How many universities are there in the world?

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 includes almost 1,500 universities across 93 countries, standing as the largest and most diverse university rankings ever to date. But that's not all the universities in the world.

According to STATISTA, there are more than 25000 universities across the globe. But this number may go up if we include colleges and other educational institutes.

India by far has the most universities, followed by the United States of America and, China. India as of 2021 has 4381 universities, followed by the USA with 3254 universities and China with, 2595 universities.

Other countries with the most universities include Indonesia with 2694 universities, Brazil with 1349, Mexico with 1253, Russia with 1096, and Japan with 1014 universities.

Or visit the link: https://youtu.be/-8EBQXN3da8

Among the top universities of the world, it is mostly dominated by US and UK universities.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, and Harvard University are the top 3 universities in 2021 according to the QS World University Rankings. All of these 3 universities are from the USA.

Other universities that come up in the top 10 universities are California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA, University of Oxford, UK, ETH Zurich -Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland, University of Cambridge, UK, Imperial College London, UK, University of Chicago, USA, and University College London, UK.

India with so many universities does not have a single university in the top 100, but the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), is ranked 172^nd  in the world. China has 6 universities in the top 100 universities list. Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Fudan University are among the top universities in China.

Although universities from other regions like Switzerland, Singapore, China, Japan, Hongkong, Canada, South Korea, Australia, and Germany are catching up to the top 100 universities list, USA and UK still dominate the top 10 university list.

What are humans made of?

 

At the very basic, we think we are made of flesh, blood, bones, and hairs. But flesh, blood, bones, and hair too are made of other building blocks.

In fact, 99.95% of your body weight is made of just eleven elements. Among them, the four major elements like oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen makes up 96% of our body. Added to the list are calcium, phosphorous, potassium, Sulphur, sodium, Chlorine, Magnesium and it forms 99.95% of our body. But there are traces of other elements too, these include iron, iodine, zinc, selenium, copper, molybdenum, even gold and others.

Now, some of these names might be new to some of us, especially if we have not taken science after high school.

Watch the video here:

https://youtu.be/5pcIO8PCOnk

Among all the elements, major ones are called the macro nutrients whereas those appearing only at the level of parts per million or less are referred to as micronutrients. These nutrients perform various functions, including cell structures, the building of bones, regulating the body's pH, carrying charge, and driving chemical reactions among others. 

Given that our body is made of many different elements, this is the reason why we need Macro nutrients and micronutrients for a well-functioning body and thus to stay healthy.

You might have heard that nearly 60% of your body is water. And we know water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen (H₂O). So hydrogen and oxygen forms a major chunk of our body. Also human body like all lifeforms have carbon. Carbon atoms being 12 times the weight of hydrogen atoms, comes second to oxygen by weight.

So if we segregate elements in our body, it is 65 per cent oxygen, 18 per cent carbon and 10.2% hydrogen. Other elements like nitrogen forms about 3.1%, a pinch of calcium for the bones forms about 1.6 %, 1.2 % is phosphorous, and around 0.25% is potassium and Sulphur. With very small percentages of sodium, chlorine and magnesium, and we hit the 99.95 % mark explained above.

Although some people argue that, human body is much more than just these elements and substance, which is quite true, but we cannot deny the fact, what we are made of.

You might have herd, we are what you eat. All of us were born at just 2-5 Kg, but as we grow we accumulate mass. All the extra mass we build up over time comes through the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breadth. So, each atom we are made of has coem from somewhere. The atoms that forms our body were previously in the air, plants, animals and minerals. An average person’s body is composed of about 7 billion billion billion atoms. So the atom we are made of must have been in many previous and present living things, including trees, grass, insects or dogs, or even in dinosaurs and our ancestors.

Now, that we know we are made of what we eat, and we just require all elements in our body to be healthy, let’s eat the good and the healthy.

How much do we eat in our lifetime?

 

We know eating habits vary vastly among people, according to the place they live in, availability of food, and other factors. Just like someone living near the ocean eats more fish than someone living in mountains, people have adapted to some staple foods over time.

It is also true that we eat more varieties of foods today than ever before and life expectancy is ever on the rise, but how much do we really eat over our lifetime. Let’s find out.

If you come from a place where rice is a staple food and considering that on average people live up to 73 years globally.

If you consume 300 grams of rice per day, it would mean you eat 108 kg of rice a year. And about 7,884 kg of Rice in your lifetime, that’s rice full of a big truck. That’s equivalent to the rice production from 8-10 acres of land.

Watch the video below:

https://youtu.be/Y3WZf3vz6w0

But that’s not the only thing we eat, other major things we eat are the vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, dairy products, other food grains, drinks and many more.

