Facts that sound false but are true — Page 17
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
Cleopatra lived closer to the construction of the pyramids than to the invention of the smartphone.
Cleopatra died in 30 BC. The pyramids of Giza were built about 2,500 years earlier. The first modern smartphone…
During the First World War, enemy soldiers exchanged gifts and played football on Christmas 1914.
In December 1914, along the Western Front, British and German soldiers left their trenches, exchanged cigarettes and…
An average cumulus cloud weighs about 500 tonnes.
A typical cumulus cloud contains about 500 tonnes of water in the form of droplets. The weight does not fall on us…
Hot water can freeze faster than cold water under certain conditions.
This phenomenon, called the Mpemba effect, was observed by a Tanzanian student in 1963. Under certain conditions, hot…
Bananas are slightly radioactive because of potassium.
Bananas contain potassium, and a small fraction of that potassium is the radioactive isotope potassium-40. Therefore…
The footprints left by astronauts on the Moon will disappear in a few years.
The Apollo astronauts footprints on the Moon can last millions of years, because there is no atmosphere, wind or…
Bluetooth technology was named after a 10th-century Viking king.
The name Bluetooth comes from Harald Bluetooth, a king of Denmark who unified Danish and Norwegian tribes in the 10th…
The world's first webcam was created to monitor a coffee pot.
In 1991, researchers at the University of Cambridge connected a camera to a computer to check whether the lab coffee…
The cuttlefish can change colour despite being colourblind.
The cuttlefish has only one type of colour receptor cell in its eyes, making it colourblind. Even so, it can mimic…
The blue whale's heart is the size of a small car.
The blue whale's heart can weigh about 180 kilograms and be the size of a small car. The aorta, the main blood…
The human nose can distinguish more than a trillion different smells.
A 2014 study published in the journal Science concluded that the human nose can distinguish more than a trillion…
The Maillard reaction is the process that makes bread golden when toasted.
The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars, which occurs when food is…
Africa is the only continent that extends across all four hemispheres of the Earth.
Africa is crossed by the equator and the Greenwich meridian, which means the continent has territory in the northern…
The Pacific Ocean is shrinking by a few centimetres per year.
The Pacific Ocean is shrinking by a few centimetres per year due to the movement of tectonic plates. The Pacific and…
The Great Fire of London started in a bakery on Pudding Lane.
The Great Fire of London started on 2 September 1666 in Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane. The flames lasted…
Ada Lovelace wrote the first algorithm to be executed by a machine in the 19th century.
Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician, wrote in 1843 a series of notes on Charles Babbage's analytical engine. In…
The Earth is struck by about 100 lightning bolts per second.
It is estimated that about 100 lightning bolts occur per second across the planet, which adds up to about 8 million…
The largest living organism in the world is a fungus in Oregon, United States.
The fungus Armillaria ostoyae, in Oregon, covers about 9.6 square kilometres and is estimated to be between 2,400 and…
Trees communicate with each other through underground fungal networks.
Tree roots connect to networks of mycorrhizal fungi growing in the soil. Through these networks, trees exchange…
Water is the only substance that exists naturally on Earth in all three physical states.
Water exists naturally on Earth in solid, liquid and gaseous states. It is the only known substance found in all…
Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System, with surface temperatures of about 465 degrees Celsius.
Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System, with surface temperatures of about 465 degrees Celsius. The extreme…
The wombat produces cube-shaped droppings.
The wombat's intestine has grooves that compress the droppings into cubes. The shape prevents the cubes from rolling…
Bees communicate the location of flowers through a dance.
When a bee finds a food source, it returns to the hive and performs a figure-eight dance. The angle of the dance…
Some turtles can breathe underwater through their anus.
The leatherback turtle and other aquatic species have sacs in the cloaca that absorb oxygen from the water. This…