It's True! (Part 11)

You asked for more trivia and true facts so happy to continue this series. Thank you for the comments and suggestions. Without further ado:

• Mars isn’t actually round. Unlike any other rocky planet in the Solar System, Mars is actually shaped like a rugby ball, but with different sizes along all three axes.

• The raw ingredients of a human body would cost over $154,732.00. But if you’re prepared to do the refining yourself, a body could cost a lot less – under $133.00 in fact.

• Wearing a tie can reduce blood flow to the brain by 7.5 per cent. A study in 2018 found that wearing a necktie can reduce the blood flow to your brain by up to 7.5 per cent, which can make you feel dizzy, nauseous and cause headaches. They can also increase the pressure in your eyes if on too tight and are great at carrying germs.

• The fear of long words is called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. The 36-letter word was first used by the Roman poet Horace in the first century BCE to criticise those writers with an unreasonable penchant for long words. It was American poet Aimee Nezheukumatathil, possibly afraid of their own surname, who coined the term how we know it in 2000.

• The world’s oldest dog lived to 29.5 years old. While the median age a dog reaches tends to be about 10-15 years, one Australian cattle dog, ‘Bluey’, survived to the ripe old age of 29.5. The world’s oldest cat lived to 38 years and three days old. Creme Puff was the oldest cat to ever live.

• We've only explored 0.001 per cent of the ocean floor. We have more detailed maps of the Moon than the deep seafloor. Out of a total area of more than 335 million square kilometres (around 129.3 million square miles), scientists have explored less than 0.001 per cent – roughly the same as Rhode Island, the smallest US state.

• Chainsaws were first invented for childbirth. It was developed in Scotland in the late 18th Century to help aid and speed up the process of symphysiotomy (widening the pubic cartilage) and removal of disease-laden bone during childbirth. It wasn’t until the start of the 20th Century that we started using chainsaws for woodchopping.

• Sound can be minus decibels. The quietest place on Earth is Microsoft’s anechoic chamber in Redmond, WA, USA, at -20.6 decibels. These anechoic chambers are built out of heavy concrete and brick and are mounted on springs to stop vibrations from getting in through the floor.

• A horse normally has more than one horsepower. A study in 1993 showed that the maximum power a horse can produce is 18,000W, around 24 horsepower.

• In 1912, a man invented a human flying suit, jumped off the Eiffel Tower, and fell to his death. The inventor was called Franz Reichelt and was a tailor by trade. He wanted to design a suit that could be used as a parachute for pilots, in the early days of human plane travel. After testing the suit on a number of dummies, Reichelt was so confident that he decided to try it out himself and jumped off the lower level of the Eiffel Tower. It didn't go well.

• Orcas wear other animals as hats. Scientists have observed dolphins playing catch with pufferfish and octopuses, and orcas wearing dead fish as hats. No one knows why.

• Polar bears aren’t actually white. Surprisingly, underneath all their white fur, polar bears actually have jet-black skin.

• LEGO bricks withstand compression better than concrete. An ordinary plastic LEGO brick is able to support the weight of 375,000 other bricks before it fails. This, theoretically, would let you build a tower nearing 3.5km in height. Scaling this up to house-size bricks, however, would cost far too much.

• You remember more dreams when you sleep badly. Research suggests that if you sleep badly and wake up multiple times throughout the night you will be more likely to recall the content of any dreams you had. You are also more likely to remember a dream when woken from one.

• The longest anyone has held their breath underwater is over 24.5 minutes. The world record for breath-holding underwater was achieved by Croatian Budimir Šobat on 27 March 2021, who held his breath for a total of 24 minutes and 37 seconds. On average, a human can hold their breath between 30-90 seconds.