So, even if we eat, 200 gram of vegetables per day, it would mean we consume 5256kg of vegetables in our lifetime, that's little less than a fully loaded TATA truck or equal to 5 pickup trucks full of vegetables. On other consumption includes pulses, so even if you consume 10 kg of pulses per year, it means 720 kg of the pulse is consumed over the lifetime.

On the meat, if you consume 50kg meat per year, it would mean you will consume 3,650kg of meat in your lifetime. That is equivalent to 20 pigs if you eat only pork, 10 cattle of you eat only beef, or 1825 chickens if you eat only chickens. In other terms, you are consuming meat equivalent to a fully grown Asian elephant.

If you consume fish and eat at least, 10 kg of fish in a year, you will eat over 730 kg of fish over the lifetime, that’s the same as eating fully grown shark fish. Or 1500 trout fishes.

Among the dairy products, Cheese and butter are most widely consumed, so even if you consume 10 kg cheese and 2.5 kg butter a year, it still means you consume 730 kg of cheese and 182.5 kg of butter in your lifetime. That is equal to 3,650 cheese balls.

Now coming to drink, tea, coffee, juice, and beer forms the most popular drinks in the world.

So, if you at least drink 2 cups of coffee or tea a day, and 2 glasses of juice per week, it would mean you will drink 53,290 cups of tea or coffee, and 7008 glasses of juice in your lifetime.

And coming to beer, even If on average you consume 4-5 bottles of beer per week, it would mean you consume 140 bottles per year or 10,249 bottles of beer in your lifetime, that’s equivalent to one water tanker full of beer in your lifetime. That’s quite a lot.

So that how much you eat on average, although not everything that we eat, but pretty much what they eat over your lifetime. The amount may vary according to place and eating habits, but you should be pretty close to this average.

I hope you are pretty amazed by the amount of food, you devour over the lifetime.

How many people do we meet in our lifetime?

One estimate shows we meet nearly 80,000 people in our lives.

The calculation is as follows:

On average, we live for 78 years, and most of us will remember people we meet after the age of 5. Now assuming we interact with at least 3 new people daily in cities and considering 365.25 days in a year.

In total, we would meet (78.3 – 5) x 3 x 365.24 = around 80,000 people, It looks quite a lot.

Watch in on youtube:

https://youtu.be/sgpr7t9v32w

But the number heavily depends on what kind of lifestyle the individual lives. A person who is born and lives his entire life in a small village will never meet more than a few thousand people in his life.

While a person living in the big city who takes the metro for transport, and likes traveling a lot, will meet thousands more than a villager. Even more, a famous person or celebrities can meet thousands of people in a single year. 

Now with the advancement in technology, we today meet and see people virtually through, television, movies, and social media. Today we can know people and involve in conversation and transactions, without meeting them physically.  

So, the answer really depends on:  What do we mean, when we say, meeting people.

Do meeting really means meeting everyone individually, and seeing them up close. Or can we see from distance, such as in a stadium enjoying a football match, seeing people on television and movies, and interacting on social media, and traveling together in a bus or an areophane.

Also, the number is dependent on which corner of the world you live in, people in rich countries travel a lot for holidays ad vacation, and are expected to meet more people, than people living in developing countries.

So, the number really depends. For someone living in a remote village, in some far corner of the world, without traveling much out of his village, (just like people living in the high Himalayas as nomadic herders) the number of people he/she will ever meet (considering everyone he/she meets physically and sees through other media) in his lifetime can be as low as 1 to 2 thousand people.

But for someone very famous, living in a densely populated area and making use of all the technology to interact and socialize with others, will meet almost a Million people in their lifetime.

Now, even if we considering, we=2 meet about 80,000 people in our life, it still means we just meet 0.001% of the world population in total.   

How much of our brain do we use?

 

It’s certainly not 10%, that we all have been hearing and most even believing in it. But it’s much more than that.

In fact, the myth that we use just 10% of our brain originated in the 1890s, when the father of American psychology, William James, said, “most of us do not meet our mental potential”. His quote since then has been misunderstood for a long time, leading to most people still believing that we use just 10% of our brain.

It’s true that some parts of our brain work harder than others at any given time, but that does not mean 90% of your brain is useless.

Our brain with the weight of 1.5 kg, forms just 2% of our body mass, but it consumes 20% of the energy. The amount is more than any other organ in our body and any other animal’s brain. In children, the brain is said to consume 50% of the energy and in infants, it is even more at 60%.

link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-ul2Ncu1k4&feature=youtu.be

Human brain contains around 86-100 billion brain cells called neurons, it is more than any other animal or species on the planet. This dense neuron packing in our brain is what makes us smart and different.

Now, coming to the question, how much of our brain do we really use? The truth is that we virtually use every part of our brain. And most part of our brain is active all the time. Even during sleep, our brain remains active.

