All facts — Page 79

The strongest muscle in the human body is the masseter (jaw).

Based on its weight, the masseter muscle can close the teeth with a force of up to 25 kg on the incisors and 90 kg on…

Bananas grow upside down.

They develop pointing downwards, but as they grow they turn towards the sun in a process known as negative geotropism.

'Rhythm' is one of the longest words without a vowel.

Since the letter 'Y' often acts as a vowel in English, words like 'rhythm' contain no standard A, E, I, O, or U…

The dot over an 'i' has an official name.

The tiny dot over the lowercase letters 'i' and 'j' is officially called a 'tittle' in typography.

The first alarm clock could only ring at 4 a.m.

Invented by Levi Hutchins in 1787, the mechanical alarm was designed specifically to wake him up for his job, with no…

In Switzerland, owning one guinea pig is illegal.

Considered social animals, it is against the law to keep just one because it would get lonely, and companionship is…

Watermelons are 92% water.

As the name suggests, this refreshing fruit is mostly composed of water, which makes it incredibly hydrating but…

A single strand of spaghetti is a 'spaghetto'.

In Italian, the word 'spaghetti' is plural. Therefore, one single piece is referred to as a 'spaghetto'.

Bananas are berries, but strawberries aren't.

Botanically, a berry must have seeds inside and develop from one flower. Strawberries have seeds on the outside…

The inventor of the Frisbee became a Frisbee.

Walter Morrison, who invented the modern plastic flying disc, was cremated after his death in 2010 and molded into…

Some metals explode in water.

Alkali metals like Cesium, Sodium, and Potassium react violently when they touch water, creating hydrogen gas and…

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth.

Built by billions of tiny coral polyps, this massive ecosystem stretches over 2,300 kilometers and is visible from…

Your DNA could stretch to Pluto and back 17 times.

If you unraveled the DNA in all your cells and tied them together, the strand would be about 10 billion miles long.

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.

While chickens cannot fly long distances, they can use their wings to flutter and escape danger or reach low branches.

The current US flag was designed by a high school student.

In 1958, 17-year-old Robert Heft designed the 50-star flag for a school project. He got a B- initially, which was…

The oldest 'your mom' joke is 3,500 years old.

Discovered on an ancient Babylonian tablet, this joke proves that people have been exchanging witty insults for…

The inventor of the Pringles can is buried in one.

Fred Baur, an organic chemist, was so proud of his design that his ashes were interred in a Pringles can after his…

'Typewriter' is the longest word using only one row of keys.

You can type the word 'typewriter' using only the letters on the top row of a standard QWERTY keyboard.

The first computer 'bug' was a literal moth.

In 1947, engineers found a moth trapped in a relay of the Harvard Mark II computer, causing a malfunction. They taped…

The tiny pocket in jeans was designed for pocket watches.

Created by Levi Strauss in the 1800s, this small pocket protected cowboys' watches from being scratched or broken…

Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour.

This equals about 1.5 pounds (0.7 kg) of skin a year, which makes up a large portion of the dust found in our homes.

You can't hum while holding your nose closed.

Humming requires a continuous flow of air through your vocal cords, which is impossible if your nose and mouth are…

Human noses can distinguish over 1 trillion scents.

Contrary to the old myth that we can only smell 10,000 scents, our olfactory receptors are incredibly powerful and…

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time.

In physics and chemistry, a jiffy is precisely defined as 1/100th of a second or the time it takes light to travel…