Facts! Aren’t they amazing? We get to learn so much about everything around us every moment, but there are certain simple facts that we don’t really think of much.
In fact, when you start giving a thought to those facts, you end up crazy and stressed. Let us today learn 60 such weird facts that will invariably make us think.
Weird Facts: 1-5
1. We don’t know exactly how we would calculate our age if Earth didn’t orbit around the Sun! That’s because every time Earth orbits the Sun, we complete one year. So, what if we lived on a planet that didn’t travel around its star?
2. Our thoughts define our acts. This means that our acts are only a mirror image of our thoughts. Despite that, our thoughts define who we are to ourselves and our actions define who we are to others. Interestingly, these two versions of ‘us’ are completely different.
3. Our body – the whole of us – is made of hydrogen, oxygen and other elements. They are put in a way that we are capable of thinking. So essentially, it is not us who are thinking. It is these elements like hydrogen and oxygen and carbon and others that think. Essentially, the whole universe has consciousness, and we are only a part of it – a really tiny part.
4. Every single year, we pass our own death anniversary and we don’t notice and we don’t mourn. Once we die, we don’t notice and don’t mourn either!
5. The letters – A, B, C, D… – you know what? There is absolutely no reason why they should be arranged in that fashion, i.e. A to Z. Take a look at your keyboard.
Weird Facts: 6-10
6. The oldest human or the first human on this planet was actually from a family of primates who were not humans.
7. We actually see our own nose every single moment and still we don’t know that we are looking at it. Why so? That’s because our brain simply filters out the image of our nose.
8. The most complex thing ever known to the human brain that exists on planet Earth in the human brain. Interestingly, the human brain doesn’t yet completely know how a human brain functions.
9. Try licking your elbow. You can never ever do that no matter how many times you try.
10. The most widely accepted theory is that our universe started with Big Bang. Fine, that small, infinitely dense point in which the whole of the universe was packed, where did that come from? Also, scientists say that space and time all started with Big Bang.
Fine! But the question is, ‘If space and time started with Big Bang, then where was that small, intensely dense point hanging out?’ It needs space. And packing everything in that small point needed some time, right?
Weird Facts: 11-15
11. 98% of all atoms present in our body are replaced every single year. That’s crazy!
12. We can travel through air but not through steel. This is not the case with sound. Sound actually travels way faster through steel than through air. In fact, it travels 15 times faster!
13. A TNT bomb – the ordinary one that terrorists use to blow us apart – is actually an atomic bomb. That’s because, when a TNT bomb explodes, atomic reactions take place. On the other hand, the Atom bomb that we are so afraid of should actually be called a nuclear bomb because reactions take place in the nuclei of the atoms.
14. There is actually something called Last Thursdayism. This is a belief that the Universe was created only last Thursday. Well, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, you cannot actually prove it wrong. Not at least using science!
15. We surely know many things way better than our ancestors. For example, the first humans didn’t even know how big the Earth is. Similarly, possibly a 1000 years from now, people will know much more than we do now. But, we all have something in common. We all don’t understand much about ‘TODAY’. Our ancestors did not know much about their ‘Today’. We don’t know much about our ‘Today’ and our predecessors will not know much about their ‘Today’.
Weird Facts: 16-20
16. We often say that to conserve energy, we need to turn off lights, electrical devices etc. Really? Even if we do that, we are not really conserving energy. In fact, if you keep all your electrical devices running 24×7 forever, there will be no less or no more energy in this universe.
17. So, what really do we conserve? Actually what we conserve are resources that are used for creation of energy which is in turn used for operating electrical devices.
18. Talking of energy, everything that happens around us happens because energy spreads out. It balances out. According to the second law of Thermodynamics, when energy is eventually spread out evenly throughout the universe, everything will have the same temperature. That’s when energy cannot spread, and when energy cannot spread, nothing will happen. The universe will die in what we call Heat Death.
