Funny Estimation Questions to Read Out Loud

Answer: Up to 72

A snail can sleep up to 72 hours in one go. In dry times it can even sleep for up to three years. It pulls into its shell and seals the entrance. This way it survives long periods without water or food.

Answer: Up to 9

A cockroach can live up to nine days without its head. It breathes through small holes on the body, not the mouth. Only when it runs out of water does it die. The nervous system keeps working without a brain.

Answer: Wombat

The wombat is the only animal that produces cube-shaped droppings. Its intestines press the poop into the blocky form. The cubes do not roll away and mark the territory. Australian scientists even got an Ig Nobel Prize for this.

Answer: Turtle

Some turtles really do breathe through their bottom. They take in oxygen through a rear opening called the cloaca. This helps them survive under ice in winter. They can stay underwater for months this way.

Answer: Garden snail

A garden snail has up to 25,000 tiny teeth. They sit on a rasping tongue called a radula. With it the snail scrapes off leaves and plants. The teeth get replaced regularly as they wear down. Sometimes you can even hear the rasping on a lettuce leaf.

Answer: Emus (Great Emu War 1932)

In 1932 Australia fought a real war against emus. The birds were destroying too many fields. The army came in with machine guns but could barely hit the fast animals. After a few days the soldiers gave up. The emus had won.

Answer: War of the Scilly Isles against the Netherlands

From 1651 to 1986 the small Scilly Isles in England were officially at war with the Netherlands. It is just that nobody had noticed. Nobody fought, nobody died. Only in 1986 did both sides sign a peace treaty. This ended the longest peaceful war in history.

Answer: The War of Jenkins' Ear (1739)

In 1739 a real war started between England and Spain because of an ear. A Spanish officer had cut off the ear of English captain Robert Jenkins. Jenkins later showed the ear in parliament. After that England declared war on Spain. The war lasted nine years.

Answer: A pizza

The first known online order was a pizza from Pizza Hut back in 1994. A student sent it from his computer straight to the local branch. Today millions of people order food online every day. So a small start left very big footprints.

Answer: The Chinese

Toilet paper is not a modern invention. As early as the 6th century the Chinese used paper for the toilet. In the 14th century it was even perfumed for the imperial family. In Europe people used leaves, straw or rags for much longer. Only in 1857 did the first toilet paper appear in the USA.

Answer: 30

A sloth takes about 30 seconds to cover a single meter. On the ground, it is even slower than up in the trees. Its body uses almost no energy. That is why it mostly eats leaves and sleeps up to 20 hours a day.

Answer: Kangaroo

A kangaroo cannot walk backwards. Its big hind legs and thick tail block reverse movement. That is why Australia puts the kangaroo on its coat of arms. The country should only move forward, like the animal.

Answer: Over 175,000

A catfish has over 175,000 taste buds all over its body. It tastes with its skin, not just the tongue. A human has only about 10,000. This helps the catfish find food in murky water. Just by swimming past, it tastes everything around it.

Answer: Up to 10 cm, plus wrap around the skull

A woodpecker's tongue grows up to ten centimeters long. Inside the head it wraps all the way around the skull. This cushions the brain during hammering like a pillow. That is why a woodpecker never gets a headache despite 20 pecks per second.

Answer: Horseshoe crab

The horseshoe crab has light blue blood. This comes from copper instead of iron in the blood. Doctors use this blood to test vaccines for purity. One liter can cost up to 13,000 euros. He has lived on Earth almost unchanged for 450 million years.

Answer: Koala

Koalas have fingerprints just like humans. Even under a microscope they are hard to tell apart. Scientists discovered this in a study in Australia. At a crime scene, koala prints could in theory be confused with human ones.

Answer: New Zealand

New Zealand has about 25 million sheep and only five million people. That means five sheep per person. In the past the ratio was even higher. Wool and lamb are key exports of the country. The animals deliver almost 150,000 tons of wool each year.

Answer: Dolphin

Dolphins sleep with only one half of their brain at a time. The other half stays awake and keeps one eye open. This way they keep breathing and watch for danger. Many seabirds use the same trick while flying.

Answer: Turritopsis jellyfish

The Turritopsis jellyfish can turn back into a young body. When it gets old or hurt, it restarts its life cycle. In theory it can live forever. Scientists call it the immortal jellyfish. This only works as long as the jellyfish does not get eaten.

Answer: Wood frog

The wood frog freezes at minus 18 degrees and still survives. Its heart stops and two thirds of its water turns to ice. Sugar inside the cells prevents damage. In spring it thaws out and hops away again.

Answer: Ireland

Ireland has not a single wild snake. After the ice age the island was too cold and already cut off by the sea. Legend says Saint Patrick chased them away. New Zealand and Antarctica are snake-free too.

Answer: Starfish

A starfish can push its stomach out through its mouth. This lets it digest prey larger than its own body. After eating, it pulls the stomach back in. This way it can even feed on tightly shut clams. If an arm breaks off, it simply grows back again.

