The building One Times Square was built in 1904 as the headquarters for the New York Times. It’s been home to the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Celebration since 1907, when the first New Year’s Eve ball was made of iron and wood, one hundred 25-watt bulbs and weighed 700 pounds. Today’s ball is 12 feet in diameter and weighs almost six tons with 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles bolted to 672 LED modules attached to the aluminium frame.
100 Mind-Blowing Ball Facts
Wimbledon tennis balls are kept at 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of a tennis ball affects how it bounces. At warmer temperatures, the gas molecules inside the ball expand, making the ball bounce higher. Lower temperatures cause the molecules to shrink and the ball to bounce lower. To make sure the best tennis balls are used, Wimbledon goes through more than 50,000 tennis balls each year.
Computer mouse speed is measured in “Mickeys.” The roller-ball device was first invented by a British scientist in 1946 while working for the Royal Navy. However, the word “mouse” was not coined until 1965.
The eye of an ostrich is bigger than its brain. Its eyes are around the size of a billiard ball. One eye is also smaller than the other. Perhaps this is why they tend to run in circles.
There are 366 dimples on a regulation golf ball. The dimples help the ball travel farther.
Only one sport has ever been played on the moon. A game of golf on the moon was recorded in 1971. Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the surface of the moon.
Originally, tennis was played with bare hands. During the 12th century, Tennis was first played in France. The game was played by using your palm to hit the ball back to your opponent.
Wimbledon tennis balls must be stored at perfect room temperature. Wimbledon tennis balls must be kept at 68 degrees Fahrenheit because the temperature affects how it bounces. If it’s warmer gas molecules inside the ball expand, which makes it bounce higher. If it’s cooler, the molecules will shrink, making the ball bounce lower.
The first tagline for the Nerf ball was “Nerf: You can’t hurt babies or old people!” I mean, that is somewhat true. It makes sense.
There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball. The little indents on golf balls aren’t just there to help you differentiate them from other sports balls. The dimples on a golf ball’s surface create a thin turbulent boundary layer of air that clings to the ball’s surface, which affects the overall trajectory of the ball.
When cranberries are ripe, they can bounce like a ball.
Ripe cranberries will bounce like a ball. (Go on, try it!). They also float.
Golf is one of only two sports ever played on the moon. In 1971, Alan Shepard hit a ball with a six-iron while on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 mission. The other sport was a javelin toss, during the same visit.
While most of us think the Earth is shaped like a large sphere, it looks more like a “squished ball” that bulges out at the equator. We can thank Gravity for that!
Pangolins are the only known mammal with scales. When threatened by predators, pangolins roll up into a ball, protected by their armour-like coating of keratin scales.
Even though the blue whale is the largest animal on Earth, it can’t swallow anything bigger than a beach ball.
Thomas Crapper’s toilet. Contrary to popular belief, Thomas Crapper did not invent the flushing toilet, though his name is often associated with it. Crapper did play a significant role in popularising the flushing toilet and developed related inventions like the ball cock. However, the word ‘crap’ does not come from his name; it has Middle English origins and first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1846.