Things You Probably Never Thought About

PowerPoint PresentationProbably
Never
Thought
About
Overview
Looking for some mind-blowing interesting facts that will make you question everything you know
about the world we live in? Well, look no further. There’s nothing quite like a weird fact to add a sense
of wonder to the everyday. Plus, this random trivia will totally impress your friends and may even come
in handy one day when you’re least expecting it. Get ready to do some serious pondering.
Why do my fingers get wrinkly when you're swimming?
It may seem as if your skin is absorbing
extra water during a soak in the pool or
bathtub, but that’s not the case. Researchers
have known since the 1930s that people
with nerve damage in their fingers don’t
prune up the way everyone else does. In
other words, wrinkly fingers don’t happen
through osmosis. Instead, it’s caused by
blood vessels below the skin that constrict,
which seems to have the evolutionary
advantage of making it easier for us to pick
up wet objects.
They do it to feel safe, according to Live
Science. And it’s not just your domestic
tabby: Big cats also like to hide in a spot
where nothing can sneak up on them.
How did the colors blue and pink get assigned to boys and girls?
It seems so embedded in our culture, but it
wasn’t always so; in 1927, Time magazine
printed a chart showing that four major
department stores suggested dressing boys in
pink, according to Smithsonian Magazine. In
1918, the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’
Department wrote, “The generally accepted
rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls.
The reason is that pink, being a more decided
and stronger color, is more suitable for the
boy, while blue, which is more delicate and
dainty, is prettier for the girl.
Why do car windows have little black dots?
The dots serve as an aesthetically pleasing
transition from the thick black line to the
transparent window. They aren’t just there to
look nice though. They help provide
temperature control. When the glass is bent
to fit into the frame of the windshield, it’s
heated up. The black-painted glass heats up
faster than the rest, and the dots help to
distribute the heat more evenly and keep the
glass from warping.
evolutionary holdover from our more fishlike
ancestors. During a hiccup, the muscles we
use to inhale contract while our vocal cords
are slammed shut by the tongue and the roof
of the mouth. There’s no discernible purpose
for hiccups in humans, but a similar pattern of
movement among amphibians is useful. When
tadpoles are breathing underwater during a
stage when they have both lungs and gills, they
take in a mouthful of water, close the opening
to the lungs, and then force the water out
through their gills.
started to grow?
varieties of peas, lentils, and barley that
humans already found growing naturally
around 12,000 years ago in the Fertile
Crescent region of the Middle East (including
modern Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Palestine,
southeastern Turkey, and western Iran).
Why do seashells sound like the
ocean?
and reflect ambient noise, amplifying certain
frequencies, so when you hold one to your ear,
you’re really just hearing echoes of the quiet
sounds that are already surrounding you.
Why do humans have an appendix?
Since Charles Darwin’s era, many have thought
the appendix a vestigial digestive organ left
over from some previous evolutionary phase
of our development and no longer in use. But
in recent years, scientists have realized that
many other mammals (including koalas and
beavers) have appendixes. The tiny organ might
be part of the immune system, assisting the
body’s defenses by storing healthy gut bacteria.
Why do cops touch the taillight on a car during traffic stops?
For decades, police officers have put their
fingers on a car’s taillight as they approach the
driver’s side window in order to leave
fingerprints. It’s a just-in-case precaution that
would prove they pulled a car over should they
be injured during the encounter or go missing
afterward, according to the Law Dictionary. The
practice has fallen off recently, though, as
dashboard and body cameras have become
more commonplace.
The color is officially called “national school
bus glossy yellow,” and it’s standard across the
United States. Back in 1939, at a conference
funded by the Rockefeller Foundation,
transportation officials from all of the then 48
states agreed on a number of safety standards
for school buses, including the color. Yellow is
very visible, even in early morning or late-
evening light, and black lettering on a yellow
background is easy to read. It took until 1974
for all the school buses in the country to
meet the standards.
Why do we always see the same face of the moon?
Here on Earth, we can always see the “man in
the moon” because the same surface faces
toward us no matter where the moon is in its
orbit. That’s because the moon is tidally locked
with Earth, meaning that our gravitational pull
keeps it rotating on its axis at a speed that’s
coordinated with its orbit around our planet.
We humans didn’t get a look at the moon’s
other side until 1959, when the Soviet Luna
spacecraft took the first photos and scientists
realized it’s much different: There are few large
lava seas, like the ones on the side facing us,
and many more impact craters.
Why do we sleep?
poorly understood, we do know why we need to
do it. Brains seem to require downtime in order
to stay organized and particularly to strengthen
new neural connections that allow us to
remember what we’ve learned. And we know
why we shouldn’t go without: Long-term sleep
deprivation can cause hallucinations, psychosis,
heart disease, and immune system dysfunction.
Every physiological system in the body, and every
operation of the mind, is powerfully enhanced by
sleep when we get it and demonstrably impaired
when we don’t get enough.
Why does a bunny deliver eggs at Easter?
The Easter bunny is probably a throwback to an
ancient Anglo-Saxon myth about the fertility
goddess Ostara, as religion scholar Katie Edwards
writes in the Conversation. Folklorists say that
Ostara changed a bird into a rabbit, which went
on to lay colored eggs that she presented to
children as gifts. It’s unclear how the myth was co-
opted by Christians, but it’s first mentioned in late
16th-century German texts, and German
Lutherans brought the Easter bunny with them to
the United States in the 18th century.
Why do squirrels chase one another?
