In this week’s random facts edition: Empire State Building’s Bricks, Burning Calories with Sleep, A Jockey’s Last Ride, Cocktails in Parliament, and Barbra Streisand’s Personal Mall.
The Empire State Building’s Bricks
The 102-story Empire State Building in New York City is composed of more than 10 million bricks. In addition to the massive amount of bricks, the Empire State Building has 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite on the exterior of the building, and 700 tons of stainless steel and aluminum. It would seem that the Empire State Building would have taken a long time to build with this much material, but it was constructed in only one year and 45 days after the first steel was set in 1930. Source
Burning Calories with Sleep
A 160 pound person will burn about 552 calories after 8 hours of sleep (69 cal/hr) while a 200 pound person will burn about 688 calories after sleeping 8 hours (86 cal/hr). A Big Mac is 563 calories just for reference. Here’s how to calculate how many calories you’ll burn during sleep.
Energy used during sleep is calculated using a Metabolic Equivalent, or MET value. The MET value is the energy cost of an activity. For sleep that value is 0.9 MET. Here’s how to calculate how many calories you’ll burn during sleep based on your weight:
0.9 MET x 3.5 x your body weight in kilograms (divide pounds by 2.2 to get kilograms) ÷ 200 = how many calories burned per minute. Take that amount and multiply it by how many minutes you slept and you’ll get how many calories you’ve burned sleeping. Or you could take the easier route and use one of the many online calculators. Your choice. Source, Source, Source
A Jockey’s Last Ride
In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes became the only person to win a horse race after he was dead. He was riding a 20-1 underdog named Sweet Kiss at Belmont Park in New York City. Hayes suffered a heart attack sometime during the race, but his body stayed in the saddle long enough for Sweet Kiss to cross the finish line first. Hayes’s heart attack may have been caused by his effort to make weight for the race and the excitement of the race itself. It was reported Hayes used heavy training to go from 142 pounds to 130 pounds in a short period of time. It was rumored that the horse’s nickname became “Sweet Kiss of Death” for the remainder of its life. Source, Source
Cocktails in Parliament
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the chief finance minister in the United Kingdom. When the Chancellor of the Exchequer presents his annual budget statement to Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom, he is allowed to do one thing that is prohibited in Parliament the rest of the year–drink alcohol.
The tradition has been going on for hundreds of years when the finance minister gave their speech about budgets and taxes. The last three finance ministers haven’t partook in the tradition, however, choosing to enjoy a glass of mineral water instead of an alcoholic beverage. The last finance minister to engage in the tradition was Kenneth Clarke who served from 1993 to 1997. His beverage of choice during his speech was scotch. Source
Barbra Streisand’s Personal Mall
Barbra Streisand has a mall in the basement of her Malibu home complete with a doll shop, gift shop, antique shop, candy shop, and a snack bar with frozen yogurt. She first revealed she had the mall in her home in her book, My Passion for Design. She chose to display her things in her personal mall instead of storing them in what would have been her basement. Streisand told Good Morning America that she began working on the mall after a movie project fell through and she had unexpected free time to do it. Source
That’s it for another edition of the Random Facts of the Week. Check out more of them here.
