20/12/2022
Amazed young girl in white shirt with hands on cheeks looking shocked, childlike wonder facts
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If there's one thing most kids have in abundance, it's a sense of awe. Everything is new and exciting when you're a child—but often that wide-eyed curiosity starts to fade over time, which surely shouldn't always have to be the case. And with that in mind, we've rounded up 100 bits of fun trivia that will make your day and restore that childlike sense of wonder. So park your cynicism at the door and read on to be reminded how awe-inspiring the world really is.
This Week In Trivia: Holiday Albums, MLB Contracts, & Golden Globes
1A reservoir in space holds 140 trillion times the amount of water in Earth's oceans.
ocean and sky - funniest jokes
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NASA has found some pretty incredible things in space, and that includes a floating reservoir of water that holds the equivalent of 140 trillion times all the water that's in Earth's oceans. What makes it even more amazing is the fact that the reservoir surrounds a giant black hole.
More than 12 billion light-years away from Earth, the reservoir is more proof "that water is pervasive throughout the universe," says Matt Bradford, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
2The word "muscle" comes from a Latin term meaning "little mouse."
doctor examining muscle of patient, health questions after 50
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Bend your arm at the elbow and flex. What do you see when you look at your bicep? The ancient Romans apparently saw the resemblance of a tiny rodent, which is why it's called a "muscle," a word derived from the Latin term musculus—meaning "little mouse," according to Merriam-Webster.
3Tic Tac mints are named after the sound their container makes.
an open mint white tic tac box resting on a wooden table
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In 1970, Ferrero was looking to replace "Refreshing Mints" as the name of its now iconic mini mouth fresheners. Instead of going with a similarly straightforward approach, the brand says the name we all know now was inspired by the tic and the tac sounds heard when you open and close the little plastic container the mints come in.
4Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham as part of a bet.
green eggs and ham
Random House
The Cat in the Hat was published in 1957 and used a mere 236 words to tell the quirky feline's fantastical story. However, the book's author, Dr. Seuss, topped that feat with even fewer words when his publisher, Bennett Cerf, bet him that he couldn't write a book using 50 words or less. Green Eggs and Ham hit bookstores three years later and uses exactly 50 words.
5Peanuts can be used to make dynamite.
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Obviously, peanuts are a tasty snack—as long as you're not allergic to them, that is. But did you know they can also be used to make dynamite? When extracted, peanut oil can be turned into glycerol, which can then make nitroglycerine, an unstable explosive substance used in dynamite. In a safer state, glycerol is also used for soaps, creams, and various food products.
6The largest volcano in the solar system is three times taller than Mount Everest.
olympus mons mars, facts
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Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on earth, reaching 5.5 miles into the sky. However, you'd need to stack three Everests on top of each other in order to create something as massive as Mars' Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system. The enormous volcano is 16 miles tall and stretches 374 miles wide—approximately the same size as the state of Arizona, according to NASA.
7An 11-year-old is responsible for naming Pluto.
Pluto Bogus 20th Century Facts - is pluto a planet
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In 1930, the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) was struggling to come up with a name for a newly-discovered planet. They considered Minerva, Zeus, Atlas, and Persephone—but it was 11-year-old Venetia Burney Phair who suggested Pluto, inspired by the god of the underworld. When the idea eventually reached RAS with the help of the girl's connected family—her librarian grandfather knew many astronomers—they loved it and ultimately decided to use the suggestion.
8Armadillos swallow air to become buoyant when they swim.
armadillo near the everglades
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When armadillos go swimming, they don't need a flotation device to keep them from sinking—they are the flotation device. To stay afloat, the creatures swallow air to make themselves buoyant, according to the Library of Congress. However, they also have another option, which involves expelling air so they can sink and walk across the bottom of a body of water. Stunningly, armadillos can hold their breath for six minutes or more.
9People write love letters to trees in Australia via email.
sycamore tree in the air, most common street names
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The city of Melbourne, Australia, wants to take care of its trees—so much so that in 2013, they assigned each one an email address so that the public could report any problems—like dangerous branches—that they noticed.
