Facts that sound false but are true — Page 10
Our highest surprise rating: the facts people most often refuse to believe until they read the explanation. Every one of them is documented.
1017 facts
Bubble wrap was invented by accident.
In the late 1950s, two North American engineers imagined a modern, textured wallpaper. The material did not please as…
The largest desert in the world is Antarctica.
A desert is defined by the lack of precipitation, not by heat. Antarctica receives very little rain or snow, making…
The oldest volcano in the world is in Brazil.
The Nova Iguaçu volcano in Rio de Janeiro is about 2 billion years old and has been extinct for a long time. It is…
A single day on Mercury lasts longer than an entire year on Mercury.
Mercury rotates very slowly on its axis; a solar day there lasts about 176 Earth days, while it only takes 88 Earth…
Earth has two temporary natural satellites besides the Moon.
Tiny asteroids are occasionally captured by Earth's gravity and orbit it temporarily before escaping.
Earth receives 430 quintillion joules from the Sun every hour.
This energy is enough to power human civilization for thousands of years — if we could capture it all.
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…
Bananas grow upside down.
They develop pointing downwards, but as they grow they turn towards the sun in a process known as negative geotropism.
Fortune cookies were invented in California, not China.
They were popularized in Japanese-American restaurants in San Francisco in the early 20th century, inspired by a…
The QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow typists down.
In the 1870s, fast typing on mechanical typewriters caused keys to jam. The layout placed common letter pairs apart…
Post-it notes were invented by accident.
In 1968, scientist Spencer Silver was trying to develop a strong adhesive for 3M. Instead, he created a weak adhesive…
The goblin shark can project its jaw out of its mouth to catch prey.
The goblin shark's jaw is held by elastic ligaments that allow it to be launched forward at very high speed. This…
An ancient Bulgarian recipe used live ants to ferment milk and make yogurt.
The almost forgotten technique involves using natural acids and enzymes from ants to coagulate milk, resulting in a…
Beneath Australia's soil there is a magnetic anomaly shaped like a square.
The magnetic anomaly beneath Australia has a shape that practically replicates the country's own outline, with a…
The summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador is the point on Earth's surface farthest from the planet's centre.
Earth is not a perfect sphere, as it is flattened at the poles and wider at the equator. Chimborazo is near the…
Lake Vostok is located under two kilometers of ice in Antarctica.
Lake Vostok is located under about four kilometers of ice, not two. It is one of the largest subglacial lakes in the…
Piltdown Man was one of the greatest scientific frauds in history.
In 1912, skull and jaw fragments were presented as a missing link between humans and apes. In 1953, it was discovered…
The Library of Alexandria was not destroyed in a single fire, but declined over several centuries.
Ancient accounts mention fires, funding cuts and conflicts, but there is no proof of a single event that erased it…
Cycads can heat themselves up to 15 degrees Celsius above ambient temperature to attract pollinators.
These plants, which have existed since the time of the dinosaurs, produce heat and emit infrared light to attract…
Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere.
They form in the mesosphere, about 80 kilometres up, where water vapour freezes into ice crystals on meteor dust…
A vacuum can change the way light travels when subjected to extreme magnetic fields.
An international team used observations of a magnetar, a neutron star with a magnetic field billions of times…
Water can boil and freeze at the same time when it reaches the triple point.
The triple point of water occurs at a specific temperature and pressure, about 0.01 degrees Celsius and 611 pascals…
Venus has a day longer than its year.
Venus takes about 243 Earth days to complete one rotation on its axis, but only about 225 Earth days to orbit the…
Physicists created the world's smallest QR code, measuring just 50 by 50 nanometers.
Using a scanning tunneling microscope, researchers positioned silver atoms one by one to form a QR code that is more…