Playing Sci-Fact or Sci-Fiction | StarTalk

Now we're going to play a game called SFA or SCI fiction, and you're going to identify whether you think it is SFA or a sci fiction or maybe you don't know if I don't know either. I won't claim to know. That sounds good.

The days were shorter millions of years in the past. Of course, they were shorter yesterday than they are today. The Moon is tugging on Earth's rotation, slowing us down, and it will do so eternally until Earth's day equals the month, at which point Earth and the moon will be in tidal embrace.

Next, humans get a little taller in space because there's no gravity to weigh them down. We actually get a lot taller in space by several inches, and it's not so much you weigh down the discs between your bones and your vertebrae, they just kind of loosen up. In fact, astronauts need different space suits fitted for them when they go space walking than when they launch. They need space suits that are taller for when they've stretched out.

The Great Wall of China is the only man-made object you can see from space. First of all, you cannot see the Great Wall of China from space unless you have like binoculars or a telescope or something. It's no wider than our interstate highways in America. But no one talks about, "Hey, I see I-10 going across the United States," which would be practically as long as the Great Wall of China would be. But no one says they see that.

It is a science fiction that you could see it at all. Sneezing with your eyes open is impossible. I bet you can pry your eyelids open and then sneeze. I don't know if your eyes will pop out, but you can pry your eyelids open. But I think it is a fact that nobody sneezes ever with their eyes open; they have to close their eyes.

Lightning never strikes the same place twice. False! That's what lightning rods are for. It can strike the same place twice so that it doesn't have to strike a place you don't know about. The Empire State Building is struck hundreds of times a year. Plus, there are people who've been hit by lightning more than once. Go tell them lightning doesn't strike the same place more than once. Ask them about it; have them answer that question.

I'll say, "Well, they have the worst luck in the world." Then I think you got all of them right. That was pretty good.

Oh, okay. Yeah, okay. Well, I'm an academic. That's what you do, that's what I do. Yeah, thank you for playing SFA fact, SFA fiction.