In fact, for us to be conscious, 1 to 16% of the cell should be active all the time. Also, some parts of brain cells are used to control vital unconscious activities such as heartbeats, breathing, dreaming, etc.

The Magnetic resonance imaging conducted on human brains, equally shows that most of the human brain is active most of the time. In the course of a day, we use just about every part of our brain.

Now, that we know it’s not just 10% but 100% of our brain that we use, you can take time to thank your brain for everything you feel and understand about yourself and the world around us. Because it’s the brain that makes us who we are today.

How many gods and goddesses are there?

So, how many gods and goddesses do you think are there? If not for real, but at least in people’s belief. Gods and goddess are the result of people’s religion and belief. Not everyone will believe in all the gods, goddess or deities but only the ones related to their own religion. So, it might not make any sense trying to count the total number of gods and goddess here, still then let’s try to find out.  

Since long, people have attempted to explain the mysteries and fears, through worship and belief in gods.

Today, most of us don’t believe in Zeus, the most powerful god according to the Ancient Greeks, or you don't believe in in Odin the most powerful god for the Nordic religion, or you don't even believe in Thor and his mighty hammer. Or South American gods/goddesses who required human sacrifice.

Watch the video on same topic here:

Link to video you you want to watch in YouTube

Now, these are just a sample of few gods and goddesses out there. So counting all the gods and goddess can be a very difficult endeavor given that: 

 a) Throughout the human history, there would probably have been religions that were never documented.

b) Also Opinions on god and goddess can vary widely, even within the people of the same religion.

c) Gods sometimes moved between religions. For example, Hinduism and Buddhism have many similar gods and deities with different names.

 

Nevertheless, if we count the number of gods and goddesses, it is expected to be considerably greater than the number of religions, because a lot of religions are polytheistic, meaning they believe in more than one god or goddess.

 

Some estimates shows, there are 4,300 - 10000 religious groups in the world, depending on how you define religion.

Now, taking just 4300 religions and assigning 3 gods per religion on average, although some religion has hundreds or even thousands of deities, then there can be around 12,900 gods and goddesses.

But the estimates can vary largely, A book on Encyclopedia of Gods, lists over 2,500 Deities of the World, likewise another estimates shows that, there can be millions of gods and goddesses if we include all the ancient and long forgotten god and goddesses. This figure comes from the fact that the ancient Hittites claimed to have more than 1000 deities, and Hindu and Buddhist religion of today equally have many deities of worship.

Whatever it is, your god or goddess is just one among so many, so does it even make sense to disbelief so many (N-1) for the claim of one to be the true god? 

How many persons contributed to our being?

 

So how many grandparents do we have? or How many persons contributed to our being here? 

To find out, you are a single person and you most probably will have 2 parents (a father and a mother)

Your 2 parents will have 2 more parents each. That’s 4 grandparents for you

Going further 4 grandparents will have 8 parents (thats 8 great grandparents)

Further down, 8 great grandparents will have 16 parents (i.e 16 great great grandparents)

Likewise if we go until 10 generation back (around 300 years ago) that’s by taking 30 years in average for each generation) we would have 1024 tenth generation ancestors, assuming none of the them are related. This number would reduce if cousins marry, as they will have common ancestors.

                                YOU

                              2 PARENTS

                           4 GRANDPARENTS

                        8 GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

                     16 GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

                  32 GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

               64 GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

            128 GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

         256 GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENT

      512 GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

   1024 GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

But if we go on further to 20 generations (around 600 years ago, in the year 1420) we will have 1,048,576 ancestors. If we combine all ancestors from your parents to 20 generation ancestors together we would have 2,097,150 ancestors in total.

Now if we go even further to 30 generation (900 years ago, 1120) the number is really huge that’s 1,073,741,824 ancestors, that’s even larger than the number of people who lived on the planet at that time, which was about 400 million at that time.

Watch the video on same topic here:

                         https://youtu.be/eWjRc6u8x-4

So, in reality, families often have same ancestors and they appear in multiple places in our family tree. We know there were marriages among cousin after few generations, and that fair enough. Due to this common ancestors, one theory claims that everyone must related, which looks quite true.

Keeping all these aside, if we really want to know the number of ancestors we have, then the answer depends on how many generation do we wana go?

Even if we go up to 10 generation deep, that’s 300 years ago to 1720, then any one of us would have 1024, 9^th grand parents. But if we combine all grandparents then it would be 2047 ancestors in total.

Thats the number of persons who has contributed to our being, here today, if they were not related at all.

Now think, even with 2046 ancestors in total,

How many unique, life stories, amount of hardships, war, famine, disease, crime, did our ancestors had to face and possibly overcome for us to exist today.

If anything, had happened even to one ancestors, someone else would be here, instead of us.

So, if you are reading this article now, then by now you know you are a result of massive history.

So feel lucky…

 

Table of calculation used by me: