100 Fascinating Facts with Explanations

Have you ever wondered how many legs a centipede really has or have you embarked on the terrible discussion of whether the tomato is a fruit or a vegetable? Today we bring you some answers to these important questions in a very funny way: 100 fun facts.

Let’s embark on the exciting world of the most outstanding curious facts with the 100 curious and interesting facts that you will want to share with your closest circle.

What are the most curious facts in the world?

These curious facts are perfect to leave friends and family surprised. If you bring out any of these in the middle of a conversation, you’ll certainly become the focus of attention. And they can give rise to debate!

1. The time has come to answer a universal question. How many legs does the centipede have? Although its name says 100, the truth is that it is approximately 30.
2. Avocados are not a vegetable, they are a fruit. As with tomatoes, about which there is so much discussion. In the case of the delicious avocado, it is considered a single-seeded berry.
3. There are cities in the world where it is forbidden to die. We are talking about the Island of Itsukushima (Japan), Longyerbyen (Norway), Falciano de Massico (Italy) and Sarpourenx (France). In one, the mayor declared, “It is forbidden for residents to go beyond the limits of earthly life, to go to life after death.” We do not know what the punishment is for breaking this strict rule.
4. When two people are in love, their heartbeat syncs up. This synchrony reaches its peak when the couple goes through a special and important moment such as, for example, a wedding.
5. In the Sahara desert it snows. It is not especially common, but in 2018 what seemed impossible became real and snowed in the great Sahara desert. Mind you, the snow only lasted a day before melting.
6. In hospitals in Japan there are no rooms with the number 4 or number 9. This is because they are considered death numbers. The four reads Yon or Shi. This last word also means death. On the other hand, the nine can be read Kyu or Ku. Again, the second option means death. Terrifyingly mathematical.
7. The Eiffel Tower is almost 15 cm taller during the summer. And no, it’s not magic. It is due to thermal expansion. When iron is heated, the particles generate kinetic energy, taking up more space.
8. Elephants think humans are adorable. It’s mutual! It was discovered by psychologist Julia Hass, who said that a part of the brain of these intelligent animals turns on when they see us, generating an effect very similar to what we feel when we see a puppy.
9. There are only two countries in the whole world where it is not possible to buy Coca Cola. They are North Korea and Cuba.
10. The word cemetery comes from the Greek koimeterion, which means bedroom. The place where the dead sleep? Creepy.
11. There is a phobia of small hole patterns, and it is called trypophobia. It is a fairly common phobia, which can be defined as aversion to the sight of irregular patterns or small group holes or bumps.
12. Crocodiles can’t stick out their tongues. They have it attached to the palate and its membrane in all its extension. Maybe that’s why they always seem so serious.
13. Sudan is the country with the most pyramids in the world, and not Egypt, as you might think. In Nubia, a region of Sudan, there are 255 pyramids, although they are not as visited as the Egyptian ones.
14. The happiest hour in the world is 19:00. The Journal of Personality surveyed more than 5,000 words in 20 different countries, and the result was clear. At seven o’clock in the afternoon we are happier. Maybe because we’ve already left work?
15. Australia is not only the widest continent on Earth, it is wider than the Moon. Our satellite is 3400 km in diameter, while the diameter of Australia is almost 4000 km.
16. Anthony Hopkins doesn’t blink a single time in The Silence of the Lambs. No wonder it’s so scary. If you don’t believe us, see her again!
17. The Sahara Desert was a rainforest. If it was hard for you to imagine it snowy, imagine it full of vegetation and continuous rainfall. That’s just 6,000 years ago.
18. You have inherited your intelligence, to a large extent, from your mother. A study has proven that 80% of a baby’s cognitive abilities come from his maternal inheritance.
19. The word ‘mellifluous’ refers to a sound that is very pleasant, soft and musical when heard.
20. Diamonds rain on Saturn and Jupiter. It is due to the climatic and atmospheric conditions of these two planets. The University of Wisconsin has determined that rainfall reaches 100 million tons a year. Who spent a year on Saturn!
21. Machu Pichu is built earthquake-proof. This feat, which seems miraculous in the modern world, was already possible in the era of the Incas. They used a brilliant engineering technique called masonry, which involves cutting rocks so that they fit perfectly together, without mortar. That way, the stones could be moved during the earthquake, and then settled back in their correct position. Incredible!
22. It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. Sneezing is a neurological reaction that involves closing your eyes. Do not try, we already tell you that it is impossible.
23. Originally, the Spice Girls were called Touch.
24. Without the little finger you would lose 50% of the strength of your arm. The most important joints that allow you to move your hand and exert force with it depend on it.
25. Despite being so large, China only has one time zone. We have not even achieved it in Spain!
26. On Uranus the seasons last 21 years. This is because its axis is incredibly inclined, so each season lasts for more than two tens of years. More or less like in Game of Thrones.
27. The only part of the body that cannot heal itself is the teeth. This is because they are covered in enamel, and not living tissue.
28. To get a kilo of honey, bees must visit 1,440,000 flowers. That means the work of 200 worker bees during the total of their lives.
