Many of us are exposed to a massive, constant stream of information every single day. Not just at work but during our leisure time, too. And with so much data to process, it can be hard to distinguish between real facts and twisted truths.
That’s the topic that internet user u/Leefiey tackled in a r/AskReddit thread. At times, you can end up in confusing situations where some bizarre-sounding facts and stats are actually true, even though they genuinely sound fake. We’ve collected the top ones, as revealed by the people in the thread, to share them with you, Pandas. Scroll down to check them out. They might just change your perspective on science and history.
Bored Panda wanted to learn about the reliability of statistics, so we reached out to Steven Wooding, a member of the Omni Calculator project, as well as the Institute of Physics in the UK. Steven is the creator of interesting tools like the Weird Units Converter, among others. Read on for his insights.
#1
If every church in America took in two homeless people, there would not be homeless people in America, and not all of them would have two people.
Image source: RusstyDog
#2
There are more museums in the US than there are McDonald’s and Starbucks combined.
Image source: clownbird
#3
Ancient egyptians had their own historians.
By the time of Cleopatra, there were records of egyptians ‘discovering’ stuff about the pyrimad of Giza and others, and studying early egyptian practices. Cleopatra lived closer to modern day than she did to the building of the Giza pyramid, so that makes sense, but still.
Those f*****s had been around so long that even Egypt thought Egypt was ancient.
Image source: vampireinamirrormaze
#4
We Went To The Moon Before We Put Wheels On Suitcases.
Image source: Darwinex, Project Apollo Archive
#5
I saw a scale model of the earth, moon and sun in a museum. The sun was about the size of a basketball, and the earth was on the opposite side of the room, the size of a small marble, I’d guess about 30 metres away. The moon was the size of a tiny pinhead, about 10cm away from the earth.
On this scale, the nearest star to earth, Proxima Centauri, wouldn’t be in the same building, or even in the same city. It would be 10,000km away.
And that’s just one star, the nearest one to us, in a galaxy containing billions of stars, which is just one of billions of galaxies.
The scale of the universe really is mind bogglingly big. Far bigger than we can begin to comprehend.
Image source: Qabbalah, Big Yellow Dot avatar link Big Yellow Dot
#6
After the british made head protection mandatory in WW1, the amount of head wounds increased.
It’s due to they were no longer KIA, but “only” a head wound.
Image source: WouldUKindlyDMBoobs, en.wikipedia.org
#7
In English, the color orange was named after the fruit. Before that, orange was just considered a shade of red. That’s why gingers are called redheads.
Image source: I_might_be_weasel, Delphine Hourlay
#8
The Appalachian, Scottish Highlands, and the Atlas mountains are actually the same prehistoric mountain range.
Image source: StolenDabloons, Fabesh
#9
Humans have patterns (like stripes, spots and geometric shapes) on our bodies that are invisible to us but cats can see them
Image source: kutupashetani
#10
It took us more time to go from bronze swords to iron swords than it did for us to go from iron swords to nuclear weapons.
Image source: IMJUSTABRIK, Tor-Sven Berge
#11
Sharks have existed longer than trees have
Image source: Capital_Indication_4, Matt Waters
#12
A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years. A trillion seconds is 31,688 years. People have a lot of trouble comprehending numbers that big
Image source: sunbearimon, Andrea Piacquadio
#13
1 out of every 4 girls & 1 out of every 6 to 13 boys are sexually assaulted as child. Child rape is far more common than people think & the majority of rapists get away with it to rape more children.
*Edit- sources:
CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childsexualabuse/fastfact.html
National Sexual Violence Resource Center: https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf
Image source: HelenAngel
#14
Trees existed millions of years before rot. So trees, for millions of years, didn’t rot.
Image source: extremeindiscretion, Lukas Hartmann
#15
We live closer in time to Tyrannosaurus Rex than the T Rex did to the Stegosaurus.
Image source: reiveroftheborder, Dennis Jarvis
#16
If you took the populations of both China and India, then removed 1 billion people from each, they would still be the two most highly populated countries on earth.
And you’d probably be convicted of crimes against humanity for wiping out 2 billion people
Image source: c0_sm0
#17
The Oxford university in England existed centuries before the rise and fall of the Aztec civilization.
Image source: RefrigeratorStatus96, Franco Folini
#18
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the mobile phone than she did the construction of the pyramids.
