# Facts - Did you know?

1) The speed of light is generally rounded down to 186,000 miles per second. In exact terms it is 299,792,458 m/s (metres per second – that is equal to 186,287.49 miles per second).

2) When a flea jumps, the rate of acceleration is 20 times that of the space shuttle during launch.

3) The deepest part of any ocean in the world is the Mariana trench in the Pacific with a depth of 35,797 feet.

4) The Earth is 4.56 billion years old…the same age as the Moon and the Sun.

5) Somewhere in the flicker of a badly tuned TV set is the background radiation from the Big Bang.

6) Humans have 46 chromosomes, peas have 14 and crayfish have 200.

7) Without its lining of mucus your stomach would digest itself.

8) If you could drive your car straight up you would arrive in space in just over an hour.

9) Each person sheds 40lbs of skin in his or her lifetime.

10) Englishman Roger Bacon invented the magnifying glass in 1250.