sports and science facts

• Olympic gold medals are actually made mostly of silver.
• Dimples on a golf ball help reduce drag, allowing the ball to fly further than a ball without dimples.
• Anaerobic exercise refers to high intensity activities over a short duration (e.g. sprinting) while aerobic exercise refers to physical activity performed at a moderate level over longer periods of time (e.g. jogging).
• Regular exercise helps boost the immune system.
• The string tension of most tennis racquets is around 50 to 70 pounds (220 to 310 newtons). With lower tension a tennis racquet produces less control and more power while higher tension produces more control and less power.
• The official distance of a marathon is 42.195 kilometres (26.219 miles).
• The tallest basketball players to ever play in the NBA were Manute Bol (from Sudan) and Gheorghe Muresan (from Romania). They were both 7 ft 7 in tall (231 cm).
• Common sports injuries include muscle cramps, muscle pulls, back strains, shin splints, tennis elbow (tendonitis), sprained ankles and plantar fasciitis (foot pain).
• The fastest recorded tennis serves are over 155 mph (250 kph).
• Regulation Major League baseballs feature exactly 108 stitches.
• Snowboarders and ice skaters glide on a thin layer of water as their skates and boards heat the snow beneath them.
• Modern swimwear has developed to the point where the fabric and designs are actually faster through the water than human skin. Controversial neck to ankle suits have been one of the reasons behind the consistent breaking of world record times since they were introduced around the year 2000.
• Curling stones used in the Olympic sport of curling are made from granite.
• Astronaut Alan Shepard played golf on the Moon after he smuggled a golf ball and club on to the NASA Apollo 14 mission to the Moon in 1971.
• The diameter of a full sized basketball is half the diameter of a basketball hoop