Human Body Trivia Question: 1 True or false: There are 206 bones in an adult human body and 300 bones in an infant's body. View the answerHide answer True. Some bones in the infant’s skull have not yet fused together and so the infant has more bones than a fully formed adult. Question: 2 True or false: Most of the dust in your home is made of human skin. View the answerHide answer False (although you can find this "fact" in a lot of places). Dust is made up of lots of different things including animal dander, insect waste, and dirt. Question: 3 Can you lick your elbow? View the answerHide answer No, but be honest. You just tried to, right? Question: 4 If you go into space, do you get taller? View the answerHide answer Yes, the cartilage disks in your spine expand due to the lack of gravity. Question: 5 What is the hardest substance in the human body? View the answerHide answer Tooth enamel. Question: 6 What is trepanning? View the answerHide answer An ancient form of medicine which involves making a hole in the human skull to relieve pressure. Do not do this. Question: 7 In terms of attributed human deaths which are more dangerous; snakes, bees, sharks or house flies? View the answerHide answer House flies. They spread disease-causing bacteria. Question: 8 True or false: Your body's temperature rises slightly during digestion. View the answerHide answer True Question: 9 Where are the three smallest bones in the human body? What are they called? View the answerHide answer In the middle ear. Collectively called ossicles, the 3 bones are the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil) & stapes (stirrup). Question: 10 What's the lifespan of a human red blood cell? View the answerHide answer Around 120 days. Question: 11 True or false: A modern human's brain is smaller than a Neanderthal's brain. View the answerHide answer True. Question: 12 What is the longest type of cell in the body? View the answerHide answer The nerve cell (neuron). Question: 13 What does bile do in your body? View the answerHide answer Emulsify fats in the small intestine. Question: 14 What is a pyrogen? View the answerHide answer A substance - usually produced by bacteria - that causes fever. Question: 15 Where would you find your pinna? View the answerHide answer It is your outer ear, the bit you see made out of cartilage. Question: 16 Who has more hair follicles: blondes or brunettes? View the answerHide answer Blondes. Question: 17 Which is the rarest blood type in humans? View the answerHide answer AB negative. Less than one percent of the population has this blood type. Question: 18 Why does eyesight change as you get older? View the answerHide answer The eye’s lens continues to grow throughout one’s life. It becomes thicker and less transparent. Question: 19 True or false: Nitroglycerine can be used to treat heart attacks. View the answerHide answer True. It dilates blood vessels. Question: 20 Do you have the same number of neck vertebrae as a giraffe? View the answerHide answer Yes. Question: 21 How much salt does the average human body contain? View the answerHide answer Around 2650 grams. Question: 22 If I kept walking in a straight line on a flat surface with no visible features, is it possible to walk in circles eventually? View the answerHide answer People often favour one leg over the other. It is possible that over time the discrepancy between the two leg strides may indeed cause you to walk in circles. Question: 23 True or false: Your tongue has different areas that more sensitive to different flavours. View the answerHide answer False. This is a common myth taught in primary schools and it the result of a mistranslated scientific paper, from German to English. Question: 24 How long is the small intestine in an adult? View the answerHide answer 7 meters. Question: 25 True or false: Like your fingerprints, your tongue print is also unique. View the answerHide answer True. Question: 26 True or false: We lose 80% of our body heat from our heads. View the answerHide answer True. Question: 27 Which is the strongest muscle in the human body: the tongue, the jaw, or the tricep? View the answerHide answer Jaw. Question: 28 True or false: Your body is made up of more human cells than bacteria cells. View the answerHide answer False, for each human cell in your body there are about ten bacteria cells. Question: 29 How many muscles does it take to smile? View the answerHide answer 17, and it takes 43 to frown. So let's all be lazy and smile. Question: 30 How many bones are in the human feet? View the answerHide answer 52. Question: 31 How many teeth are in the mouth of an average adult? View the answerHide answer 32 Question: 32 What percentage of your body is water? View the answerHide answer Roughly 70% Question: 33 On average, how many hairs are there on a person’s head? View the answerHide answer Roughly 100,000 Question: 34 How many bones are there in the human hand? View the answerHide answer 17 Question: 35 On average, how many times do you blink in a day? View the answerHide answer 28,800 Question: 36 On average, how many times does your heartbeat in a day? View the answerHide answer 115,200 Question: 37 True or False: humans have a unique tongue print. View the answerHide answer True! Question: 38 What is the human body’s biggest organ? View the answerHide answer Skin Question: 39 How many kilograms of skin do you shed in a lifetime? View the answerHide answer Roughly 22kg Question: 40 What is the longest bone in the human body? View the answerHide answer Femur Question: 41 How much saliva (spit) does your mouth make each day? View the answerHide answer 1 litre! Question: 42 True or false; The word “muscle” comes from a Latin term meaning “little mouse.” View the answerHide answer True Question: 43 True or false; The average human has 67 different species of bacteria living in their belly button. View the answerHide answer True Question: 44 What is the most flexible muscle in the human body? View the answerHide answer Tongue Question: 45 The word “forensic” comes from the Latin word “forensis.” What does ‘forensis” mean? View the answerHide