just for fun facts

Note:
+11:00 or UTC+11:00/GMT+11:00 - mean that current place is 11 hours ahead of UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) or GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). For example, current Vladivostok standard time is UTC+11.
-08:00 or UTC-08:00/GMT-08:00 - mean that current place is 8 hours behind of UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) or GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). For example, San Francisco standard time (PST) is UTC-08.

1. Some places/countries use time offsets not an integral number of hours from UTC/GMT.

Examples:

§ Newfoundland (Canada) is UTC/GMT - 03:30 (summer -02:30)

§ Australia (Northern Territory) is +09:30

§ Australia (South Australia) is + 09:30 (summer +10:30)

§ India is +05:30

§ Iran is +03:30 (summer +04:30)

§ Afghanistan is +04:30

§ Burma (Myanmar) is + 06:30

§ Marquises Islands is - 09:30

§ Norfolk Isl. (Australia) is +11:30

§ Lord Howe Island (Australia) is + 10:30 (summer +11:00)

§ Sri Lanka is +05:30

2. Some places use quarter / hour offset from UTC/GMT.

Examples:

§ Nepal is UTC/GMT +05:45

§ Chatham Island (New Zealand) is UTC/GMT + 12:45 (summer UTC/GMT + 13:45 or winter in the northern hemisphere).

§ Western Australia, Eyre Highway towns: Eucla, Caiguna, Madura, Mundrabilla and Border Village (South Australia) use UTC/GMT +08:45

3. Usual Daylight Saving Time (Summer time) rule is- altering the clocks ahead by one hour.

There is an exception:

§ Lord Howe Island (Australia) advances its clocks by half an hour in the summer.
Lord Howe Island is UTC/GMT + 10:30 during local winter and
UTC/GMT +11:00 during local summer.

4. Australia has both horizontal and vertical time zones in summer.

Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia do not observe DST. Middle of Australia (Northern Territory and South Australia) use half an hour offset from nearby Western Australia and eastern states of Australia.

Additionally, Northern Territory does not use DST and South Australia does.

In this instance, for example, two places Nullarbor and Darwin, located in relatively same longitude in the middle of Australia have the same time during local winter (1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of Perth time, Western Australia).

However, during local summer, Nullarbor and Darwin maintain 1 hour difference.
Darwin is 1 hour and 30 minutes minutes ahead of Perth time and
Nullarbor is 2 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Perth time (Western Australia).

5. Prior to 1995, International Date Line split the country of Kiribati. The result was that the eastern part of Kiribati was a whole day and two hours behind the western part of the country where its capital is located.
In 1995 Kiribati decided to move the International Date Line far to the east- which placed the entire country into the same day.

§ Kiribati is UTC/GMT +12:00 (Tarawa)

§ UTC/GMT +13:00 (Phoenix Islands) and

§ UTC/GMT +14:00 (Christmas Islands).

Now eastern Kiribati and Hawaii, which are located in the approximately same area of longitude, are a whole day apart.

6. If two places are located in the northern hemisphere and both places use DST- for example Amsterdam (Netherlands) and New York (USA) the time difference between those two places can be 1 hour offsetduring a year.
This takes place because Europe shifts to DST on the last Sunday in March and U.S.A. goes to DST on the second Sunday in March - the time difference between New York and Amsterdam most time of the year is + 06 hours (Amsterdam time is 6 hours ahead of New York time),
however for a few weeks in the spring and autumn- the time difference is + 05 hours.
Same situation can be applied between most of the cities in Europe and North American cities during that week.

7. If two places are located in opposite hemispheres and both places use DST- the time difference between those two places can be 1-3 hours offset during a year.
For example
New York (northern hemisphere) and Chile (southern hemisphere) could have:

§ 0 hours difference (time is the same in both places)

§ - 1 hour (Chile time is 1 hour behind NYC time) and

§ - 2 hours (Chile time is 2 hours behind NYC time)

A similar example is the time difference between local time in New York and local time in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Rio de Janeiro time could be +1, +2 or +3 hours ahead of New York time depending on the time of the year.

8. Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) usually do not observe Daylight Saving Time as the duration of day / night are very much the same - 12 hours.
However Fiji UTC/GMT+12:00 and Samoa (Apia) UTC/GMT -11:00 are observing DST.

