Facts that sound false but are true — Page 21
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
The largest waterfall in the world is Niagara Falls.
The largest waterfall in the world is the Denmark Strait cataract, an underwater waterfall between Greenland and…
The Venus flytrap can count to five before closing.
The Venus flytrap closes its traps when sensory hairs are touched twice within 20 seconds. But to start digestion, it…
The human body contains about 7 billion atoms.
The human body contains about 7 octillion atoms, that is, 7 followed by 27 zeros. Most of these atoms are hydrogen…
A day on Mercury lasts almost two Mercurian years.
Mercury completes one rotation on its axis in about 59 Earth days, but one orbit around the Sun in only 88 Earth…
Saturn's moon Titan has rivers and lakes of liquid water.
Saturn's moon Titan has rivers and lakes of liquid methane and ethane, not water. Temperatures are around -180…
The black hole at the centre of the Perseus cluster emits pressure waves that can be translated into sound.
The black hole at the centre of the Perseus cluster generates pressure waves in the hot gas surrounding it. These…
A sand battery can store thermal energy for months.
The sand battery heats sand up to 500 degrees Celsius using surplus electricity from renewable sources. The heat is…
IBM's first hard drive had 5 gigabytes of capacity.
The IBM 305 RAMAC, launched in 1956, is considered the first computer with a hard drive. The drive had 5 megabytes of…
A brain-computer interface managed to decode speech and singing from brain waves.
A system developed by researchers uses artificial intelligence to decode brain waves into expressive speech and even…
Snakes detect the body heat of prey through sensory pits.
Some snakes, such as pit vipers and pythons, have loreal pits between their eyes and nostrils that detect infrared…
The sea otter has the densest fur of any mammal.
The sea otter has about one million hairs per square centimetre, the densest fur of any mammal. This density creates…
The tongue of a blue whale can weigh as much as an elephant.
The tongue of a blue whale can weigh about 2.7 tonnes, equivalent to an adult elephant. Its heart is also enormous…
Reindeer eyes change colour in winter.
In summer, reindeer eyes are golden and reflect little light. In winter, they turn blue and reflect much more light…
Rhubarb leaves are toxic.
Rhubarb leaves contain high levels of oxalic acid, which can cause kidney failure and other serious problems if…
La Paz, Bolivia, is the highest capital in the world.
La Paz is at an altitude of about 3,640 metres, making it the highest administrative capital in the world. Although…
The largest mountain range in the world is underwater.
The Mid-Ocean Ridge is the largest mountain range on the planet, about 65,000 kilometres long. It crosses all the…
Egypt has more pyramids than Sudan.
Sudan has about 200 pyramids, more than Egypt's roughly 140. The pyramids of Meroe, built by the Kingdom of Kush, are…
The star-nosed mole has 22 tentacles on its nose to detect prey.
The star-nosed mole has 22 fleshy appendages on its nose, covered by more than 25,000 touch receptors. These organs…
Hawaii is the southernmost state in the United States.
Hawaii is the southernmost state in the United States. It stretches for 2,400 kilometres in the Pacific and is the…
Maya blue is a pigment so unstable that it disappeared within a few years.
Maya blue is made from vegetable indigo mixed with palygorskite clay. The hybrid molecular structure makes it…
The terracotta army was built to protect the tomb of the first emperor of China.
The terracotta army was built to protect the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, who died in 210 BC…
Roman concrete is more durable than modern concrete.
Roman concrete, made with volcanic ash, withstands time better than modern concrete. Buildings such as the Pantheon…
Mansa Musa, emperor of Mali, is considered the richest man in history.
Mansa Musa ruled the Mali Empire in the 14th century and his fortune is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars…
Snowflakes are ice crystals with six sides.
Snowflakes are ice crystals with six sides, because the molecular structure of water forms hexagons. No two…