There was a window of time where a samurai could have faxed Abraham Lincoln
Image source: Mr_Mojo_Risin_83, Louis le Grand
#19
Three out of every million Icelandic people are Björk.
Image source: Majestic-Mountain365, Frédéric Vicomte
#20
Continents move at the same rate that fingernails grow. Which is also the same rate that the moon is receding from the Earth.
Image source: Midnight-Ran, Mikhail Nilov
#21
The world population has never been more peaceful, healthier or happier than in the last few decades. On average we live in the best time humankind has ever had.
Image source: Dennis_enzo
#22
George Washington didn’t know dinosaurs existed
Image source: Silver34, Boston Public Library
#23
Not positive how accurate these are but I seem to remember them being reliable.
80% of the people on the planet will never step foot on an airplane.
If you make more than $40K in a year you’re in the top 1% of the world.
My life is far more privileged and luxurious than I lead myself to believe.
Image source: OpossomMyPossom
#24
New Delhi hired people to hunt cobra snakes which led to people having Cobra Farms to earn money then the government stopped the project which led the Cobra Farmers to release their snakes causing twice as many snakes than they first started.
Image source: cathabit, Steven Belcher
#25
Horses [takes out] more people every year in Australia than all the other beasties combined. Everyone thinks it’s the spiders and snakes that’ll get you, but it’s the horses you’ve really got to watch.
Image source: Gingerbread_Cat, Bartosz Bartkowiak
#26
Tyromancy is the art of divination/prediction by studying cheese.
Image source: Oldandnotbold, Community Archives
#27
Nintendo has existed longer than Disney.
Image source: Ok-Autumn
#28
Joe Biden was born closer to the Lincoln presidency than to his own.
Image source: KoalaTeaControl
#29
Chainsaws were invented to assist with childbirth…
[In 1780, two Scottish doctors invented the prototype of the chainsaw. Not to cut down trees or clear debris. No, John Aitken and James Jeffray invented the hand-cranked chainsaw to cut through the pelvises of delivering mothers who were having trouble pushing their babies out.]
Image source: fuzzygroodle, Sabine Salfer/WikiCommons
#30
Wombat poo is cube shape,to stop it rolling away
Image source: lockedinacupboard, twitter.com
#31
If you made $100,000 a day since birth you’d still not be worth as much as Bezos
Image source: IllustriousAd3838, Van Ha
#32
You are more likely to be married to Kim Kardashian in the United states then you are to die of Ebola in the United States. ( I know. Poor sample size and all. )
Image source: kamain42, Jernej Furman
#33
Meerkats have the highest “homicide” rate of any mammal.
Image source: ChadmeisterX, Pixabay
#34
The weight of a sloth is anywhere up to one-third poop.
Sharks are the largest threat to the Internet.
Image source: neohylanmay, Steven Paton
#35
Barcode scanners scan the white lines, not the black ones.
Image source: the_blast_radius
#36
If for some strange reason you WANTED your child to be kidnapped by a stranger you would have to keep them outside, unattended, for 750,000 years. Based on statistics.
Image source: Hannah_LL7
#37
The average human a**s can stretch up to 8 inches in diameter, and also an average full-grown raccoon can squeeze through a 4 inch hole. Therefore, technically speaking, you can fit two adult raccoons in your a*s.
Image source: Orbnotacus
#38
There are different sizes of infinity.
Image source: Raddatatta
#39
We are bioluminescent.We glow the light just isn’t perceptible to the human eye.
Image source: idratherbeinendor
#40
If we lost all the dead space inside our atoms, we would each be able to fit into a particle of dust, and the entire human species would fit into the volume of a sugar cube.
Image source: bonjelascott, Polina Tankilevitch
#41
There are 80,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible arrangements of a 52 card deck.
Image source: MegaGrimer, Tima Miroshnichenko
#42
The most efficient use of energy is achieved by a human riding a bicycle
Image source: Getupb4ufall
#43
USA is only 2.4 miles from Russia.
2 islands in the Bering Strait, the body of water in the Pacific Ocean that separates Alaska from Russia, are 2.4 miles from each other at the narrowest point; one island is owned by Russia, the other is owned by USA.
Image source: Qabbalah
#44
Divorce rates are declining.
Image source: Zdvj, cottonbro studio
#45
The number one cause of death for pregnant women is [being unalived].
Image source: boredasballsyo, cottonbro studio
Follow Us