9. Although Russia is geographically spread over 12 time zones, it officially observes only 9 time zones (from march 2010).

10. Usually, when one travels in an easterly direction - a different time zone is crossed every 15 degrees of longitude (which is equal to one hour in time).
However, the are exceptions.
For example,
Since Japan is located to the east of Vladivostok (southern part of Russian Far East) one would assume that Japan time would be either similar or ahead of Vladivostok time.
In this case the situation is completely opposite: Japan time is 2 hours behind Vladivostok time.

11. Mongolia once used to have 3 time zones- now it uses one time zone UTC/GMT + 08:00.

12. China observes one time zone UTC/GMT + 08:00 - which makes this time zone uncommonly wide. In the extreme western part of China the sun is at its highest point at 15:00, in the extreme eastern part - at 11:00.

13. "Daylight Saving Time" (DST) is the name commonly used in North America. Some regions (Europe, South America) more commonly use the name "Summer Time". This could create some confusion in the meaning of some timezone abbreviations, as ST could stand for "Summer Time" +1 hour (Europe, South America) and for "Standard Time" (North America).

14. Brazil sets its Summer time by decree every year. Some states / counties observe Summer time on a year to year basis.

15. The state of Arizona does not observe DST. However the Navajo Reservation (see USA map) does change to Daylight time. The Hopi Reservation is within the Navajo Reservation and does not observe DST (as rest of the state).

16. Some countries use different rules to start and end DST. For example, a law in Israel requires that summer must last at least 150 days.

17. Greenwich time (Greenwich Lab is located in London) has the same time as London time during winter time, however London is 1 hour ahead of GMT during summer time.

18. The military of some nations refer to time zones as letters, for example: Z (Zulu) = Zero Meridian (UTC or GMT). Letters A to M moves eastwards and N to Y moves westwards. The letter J (Juliet) is skipped and refers to current local time of the observer.

19. Antarctica Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station use New Zealand's time zone +12:00 hours during local winter and +13:00 hours - during local summer (which is winter in the northern hemisphere).