However, instead of sending messages about issues, people began writing love letters to the trees. "My dearest Ulmus," one note began, according to The Atlantic. "As I was leaving St. Mary's College today I was struck, not by a branch, but by your radiant beauty. You must get these messages all the time. You're such an attractive tree."
10Where the Wild Things Are was supposed to have been about horses—but the illustrator couldn't draw them.
Where the Wild Things Are
HarperCollins Publishers
Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are is a beloved children's book from 1963 that was inspired by the author's own childhood. But it wasn't always about the so-called "wild things." The book was originally going to be about a young boy who finds himself in a land filled with wild horses. Although Sendak's editor loved the idea, there was one problem: Sendak, who was also the book's illustrator, couldn't draw horses. However, he was able to draw "wild things"—and so the entire premise of the book changed.
11On Mars, sunsets are blue.
sunset in mars gale center, blue, astonishing facts
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
The sunsets we know are typically mellow yellow or fiery pink. But if we lived on Mars, we'd witness blue sunsets, as seen in a series of images snapped by NASA's Curiosity rover in 2015. As Mark Lemmon, a scientist who worked on the Curiosity team, explained to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "The colors come from the fact that the very fine dust is the right size so that blue light penetrates the atmosphere slightly more efficiently."
12There's a Russian village where every resident is a tightrope walker.
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Traversing a highwire may seem like a relatively uncommon ability. However, there's one Russian community where it's a perfectly normal thing to be able to do. In Tsovkra-1—a small, secluded village in the southern republic of Dagestan—everyone who's physically able can walk on a tightrope in a tradition that's existed for more than 100 years. It's even taught in school to the village children. Even though only 400 people still live in the region, at least 17 tightrope walkers from the area have found fame in circuses due to their impressive aerial abilities.
13Domino's Japan trained reindeer to deliver pizza.
pizza saver on pizza names of everyday items
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Back in 2016, Domino's Japan wanted reindeer to do a little more than just pull Santa's sleigh—they wanted the animals to deliver pizzas to hungry customers. The company released a video of employees tying pizzas to the animals' backs and said customers would be able to track their pies via GPS.
14The world record for the tallest stack of doughnuts totaled more than 3,000.
stack of doughnuts, astonishing facts
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Measuring almost 5-feet tall, the pyramid-shaped tower was made up of 3,100 doughnuts. According to Guinness World Records, the structure was "designed on a number of different software products to ensure its structural integrity." The organizers behind the project enlisted the help of a structural engineer and an architect, who eventually concluded a pyramid shape would give them "the best combination of stability and height."
15Benjamin Franklin was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
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Benjamin Franklin wasn't only a skilled writer, politician, and scientist—he was also an avid swimmer. Franklin began swimming as a child in Boston, which led to one of his first inventions: oval palletes worn on the hands so he could swim faster. His enthusiasm for the sport continued throughout his life and was so well-documented that he was eventually given an honorary induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
16Only two national flags have the color purple on them.
dominca flag, astonishing facts
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Those two countries are Dominica, which uses purple in its flag's central image of a sisserou parrot, and Nicaragua, which includes a purple stripe in a rainbow that's featured on the national coat of arms at the center of the flag.
17There's a shrimp-like creature that makes aluminum armor to protect itself.
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The pressure of the deep sea is so intense that it would crush the bodies of any critter not equipped to withstand it. That's why Hirondellea gigas—a small, shrimp-like amphipod—adapted to form a layer of aluminum hydroxide gel to cover its exoskeleton, acting as a kind of pressure-resistant armor, according to 2019 research published in the journal PLoS One.
18Your dog knows when someone isn't trustworthy.
study finds some people are more biologically predisposed towards dogs
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You may be able to tell when your furry BFF is thrilled to see you, but your dog probably knows even more about you and other people than you do about them. Not only do dogs have innate instincts to protect their humans, but a 2015 study published in the journal Animal Cognition suggests that pups can even tell if a person is untrustworthy based on their behavior.