29. Ethiopia is always seven years behind. When we started the year 2020, in Ethiopia they were in the fourth month of 2012. This is because the Ethiopian calendar alternately calculates the annunciation of Christ, lagging seven years behind what is estimated in the Gregorian calendar.
30. Human teeth are almost as hard as diamonds. Although you find it hard to believe, our teeth are not bones, but have three layers formed by different mineral tissues. One of them is tooth enamel, which is very hard and resistant. It is second only to the diamond.
31. If you want to have a guinea pig in Switzerland, make sure you have two. Otherwise, you will be committing a crime. It is considered animal abuse, since these small animals are very sociable and feel very lonely if you leave them without a companion of their species.
32. Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark. It is not surprising, therefore, that he was so committed to his inventions. This is how in 1879 he created the first light bulb that could stay on for 48 hours. Goodbye, darkness!
33. France is the most visited country in the world, with 89 million tourists a year. We have not yet managed to unseat them!
34. Do you hate those days when hiccups assault you? Well, the longest bout of hiccups lasted 68 years. Charles Osborne of Iowa had to suffer in 1893. He lived peacefully until in 1922 he had an accident that caused him to live with hiccups for the rest of his life. There was no fright or trick to take it away!
35. In ancient Rome, a small piece of toast was added to the wine to attract good luck.
36. Ants do not sleep. At least, not too much. They usually take naps of just over a minute, which together give us a total of about 4 or 5 hours of sleep a day. Queens do, they take naps of up to 9 minutes. How well it is to live in the monarchy of ants!
37. There is a village in Holland that, instead of streets, has canals. No, Venice is not the only city in the world where you have to move by boat.
38. With a single drop of oil, up to 25 liters of water can be contaminated. Imagine what happens when there are leaks in the big oil tankers.
39. Prawns have the heart in their heads. Their circulatory system, in addition, is open, so they do not have arteries. Your organs float directly in the blood. We cannot ask them to think with their heads, rather than with their hearts.
40. Pheasant Island changes nationality every 6 months. Spain and France share their sovereignty. From February to July it is Spanish, the rest of the year French. What a mess to explain where you’re from!
41. Hitler never climbed the Eiffel Tower. But that’s not the most curious thing, the reason why he decided not to do it is because he did not want to climb the 1600 steps that separated him from the highest point of the tower.
42. The elephant is the only animal with 4 knees. Of course, they do not have elbows. In addition, it is the heaviest land mammal in the world, which makes it quite difficult for them to jump. Thus, at least, the kneecaps, which have four, are not hurt.
43. In the shower you are much more creative than outside. This is because hot water increases the flow of dopamine, which makes you more creative.
44. The sweat of hippos is pink. It is often said that their milk is, but in reality it is a kind of reddish substance that they secrete to protect themselves from the sun’s rays, insects and germs. And no, you can’t drink.
45. The first email that was sent said QWERTYUIOP. If you look at your computer keyboard, you will see that they are the letters in the first row. Yes, it was the test message that Raymond Samuel Tomlinson used to check if his invention worked.
46. Music makes your heart dance. As you feel the rhythm, your heartbeat changes to accommodate what you’re hearing.
47. Rabbit offspring are called gazapos. This word is polysemic, and can also mean error or lie.
48. Coffee can kill. Don’t worry, not your morning cup. To die from coffee overdose you would have to drink 100 cups in 4 hours. Do not go over until you reach that figure, it is recommended not to exceed four or five cups a day.
49. Chanel made the most expensive ad in the world. Nearly €33 million was spent on an advertisement in 2004. The famous spot had Nicole Kidman as the protagonist and Baz Lurhamann as director. We hope the investment paid off.
50. Albert Einstein’s parents thought he had some kind of intellectual retardation. Although he became a great genius, during the first years of his life no one bet on him. He had trouble speaking and wasn’t exactly a model student.
51. The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn. It was chosen, it seems, for its association in Celtic mythology with chivalry, dominance, purity, and innocence.
52. The names Barbie and Ken have a why. They are the names of the children of the creator of the doll, Ruth Handler, who were named Barbara and Ken.
53. The first Facebook logo was Al Pacino’s face. It was not until 2007 that it was changed to the original design that remains to this day.
54. The first emoticon in the world was a happy face :-). It was created by Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist from the United States, in 1982, trying to give more expressiveness to his work.
55. The first plane to take to the skies did so on December 17, 1903. It was Wilbur and Orville Wright who made the first four brief flights in Kitty Hawk, Northern California, with their first powered aircraft, which is known as the first aircraft in history.
56. Have you ever wondered how much you would endure without eating or drinking? The answer is a month without eating, seven days without water, on average.
57. The color of Facebook is not accidental, it is due to the color blindness of Mark Zuckerberg. Blue is one of the colors he sees best, so he was chosen for that.
58. A consumer collective sued Red Bull because it “didn’t give wings.” The litigation took place in 2013 and users claimed that a false promise was made. The energy drink company had to pay $13 million to the collective. Each of the members received, in total, 10 dollars.
