Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Why do we cry.. & why do dogs chase cats?
out of service by nuclear bombs, or there was a shortage of electricity or a supply issue with oil and diesel.
Q Which lottery numbers should I pick?
The real question is which numbers should you not pick? If you win with a common selection – such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 – you’ll share the prize with more people, so start by ruling out the most common choices.
In the UK, the most popular numbers for Lotto players are multiples of seven: 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 and 42.
The second most common selection is multiples of five – 5, 10, 15, 25, 30, and 35 – while hundreds of players choose 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42. These were the winning numbers of the character Hurley in the TV series Lost.
Picking numbers associated with special dates might seem like a good start but you run the risk that they won’t be unique. Two players in Ireland once had to split the
lottery jackpot because they both picked digits based on the birth,
ordination and death dates of the same priest. To make it less likely you’d have to share winnings, your best bet is to choose your numbers at random. You should discard and redraw them if they have any obvious pattern (i.e. 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20), if they’re all clustered together, or if they make a pattern when marked on the ticket (like a diagonal or vertical line).
The real way to avoid making a loss might be to not play the lottery at all. In the year ending March 2020, about 57% of money raised from tickets went into prizes, meaning there’s an average payout of 57p for every £1 spent.
QWhy does my stomach rumble?
The sound of your stomach rumbling is called borborygmi and while it tends to happen when you haven’t eaten for some time, it’s not necessarily because you’re hungry. The noise actually comes from your small intestine. When it’s not had any food for a while, it starts its cleaning process, which makes the noise you hear as a stomach rumble.
QWhich is slower, a tortoise or a sloth?
It’s the sloth that’s usually more slothful. They can manage only around 0.1mph, while your average tortoise can go at a breakneck 0.3mph.
Strangely enough, though, a sloth is a lot faster in the water than it is on land or in a tree and can swim at around 0.5mph. So if a tortoise and a sloth were to compete in a triathlon, it would be quite an exciting race – at least until they got to the cycling part.
Q Is it just me, or are parking spots too small?
The real problem is today’s cars are too big. The standard parking space is exactly the same size as it was in the 1970s – 2.4m by 4.8m. That’s more than enough space for an older car but today’s are much larger.
In 2018, consumer group Which? found 120 models were too long to fit in a regular spot. Even standard-sized SUVS take up 90% of a regulation parking space, which doesn’t leave much room to open doors.
Q Why do we produce tears when upset?
There are three kinds of tears: basal, which lubricate your eyes; reflex, produced when an irritant such as dust gets in your eye; and psychic, which are emotional tears.
Nobody knows why we produce emotional tears.
In the 1600s, there was a theory that emotions such as love literally warmed your heart, which then produced steam to cool down. The liquid was released as tears from your eyes.
A more plausible modern theory is that crying encourages bonding, meaning we cry when sad or overwhelmed so others can pick up on these signals and provide support.
QWhat’s the longest a light’s been left on?
A bulb at a fire station in California has been on since 1901. It took a brief break when moved between two stations but the bulb, known as the Livermore Centennial Light Bulb, holds the Guinness World Record for the longestburning light bulb.
222 QI Answers to Your Quite Ingenious Questions by the QI Elves is published by Faber in paperback, priced at £8.99.