Answer: Hummingbird

Only the hummingbird can truly fly backwards. Its wings rotate like a propeller. It can also hover in place and even fly upside down. No other bird masters this flight style. He flaps his wings up to 80 times per second while doing it.

Answer: Manatee

The manatee is more closely related to the elephant than any rhino. Both come from a common ancestor that lived 60 million years ago. Manatees even have fingernails on their flippers. Their teeth also regrow for life, just like an elephant's.

Answer: Whale

The closest living relative of the hippo is the whale. Both descend from a common ancestor 55 million years ago. Scientists discovered this through DNA comparisons. Hippos and whales even share the ability to communicate underwater.

Answer: Australia

Over one million wild camels live in Australia. People brought them to the desert in the 19th century for transport. Later they were released and multiplied fast. Today Australia is the only place with truly wild dromedaries.

Answer: Gibraltar

Gibraltar is home to Europe's only wild monkeys. About 300 Barbary macaques live on the rock. Legend says Gibraltar stays British as long as the monkeys are there. That is why even the army takes care of them.

Answer: Goat

A goat always has horizontal pupils. No matter how bright it gets, the shape stays the same. This gives the goat a 320 degree view. It can spot predators from almost all directions. Sheep, horses and deer also have this pupil shape.

Answer: Up to 180

A cow produces up to 180 liters of saliva per day. That fills a whole bathtub. The saliva helps her chew the cud from grass. Without it she could not digest the tough food. Each day she also chews her cud for up to eight hours.

Answer: Up to 1,000

A Border Collie can understand up to 1,000 words. That makes it the smartest dog breed in the world. The record dog Chaser knew 1,022 toys by name. Toddlers at the same age often know only half as many.

Answer: About 3

A garden snail crawls only about three meters per hour. For one kilometer it would need over 300 hours. Still, it finds every corner of the garden. It leaves a sticky slime trail to find its way back.

Answer: ~10,000

An average pigeon carries around 10,000 feathers. Most of them keep the body warm. Others are long and strong and help with flying. In cold weather, the pigeon puffs up and creates a thick layer of air as protection.

Answer: 25,000

A swan has about 25,000 feathers on average. That is more than almost any other bird. Most of the feathers sit on its long neck. They keep the swan warm and repel water. A chicken, by comparison, only has about 8,000 feathers.

Answer: 10 more (56 instead of 46)

A garden strawberry has 56 chromosomes, a human only 46. So the little fruit has ten more chromosomes than we do. Many strawberries are so-called eightfold chromosome plants. That means their DNA has eight sets instead of two like ours.

Answer: Less than 0.0001 percent

A cloud looks soft and full, but it is almost only air. Only a tiny fraction, less than one ten-thousandth, is really water. Still, a big cloud can hold tons of tiny droplets. When it rains out, you can feel how much was inside after all.

Answer: At most 50th cousins or closer

Any two humans today are at most 50th cousins or even closer. That means we all share a common ancestor from only a few thousand years ago. The closer two families live near the equator, the younger the shared link often is. Genetically, Earth is like a small village.

Answer: Burdock plant

The hook style of the RJ45 plug is inspired by the burdock plant. Just like burrs in an animal's fur, the tiny hooks lock into the socket. This keeps the network cable firmly in place. Nature is often the best engineer.

Answer: It signals the hardware is okay

The short beep on start-up is called a POST beep. It tells the user that all important parts are working. If the beep is missing or repeats, something is wrong. The tiny speaker for this is often only two centimeters wide.

Answer: Real green grass in California

The famous Windows XP image Bliss shows a real hill in California. Photographer Charles O'Rear took it in 1996 without any filter. The colors were not boosted afterwards. The green meadow and blue sky are exactly as real.

Answer: An info page about the World Wide Web

The world's first website went online in 1991 at the research center CERN. It simply explained what the World Wide Web even was. Tim Berners-Lee had stored it on a NeXT computer. The original page can still be visited today.

Answer: Hans Steininger (1567)

Mayor Hans Steininger from Braunau in Austria had an extremely long beard of 1.4 meters. Usually he kept it rolled up. During a fire in 1567 he panicked, stepped on his own beard, tripped and broke his neck. His beard can still be seen in a museum today.

Answer: Oliver Cromwell (corpse hanged after death)

Oliver Cromwell ruled England as Lord Protector. He died peacefully in bed in 1658. But three years later the royalists dug up his body. They hung it publicly on the gallows and cut off his head. The head was displayed on a pike for 300 years.

Answer: Roald Amundsen and other polar explorers

Several famous polar explorers had to boil and eat their leather shoes in true emergencies. The men of Ernest Shackleton also chewed on boots and straps. The leather was boiled for hours to make it soft. It tasted awful, but it saved lives. Hunger makes you creative.

Answer: Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut was one of the most powerful female pharaohs of Egypt. To be accepted as a real ruler she had herself shown with a fake beard and men's clothing. She ruled very successfully for 22 years. After her death her successors tried to erase her name everywhere.