20 Questions We've All Asked Ourselves (But Never Bothered To Find Out)

6. Why Does It Only Tickle If Someone Else is Doing It To You?

Do you remember the days of your childhood, when your dad would come into your room early on a Sunday morning and wake you up by jumping on you and tickling you? Oh, he'd stick his fingers straight under your armpits and rib cage and tickle so hard that you'd practically vomit everywhere and begin to bruise like a peach. Do you remember that? No? So just me then? Oh - really, I had a good childhood! Anyway, you're probably still ticklish, be it on the bottom of your feet, stomach or armpits, and you've probably fallen into a fit of laughter and screamed submit as someone else has done it to you. Have you ever noticed that you couldn't do that to yourself, though? Yes, we thought so. See, tickling causes tension and our bodies to tighten up, usually due to an unease over physical contact, as well as a fear of losing control and of being hurt. We laugh not because we're enjoying it (Dad!), but rather because we are panicking, even if we don't know it. The reason this doesn't occur when we try to tickle ourselves is because we are in complete control of the action, we don't mind touching ourselves, so there's no need to be tense, thus there's no reaction. You know the answer now, so you can stop trying to tickle yourself, it just looks weird.

5. Why Do We Yawn When Tired? And Why Are They Contagious?

Wake up! We still have five questions to go and you're making us tired. Don't worry though, we'll forgive you, when you've got to yawn you've got to yawn. If you try to stifle it you'll just look like you're squeezing out a silent fart out or something. But we've all been there, sitting in a room with others when you lose control and let out a massive yawn, which in turns starts off a chain reaction of mass yawning. Half the time we do it we're not even that tired, are we? So why do we do it, we know you're wondering. There's no certain reason why we yawn, and no one has really given it any serious study, probably because they're too tired or something. However, one theory is that we do it in order to wake up, giving ourselves a jilt which increases our heart rates by 30% and fills our lungs with oxygen. Some scientists even believe that our bodies are exhaling carbon dioxide which apparently builds up when we're tired. The best theory, though is that it's an inherited evolutionary trait from our ancestors, who apparently yawned at one another as a means of communication, which is why it's apparently instinctively contagious. Which makes sense, watch someone yawn and try not to do it yourself. You can't! Now, scientists say that we've outgrown yawning as communication, but it's also obvious that those scientists have never been to a football match.