20. The International Space Station uses UTC/GMT.

21. News for Daylight Saving Time and Time changes around the World.

22. Mobile GSM World Coverage Map - GSM Country List by frequency bands.

fun science facts

Try these

on your Family, Class or Troop

	Did you know that there are 206 bones in the adult human body and there are 300 in children (as they grow some of the bones fuse together).
	Flea's can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms this is equal to a 6ft. person jumping 780 ft. into the air.
	The most dangerous animal in the world is the common housefly. Because of their habits of visiting animal waste, they transmit more diseases than any other animal.
	Snakes are true carnivorous because they eat nothing but other animals. They do not eat any type of plant material.
	The world's largest amphibian is the giant salamander. It can grow up to 5 ft. in length.
	100 years ago: The first virus was found in both plants and animals.
	90 years ago: The Grand Canyon became a national monument & Cellophane is invented.
	80 years ago: The food mixer and the domestic refrigerator were invented.
	70 years ago: The teletype and PVC (polyvinyl-chloride) were invented.
	60 years ago: Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission by splitting uranium, Teflon was invented.
	50 years ago: Velcro was invented.
	40 years ago: An all-female population of lizards was discovered in Armenia.
	30 years ago: The computer mouse was invented.
	20 years ago: First test-tube baby born in England, Pluto’s moon, Charon, discovered.
	10 years ago: First patent for a genetically-engineered mouse was issued to Harvard Medical School.
	5 years ago: The first successful cloning of human embryo
	The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes or stirrup bone located in the middle ear. It is approximately .11 inches (.28 cm) long.
	The longest cells in the human body are the motor neurons. They can be up to 4.5 feet (1.37 meters) long and run from the lower spinal cord to the big toe.
	There are no poisonous snakes in Maine.
	The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles.
	The largest man-made lake in the U.S. is Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam.
	The poison arrow frogs of South and Central America are the most poisonous animals in the world.
	A new born blue whale measures 20-26 feet (6.0 - 7.9 meters) long and weighs up to 6,614 pounds (3003 kg).
	The first coast-to-coast telephone line was established in 1914.
	The Virginia opossum has a gestation period of only 12-13 days.
	The Stegosaurus dinosaur measured up to 30 feet (9.1 meters) long but had a brain the size of a walnut.
	The largest meteorite crater in the world is in Winslow, Arizona. It is 4,150 feet across and 150 feet deep.
	The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.
	Skylab, the first American space station, fell to the earth in thousands of pieces in 1979. Thankfully most over the ocean.
	It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest.
	Human jaw muscles can generate a force of 200 pounds (90.8 kilograms) on the molars.
	The Skylab astronauts grew 1.5 - 2.25 inches (3.8 - 5.7 centimeters) due to spinal lengthening and straightening as a result of zero gravity.
	An inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain water is equivalent to 15 inches (38.1 centimeters) of dry, powdery snow.
	Tremendous erosion at the base of Niagara Falls (USA) undermines the shale cliffs and as a result the falls have receded approximately 7 miles over the last 10,000 years.
	40 to 50 percent of body heat can be lost through the head (no hat) as a result of its extensive circulatory network.
	A large swarm of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) can consume 20,000 tons (18,160,000 kilograms) of vegetation a day.
	The largest telescope in the world is currently being constructed in northern Chile. The telescope will utilize four - 26 ft. 8 in. (8.13 meters) mirrors which will gather as much light as a single 52 ft. 6 in. (16 meters) mirror.
	The Hubble Space Telescope weighs 12 tons (10,896 kilograms), is 43 feet (13.1 meters) long, and cost $2.1 billion to originally build.
	The longest living cells in the body are brain cells which can live an entire lifetime.
	The largest flying animal was the pterosaur which lived 70 million years ago. This reptile had a wing span of 36-39 feet (11-11.9 meters) and weighed 190-250 pounds (86-113.5 kilograms).
	The Atlantic Giant Squid's eye can be as large as 15.75 inches (40 centimeters) wide.
	Armadillos, opossums, and sloth's spend about 80% of their lives sleeping.
	*The starfish species, Porcellanaster ivanovi, has been found to live in water as deep as 24,881 feet (7,584 meters).*
	The tentacles of the giant Arctic jellyfish can reach 120 feet (36.6 meters) in length.
	The greatest tide change on earth occurs in the Bay of Fundy. The difference between low tide and high tide can be as great as 54 ft. 6 in. (16.6 meters).
	The highest temperature produced in a laboratory was 920,000,000 F (511,000,000 C) at the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in Princeton, NJ, USA.
	The most powerful laser in the world, the Nova laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CA, USA, generates a pulse of energy equal to 100,000,000,000,000 watts of power for .000000001 second to a target the size of a grain of sand.
	The fastest computer in the world is the CRAY Y-MP C90 supercomputer. It has two gigabytes of central memory and 16 parallel central processor units.
	The heaviest human brain ever recorded weighed 5 lb. 1.1 oz. (2.3 kg.).
	The deepest part of the ocean is 35,813 feet (10,916 meters) deep and occurs in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. At that depth the pressure is 18,000 pounds (9172 kilograms) per square inch.
