|
|
More 15-Minute Amazing Facts
In 15 minutes a lot of fascinating (and odd and mysterious) things can happen
Deborah Feingold
 In Anchorage, the tides can rise and fall more than half a foot. “This is one of the fastest tidal movements anywhere, because the configuration of the coastline creates a 29-foot difference between high and low tides,” says Stephen Gill, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Fifteen minutes is about one 88-millionth of a giant Sequoia tree’s 2,500-year life span.Americans drink more than 38 million cups of coffee in the morning, which is when 87 percent of coffee is downed.To pay the full cost of a four-year private-college education for a child who is currently five years old, you will need to save about 25 cents every 15 minutes until she’s ready to head off to the dorm.The space shuttle travels 4,331 miles while in orbit.Austrian Andrea Mayr set the female speed record for climbing the 1,576 steps of the Empire State Building in 11 minutes, 23 seconds.Ashrita Furman holds the world record for running a mile while holding a person of equal weight in the fireman’s carry (15 minutes, 12 seconds). “It was actually harder for the person I was carrying than for me, because my shoulder was pounding into his stomach,” says the 52-year-old Furman, who holds 41 current Guinness World Records.Ashrita Furman also has the record for running a mile while circling a hula hoop (12 minutes, 15 seconds). “The tricky part about this one was that because you can’t let the hoop hit the ground, you’re really limited in how fast you can move,” he says.Pumpkins grown for giant-pumpkin contests gain from a quarter to a third of a pound every 15 minutes during their intense August growing phase. “A good one goes from the size of a pea at pollination to nearly 1,200 pounds or more in 90 days,” says Don Langevin, author of How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins (Annedawn Publishing, $15, www.amazon.com.Jim Reeves won $1,500 at the 2005 Swellin’ With Melon Watermelon-Eating Championship, in Brookville, Ohio, for consuming a record of more than 13 pounds of watermelon.It takes, on average, 15 minutes for the nine-acre, 22-million-pound retractable roof over the Seattle Mariners’ Safeco Field to be closed in case of rain, wind, or other inclement weather.The world record for juggling seven rings is 15 minutes, five seconds, and is held by Anthony Gatto, who performs with Cirque du Soleil.Crossword-puzzle tournament champions can complete a typical Sunday New York Times puzzle in 8 to 10 minutes. “The Saturday puzzles are actually the hardest of the week,” says Times puzzle editor Will Shortz, “but it’s smaller than Sunday’s puzzle. Champions can usually finish a Saturday puzzle in six to eight minutes.”Anne Jones set the speed-reading record for completing a 224-page novel, taking 21 minutes and demonstrating a high comprehension of what she had read. “The competition uses unpublished books so that no one can read them ahead of time,” Jones says.On its busiest day ever, during the holiday season of 2005, Amazon.com shipped 28,125 products.The earth travels 17,000 miles along its orbit and rotates 250 miles.An average of nearly 62 million shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.Recess at a typical elementary school now lasts 10 to 20 minutes. That’s about half the average recess of a generation ago, says Audrey Skrupskelis, a professor of education at the University of South Carolina, Aiken, and the president of the recess-advocacy group American Association for the Child’s Right to Play. “And that, unfortunately, means the children get less of a break, less recreation time, less exercise, and less experience freely interacting with each other,” says Skrupskelis.An average of 91,000 people enter the turnstiles of the Moscow Metro, the world’s busiest subway system. By comparison, the average is about 51,000 people for the New York City subway system.The cosmetics maker OPI sells 525 bottles of pink nail polish, 453 bottles of red, and 64 bottles of orange.Nearly $7.5 million is donated to charities in America. Of that amount, the top recipients are the American Red Cross, at $38,880; AmeriCares, at $37,540; and World Vision, at $25,490, according to charity-rating organization Charity Navigator.
January 2007
|
|
|
|
