What would a world without cats look like? What happens if you swallow gum? It’s the
random questions like these that keep me up at night, (maybe you too), so today I’m
here to answer them! And if I miss any of your most burning questions in today’s video,
then ask away down in the comments – I’ll be sure to cover them next time! For now,
let’s start with…
1. What happens if you drink too much water? Turns out, water intoxication is a real thing,
and it’s very serious! Your kidneys can only process 27-33 ounces of water an hour.
If someone drinks more than that, then it can cause swelling in their entire body, including
the brain! Classic example of too much of a good thing can be bad!
2. What happens when you swallow gum? I bet your mom told you not to do it because
that gum would stay in your stomach for 7 years. But that’s actually not true! It’s
only 5. No, not really. Most gum today is made from natural or synthetic polymers, most
commonly butyl rubber. Sure, your saliva enzymes and stomach acid can't break it down. But
the muscles of your digestive tract move it along, and eventually, gum “exits” your
system in a day or two, in the normal way. And if you can blow bubbles doing, you know,
that.. well hey, we’d like to hear about it. Ok and moving on…
3. What if we all jumped at the same time? There are over 7 billion people on our planet,
and their combined weight is roughly 800 billion pounds. Now that’s pretty hefty! So could
all that mass affect the Earth in some way if we all jump simultaneously? Science says
no! All our lift-offs and impacts would cancel each other out, resulting in zero net force
on the Earth. Alright then, I guess it’d be a waste trying…but still, I wonder if
it would be loud?
4. What if gravity suddenly got turned off? Things that aren’t attached to the Earth
in any way would fly off into space. Yes, including people and animals! Trees and most
buildings would stay put because they’re rooted in the ground, so you could probably
hold on to one of those. But that wouldn’t keep you out of trouble because our planet
itself would most likely break apart into chunks and float off into space since it’s
only held together by gravity too! So, it’s just not your day…
5. What if all cats just disappeared? Your lazy sleepy feline friend is actually
a really important member of the global ecosystem! Without cats, Earth would quickly become overrun
by rodents. Mice and rats would spread disease, wipe out ground-nesting birds, and probably
destroy grain supplies. So, it might be true that we feed cats, but without them, we’d
have less food ourselves! Don’t tell your cat this, though – it’ll only inflate
its ego that much more…
6. What would happen if the Earth lost oxygen for 5 seconds? Hold your breath!
Since oxygen in the air protects our skin from UV light, we’d get sunburns right away.
Also, oceans would evaporate because water is one-third oxygen. Not to mention, all concrete
buildings would collapse because oxygen is an important binder in these constructions.
The sky would also turn black even during the daytime since there wouldn’t be enough
particles to scatter blue light. Oook, that was a scary one…
7. What if the internet stopped working for one day?
A whole day without cat memes? My worst nightmare! But seriously, a day without the internet
would really hit the financial sector. Credit cards and online banking would stop working
because banks wouldn’t be able to access and verify information. Also, the stock market
would most likely shut down, and you’d have to say goodbye to online shopping. Adding
to this problem: transportation since traffic lights that are run by computers rely on the
internet for updates. Yeah, it’d be a major ordeal! By the way, can you go a whole day
without using the internet? Let me know down in the comments! You neither, huh?
8. What if you didn’t wash your hair for a year?
Well, obviously your hair will get really greasy…and probably smelly too. Also, since
the skin of your scalp won’t be protected by any products, your hair will become home
to dust and other pollutants in the air like soot. But that’s not the worst part. No
no no! The absence of regular washing will lead to scalp inflammation, which will most
likely result in dandruff. So scratching your stinky dirty head would become your new not-so-favorite
pastime. Maybe skipping on the shampoo for that long isn’t the best idea after all!
9. What would happen if you ate 50 boiled eggs in one sitting? (Ah, you saw Paul Newman
do it in “Cool Hand Luke” too, didn’t you?
Well, if you manage to stuff so much food in you, then you’ll obviously feel really
full since 50 eggs have about 3,800 calories. It takes a lot of time for your digestive
system to break down eggs, and you definitely wouldn’t feel very good afterwards. And
get ready for the worst hydrogen sulfide gas you've ever experienced. (Or, simply speaking,
farts!) I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not find out what that would be like…
10. What if the Earth started spinning twice as fast?
The most obvious consequence would be our day lasting not 24 hours but only 12. And
the day already feels short enough as it is, right? But that’s not all. Uh uh! The surface
of our planet would become quite unrecognizable since Indonesia and most of the northern part
of South America would go totally underwater. Africa would also split into two separate
islands. This is all because the planet’s centrifugal force would increase, leading
to the water level at the equator rising by 328 feet. All this water at the equator would
result in a huge rise in humidity that would cause a permanent band of fog to appear. Also,
we’d have much more severe hurricanes that would spin at increased speeds too. Not something
to look forward to now, is it?
11. What can happen if you step on a rusty nail?
Well, you’d most likely scream at the top of your lungs because of the sharp intense
pain! But what would happen next? You’ve probably heard by now that getting injured
by any rusty object can lead to tetanus. Tetanus is caused by bacteria known as blah-ba-blah-ba-blah.
Ah, you WERE paying attention. Ha. No really, it’s known as Clostridium tetani, which
is commonly found in soil, dust, and animal feces – all ideal places for rusty objects
to be found (maybe minus the animal poo, but who knows?). Anyway, when this bacteria enters
your body through the wound, it releases a powerful toxin that affects your nervous system
and leads to stiff muscles, difficulty swallowing, and spasms. But don’t worry – a tetanus
shot kills the bacteria in no time!
12. What if we had no Moon? Without the stabilizing effect of the Moon,
our planet would start to spin more quickly, even faster than that scenario I just told
you about. This would lead to 2 things. First, a day on the Earth would last only about 8
hours, which would mean there’d be more than, let’s see, a 1,000 days in a year.
Second, our climate would change drastically, resulting in extreme temperatures and seasons.
And, of course, since there’d be no moon to pull on them with its gravity, there’d
be a big drop in the difference between high tides and low tide levels. The loss of gravitational
pull from the moon would also cause the core of our planet to shift a bit, creating different
natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanoes. But, alas, we have our big bright moon up
there to keep everything in order!
Which of these answers impressed you the most? Sound off in the comments below! Be sure to
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to always stay on the Bright Side of life!