You know what they say: knowledge is power.
Learning is crucial to our existence – think of it as sustenance for the mind rather than the body. It helps us develop new abilities, perspectives, and values; it gives us a feeling of accomplishment and unveils endless opportunities; it boosts our confidence and allows us to engage in the most random conversations.
Some might argue that with the development of the good old internet, basking in new things doesn’t feel as necessary perhaps as it would have before – however, now that knowledge is at everyone’s fingertips, why not learn a fact or two to impress a couple of your pals?
“What is your go-to fact that blows people’s minds?” – this netizen turned to one of Reddit’s favorite communities asking members to share their go-to facts that never fail to impress others. The thread has managed to receive over 12K upvotes, as well as 9K worth of comments and mouth-opening statements.
More info: Reddit
#1
I just learned this: there are more castles in Germany than McDonalds in the U.S.
Image source: itijara, IMBiblio
#2
When it’s so quiet you can hear snow falling, you’re actually hearing the static discharge of the snowflake hitting the ground. It gathers the electricity while it’s falling to Earth.
Image source: KeithCSchatz, James Mann
#3
A graveyard is connected to a church while a cemetery is not.
Image source: FirstBankofAngmar, Jörg Weingrill
#4
Oxford University existed 250 years before the Aztecs existed. Oxford University first opened in 1096, the Aztec period was from 1345-1521. Oxford University is second only to the University of Bologna for continuous operation.
Image source: WhozTheDaddy, Chris Rycroft
#5
Greenland sharks can become up to 400 years old and don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re 150
Image source: AggravatingDriver559, Hemming1952
#6
Sharks have been around longer than the rings of Saturn.
Edit: It’s an easy Google. The rings of Saturn formed no more that 100 million years ago, we know what they are made of, how fast they move, and the rate of decay. Sharks have been around for about 450 million years. We have fossilized records of this.
Image source: itsmyfrigginusername, leah
#7
that sahara desert used to be under the ocean, and you can still find seashells in the sand there
Image source: breadcrumb1996, cattan2011
#8
Neptune was originally discovered as apparently inexplicable changes in the orbital path of Uranus. Because a man named Le Verrier observing these alterations decided that there must be an orderly reason for it, he calculated where another planet would have to be to cause Uranus to act like that, and still keep the laws of gravitation discovered by Sir Isaac newton. He then sent his calculations to Royal Observatory in Berlin, and the prediction was within 1° of its actual position.
Image source: JaywrightCat, Kabsik Park
#9
The beginning of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony sounds like this: “di-di-di-dah”.
That is the Morse code representation of the letter V: (…-)
V is the Roman numeral for five.
Purely coincidence, as the Fifth was written 40 years before Morse code was invented.
Image source: dittybopper_05H, Thomas Quine
#10
The Goonies go underground on the exact same day (Saturday, Oct. 26, 1985) as Marty travels back in time to 1955.
Image source: misterfriend, Warner Bros.
#11
All the Botox in the world, literally every gram, is produced in a factory in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland.
Image source: RedditIsAShitehole, Rodolphe Breard
#12
you know when you get up too fast and feel dizzy? squeezing/stiffening your buttocks together stops the dizziness.
Image source: eggypotato-, Masa Israel Journey
#13
There are more trees on planet earth (~3 trillion) than there are stars in our galaxy (~800 billion).
Note it says our galaxy (the milky way), not the entire universe. Still I find the sheer number of trees on our planet impressive
Image source: Dependent-Status-880, Rich Kenington
#14
Whales are closer to artiodactyls (even toed hoofed animals) than they are to seals or manatees.
Whales are *essentially* just wet deer with extra steps.
Image source: magcargoman, Jose Antonio Navas
#15
Ancient Egypt and mammoths existed at the same time.
Image source: Sir_Scizor20, Chris Hunkeler
#16
Tamales are one of the oldest dishes on earth still commonly eaten today.
