Weird Facts Most People Don’t Know

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Overview
There's a reason people say that truth is stranger than fiction. Between impressive inventions and
natural oddities, the world can be a pretty incredible place. Just when you think you're too jaded and
you know it all, people and things can surprise you in delightful ways. Wondering how long it would
take to drive to space? Or where a quarter of the bones on your body are located? Or what you call a
rainbow that happens at night? You'll find out all that and more when you read through these trivia
tidbits from around the world.
Flamingos bend their legs at the
ankle, not the knee
knees are closer to the body and are
covered by feathers. This is just the first of
many weird facts to blow our minds!
Roller coasters were invented to distract Americans from sin
In the 1880s, hosiery businessman
LaMarcus Thompson hated that Americans
were tempted by hedonistic places like
saloons and brothels. So he set out to
straighten up one of the most immoral
places he could think of: Coney Island in
New York. There, he built America’s first
roller coaster to give New Yorkers some
good, clean fun – away from seedier
pastimes.
In 1905, an 11-year-old boy named Frank
Epperson left soda powder and water
outside overnight with its wooden stirrer
still in the cup. The mixture had frozen in
the chilly nighttime weather, and so the
Epsicle was born. He sold the treat around
his neighbourhood and a nearby
amusement park and even patented the
recipe. Years later, he changed the name to
Popsicle because that’s what his kids called
their pop’s concoction.
longer than dolphins can
hold their breath for up to 40 minutes.
Dolphins need to come up for air after
about ten minutes.
year old
the way you eat. Those fresh apples aren’t all
that fresh, per say. They’re often picked,
covered in wax, hot-air dried, and sent into
cold storage. After six to twelve months, they
finally land on your grocery store shelves.
It’s impossible to hum while
holding your nose
You just tested it, didn’t you? Normally, when
you hum, the air is able to escape through
your nose to create the sound, and of course,
it can’t do that when you’re holding it shut.
This is one of the weird facts you can test
out for yourself. Go ahead, try it.
Octopuses have three hearts
whole systems, and two are dedicated just
to the gills.
wasabi
actually milder than what you’ve been
getting with your sushi.
serves spaghetti
tomato sauce and a piece of “McDo” fried
chicken.
intelligence
help spread knowledge from the tip to the
brain, and his “Dunsmen” followers wore
them as a badge of honour. In the 1500s,
though, his ideas became less popular and
the meaning of the Duns cap was turned on
its head, becoming something of a joke.
Lobsters taste with their feet
Tiny bristles inside a lobster’s little
pincers are their equivalent to human
taste buds. Meanwhile, lobsters’ teeth are
in one of their three stomachs.
Before toilet paper was
invented, Americans used to
the Farmers Almanac, which was
designed with a hole so it could hang in
outhouses. Necessity is the mother of
invention, after all.
according to botanists. True berries stem from
one single-ovary flower and have two or more
seeds. Strawberries don’t fit that bill, but
bananas, kiwis and watermelon do.
The world’s smallest wasp is
smaller than an amoeba
The Megaphragma mymaripenne wasp
smaller than most amoebas, which are
made of just one cell.
“OK” most likely stands for fake words
In the 1830s, people jokingly spelled
abbreviations incorrectly. One of the most
famous: “All correct” turned into “orl
korrekt,” and then of course into OK.
Historians think it stuck because Martin
Van Buren – known as Old Kinderhook,
after his hometown in New York –
supporters called themselves the OK Club
when he was campaigning for reelection.
Researchers once turned a live cat
into a telephone
Charles Bray took out a cat’s skull and most
of its brain to connect the animal to
electricity. When they spoke into the cat’s ear,
the sound could be heard through a phone
receiver in another room. The twisted
experiment paved the way for cochlear
implant developments.
smokers quit
after the German word for peppermint
(Pffefferminz). When they were introduced in
1927, they were round mints sold in tins, so
you probably wouldn’t see a former chain
smoker with a Mickey Mouse dispenser.
The name "bonobo" resulted from a misspelling
"Bonobo," the common name for apes, may
sound like some sort of translation of a
meaningful term, but in fact, it was the result
of a typo. Researchers reputedly first found
the animals in the town of Bolobo, Zaire, in
the '20s, but the name of the place was
misspelled "Bonobo" on the shipping crate in
which the animal was placed, leading others to
refer to the animal by the name, which stuck.
There is an annual Coffee Break Festival
For millions of people, the coffee break is a key
but often under-appreciated part of each day.
To stop and give the break its proper due, the
town of Stoughton, Wisconsin, hosts an annual
Coffee Break Festival. The gathering includes
coffee tastings, "brew-offs," and bean-spitting
contests. Why Stoughton? According to city
officials, the coffee break was "born" in the city
in the late 1800s, as women working at the
local Gunderson Tobacco Warehouse began
the ritual of pausing during the workday to
brew up some coffee and have a chat.
The fuller the fridge, the more energy-efficient it is
An empty fridge not only makes it more difficult to
decide what to snack on, it also wastes valuable
energy. It works like this: the more empty space in
the fridge, the more cold air is displaced by warm
when you open the door, requiring the appliance
to generate cool air to replace it. If the fridge is
packed, less cool air escapes and less energy is
required to replenish it. The writers at The Kitchn
go so far as to advise fridge owners to fill empty
bottles with water in order to displace the empty
air.
pretty much everyone living in rainy places, for
centuries they were seen as something only to be
used by women—associated with the fashionable
parasols women would carry during nicer days to
keep the sun from their skin. But in the mid-18th
century, the barriers started to fall, with public
figures like philanthropist Jonas Hanway carrying
umbrellas during public events. Soon others took
notice of the accessory's practicality and it wasn't
long before men were using them as often as
women.
Sunglasses were originally designed for Chinese judges to hide their facial
expressions in court
effectively preventing bright sunlight from
causing discomfort or damage to our eyes. Of
course, they're also a fashion accessory. But
sunglasses were originally made out of smoky
quartz in 12th century China, where they were
used by judges to mask their emotions when
they were questioning witnesses.
Cotton candy was invented
cotton candy in 1897. It was first introduced
at the 1904 World's Fair as "Fairy Floss."
Then, another dentist, Josef Lascaux,
reinvented the machine in 1921. He came up
with the name "cotton candy," which
replaced "fairy floss."
appear. In fact, researchers have found
that a single cloud weighs about 1.1
million pounds. How do they know? Well,
that number is calculated by taking the
water density of a cloud and multiplying it
by its volume. Fortunately, the cloud can
still "float" at that weight because the air
below it is even heavier.
Crying makes you feel happier
They don't call it a "good cry" for nothing.
Studies suggest that crying stimulates the
production of endorphins, our body's
natural painkiller, and feel-good hormones,
like oxytocin. In short, crying more will
ultimately lead to smiling more.
Paper bags can be worse for the environment than plastic ones
It's become a common notion that paper is
always a better choice than plastic. In fact,
bans on plastic bags are regularly being
enacted.
drawbacks. According to research, paper bag
production emits 70 percent more pollution,
uses four times as much energy, and takes
more time to break down, when compared
to plastic bags. Guess the best option is to
carry reusable bags with you.
Conclusion
We could all use a little more knowledge—if just to impress the usuals at your local trivia night. From
bizarre true stories to weird science to unbelievable tales from the annals of history, here’s a huge
trove of weird facts that most people don’t know.
Sources