Some Curious Walking Facts

• The longest walk around the world was completed by a former neon-sign salesman, Jean Beliveau. He walked 46,600 miles around 64 countries. The trip took him 11 years.
• Fire walking, or the act of walking over hot stones or embers with bare feet, is a religious ceremony practiced in several parts of the world, including the Indian subcontinent, China, Fiji Islands, New Zealand. It was also practiced in ancient Greece and India. Fire walking is said to help guarantee a good harvest or purify the participants.
• The United States walks the least of any industrialized nation. The average Australian takes 9, 695 steps per day (just a few short of the ideal 10,000), the average Japanese takes 7,168; the average Swiss: 9,650; and the average American just 5,117.
• Given that the world is about 25,000 miles in circumference and that the average walking rate is 3 miles per hour, it would take a person walking nonstop approximately 347 days to walk around the world.
• A typical pair of tennis shoes will last 500 miles of walking.
• It would take, on average, 1 hour and 43 minutes of walking to burn off a 540-calorie Big Mac.
• The first successful robots to walk had six legs. As technology has improved, robots can now walk on two legs, though they still do not walk as gracefully as humans.
• An average city block is equivalent to 200 steps.
• A 20-minute walk, or about 2,000 steps, equal a mile.
• Chickens, pigeons, cranes, quails, and at least eight of the 27 families of birds bob their head when they walk. Researchers suggest that they do this because head bobbing helps with balance, provides depth perception, and sharpens their vision.
• The most popular form of exercise in the United States is walking.
• The average human walking speed is about 3.1 miles per hour, or 5.0 kilometers per hour.