. This means sharks have been swimming the oceans for millions of years longer than the first forests appeared on Earth.
5. A cloud can weigh more than a million pounds
- Fact: The average cumulus cloud can weigh over 500,000 kg (about 1.1 million pounds).
- Background: Clouds may look light and fluffy, but they are composed of water droplets. A typical cumulus cloud contains so much water that its total weight can exceed a million pounds, roughly the weight of 100 elephants.
6. Octopuses have three hearts and blue blood
- Fact: Octopuses have three hearts, and their blood is blue.
- Background: Two hearts pump blood to the gills, while one heart pumps it to the rest of the body. Their blood is blue due to the copper-based molecule hemocyanin, which is more efficient than hemoglobin in cold, low-oxygen environments.
7. The shortest war in history lasted 38 to 45 minutes
- Fact: The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is the shortest recorded war in history.
- Background: This war was between the United Kingdom and the Sultanate of Zanzibar. It began after Sultan Khalid bin Barghash refused to step down. British forces bombarded his palace, and the war was over in under an hour.
8. There’s a species of jellyfish that is biologically immortal
- Fact: The jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii is capable of reversing its aging process, making it potentially immortal.
- Background: This jellyfish can revert to its juvenile form after reaching adulthood, bypassing death. It essentially resets its life cycle, making it one of the only known creatures that can theoretically live forever under ideal conditions.
9. Humans share 60% of their DNA with bananas
- Fact: About 60% of the genetic material in humans is similar to that of bananas.
- Background: This doesn’t mean we’re 60% banana, but it highlights the common building blocks of life. Both humans and bananas share basic biological functions, which are encoded in their DNA.
10. The inventor of the frisbee was turned into a frisbee after he died
- Fact: Walter Morrison, who invented the frisbee, was cremated and had his ashes turned into a frisbee after his death.
- Background: In a strange twist of fate, the man who helped bring joy to millions through his invention of the frisbee wanted to become one in his afterlife. Morrison’s ashes were molded into a frisbee by his family as a tribute.