Random Scientific Facts

1. Humans are among the best natural long-distance runners. One of the main reasons for this is because we walk and run in an upright position. When most animals run, their organs constantly slam into their chest, preventing them from running long distances. Humans do not have this issue. In addition, humans have the ability to sweat. Animals such as dogs and cats cannot sweat, causing them to pant instead. Panting is hard to do while in motion, so most animals need to take breaks to effectively combat heat.

2. Chlorine is odorless. The smell in swimming pools, which is commonly associated with chlorine, is actually the combination of chlorine with urine, sweat, or dirt. An unused pool with large amounts of chlorine will have less of a smell than a used pool with little chlorine. This is the main reason waterparks smell so strongly of "chlorine".

3. Many people mistakenly believe that the strongest muscle in the human body is the heart. Others believe that it is in the legs. However, the strongest muscle, the masseter, is in our jaw. The masseter allows us to exert an extremely strong pressure.

4. The cracks between sidewalk parts is to account for expansion during the summer. During the summer, temperatures rise. This increase in energy excites atoms, causing them to move farther about their mean position. This causes sidewalks to expand slightly during the summer. Without cracks, the sidewalk would try to expand and instead buckle, breaking and cracking randomly.

5. Scientific knowledge is often dismissed by some people because of the argument, "They're just theories". In fact, scientific theories are very different than our more colloquial usage of the term "theory". In everyday usage, a theory is often meant as an untested hypothesis or educated guess. However, in science, a theory is as close as one can get to a fact. Theories are rigorously tested by several different scientists. They have been verified countless times. In fact, even gravity is a theory. Therefore, when people comment that something is "just a theory", they discount the hard work of many scientists to prove that theory as true.