Below you will find the results of my research regarding fun facts
about the human senses.
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Sense of Taste
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?We have almost 10,000 taste buds inside our mouths; even on the roofs
of our mouths.
Insects have the most highly developed sense of taste. They have taste
organs on their feet, antennae, and mouthparts.
Fish can taste with their fins and tail as well as their mouth.
In general, girls have more tastebuds than boys.
Taste is the weakest of the five senses.?
Think Quest
http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/taste/taste.html
?Total number of human taste buds (tongue, palate, cheeks) = 10,000
Number of taste buds on the tongue = 9,000
Height of taste bud = 50-100 microns
Diameter of taste bud = 30-60 microns
Number of receptors on each taste bud = 50-150
Diameter of taste receptor = 10 micron
Diameter of taste fiber = less than 4 micron
Taste threshold for quinine sulfate = 3.376 mg/liter water?
UW Faculty
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html
There are four basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter:
UW Faculty
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tasty.html
?The surface of human tongues are covered with thousands of tiny bumps
called papillae! Your taste buds lie at the base and on the sides of
the papillae.
Food dosen't taste as good, when a person has a cold and nose is blocked.
Human sense of smell affects sense of taste! The brain interprets
signals from the nose and tongue.
Most people can tell the difference between 10000 different odours!?
Taste Bud Trivia
http://www.fukkad.com/trivia/tastybud.shtml
Fun facts about the sense of taste...
?Insects have the most highly developed sense of taste. They have
taste organs on their feet, antennae, and mouthparts.?
?Fish can taste with their fins and tail as well as their mouth.?
?In general, girls have more tastebuds than boys do.?
?As we get older the olfactory bulb in the brain responsible for
processing smell becomes smaller.?
Supermarket Guru
http://www.supermarketguru.com/page.cfm/299
TASTE BUD TRIVIA:
- ?The tongue has 9,000 taste buds, each having 10-15 receptacles that
send messages to the brain.
-Over a 12-day period, your body generates a whole new set of taste
buds. This process continues until you reach your 70s and 80s.
- Smoking, alcohol, caffeine, spicy and hot foods, onion and garlic
dull taste buds. It takes 24 hours for taste buds to cleanse
themselves after being exposed to these substances.
- Taste buds are most sensitive right after a night's sleep.?
http://www.witandwisdom.org/archive/20010706.htm
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Sense of Sight
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- ?Most people blink every 2-10 seconds.
- A newborn baby sees the world upside down because it takes some time
for the baby's brain to learn to turn the picture right-side up.
- One in every twelve males is color blind.
- Each time you blink, you shut your eyes for 0.3 seconds, which means
your eyes are closed at least 30 minutes a day just from blinking.
- If you only had one eye, everything would appear two-dimensional.
(This does not work just by closing one eye.)
- Owls can see a mouse moving over 150 feet away with light no
brighter than a candle.
- The reason cat's and dog's eyes glow at night is because of silver
mirrors in the back of their eyes called the tapetum. This makes it
easier for them to see at night.
- An ostrich has eyes that are two inches across. Each eye weighs more
than the brain.
- A chameleon's eyes can look in opposite directions at the same time. ?
Think Quest
http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/sight/sight.html
Number of fibers in human optic nerve = 1,200,000
Number of fibers in cat optic nerve = 119,000
Number of fibers in albino rat optic nerve = 74,800
Length of optic nerve = 50 mm?
UW Faculty
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html
?Length of eyeball = 24.5 mm
Volume of eyeball = 5.5 cm3
Weight of eyeball = 7.5 g
Average time between blinks = 2.8 seconds
Average duration of a single blink = 0.1-0.4 seconds
Thickness of cornea = 0.54 mm in center; 0.65 in periphery
Diameter of cornea = 11.5 mm
Thickness of lens = 4 mm
Diameter of lens = 9 mm
Composition of lens = 65% water; 35% protein?
?Number of fibers in optic nerve = 1,200,000?
?Wavelength of visible light (human) = 400-700 nm?
?Area of retina = 2,500 mm2
Thickness of retina = 120 microns (ranges from 100 to 230 microns)?
UW Faculty
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html
?The eye muscles are the most active muscles in the whole body
Eyes are composed of more than two million working parts
The eye can process 36,000 bits of information every hour
Eyes can instantaneously set in motion hundreds of muscles and organs
in your body
A normal life-span will bring you almost 24 million images of the
world around you ?
?The external muscles that move the eyes are the strongest muscles in
the human body for the job that they have to do. They are 100 times
more powerful than they need be.?
?The eye is the only part of the human body that can function at 100%
ability at any moment, day or night?
?The cornea is approximately the size and thickness of a dime?
?A blink of an eye lasts about one tenth of a second ?
