All facts — Page 36
The complete ONAURE library, newest first. Every fact has an explanation and a source you can check.
1196 facts
The Ottoman Empire lasted more than 600 years.
The Ottoman Empire was founded in 1299 and lasted until 1922, totalling more than 600 years. At its height, it…
The Vikings reached North America about 500 years before Columbus.
Leif Erikson, a Viking explorer, reached North America around the year 1000, about 500 years before Christopher…
The Egyptian pyramids were originally covered in polished white limestone.
The pyramids of Giza were covered with blocks of polished white limestone, which reflected sunlight and gave them a…
A single lightning bolt has enough energy to toast 100,000 slices of bread.
A typical lightning bolt carries about 1 billion joules of energy. That energy would be enough to toast about 100,000…
The human body contains about 0.2 milligrams of gold.
The human body contains traces of gold, about 0.2 milligrams, mostly in the blood. Gold has no known biological…
There are more possible chess games than atoms in the observable universe.
The number of possible chess games, known as the Shannon number, is estimated at 10 to the power of 120. The number…
Helium can become solid under very high pressure.
Helium is the only element that does not solidify at normal atmospheric pressure, even near absolute zero. However…
The Sun contains 99.86 per cent of the mass of the Solar System.
The Sun is by far the most massive object in the Solar System, concentrating 99.86 per cent of its total mass…
Titan, a moon of Saturn, has lakes of liquid methane.
Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere and stable liquid bodies on its surface. The lakes…
The first video game was created in 1958 by an American physicist.
The first video game was Tennis for Two, created in 1958 by William Higinbotham, a physicist at Brookhaven National…
The word robot comes from a Czech play from 1920.
The word robot was first used in the play R.U.R., by Czech writer Karel Čapek, in 1920. The word comes from the Czech…
The first floppy disk was 8 inches in diameter.
The first floppy disk was created by IBM in 1971 and was 8 inches in diameter. It stored about 80 kilobytes of data…
The Greenland shark is the longest-living vertebrate in the world, living more than 400 years.
The Greenland shark grows only about one centimetre per year and reaches sexual maturity at 150. Age is determined by…
Butterflies taste through their feet.
Butterflies have taste receptors on their legs. When landing on a flower or leaf, they taste it and decide whether it…
Crocodiles swallow stones to help with digestion and buoyancy control.
Crocodiles swallow stones, called gastroliths, which stay in the stomach. The stones help grind food and regulate the…
Elephant gestation lasts about 22 months.
Elephant pregnancy is the longest among land mammals, lasting between 18 and 22 months. The calf is born weighing…
Frigatebirds sleep while flying.
Frigatebirds can sleep during flight, using only half of their brain at a time. This phenomenon, called…
Sloths only defecate once a week.
The sloth has an extremely slow metabolism. It descends from the tree only once a week to defecate, losing up to a…
The human brain is the organ with the highest percentage of fat in the body.
About 60 per cent of the human brain is made up of fat. It is the fattiest organ in the human body. Fat is essential…
Babies are born with about 300 bones, but adults have only 206.
Babies are born with about 300 bones, many of which are cartilage. During growth, some bones fuse together. That is…
The nails on the dominant hand grow faster than those on the other hand.
The nails on the dominant hand grow faster because that hand is used more often, which increases blood circulation…
The acid in the human stomach is capable of dissolving a metal blade.
The hydrochloric acid in the stomach has a pH between 1 and 2, strong enough to dissolve a razor blade in about 24…
Wasabi loses its spicy flavour in space.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata discovered that wasabi loses its spicy flavour on the International Space Station…
Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada.
Hawaiian pizza, with pineapple and ham, was invented in 1962 by Sam Panopoulos, a Greek who emigrated to Canada. The…