19. If we take the concept of Heat Death to be true then, lazy people are actually the best. Why? Because by doing less, they are actually limiting the spread of energy and the longer the energy spread is limited, the longer it takes to reach the stage of equilibrium where energy is balanced everywhere. So, if there are more and more lazy people, it will take longer for the universe to reach Heat Death.
20. If a person from any country is given a currency note of denomination 1 (so for an Indian it will be 1 Rupee, for an American it will be 1 Dollar, for a Russian it will be 1 Ruble) for every 1 second he or she lives, the person will become a millionaire in just 11 days because 11 days are made up of 1 million seconds. If the person keeps getting money at the same rate, he or she will not become a billionaire until the person reaches the age of 31 years. Why? Simple! Because there are 1 billion seconds in 31 years!
Weird Facts: 21-25
21. We cannot comprehend anything faster than light but still, light doesn’t really travel instantaneously. So, when we look at our Sun, what we really see is light that has traveled for 8 minutes all the way from the Sun into our eyes before at the very moment we looked up at the Sun. Since light takes time to travel, when we look far, we are actually looking back in time!
22. With that proven fact, in 1995, NASA (Hubble Space Telescope) gave us the picture of Pillars of Creation. Actually what was shown to us was the image of something that completely disappeared some 6000 years ago. How do we know that?
Scientists found a dust cloud from a supernova explosion that happened in the vicinity some 6000 years ago and possibly tore apart the Pillars of Creation. Now, since the Pillars of Creation are actually 7000 light years from us, we will continue to see them for another 1000 years before we finally witness its destruction that has already happened.
23. There are three words in English dictionary that do not have rhyming words. These three words are Silver, Orange and Purple.
24. Our stomach can actually start digesting itself provided it fails to produce a new mucous layer in every 14 days.
25. The time gap between Tyrannosaurus Rex and Stegosaurus (both dinosaurs) is way larger than the time gap between Tyrannosaurus Rex and Humans!
Weird Facts: 26-30
26. Irrespective of whether you are a male or a female, if you fail to have a child, you will be the first ever person in your direct ancestry to be childless.
27. In everyone’s life, a time comes when his or her parents never picked him or her up after putting him or her down!
28. Do you know how many real numbers are there between 0 and 1? Well, there are an infinite number of real numbers between those two digits. No wonder we hate math!
29. Light doesn’t always travel at the speed of light. The slowest speed of light ever recorded is 17 meters per second through ultracold atomic gas.
30. Speak aloud the word CRISP. The word actually ends at the front of our mouth while it starts all the way back at your throat!
Weird Facts: 31-35
31. Today pink is for girls and blue is for boys. In 1948, it was reversed. Pink is actually a stronger color, and hence it was meant for boys, while blue, which is a gentler color was associated with girls.
32. It is a traditional practice in Italy to wear red underwear on the day of New Year. It is considered a good luck symbol.
33. Sharks kill! Sharks kill! Okay fine…they eat us if they can get us between their jaws, but did you know that sharks are responsible for only 12 human casualties in a year? On the contrary humans are responsible for 11,417 shark casualties every single hour (yes, we kill sharks more than you thought).
34. Did you know that in a game between a male and a female puppy, the male always loses? Well, this is a deliberate act by the male puppy!
35. Did you know that there are several spiders which, in order to distract and evade predators, build their life-like decoys using stuff like dead insects, debris and leaves?
Weird Facts: 36-40
36. Three of the commonest new year resolutions in America are enhanced money management, quitting smoking and weight loss. Nearly 45% of American adults make multiple resolutions, but by January 14, one quarter of these people simply give up their resolutions!
37. Glyptodon – giant car-sized armadillo that lived during the period 2 million years ago to 10,000 years ago in South American swamps – were actually hunted by early humans and their shells were used as shelters from elements like rain and snow.
38. Dies Natalis Solis Invicti was celebrated by ancient Romans on 25th December. It was actually the birthday celebration of their sun god. Eventually the celebration got morphed into Christmas celebrations.
