WHY DOES THE UNITED STATES PRINT $2 BILLS?
After 1963, the government pretty much gave up on trying to popularize the $2 bill. However, they did reissue the denomination (with newly-designed back) in 1976 to commemorate the nation’s bicentennial. And even though about $1 billion of them were still in circulation in 1996, the Treasury decided to print $200 million worth of new ones.
Why? Profit, of course. The bills cost about four cents each to print, and, if collectors buy them and put them away for safe-keeping, the government “earns” $1.96 on each one. Incidentally, this is the same reason the government loves making “state quarters” and commemorative postage stamps.
WHY DO TONGUES STICK TO METAL IN COLD WEATHER?
Few things could be funnier than the infamous tongue-on-a-flagpole scene in “A Christmas Story,” but if it happened to you, you probably wouldn’t be laughing. The scary reality is that your tongue is not the only body part that can bond to a cold, metal surface. Any moist, warm part of the skin can succumb to this cruel twist of nature, so even a sweaty palm on a cold doorknob can be a recipe for disaster.
Metal makes a great conductor, which means it instantly responds to the heat of a person’s body and crystallizes any moisture caught in between. If you’re ever caught in this humiliating situation, a cup of warm water can help save your skin cells.
WHY ARE TENNIS BALLS FUZZY?
The five o’clock shadow on a tennis ball is necessary otherwise, the game would be too difficult to play. The textured edge helps to slow the ball down as it hits the surface of the court and the players’ racquets. Without the gripping fuzz, a tennis ball would bounce too high and travel too fast, and the game wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to watch.
WHY IS YAWNING CONTAGIOUS?
First things first: Yawning is not triggered by a lack of oxygen in the body. These days, the prevailing theory claims that yawning is a primal behavior meant to signal the body’s transition from one mental state to another, like moving from a sleep state to an awake state.
So why’s it contagious? Nobody’s certain, but most believe that it used to be the way our animal ancestors would motion to their clans that it was time to move on to new territory or to start hunting for the day.
Consequently, clan members would follow suit by repeating the transitional signal. Others claim that whatever stimuli would cause one person to yawn makes bystanders who view the act more susceptible to behaving in the same way.
WHY DOES IT HURT SO BADLY WHEN YOU HIT YOUR FUNNY BONE?
Because your funny bone isn’t a bone, that’s why. It’s actually the ulnar nerve, which runs from your shoulders to your hands and is responsible for things like dexterity. The ulnar nerve sits rather close to the skin in the area around the elbow, so—like contact with any exposed nerve—it hurts really bad when you hit it. It’s actually one of the body’s biggest design flaws because we really could have used some more padding around that nerve. Primates like orangutans and chimpanzees have the same problem. So maybe the person who came up with the nonsensical name saw a chimp hitting his ulnar nerve, because, really, that’s just funny.
WHY DO SOME PEOPLE HAVE “INNIE” BELLY-BUTTONS AND SOME PEOPLE HAVE “OUTTIES”?
No, it’s not a conspiracy. The disappointing (i.e., boring) answer is that it’s pretty random. Only seconds after you were dragged into this world, a doctor placed two clamps on your umbilical cord and cut it off a few centimeters away from your belly-button. Though this was probably your first emotionally scarring experience, the first scarring experience of a physical kind occurs when that little piece of umbilical cord still attached to your body eventually deadens and falls off, leaving—normally—a concave scar, or an innie belly-button. People with outties simply healed differently during this process.
If you’re bummed about your outtie status, KNOW THIS: Several conditions, usually developed later in life, can cause urine, blood or, yes, even intestinal parts to leak out of the body by way of the navel.