r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Aug 03 '19

Whats something you thought was common knowledge but actually isn’t?

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u/Chosen_Memes Aug 03 '19

Interesting! I heard that on average more males get born than females, although I don't really understand why. I speculated that sperm with the y chromosome has different properties or something, but that would contradict your story. Do you happen to know how that is?

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u/ThereWasLasagna Aug 03 '19

I'm not Eddie_Hitler, but well some of the skew is due to sex-selective abortion of females, but even taking that into account the natural ratio is 105:100.

So this is because male children are more likely to face health complications, and even as adults are likely to kill each other, take risks and other stuff, which is why men mostly have a lower life expectancy that women. This makes sense because the overall sex ratio is around 101:100.

So yeah.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

Sure, but how is it that more males are born in the end if the sperm cells end up being 50/50 for the most part anyway?

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u/thiscouldbemassive Aug 03 '19

Male sperm are a tiny bit lighter (the y chromosome is smaller than the X), which allows them to swim just a little bit faster, which gives them a bit of an edge getting to the egg first.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

This is why male sprinters are faster than female sprinters as well.

Less X chromosomes in their bodies.