When they go on mad sprints up and down
trees and across your yard and deck, they’re
probably working out their hierarchy,
according to Live Science. Squirrel expert
Michael Steele of Wilkes University in
Pennsylvania tells the website that the most
common U.S. species—the Eastern gray
squirrel—doesn’t tend to be territorial but
does like to let everyone know who’s boss.
Not too surprisingly, young squirrels also
like to chase one another around for fun,
just as puppies do.
About 90 percent of humans are righties,
and it’s not at all clear why that proportion
continues to hold. If there were a major
evolutionary advantage to being left-
handed, more people would have the trait;
if there were a clear disadvantage, it would
disappear. The latest thinking among
scientists is that a large number of different
genes affect handedness. Many of the genes
that have been studied play a part in the
body’s left-right symmetry, and certain
mutations can lead to unusual organ
placements (like the heart being on the
right side instead of the left).
How do birds know where to migrate?
Forty percent of bird species migrate every
year, with some traveling tens of thousands
of miles. (Arctic terns fly about 50,000 miles
every year, from pole to pole.) Migrating
birds can even find their destinations if
researchers make them start from unusual
locations. Some songbirds use a magnetic
map to navigate long distances, but nobody
knows how they can detect the Earth’s
magnetic field.
Bakers in medieval England are thought to have
come up with the idea of tossing in an extra
roll or loaf of bread to make sure their
customers were happy. While 12 eggs are easy
to quantify, baked goods can turn out all
different sizes because of differences in how
much the dough rises. Plus, many bakers didn’t
have accurate scales to weigh their flour. Being
accused of cheating could result in punishment,
including flogging, so bakers hedged their bets
and included 13 (or sometimes 14) items to
make sure nobody complained.
Saying the word cheese does make you pull
your lips back and show your teeth, so if
you’re trying to get a lot of people to at least
approximate smiling at the same time, it’s a
good start.
shapes?
shaped noodles go best with lumpy sauces
(where they can catch chunks); twisted
pastas hold thin sauces; and long, spaghetti-
like noodles pair best with cream- or oil-
based sauces.
Red has the longest wavelength of any color on the
spectrum of visible light, and as such, it’s easier to see
from far away than other colors. Railroad systems
used red as a stop signal long before automobiles
were on the roads. Trains originally used a white light
to mean “go,” but engineers probably had a harder
time telling it apart from the light of stars and other
lanterns, so green took its place. Yellow was the
original choice for stop signs because it was easier to
see than red at night, but as reflective paint,
streetlights, and headlights proliferated, the signs were
changed over to red. Yellow is the second-easiest
color to see from a distance, so it was added as the
“caution” signal in traffic lights.
Why do we wear wedding rings on our fourth finger?
The traditions of wearing a wedding band on
your fourth finger on your left-hand dates
back to ancient Egypt. Egyptians saw wedding
bands as a symbol of eternity and believed
there was a “delicate nerve” that ran from the
ring finger all the way to the heart. We now
know that the heart is an organ for pumping
blood, but back then they believed it was the
center of our emotions. Ancient Greeks and
Romans followed a similar tradition and
passed on the wedding-band finger to us.
Why are most blackboards green and not black?
Before blackboards were large enough to take
up an entire wall in a classroom, students would
use individual-size boards made of slate or
wood that had been painted black. So the first
blackboards were, in fact, black. Once teachers
realized they needed more space to teach their
students, they put multiple boards of slate
together on the wall to make bigger
blackboards. Finally, as the demand for
blackboards rose, companies started making
them out of steel plates coated with green
porcelain-based enamel instead of the
traditional dark slate.
pockets?
pointless, but they actually served a purpose
back in the 1800s. It’s called a watch pocket
because it was originally intended as a safe
place for men to store their pocket watches.
It dates back to Levi’s first-ever pair of jeans,
which hit the market in 1879.
Why do passports only come in
four colors?
a specific typeface, type size, and font for all
official documents, including passports. Even
though there are a lot of requirements that
passports have to meet, the specific color
isn’t actually one of them. But most
countries choose to use simple dark shades
of red, green, or blue because they look
more official and they hide dirt and wear.
Why do old newspapers turn yellow?
If you’ve ever seen old newspapers piled up at
your grandparents’ house, you’ve probably
noticed that they eventually yellow. The paper
changes color due to a process called oxidation.
When newspapers are exposed to air and
sunlight, a chemical process causes them to
absorb more sunlight and darken from white to
yellow.
Other things
• When you’re a kid, dick jokes are considered adult content, but when you’re an adult they’re
considered immature.
• Your stomach thinks all potato is mashed.
• As a dishwasher, I come home after hours of work in which I get covered in filth, and I take a shower
only to realize…I am the final dish.
• The word “Fat” just looks like someone took a bite out of the first letter of the word “Eat”.
• Once you have a PhD, every meeting you go to becomes a doctor’s appointment.
• You wake up when you die in a dream because you don’t know what happens next.
Other things
• When someone else makes you laugh in your dream, your brain came up with that joke. Of course
you think it’s funny.
• I wonder if there are any times on the clock that I have never seen.
• What are snails even trying to do.
• The first person who copied someone was in fact very original.
• Getting birthday money is the real life equivalent of passing ‘Go’ and collecting $200.
• Family Guy is 90% Seth MacFarlane talking to himself.
• History classes are only going to get longer and harder as time goes on.
Conclusion
Sometimes when you’re bored, you probably sit around and think about interesting scenarios or crazy
situations. It is important to keep our minds engaged and active at all times – helps keep you sharp. So
we figured we would give you a few things to help keep you up at night too!