 Q Why is it that paper cuts hurt so much? Paper cuts are excruciating because we usually get them on our fingers. We have thousands of sensory receptors, or nerve endings, in each fingertip and tens of thousands in the rest of our hand. They help our fingers detect things as tiny as fingerprint ridges, which are barely 0.4mm apart. Test it yourself. Unravel a paper clip and bring its ends close together. Touch them to your fingertip, then to your arm. You should feel 'two-point discrimination' on your finger but only one point on your arm, where sensory receptors are further apart. The finger's pain receptors, cal){kind=link}
Here are a few of the queries put to the “elves” of BBC show QI by Radio 2 listeners which feature in the new book 222 QI Answers to Your Quite Ingenious Questions
Why do dogs chase cats at every opportunity? Why do paper cuts hurt so much? Is a tortoise slower than a sloth? And which numbers should I pick to win the lottery?
These are just a few of the queries put to the “elves” of QI â hosted by Sandi Toksvig â by the listeners of BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show.
The researchers’ unexpected and frequently hilarious answers now feature in the book 222 QI Answers to Your Quite Ingenious Questions.
Here are a few of the puzzlersâ¦