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Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 219

Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF, introducing the Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 219 – the Christmas Edition

Question 1

On average, how many calories will the British consume on Christmas day?

Reveal the funtabulous answer

6000 calories

…and its not the compulsory roast that is to blame, most Brits will have consumed a days worth of calories by mid-day prior to the first cracker being pulled. For example, by consuming: Quality Streets or equivalent chocolates, mince pies, alcohol, crisps and nuts.

The equivalent calories can be consumed by eating:

  • 118 chicken nuggets,
  • 26 doughnuts,
  • 12 Big Macs,
  • 22 pork pies,
  • 55 two-finger Kit-Kats,
  • 32 slices of pizza,
  • 53 bags of Quavers,
  • 131 Jaffa Cakes.

You could consume the above guilt free by going on an 8 hours run or 21.5 hour walk on boxing day [Reference]


Question 2

How fast does Father Christmas need to fly in order to reach all the good children in the world?

Reveal the funtabulous answer

According to Arnold Pompos of Purdue University, Santa would have to travel a total of 160,000,000km – further than the distance from the Earth to the Sun – to visit 200 million children.

He would have about 10 hours, from 8pm to 6am, to deliver the presents. Luckily, children happen to be spread across a wide range of time zones, buying Santa an additional 24 hours.

Even so, covering this distance in 34 hours is certainly no mean feat. Crunching the figures, we get a speed of 4,705,882km/h, far slower than the speed of light, but still fast enough that the air resistance is likely to vaporise Santa, along with all the children’s gifts… if he wasn’t riding a magic sleigh. [Reference]


Question 3

What could Father Christmas look like (according to the TAC in Victoria, Australia) in order to best survive a sleigh crash?

Reveal the funtabulous answer

Graham, a human designed by artist Patricia Piccinini to survive a car crash


Question 4

How many babies are born on Christmas Day?

Reveal the funtabulous answer

On average about 220,000 babies are born each day but on Christmas day only about 172,000 babies are born…

More babies are born on a Tuesday than any other day – except if Tuesday falls on Christmas day.

But the Christmas holiday is special for another reason: most babies are born in August and September meaning that more babies are conceived during Christmas season than at any other time. [Reference]


Question 5

What did this woman react to over the Christmas period?

tree dermatitis caused by colophonium allergy 1

Reveal the funtabulous answer

Colophonium, the sticky substance from pine and spruce after she decorated her Christmas tree.

In a European study from 2015, up to 2% of adolescents were affected and a Canadian study from 1970 thought up to 7% of patients presenting with respiratory symptoms or allergies might be Christmas tree related.

tree dermatitis caused by colophonium allergy 2

Reference


…and finally

tinsillitis medicalised

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Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five

Dr Neil Long BMBS FACEM FRCEM FRCPC. Emergency Physician at Kelowna hospital, British Columbia. Loves the misery of alpine climbing and working in austere environments (namely tertiary trauma centres). Supporter of FOAMed, lifelong education and trying to find that elusive peak performance.

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