10 Children’s Facts That Not Every Adult Can Answer

Children are, by their nature, curious. And not every adult can answer children’s questions. For example, why do we sneeze when exposed to intense sunlight? Why do we tremble when we are afraid? Why shouldn’t we stare when someone is welding?

O awesome.club selected 10 simple but very interesting questions asked by children and for which few adults would be able to give the right answer.

Did you know that between 18 and 35% of people who go outside on a sunny day sneeze a lot because of a poorly studied genetic trait? The sudden sneeze phenomenon (sneeze reflex by bright light) is caused when light disturbs the optic nerve, affecting the receptors responsible for the sneeze.

Visual receptors are found next to the sneeze receptors, and they all connect to the brain in the same way. Thus, the brain responds to a visual reaction in the same way that it would react to an olfactory one, believing that the organism has found a foreign body. The brain gives the order to eliminate this foreign body, stimulating the sneezing process.

From childhood, everyone knows that looking at someone doing a weld is bad for the eyes. But why? It is something that few people know. The point is that the light emitted by the solder contains a lot of ultraviolet rays that affect the cornea, retina and lens of the eye. In other words, UV rays cause a corneal burn, which appears after a few hours and manifests itself in the form of pain, a crick in the eye, redness and production of tears.

Full recovery may take several weeks; therefore we recommend that you really avoid looking directly at a weld unless you are wearing a special mask.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University, USA, concluded that the cerebral cortex of dogs has about 530 million neurons, against 250 million in cats. And it is the cortex that is in charge of thoughts, planning and complex behavior, according to experts. The number of neurons affects the animal’s ability to make decisions based on its own experience. Thus, it is possible to say that dogs are twice as smart as cats. By the way, for the sake of comparison: the human cerebral cortex has 16 billion neurons.

For many years, meteorological data indicate that the South Pole is considerably colder than the North. The average temperature at the North Pole is —34°C, while at the South Pole it is around —48.9°C. This is because the North Pole sits between two oceans and just a few meters above sea level, acting as a kind of thermal deposit. The South Pole is in the middle of Antarctica and 2,800 meters above sea level.

Therefore, a large amount of sunlight reaching the surface is reflected by the snow, which is very white. Thus, the South Pole has the coldest climates on Earth.

The answer to the question depends on finding similar snowflakes. As University of California physics professor Kenneth G. Libbrecht says, if we examine the shape of snowflakes through a simple microscope, then theoretically it is possible to find two similar flakes. But when they are compared on a molecular level, then we will never find two snowflakes alike.

A typical snow crystal can contain about 10 to the power of 18 water molecules (ie, 1 with 18 zeros). Such water molecules dissipate through the crystal in a random fashion, forming a hexagonal figure. Therefore, the probability that two ice crystals have the same molecular composition is practically zero.

Chemist Tobias Lowitz explained in the 18th century why birch (a tree related to oak) is white. He managed to separate a crystalline organic substance from the tree trunk, which he named betulin. It is a firm and tarred substance that makes the trunk have a dense structure that prevents the passage of water, air and protects against blizzards. But since air is necessary for stem cells, dark spots come to help, and they are called lenticels. They have a more porous structure, with a greater distance between cells, allowing the tree to breathe.

By the way, we would like to point out that there are more than a hundred species of birch trees, and not all trees are white with dark spots. Some of them have lighter spots or a reddish tone that resembles red wine.

A few years ago, some videos went viral on the web that showed cats being scared by their owners with the help of cucumbers. In one of them, the poor pussy is eating and, seeing a cucumber on the ground, jumps and panics. But the issue is not about the cucumber itself. When they are eating, cats relax as much as possible, as they associate the eating place with something safe. When cats sense the presence of a suspicious object, their survival instinct kicks in. Therefore, they would react in the same way to a banana, an eggplant or even a pineapple.

Everything is very simple: this method of flight is very effective, as the “V” formation guarantees an ideal air current so that the birds spend less energy in the activity. In addition, this makes it clear who is the leader that the other birds must follow. It is also interesting to know that birds even synchronize the movement of their wings. However, we emphasize that only large birds fly this way (swans and geese, for example), while smaller birds, due to their light weight, rely on other aerodynamic processes during flight. For this reason, the “V” flight would be dangerous for them, who prefer to move in isolation.

Incidentally, combat aircraft pilots also use this formation.

As Marc Branham, professor of entomology and pneumatology at the University of Florida explains, fireflies produce a chemical reaction in the body that is responsible for the glow. This type of phenomenon is called bioluminescence. Luciferin combines with oxygen and forms an inactive molecule called oxyluciferin. Luciferase regulates the rate, accelerating the two-time reaction that gives rise to light. Fireflies have the ability to control the start and end of the reaction and thus the timing of luminescence. The researchers estimate that these insects glow to attract the opposite sex.

According to Kim Hellemans, a neuroscientist at the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Carleton, in Ottawa, Canada, in the face of fear, the brain sends a signal to the adrenal glands, which release adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormone, into the blood. The task of these hormones is to quickly prepare the body for a possible physical effort (attack, protection or escape). Thanks to these substances, the heart speeds up, the pupils dilate, “tunnel vision” appears and the muscles become so tense that, in the face of lack of physical activity (escape, aggression), they begin to drastically decrease their activity. Outwardly, this manifests as a tremor.