?The average person blinks their eyes about 11,500 times per day or
about 4.2 million times per year.?
?There are only two tissues in your body that do not receive oxygen
from your blood ? corneas and nails?
Bausch & Lomb
http://www.bausch.com/us/vision/healthyvision/eye_trivia.jsp
Factoids
?An owl can see a mouse moving over 150 feet away with light no
brighter than a candle!?
?A cat's eyes glow in the dark because of special silvery "mirrors"
that reflect light, making it much easier for them to see in the dark.
?
?So-called "color-blindness," in which colors such as green and red
are hard to distinguish, affects about 1 in 30 people -- and many
times more men than women!?
Discovery Communications Inc
http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/noflash/body/pg000142.html
Read about cat eye trivia here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jcanimalshelter/eye_trivia.htm
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Sense of Smell
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?Humans have seven primary odors that help them determine objects.
Listed below are the seven odors?
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Odor Example
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Camphoric Mothballs
Musky Perfume/Aftershave
Roses Floral
Pepperminty Mint Gum
Etheral Dry Cleaning Fluid
Pungent Vinegar
Putrid Rotten Eggs
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?Humans use insect warning chemicals, called pheromones, to keep away
pesky insects!
People who cannot smell have a condition called Anosmia.?
?If your nose is at its best, you can tell the difference between
4000-10,000 smells!
As you get older, your sense of smell gets worse. Children are more
likely to have better senses of smell than their parents or
grandparents.
Dogs have 1 million smell cells per nostril and their smell cells are
100 times larger than humans! ?
Think Quest
http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/smell/smell.html
?Number of human olfactory receptor cells = 40 million
Number of rabbit olfactory receptor cells = 100 million
Number of dog olfactory receptor cells = 1 billion?
?Surface area of olfactory epithelium (contains olfactory receptor
cells) in humans = 10 cm2
Area of olfactory epithelium in some dogs = 170 cm2 (
Area of olfactory epithelium in cats = 21 cm2
UW Faculty
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html
Smell Facts
- ?Taste is 75% smell
- Moths can smell a single molecule
- Dogs can distinguish non-identical twins by smell, but not identical ones.?
?Memory for smell is long lasting.?
http://www.psych.utah.edu/~sc4002/psych3150/24_Taste_apr15.pdf
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Sense of Touch
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?You have more pain nerve endings than any other type.
The least sensitive part of your body is the middle of your back.
The most sensitive areas of your body are your hands, lips, face,
neck, tongue, fingertips and feet.
Shivering is a way your body has of trying to get warmer.
There are about 100 touch receptors in each of your fingertips.
Rattlesnakes use their skin to feel the body heat of other animals.?
Think Quest
http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/touch/touch.html
?Weight of skin (adult human) = 9 lb.(4-5 kg)
Surface area of skin (adult human) = 3,000 in2 (~1.8 m2)
Number of tactile receptors in the hand = 17,000
Number of nerve endings in hand = 1,300 per in2
Thermal pain threshold = 45oC?
UW Faculty
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html
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Sense of Hearing
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?Babies can get earaches because of milk backing up in the Eustachian
tube, which causes bacteria to grow and may cause hearing problems
later in life.
When you go up to high elevations, the change in pressure causes your ears to pop.
Children have more sensitive ears than adults. They can recognize a
wider variety of noises.
Dolphins have the best sense of hearing among animals. They are able
to hear 14 times better than humans.
Animals hear more sounds than humans.
An earache is caused by too much fluid putting pressure on your
eardrum. Earaches are often the result of an infection, allergies or a
virus.?
Think Quest
http://library.thinkquest.org/3750/hear/hear.html
?Number of fibers in auditory nerve = 28,000-30,000
Length of auditory nerve = 2.5 cm
Hearing Range (young adult human) = 20 to 20,000 Hz
Hearing Range (elderly human) = 50 to 8,000 Hz
Hearing Range (rat) = 1,000 to 50,000 Hz
Hearing Range (cat) = 100 to 60,000 Hz
Most sensitive range of human hearing = 1,000-4,000 Hz?
?Auditory Pain Threshold = 130 db
Threshold for hearing damage = 90 db for an extended period of time?
UW Faculty
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html
See Miscellaneous Hearing Trivia at the following link:
http://tinyurl.com/4jqp6
Questions about Miscellaneous Hearing Trivia from real people and
answered by audiologists.
Read amazing facts and trivia about the senses of certain animals here:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/amaze.html
Search criteria:
human sensory system +trivia
senses facts OR trivia
sight facts OR trivia
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taste facts OR trivia
smell facts OR trivia
touch facts OR trivia
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audition facts OR trivia
I hope you find this information helpful!
Best regards,
Bobbie7 |
