Facts You Probably don’t Need

• Lightning can reach temperatures up to 50,000 degrees or five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

• Charles Osborne of the U.S. had hiccups continuously from 1922 to 1990.

• The moon is drifting away from Earth! It moves about 1.5 inches farther from our planet each year.

• The long spiral tusk of a narwhal is an elongated tooth that can grow up to 10 feet long.

• Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

• Water can boil and freeze at the same time. This phenomenon, called the “triple point,” happens under specific conditions of pressure and temperature.

•  A day on Mars is just 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth. Mars’ rotation period is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds.

• The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds. Despite their inability to fly like other birds, chickens can still manage short flights.

          Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.