Image source: BitPoet, kinwart
#17
As an Italian in the us it’s that Pepperoni actually would mean peppers in Italy and has absolutely nothing to do with thinly sliced meat.
Image source: Only-Possibility-114, MattCC716
#18
George Washington died in 1799.
Dinosaurs were discovered in 1824.
George Washington didn’t know dinosaurs existed.
Image source: DrySoap__, David Kryzaniak
#19
Giraffes have the same number of neck bones as humans.
Image source: KingKimoi, virtualsphere
#20
In Volkswagen’s official Parts catalog, one of the official Volkswagen parts, with its own part number (199 398 500 A), is a currywurst sausage they serve to their staff in Wolfsburg, Germany.
199 398 500 B is ketchup.
Image source: Brotherbeam, RoadOver
#21
When airline pilots are trained to fly a new type of jet, the first time they fly it is with paying passengers on board. All the training and testing is done in a simulator.
Of course they have a lot of flight time in other airplanes and there is a specially qualified training captain in command. However my first jet takeoff was LAX-DEN with 68 unsuspecting passengers.
Image source: usmcmech, alex lang
#22
The Earth is traveling through space at 2.1 million km/h (1.3 million mph) relative to the cosmic background radiation. Which means by the time you finished reading this, you’ve travelled roughly 8,700km (5,420 mi) through space.
Image source: AngryBuddha01, TheMuuj
#23
You can see your nose all the time.
It is always within your field of view, unless you force your eyeballs to roll up as far as they go.
Your brain filters it out of your perception to save resources, but if you pay explicit attentio to it (as you may be doing now), it becomes obviously visible.
Do not despair, tho.. after a brief time, you forget about it and it “disappears” again.
Image source: RandomStuffGenerator, AbbyD11
#24
The earth’s crust (which is too deep for humans to drill through, much deeper than the deepest ocean) compared to the rest of the planet is similar to the skin of an apple compared to the rest of the apple.
Image source: Relevant-Charity9689, jon collier
#25
Black apples exist.
We tend to think of apples as being red, though there are, of course, some popular green and yellow varieties. But did you know there are also black apples? Called Black Diamond apples, they’re found in Tibet and are from the Hua Niu family of apples, also known as Chinese Red Delicious. Aside from the black outer color—actually an extremely dark shade of purple—these apples look just like other Red Delicious apples, down to the white flesh inside.
Image source: Ok_Zucchini_4303, Forest Starr and Kim Starr
#26
The gene for six fingers is dominant, five fingers recessive.
Image source: D0fus, andrea castelli
#27
Almost 100% of the matter that composes plants comes from the air, not the ground.
Image source: teabagalomaniac, Herry Lawford
#28
Moose are naturally attacked by orcas.
Image source: BernieceTAnderson, Bryce Bradford
#29
German Chocolate Cake was invented in New York by it’s baker Samuel German who wanted to do his version of a Black Forest Cake
Image source: signaturefox2013, Mikel Ortega
#30
“OMG” usage can be traced back to 1917.
Image source: GoGreenOnEm, Ben Chun
#31
A tablespoon of oil can calm about half an acre of water. It spreads out to form a layer 1-molecule thick on top of the water. That’s why oil spills are so harmful and destructive. The largest oil spill (BP) was about 61,488,636,185 tablespoons, or about 68,000 miles of damage.
Image source: deqb, GPT Environmental
#32
In the US, the dash lines on highways are generally 10 feet long, not 2-3 like most people assume.
Image source: Color09, Doug Kerr
#33
There are more ways to arrange a deck of cards than there are atoms on earth.
Image source: stocksNcrpt, Erwan Martin
#34
In a group of 23 random people, the probability of two of them sharing a birthday is over 50%.
Image source: pizzaninjatx, Dark Dwarf
#35
In the 1920s, Hawa‘ian music was the biggest selling category of sheet music.
Image source: lapsteelguitar, Franklin Park Library
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