answer From a forum Question: 46 What is the name for examining fingerprints in forensics science? View the answerHide answer Dactyloscopy Question: 47 In what year were fingerprints first used to solve a crime? View the answerHide answer 1892 Question: 48 True or false: About 2% of your body weight is actually the weight of bacteria living on or inside your body? View the answerHide answer True. The average human adult has trillions of microorganisms living on or in them. These microorganisms actually outnumber our body’s cells 10:1. They are however, a lot smaller than our cells, which is why they only make up such a small proportion of our weight. Question: 49 True or false: Bacteria are always bad for us. View the answerHide answer False. Some bacteria are bad for us, and attack us or stop our bodies functioning properly. Others don’t interact with us at all, but might live on or around us, because we’re warm or moist. Other bacteria are needed for our body to work, like the bacteria we keep in our guts that help us digest food. Question: 50 Some people are super flexible, and twist their bodies into funny shapes to entertain others. What do you call a person like that? View the answerHide answer Contortionist. They often show-off by squeezing themselves into small spaces, like boxes or cupboards. Question: 51 How much air can the average person’s lungs hold? View the answerHide answer 6L. However, even when you take your deepest breath in or out, you only breathe about 4.8L of air. The remaining 1.2L is air that just chills in your lungs, and mixes with your next breath. Question: 52 The ama are female pearl divers in Japan, famous for their freediving skills. What is one of the special techniques that they use to do this? View the answerHide answer When they come back up they let out a long, slow whistle that helps them regulate their breathing. It’s called the “ocean whistle”. They can hold their breath for up to 2 minutes and dive up to 9 metres deep. Question: 53 True or False: It is possible to sweat too much? View the answerHide answer True. Overactive sweat glands (also known as hyperhidrosis, not from exercise!) can be caused by certain medications or medical conditions. Hyperhidrosis can even lead to dehydration. Question: 54 If you lived to 80 years old, how many times has your heart beat? View the answerHide answer 3,300,000,0000 times. This of course would change if you exercised a lot, or watched a lot of scary movies. Question: 55 Can the human body survive for longer without food, or without water? View the answerHide answer Food As a general rule, people can survive up to 3 weeks without food, but only 3 days without water Question: 56 What’s the name of the largest artery in your body? View the answerHide answer Aorta in your chest. This is the first blood vessel the blood travels through once it leaves your heart, and carries the blood away to be distributed around your body. Question: 57 True or false: Inside the womb, unborn babies have their lungs full of water View the answerHide answer True. They don’t start breathing until after they’re born, and so they don’t need air in their lungs. Once they are born they cough out the water and start breathing like you or me. For a little while after they're born, their body remembers how to survive underwater, and they can’t drown! Love Science? Subscribe! 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True. Some bones in the infant’s skull have not yet fused together and so the infant has more bones than a fully formed adult.
False (although you can find this "fact" in a lot of places). Dust is made up of lots of different things including animal dander, insect waste, and dirt.
An ancient form of medicine which involves making a hole in the human skull to relieve pressure. Do not do this.
In the middle ear. Collectively called ossicles, the 3 bones are the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil) & stapes (stirrup).
People often favour one leg over the other. It is possible that over time the discrepancy between the two leg strides may indeed cause you to walk in circles.
False. This is a common myth taught in primary schools and it the result of a mistranslated scientific paper, from German to English.
True. The average human adult has trillions of microorganisms living on or in them. These microorganisms actually outnumber our body’s cells 10:1. They are however, a lot smaller than our cells, which is why they only make up such a small proportion of our weight.
False. Some bacteria are bad for us, and attack us or stop our bodies functioning properly. Others don’t interact with us at all, but might live on or around us, because we’re warm or moist. Other bacteria are needed for our body to work, like the bacteria we keep in our guts that help us digest food.
Contortionist. They often show-off by squeezing themselves into small spaces, like boxes or cupboards.
6L. However, even when you take your deepest breath in or out, you only breathe about 4.8L of air. The remaining 1.2L is air that just chills in your lungs, and mixes with your next breath.
When they come back up they let out a long, slow whistle that helps them regulate their breathing. It’s called the “ocean whistle”. They can hold their breath for up to 2 minutes and dive up to 9 metres deep.
True. Overactive sweat glands (also known as hyperhidrosis, not from exercise!) can be caused by certain medications or medical conditions. Hyperhidrosis can even lead to dehydration.
3,300,000,0000 times. This of course would change if you exercised a lot, or watched a lot of scary movies.
Aorta in your chest. This is the first blood vessel the blood travels through once it leaves your heart, and carries the blood away to be distributed around your body.
True. They don’t start breathing until after they’re born, and so they don’t need air in their lungs. Once they are born they cough out the water and start breathing like you or me. For a little while after they're born, their body remembers how to survive underwater, and they can’t drown!
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