10 true facts you need to know Nerdy stuff to impress your pals, possibly
Read about a wolf's howl, how much energy a tour de France rider uses, the speed of an F1 car and why a climber chopped off his own arm. Plus a whole lot more...
1. Call of the wild
A wolf's howl will carry 16 kilometres in open ground and they have a sense of smell 100 times more sensitive than ours
2. Do or die
When American climber Aron Ralston slipped he pinned his arm against the canyon wall. For five days he battled with hypothermia, lack of sleep and dehydration before cutting off his own arm to free himself
3. Strong-arm tactics
One prototype prosthetic arm can lift over 25kg using arm power alone, way beyond the scope of most people.
4. How we stay cool
You have up to four million sweat glands although women have more than men.The back has 60 sweat glands per square centimetre, the soles of the feet have 10 times as many.
5. Moving like wildfire
A fire will travel faster uphill than down and it can roar through forests at up to 23 kmph.
6. Domestic violence
An American man held his own mother hostage for six hours at gunpoint because she refused to do his ironing
7. Riding high
Super cycle riders on the Tour de France burn as many calories as you’d find in 24 Crème Eggs, every day
8. Up and down
The McLaren F1 car will accelerate from 0 to 211mph in just 10.8sec and then back down to 0 in a mere 6.8sec
9. Air superiority
Our WWII hero of the air, the Spitfire had a max speed off 362mph. Its modern day equivalent, the Typhoon zips through the air at a staggering 1320mph.
10. Sensitive skin
The fearsome piranha fish has a lateral line running along each side of its body to help it detect tiny changes in pressure in the murky waters of the Amazon river.