	The largest cave in the world (the Sarawak Chamber in Malaysia) is 2,300 feet (701 meters) long, 980 feet (299 meters) wide, and more than 230 feet (70 meters) high.
	The hottest planet in the solar system is Venus, with an estimated surface temperature of 864 F (462 C).
	The ears of a cricket are located on the front legs, just below the knee.
	The first electronic digital computer (called ENIAC - the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was developed in 1946 and contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes.
	The leg muscles of a locust are about 1000 times more powerful than an equal weight of human muscle.
	The cosmos contains approximately 50,000,000,000 galaxies.
	There are between 100,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 stars in a normal galaxy.
	Sound travels about 4 times faster in water than in air.
	Scientists have discovered that copper pollution of the atmosphere occurred about 2500 years ago. This was discovered by analyzing ice cores from Greenland. The pollution was attributed to the Romans who used copper for military purposes and to produce coins.
	Hydrofluoric acid will dissolve glass.
	In a full grown rye plant, the total length of roots may reach 380 miles (613 km).
	In a full grown rye plant, the total length of fine root hairs may reach 6600 miles (10,645 km).
	A large sunspot can last for about a week.
	If you could throw a snowball fast enough, it would totally vaporize when it hit a brick wall.
	Boron nitride (BN) is the second hardest substance known to man.
	The female Tarantula Hawk wasp paralyzes a large spider with her sting. She then lays her eggs on the motionless body so that her developing young have a fresh supply of spider meat to feed on.
	The seeds of an Indian Lotus tree remain viable for 300 to 400 years.
	The only letter not appearing on the Periodic Table is the letter “J”.
	Velcro was invented by a Swiss guy who was inspired by the way burrs attached to clothing.
	Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
	October 10 is National Metric Day.
	If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long.
	The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
	Super Glue was invented by accident. The researcher was trying to make optical coating materials, and would test their properties by putting them between two prisms and shining light through them. When he tried the cyano-acrylate, he couldn't get the prisms apart.
	No matter its size or thickness, no piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
	A car traveling at 80 km/h uses half its fuel to overcome wind resistance.
	Knowledge is growing so fast that ninety per cent of what we will know in fifty years time, will be discovered in those fifty years.
	According to an old English system of time units, a moment is one and a half minutes.
	The typewriter was invented in 1829, and the automatic dishwasher in 1889.
	The wristwatch was invented in 1904 by Louis Cartier.
	When glass breaks, the cracks move at speeds of up to 3,000 miles per hour.
	By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.
	Ten minutes of one hurricane contains enough energy to match the nuclear stockpiles of the world.
	Most gemstones contain several elements. The exception? The diamond. It's all carbon.
	Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man.
	Which of the 50 states has never had an earthquake? North Dakota.
	When hydrogen burns in the air, water is formed.
	Sterling silver contains 7.5% copper.
	Cars were first made with ignition keys in 1949.
	J.B Dunlop was first to put air into tires.
	Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone, also set a world water-speed record of over seventy miles an hour at the age of seventy two.
	It is energy-efficient to turn off a fluorescent light only if it will not be used again within an hour or more. This is because of the high voltage needed to turn it on, and the shortened life this high voltage causes.
	The Earth's equatorial circumference (40,075 km) is greater than its polar circumference (40,008 km).
	Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world.
	Due to gravitational effects, you weigh slightly less when the moon is directly overhead.
	The Earth's average velocity orbiting the sun is 107,220 km per hour.
	There is a high and low tide because of our moon and the Sun.
	The United States consumes 25% of all the world’s energy.
	Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave.
	There is enough fuel in a full tank of a Jumbo Jet to drive an average car four times around the world.
	The surface speed record on the moon is 10.56 miles per hour. It was set with the lunar rover.
	If you could drive to the sun -- at 55 miles per hour -- it would take about 193 years
	The moon is one million times drier than the Gobi Desert.
	Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon.
	A Boeing 707 uses four thousand gallons of fuel in its take-off climb.
	The planet Saturn has a density lower than water. So, if placed in water it would float.
	Since 1959, more than 6,000 pieces of 'space junk' (abandoned rocket and satellite parts) have fallen out of orbit - many of these have hit the earth's surface.
	It takes 70% less energy to produce a ton of paper from recycled paper than from trees.
	Every year in the US, 625 people are struck by lightning.
	Hawaii is moving toward Japan 4 inches every year.
	The rocket engine has to supply its own oxygen so it can burn its fuel in outer space.
	The North Atlantic gets 1 inch wider every year.
	Oxygen is the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, waters, and atmosphere (about 49.5%)
	A stroke of lightning discharges from 10 to 100 million volts & 30,000 amperes of electricity.
	A bolt of lightning is about 54,000°F (30,000°C); six times hotter than the Sun.
	Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe (75%).
