Hum: The World's Smallest City

Natural rubber degrades primarily through oxidation — a chemical reaction with oxygen in the air. Cold temperatures significantly slow this process. According to van't Hoff's rule, every 10°C drop in temperature roughly halves the reaction rate. Storing rubber bands in the refrigerator (not the freezer) can extend their lifespan by years.

On a standard QWERTY keyboard, all 12 letters of 'stewardesses' (S-T-E-W-A-R-D-E-S-S-E-S) are located on the left side. This makes it the longest common English word typeable with the left hand alone. The longest right-hand-only word is 'lollipop' at 8 letters.

Sharks cause approximately 5–10 human fatalities worldwide per year. In the United States alone, vending machines kill an estimated 2–13 people annually — typically when someone rocks or tips the machine to retrieve a stuck item, and the heavy appliance falls on them. You are statistically 1.5 times more likely to be killed by a vending machine than a shark.

In the entire English dictionary, 'dreamt' (the past tense of 'dream') is the only common word ending in the consonant cluster '-mt'. This form is inherited from Old English for certain irregular verbs. 'Undreamt' also technically qualifies but is rarely used in everyday speech.