39. The first uniform that was ever registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office was Playboy Bunny dress.
40. There is a peculiar clinical test designed for detecting brain damage. It involves pouring warm and hot water into a person’s ear. Pouring warm water will make the person’s eyes move in the direction of the ear in which the warm water is poured in. When cold water is poured in an ear, the eyes will move in the direction of the opposite ear. This test is known as Caloric Stimulation.
Weird Facts: 41-45
41. At least 10,000 people were killed during the 1920-1933 Prohibition when the US government tried to stop production, import, sale and transport of alcoholic beverages. The government actually poisoned alcohol, which killed so many people.
42. There used to be a female chief of Crow Nation in the 1830s. She was a warrior, a horse-rider and a hunter. Interestingly, she had 4 wives (not husbands).
43. Human brain can stay alive for several days outside the human body!
44. Xerxes was once approached by a man who requested him to grant exemption for his son to be included in the army. Xerxes was so cruel that he had the man’s son cut into two halves and then placed the two halves on two sides of a road and asked his army to march right through those two parts.
45. One of the longest official titles ever goes to a man named Idi Amin. His official title was: “His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular”.
Weird Facts: 46-50
46. Big Bang Theory for the creation of the universe was actually rejected by many people because they thought it was too religious by nature!
47. There are many insect species in which female insects mate just once in their entire lifetime. This knowledge is exploited to control the population boom of many insect families and sometimes eradication of several dangerous species. All that is done is that a swarm of male insects that are sterile are let out into the wild. The females mate with these sterile males and fail to have babies.
48. Year 2000 Problem popular by the name Y2K bug was actually responsible for two abortions because two pregnant women received incorrect results for Down Syndrome test.
49. Since the 1970s, Hollywood has been plagued by a feral chicken population living under a freeway. It is still not clear where these chickens came from and all attempts of getting rid of the feral chickens have failed.
50. Women can be really heartless at times. A classic example is an American woman who once adopted an orphaned child who was a Russian born baby. The woman left the child on a Russia-bound flight with a note which read: “I no longer wish to parent this child.”
Weird Facts: 51-55
51. The U.S. Postal Service went into a strike in 1970. The reason was a 4% salary hike granted to them by Congress. While this may sound weird, the actual reason was that the Congress gave themselves a 41% salary hike. This wasn’t acceptable to the U.S. Postal Service.
52. German monks had to live only on beer during Lent. Because they drank beer, they felt guilty, but they really liked the taste. So, they decided to take beer to Rome. There they asked the Pope to taste it and approve the drink. Unfortunately, the beer turned foul by the time it reached Rome. The Pope really didn’t like the taste, but permission was granted to the Monks to drink beer during Lent.
53. A Texas resident was once kidnapped by two gunned men right in front from the eyes of his wife. The man returned after two days and he was not at all harmed. Investigations later revealed that the man actually staged his own kidnap. Why? Because he wanted a break and wanted to party with his friends for two days.
54. In 1556, a woman was being burned alive on a stake. During the execution, the woman managed to give birth to a baby – alive! The executioner took the baby and threw it back into fire.
55. In Japan, it is forbidden by law to dance at nightclubs!
Weird Facts: 56-60
56. In China, tobacco companies sponsor 100 elementary schools. This sponsorship comes at a cost where children below the age of 10 are actually encouraged for tobacco usage in various forms. Even cigarette logos can be found on the uniforms of these schools.
57. In China, can you guess the number of cigarettes that are consumed every second? That’s an astonishing 50,000 cigarettes every second!
58. There are more than 450 ghost towns in Texas!
59. Leonardo Da Vinci had this habit of going to markets and buying caged animals. Once bought, he would set the animals free!
60. Scientists are currently working on developing a rocket powered by nuclear fusion that can take man to Mars and bring him back home in just 30 days!
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