	The average distance between the Earth & the Moon is 238,857 miles (384,392 km).
	The moon is 27% the size of the Earth.
	The Earth weighs 6.6 sextillion tons, or 5.97 x 1024 kg.
	The center of the Sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million °C).
	Sunlight takes about 8 minutes & 20 seconds to reach the Earth at 186,282 miles/sec (299,792 Km/sec).
	The highest temperature on Earth was 136°F (58°C) in Libya in 1922.
	The lowest temperature on Earth was -128.6°F (-89.6°C) in Antarctica in 1983.
	Sunlight can penetrate clean ocean water to a depth of 240 feet.
	The average ocean floor is 12,000 feet.
	The temperature can be determined by counting the number of cricket chirps in fourteen seconds and adding 40.
	House flies have a lifespan of two weeks.
	Chimps are the only animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror.
	Starfish don't have brains.
	The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
	Shrimp's hearts are in their heads.
	Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
	The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds
	Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards.
	Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
	Porcupines float in water.
	An ostrich's eye is bigger that its brain.
	An iguana can stay under water for twenty-eight minutes.
	The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light.
	It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
	The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular.
	Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
	The leg bones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk.
	Ants cannot chew their food, they move their jaws sideways, like scissors, to extract the juices from the food.
	Hummingbirds are the only animals able to fly backwards.
	A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
	Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
	A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
	Armadillos get an average of 18.5 hours of sleep per day.
	Armadillos can walk underwater.
	There are more beetles than any other kind of creature in the world.
	Certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen.
	Only humans sleep on their backs.
	The human brain is 80% water.
	Everyone's tongue print is different.
	As an adult, you have more than 20 square feet of skin on your body--about the same square footage as a blanket for a queen-sized bed.
	In your lifetime, you'll shed over 40 pounds of skin.
	15 million blood cells are produced and destroyed in the human body every second.
	Every minute, 30-40,000 dead skin cells fall from your body.
	The brain uses more than 25% of the oxygen used by the human body.
	If your mouth was completely dry, you would not be able to distinguish the taste of anything.
	There are more living organisms on the skin of a single human being than there are human beings on the surface of the earth.
	Muscles are made up of bundles from about 5 in the eyelid to about 200 in the buttock muscle.
	Muscles in the human body (640 in total) make up about half of the body weight.
	The human body has enough fat to produce 7 bars of soap.
	The human head is a quarter of our total length at birth, but only an eighth of our total length by the time we reach adulthood.
	Most people blink about 17,000 times a day.
	Moths have no stomach.
	Hummingbirds can't walk.
	Sea otters have 2 coats of fur.
	A starfish can turn its stomach inside out.
	A zebra is white with black stripes.
	The animal with the largest brain in relation to its body is the ant.
	The largest eggs in the world are laid by a shark.
	A crocodile’s tongue is attached to the roof of its mouth.
	Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper.
	Giraffes are unable to cough.
	Sharks are immune to cancer.
	Despite the hump, a camel’s spine is straight.
	Cheetah's can accelerate from 0 to 70 km/h in 3 seconds.
	A giraffe's neck contains the same number of vertebrae as a human.
	The heart of giraffe is two feet long, and can weigh as much as twenty four pounds.
	On average, Elephants sleep for about 2 hours per day.
	Lobsters have blue blood.
	Shark's teeth are literally as hard as steel.
	A mosquito has 47 teeth.
	Oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen make up 90% of the human body.
	Seventy percent of the dust in your home consists of shed human skin
	Fish are the only vertebrates that outnumber birds.
	A cockroach can live for several weeks without its head.
	The average human produces a quart of saliva a day -- about 10,000 gallons in a lifetime
	Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die.
	The embryos of tiger sharks fight each other while in their mother's womb, the survivor being the baby shark that is born.
	Ants do not sleep.
	Nearly a third of all bottled drinking water purchased in the US is contaminated with bacteria.
	Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over 1 million descendents.
	An Astronaut can be up to 2 inches taller returning from space. The cartilage disks in the spine expand in the absence of gravity.
	The oldest known fossil is of a single-celled organism, blue-green algae, found in 3.2 billion year-old stones in South Africa.
	The oldest multicellular fossils date from ~700 million years ago.
	The earliest cockroach fossils are about 280 million years old.
	Healthy nails grow about 2 cm each year. Fingernails grow four times as fast as toenails.
	20/20 vision means the eye can see normally at 20 feet. 20/15 is better; the eye can see at 20 feet what another eye sees at 15 feet.
	The average person has 100,000 hairs on his/her head. Each hair grows about 5 inches (12.7 cm) every year.
	There are 60,000 miles (97,000 km) in blood vessels in every human.

Funny and Interesting Facts

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