19Mount Rushmore cost less than $1 million.
Mount Rushmore South Dakota weird state facts
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Featuring the faces of former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, Mount Rushmore was designed and supervised by sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln Borglum—who took over after his father passed away—between 1927 and 1941. And while the highly recognizable landmark was a sprawling and complex project, it cost just $989,992.32 to erect—adjusted for inflation, that's about $17 million.
20The shortest scientific –ology word is "oology."
Brown eggs
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Scientists and researchers who work in the field of oology are strictly focused on bird eggs. It is the shortest -ology in science and is a subset of ornithology, the study of birds. And ornithology is a subset of zoology, the study of animals.
21More than 800 languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea.
landscape of papua new guinea
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It's hard to imagine anyone being able to speak—or even understand—all of the 850-plus indigenous languages that are spoken in Papua New Guinea. And in reality, most people don't. Many of the languages in the country—such as Nihali—are only spoken and understood by a few thousand people in the world. Still, the sheer number of languages that exist in Papua New Guinea make it one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world.
22The majority of polar bears live in Canada—not in the Arctic.
Polar bear mother and cub polar bear facts
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There are an estimated 22,000 to 31,000 polar bears around the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund. And while you can find the beasts in a range of regions in the Arctic circle, including Greenland, Norway, Russia, and Alaska, the majority of them—around 60 to 80 percent—call Canada home.
23The smallest unit of measurement in the universe is the Planck length.
meter ruler for metric system, 1970s nostalgia
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If you want to find the very smallest things around, you'd need to track down something that's the size of the Planck length. It's the smallest possible size of anything in the known universe at a mere 1.6 x10-35 meter across, which is the equivalent of around a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter (or a decimal point followed by 34 zeroes and a one).
Under the laws of quantum physics, this would be the size of quantum foam, or the tiny wormholes that give space a foam-like structure. If this is beyond you, don't worry: You'd probably need a very advanced degree to fully understand that concept.
24The first breakfast cereal had to be soaked overnight before it could be eaten.
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It's probably safe to assume that when you reach for your favorite cereal in the morning, you can simply pour some in a bowl and start eating it. But in order to consume the first manufactured breakfast cereal, which was created in 1863, you had to soak it in milk overnight just to make it edible. The cereal was made of graham flour that had been baked into brittle cakes, then crumbled up and baked again. Not surprisingly, "it was not an immediate success," according to The New York Times Magazine.
25The Eiffel Tower was inaugurated the same year Nintendo was founded.
Super Nintendo '90s Jokes
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You might assume that Paris' Eiffel Tower is much older than Nintendo, a company famous for manufacturing popular video game systems. But in reality, the iconic Parisian landmark was inaugurated the very same year that Nintendo was founded: 1889. While the tower was being formally introduced to the public at the World's Fair, a playing card company that would eventually become Nintendo was being launched in Kyoto by Fusajiro Yamauchi.
26The world's largest Barbie collection includes more than 15,000 dolls.
Kyiv, Ukraine - March 24, 2018: Barbie Toys for sale in the Supermarket Stand. Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. - Image
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In 1996, Bettina Dorfmann received her first Barbie—a Midge doll, in fact. By 1993, she was collecting them seriously. And in the 26 years since, she's managed to get her hands on more than 15,000 different versions of the iconic doll, including a rare original Barbie from 1959. In addition to collecting them, Dorfmann also runs a hospital for broken Barbies where she fixes or replaces broken limbs and untangles matted hair.
27A former NASA scientist invented the Super Soaker.
super soaker, astonishing facts
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With the job of NASA engineer on his resume, Lonnie G. Johnson would already be considered an impressive person by anyone's standards. However, not only did he help develop the U.S. Air Force's stealth bomber program, according to the Daily Press, but he also invented the Super Soaker water gun in the 1980s.
