Why: The Most Asked Questions on Google (And the answers to them)
Browsing on Google is a great hobby. You get to learn lots from the biggest resource in the world, and you get to have fun with it.
Today, a curious idea came to me, and I typed in “Most common questions searched on Google”.
Picking my way through all the websites that showed up like a bride picking her wedding dress, I finally rested on one that looked particularly promising (or, simply put, the first one I came across — because, let’s admit it, Google put it at the top for a reason).
This website had tons of information on most googled items. Foraging through the contents, I found a table containing the most googled ‘Why’ questions, and decided it would be fun exploring the answers to them.
Without further ado, here are the questions and their answers.
Why is there a leap day?
According to NASA, it doesn’t take an exact 365 days for Earth to complete a round around the sun; the true number is 365 days and 6 hours. However, for the sake of simplicity, we round it down to 365 days.
In 4 years, thats exactly 24 extra hours (6 x 4 = 24), and so every four years we add that extra 24 hours to the 4th year, making it a leap year consisting of 366 days.
Next time, if you forget to celebrate New Year’s on time, just throw the party six hours later; you’ll be one of the only people accurately celebrating the New Year!
Why is the sky blue?
An age-old curiosity many parents have had to deal with, its a question sure to have been asked by a lot of you. Were you one of the millions of people to have searched it up?
The answer, sponsored by NASA once again:
Sunlight reaches Earth’s atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in the air. Blue light is scattered more than the other colours because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.
Why you always lying?
I’m not, at least not always. Although this question probably refers to the popular song, and not questioning my truthfulness.
Why are cats afraid of cucumber?
Despite it seemingly being a joke, our feline friends are scared of cucumbers owing to the striking resemblance between snakes and cucumbers; and if you ask me, there’s a lot to be scared about a snake.
Why do dogs eat grass?
Dogs, just like other animals that undergo peristalsis (muscular contractions moving food down the digestive tract) in the traditional fashion require roughage as part of a balanced diet.
Grass, like all other plants, contains fibre, and quite a lot at that (A whopping 50% if its stemmy grass!)
If your dog doesn’t get enough fibre from what you’re feeding it, it will often take some time to chow down on the grass when you take it to a nearby park.
To ensure your dog gets enough fibre, include some of these fibre-rich, dog friendly foods in its meals:
- Wheatgerm
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Apples
- Kale
- Kelp
- Pumpkin
- Milled flaxseed
Why do cats purr?
A lot of animal questions are coming up, I see. The simple answer is purring is a method of communication from your feline friend who, unlike you, can’t say “You make me happy.”
Combined with other physical markers, a cat purring might mean it’s happy, satisfied or comfortable in its current surroundings.
However, some young cats may purr as a distress signal, so its important to keep an eye on the movements of your cats.
Why do we yawn?
Similar to the reasoning behind cats purring, yawning is our body’s natural way of communicating that it is tired or needs more oxygen.
This is a psychosocial function, and it also shows people outright when you’re bored or stressed out (You know, for when you can’t say it yourself due to societal politeness rules).
Some studies have shown that yawning also has a physiological function, which is waking the brain up or cooling the body down.
Either ways, yawning is a fun phenomenon that serves as a daily reminder for you to pay more attention to your body; you’ll notice many more fun quirks if you do!
Fun fact: Did you know you can test your level of empathy by looking at pictures of other humans yawning?
Studies have proven that more empathetic people are more likely to yawn when seeing one of their fellow homo sapiens yawning.
Try it out by looking at some pictures of people yawning, and share your results in the response section!
Why am I so tired?
I confess, I myself have also searched it up. Sometimes, its just all too much, and all I want to do is go to bed. But I want to watch that new Netflix series too. But I have to complete my homework assignment due…tomorrow! Oh no, now I surely can’t sleep.
This just leads to a person being drained out, often prompting them to go to Google almighty for an answer and, quite possibly, a solution.
You might be tired due to underlying health conditions, so if you’re experiencing chronic fatigue, go check it out with your doctor.
A helpful tip, however, is to try and get more sleep. In this day and age, most of us owe our tiredness to not getting enough sleep and getting too much screen time.
Why do we dream?
Another age-old question arising from our natural curiosity, it seems dreamland is beyond the reach of even experts, most of whom claim to not have any idea why we dream and where dreams come from.
The prevailing theory is that dreaming helps you consolidate and analyse memories (like skills and habits) and likely serves as a “rehearsal” for various situations and challenges that one faces during the daytime.
So if you see yourself falling in a dream, bring a parachute with you everywhere you go.
Why are firetrucks red?
Because they have eight wheels and four people on them, and four plus eight makes twelve, and there are twelve inches in a foot, and one foot is a ruler, and Queen Elizabeth was a ruler, and Queen Elizabeth was also a ship, and the ship sailed the seas, and there were fish in the seas, and fish have fins, and the Finns fought the Russians, and the Russians are red, and fire trucks are always “Russian” around, so that’s why fire trucks are red!
Of course, thats just an old joke. A more plausible theory is the earliest fire departments were made up of unpaid volunteers. These volunteers didn’t have much money, and red was the cheapest colour of paint to use, so they painted their fire trucks red.
And there you have it, 10 of the most asked ‘Why’ questions in Google, answered directly to quench your curiosity. Keep learning, relentless learner!
