1. 'Cry me a river'
Justin Timberlake - Cry me a river

He'll be waiting a long time

Assuming a tear volume of 0.5 millilitres, and a tear rate of 10 tears per minute, an individual can be expected to produce 5 ml of tears in a minute, and 300 ml in an hour of continuous crying. Well the Cam is approximately 64 km long, so assuming both an average width and depth of 5 metres, its volume is 1,600,000,000 litres, or 480 million years of crying. This is approximately the amount of time since land plants are thought to have appeared on Earth, so Mr Timberlake could be waiting a little while. 

 

2. 'I will love you ‘till the end of time, I will wait a million years' 
Lana Del Ray - Blue Jeans

Making promises she can't keep

Unfortunately for Lana, the earliest estimate for the end of time, is approximately 5 billion years from now, and most are many times further away than this. Even if time did stop as soon as 5 billion years away, her willingness to ‘wait a million years’, would still leave her out by a factor of 5000. Clearly not someone to go for if you’re looking for a long term relationship.

3. 'Did the wind sweep you off your feet?'
Train - Drops of Jupiter

Train's lyrical description of Jupiter's climate is surprisingly accurate

Jupiter plays host to our solar system’s most impressive storm. The Great Red Spot was first seen in 1665 as a surface blemish, and has since been characterised as a storm around two to three times the size of the Earth. Wind speeds reach around 400 mph, so if you somehow managed to stand on Jupiter, a gas giant, the wind would most definitely sweep you off your feet.

 

4. ‘Hey Labrinth, this one feels like a straight ten on the Richter scale’
Labrinth feat. Tinie Tempah - Earthquake 

The earthquake was loud, like this

The most powerful earthquake ever recorded was the Great Chilean Earthquake of 1960, which measured 9.5 on the Moment Magnitude scale, which has replaced the Richter scale for scientific use, but is still often confused with its more famous counterpart. An increase of 1 on the MM scale means approximately a 30 times more powerful quake. Assuming therefore, that Tinie’s measurements are on the more appropriate MM scale, he would require an Earthquake 6 times more powerful than any ever recorded. Definitely ground-breaking.

5. ‘Birds go flying at the speed of sound’
Coldplay - Speed of Sound

Not swift enough

The fastest bird in the world is the peregrine falcon, which can reach an impressive 242 miles per hour during a dive. However even ignoring the fact that diving is really a mixture of falling and flying, 242mph simply doesn’t cut it, being approximately 110 metres per second, or one third of the speed of sound.

Seems Chris Martin may have written this lyric a little too fast.

6. ‘Your love is my drug’
Ke$ha - Your Love is my Drug

Ke$ha contemplates the chemical nature of love

There are generally considered to be 3 main stages to falling in love: Lust, attraction and finally attachment. The second of these, attraction, is thought to be largely driven by dopamine, a chemical in your brain whose levels increase during this stage. Dopamine levels are also driven up by taking cocaine, which blocks dopamine reuptake. Turns out Ke$ha takes her neuroscience seriously. Maybe.