Inspired while trying to develop an eco-friendly heat pump, Johnson eventually licensed his design to Larami Corporation—later acquired by Hasbro—and the classic sq**rt gun went on to generate sales that were truly out of this world. He reportedly made so much money from the toy that he was able to fund his own research and development company, which focuses on clean energy.
28Little brown bats sleep more than any other mammal on earth.
little brown bat, astonishing facts
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And you thought you were tired. These little guys get so much shuteye that Guinness World Records even deemed the species "the king of nappers." When observed in captivity, little brown bats have reportedly slept for 19.9 hours straight—that's more than 80 percent of the day snoozing.
29A 26-sided shape is known as a small rhombicuboctahedron.
rhombicuboctahedron shape, astonishing facts
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Even if you break it down to rhombi-cubo-octahedron, the word is just about as hard to say as it would be to draw. That's because a small rhombicuboctahedron is a polyhedron that has eight triangular faces and 18 square faces. Add them all up and you have a snazzy-looking shape with 26 sides.
30Great white sharks are so scared of killer whales that they'll avoid an area for up to a year after spotting one.
great white shark jumping out of ocean
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The majority of humans may be afraid of great white sharks, but that doesn't mean that the sharp-toothed ocean predators don't have fears of their own, one of them being another kind of big swimmer: orcas, also known as killer whales. In fact, a 2019 study published in the journal Nature suggests they're so terrified of the ferocious whales that they'll avoid an area for up to a year if they encounter one even if it's just passing by.
As the study's lead author Salvador Jorgensen explained, "When confronted by orcas, white sharks will immediately vacate their preferred hunting ground and will not return for up to a year, even though the orcas are only passing through."
31The longest tennis rally lasted over 12 hours.
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Italian athletes Simone Frediani and Daniele Pecci earned the world record for the longest tennis rally ever on June 11, 2017. Hitting for more than 12 and a half hours straight—from 6:23 a.m. to 7 p.m.—the two took a total of 51,283 uninterrupted strokes, sipping from water-filled backpacks to hydrate without having to stop play. Any good tennis player will tell you that consistency is crucial, and we're pretty sure these two have that part of the game down pretty darn well.
32The first pieces of gold at Fort Knox arrived by mail.
vault full of gold bars, astonishing facts
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Over the years, Fort Knox has definitely lived up to its reputation of being an impregnable facility. However, the very first gold that arrived at the bullion depository in 1937 wasn't particularly well-protected. In fact, according to the United States Mint, "The gold was too heavy to fly in, so it was mailed there by train through the Post Office Department, today's United States Postal Service."
33Honey is essentially bee vomit.
honey pot, great for allergies
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When a bee takes nectar from a flower, the tiny creature stores it in its "crop," an enlargement at the back of its esophagus, where the nectar mixes with enzymes. "A nectar-foraging bee returns to the hive and pumps out the nectar to a receiving bee," says now retired extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the University of California, Davis.
After being mixed with enzymes, "the nectar is passed to processing bees that blend the incoming nectar loads, mix them together, then pump out a bit of solution," he says. After some of the liquid in the solution evaporates, it's once again taken into a bee's crop and further mixed before it's finally deposited into a comb where it will become the honey you know and love—or at least used to love.
34There's a word for tapping someone on the opposite shoulder from behind to fool them.
The back of the heads of two businesswomen sitting in chairs, attending a business conference or seminar. One woman is tapping the other on the shoulder trying to get her attention.
iStock
If you've ever tapped someone on the opposite shoulder in order to attempt to trick them, then you've done what people living in Indonesia would call "mencolek." But no matter what you call this, it will still probably make the person on the receiving end of the gesture groan in response.
35Beavers have transparent eyelids so they can see underwater.
baby north american beaver
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Beavers have plenty of amazing features that help them thrive, including webbed feet and a powerful tail. But the large rodents also have transparent eyelids so that they can shut their eyes and still see underwater.
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