Five Amusing Science Facts

Aug 23rd, 2009 | By | Category: Articles

Science seems like a difficult subject to study. But without a knowledge of the subject, it is difficult to comprehend the world around us. Things work on scientific principles, and if we understand these principles, we will be in a better position to deal with our immediate environment. Here are a few fun filled science facts that will surely amuse and interest you.

If you were to dig a hole right through the earth’s center, and fall into it. Where would you come out?
No on has dug such a hole till now, so the answer to this question is essentially theoretical. Assuming you managed to dig such an hole and also manged to fall into it, what would happen to you? Would you come out at the other end of the tunnel.

The answer, you might be surprised to know, is no!

You would accelerate and gain a high velocity, and when you reach the center of the earth – where you might expect to stop because there would be no gravitational force – you would continue to fall due to inertia. Then, gravitation would start working again and you would begin to slow down till you reach the other end of the hole. Here, instead of coming out, you would be pulled back and start falling again. In short, you would be stuck in the well, swinging like a pendulum from one end of the Earth to the other. It would take you about 85 minutes (84 minutes 24 seconds to be exact) to get from one end to another and back!

So, if you , or someone you know, manages to drill a hole through the earth’s center, make sure you don’t fall into it.

FASF3The picture that keeps looking at you.
Do you have a picture of your boss in your office that keeps staring at you. No matter what corner of the room you go to, the image keeps looking at you. You simply can’t hide from it. If you think you are getting paranoid and are even contemplating seeing a doctor, relax. Let me tell you that there is nothing wrong with you. It is the picture.

In a picture, or a portrait, when the pupil is placed exactly in the middle of the eye, it produces an optical illusion of the person looking at you point-blank. When you move away from someone in a real life situation, the pupils are no longer in the center as the person is looking at something other than us. But in the image, no matter where we go, the pupil stays right in the middle of the eye, making us feel that the face in the picture is constantly looking at us.

Boiling an egg in a paper pot.
What do you do if you are stuck on an island with a stove, an abundant supply of eggs and some paper. Did you say, you get into the habit of eating the eggs raw. Well, that is a possibility, but let us further aggravate the situation by saying  that you are one of those people who would rather die than even think about eating a raw egg. What do you do then?

Simple! You take the paper, make some kind of vessel out of it, pour some water in the newly made paper pan, and boil your eggs.

If you think that is an absurd idea, think again. Water has a great heat capacity and has a boiling point of 100 degrees Centigrade. The water won’t let the temperature rise beyond 100 degrees. So, though your paper might get singed, it will not get hot enough to burn. While you will have your eggs boiled.

How to tell the difference between a boiled egg and a raw egg?
This is a classic problem – with many solutions. Some simple, some complicated,and some bizarre. Here, we will look at a very simple way of differentiating between a boiled egg and a raw one.

Take the egg, place it on a smooth, hard, plain surface. Give it a twirl.

If your egg rotates fast and long, it is a boiled egg. If it rotates slow and uneven, and with difficulty, it is a raw egg. The reason is simple: The boiled egg rotates as one solid whole, while the raw egg, with its liquid content, fails to act as a single body. The liquid inside, due to inertia, tries to act against the motion of the solid shell.

The Invisible Man.
So, you want to get the magic ring of Frodo; You want to be invisible, and put into action all those naughty thoughts you have been harbouring in your mind for so long. I am sorry to break this news to you, but if you went invisible, you would most likely go blind too.

Let us see why. To see you need the light rays, refracted by the fluids in your eye, to fall on your retina. This light helps your brain to produce an image of things around you. To be invisible, however, requires the light to pass through you without any refraction, or reflection.

If you became invisible, light would pass through your eyes without any obstruction, rendering you sightless. You won’t be able to do the simplest job, so that thing you thought you would do when you became invisible will have no chance of being done.

(Got a science question, or know of any such interesting facts, drop a comment and let us know.)


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Neo is an engineering professional by day who takes on the mantle of a writer during the night. He started writing his first book at the age of fifteen. That book never saw the light of day, but, he says, writing that book made him realise that writing is something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He hopes that one day he is able to quit his day job, and become a full time writer. If you like this post, you can follow Neo on Twitter

Neo has written 37 articles on The MAG. View all articles by


4 comments
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  1. lolz..nice take on the so called ‘magical tricks’ !!

  2. hey, this is an ultra cool article.it was quite unexpectedly informative and uber cool.keep up the good work.

  3. more 5 amazing facts….

    1.If you rub an onion on your foot – within 30 – 60 minutes you will be able to taste it – this is because it travels through the blood stream

    2.You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath (if you hold it until you go unconscious, you begin to breath normally as soon as you do)

    3.The forces required to remove a foot from quicksand at a speed of one centimeter per second would require the same amount of force as “that needed to lift a medium-sized car.”

    4.The average person accidentally eats 430 bugs each year of their life

    5.A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation.

  4. I don’t know If I said it already but …This blog rocks! I gotta say, that I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks, 🙂

    A definite great read..Tony Brown

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