59. The only planet that rotates clockwise is Venus. Every 225 Earth days it manages to make a complete circle of the sun, although it rotates clockwise only once every 243 days.
60. The name Google comes from the term googol, whose meaning is one in a million. It seems right for the most popular search engine on the Internet.
61. Nutmeg has hallucinogenic properties. You would have to ingest large amounts to achieve this effect, which is produced by its myristicin content, so do not worry if you use it for cooking.
62. WhatsApp only has 55 workers on its team. And not only are they few, they are the ones who were there when it all started. When Facebook took over the messaging app, it kept the original template.
63. The most expensive bottle of wine sold in the world was a 73-year-old French Burgundy. It sold at auction in 2018 for $558,000.
64. McDonald’s didn’t come with hamburgers, but hot dogs. In 1937 this was the best-selling dish, until in 1948 they switched to hamburgers, which began to gain ground in the market.
65. In the Olympics, prizes were given to the arts. Until 1948, these international sporting events gave medals to music, sculpture, painting and architecture.
66. A cook’s hat has 100 folds. The reason for this exact number seems related to the 100 ways to cook an egg.
67. Tinder has crossed borders into Antarctica. In 2014, two researchers matched in the most remote part of the world. They were 45 minutes away by helicopter. Would love arise despite difficulties?
68. The Royal March is one of the four national anthems that has no lyrics worldwide. They only share space with Spain, those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and San Marino.
69. The Japanese expression kuchi zamishi refers to the act of eating without hunger because, literally, “the mouth feels lonely”. Daily bread.
70. The birth of a blue locust has a chance of one in two million. These animals owe their hue to a genetic abnormality that causes them to produce more of a certain protein than another.
71. The Q is the only letter that does not appear in the name of any American state. Even Z and X have their place in Arizona and Texas. But nobody wants poor Q.
72. The longest book in the world has 9,609,000 characters. This is A la recherche du temps perdu, by Marcel Proust. Its title in Spanish is Recuerdo de las cosas pasados.
73. Jennifer Lopez is responsible for the existence of Google Images. Her famous dress at the Grammys of the year 2000 was so sought-after, that the search engine had to add a function with which to search for images.
74. The Big Ben clock has stopped only once in history. It was at 22:07 on May 27, 2005. Probably, because that day an extremely high temperature had been reached for the area, of 31.8 ° C.
75. The most awarded man by the Academy is Walt Disney. He won 26 Oscars throughout his career, and has been nominated a total of 59 times.
76. Black sapote is a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding. To try this strange and sweet gift of nature you must move to Central and South America.
77. Queen Elizabeth II received training in mechanics. At the age of 16, he worked for the British Labour Exchange, and learned the basics of truck repair. From queen of tires to queen of England, not bad.
78. The heads of Easter Island have bodies. In the 2010s, two complete figures were discovered in the Pacific islands. With torso included, they measured up to 10 meters.
79. M&Ms are named after the entrepreneurs who invented them: Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie. Unfortunately, their relationship didn’t last as long as their delicious snack, as Mars kicked Murrie out and took his 20% stake in the business. All that, before it became the most famous snack in the United States.
80. Pigeons are able to differentiate a Picasso from a Monet. In 1995, a study was conducted that showed that these birds were able to distinguish between these two artists.
81. The voice actors who played Mickey and Minnie got married in real life. Russi Taylor (Minnie) and Wayne Allwine said yes in 1991.
82. It is possible to hear the heartbeat of a blue whale more than 3 km away. Weighing between 130,000 and 150,000 kg, your heart reaches approximately 180 kg.
83. The j was the last letter to be added to the English alphabet. Before 1524, the date on which this letter is first dated, the i was used, both for the sound i and for the sound j.
84. You know that person who always thinks about everything, but doesn’t know anything? In Spanish we have a word for them: ultracrepidario. Someone who thinks beyond their knowledge, according to the RAE.
85. Salvador Dalí designed the Chupa Cups logo in 1969.
86. Originally, ketchup was sold as a medicine for indigestion.
87. The longest walking journey you can travel in the world is 22,531 km. It begins in Magadan, Russia, and ends in Cape Town, South Africa. Do you dare to take this little walk?
88. There are earthquakes on the Moon. They are produced by tidal stresses, which are related to the distance between the Moon and the Earth.
89. Humans are the only animals capable of blushing. The rest of the animals do not experience shame. It is a complex emotion that requires understanding what others think, so the rest of the species do not suffer from it.
90. In Pulp Fiction all clocks strike 4:20. If you don’t believe us, watch the movie again and check it out.
91. An ostrich’s brain is smaller than its eye. Not always having a few eyes guarantees survival.
92. A jiffy is the equivalent of one hundredth of a second. It is a real-time unit.
93. Yahoo is not a randomly chosen name, it is an acronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”, which means “Another hierarchical official oracle”.
94. The smallest country in the world is Vatican City. It is 120 smaller than the island of Manhattan, to put it in context.
95. The greatest tragedies in history are full of stories of coincidence. One of them, referring to the horror of the Twin Towers, is that the great Michael Jackson was going to be there that day. But he fell asleep. The day before he had performed at Madison Square Garden and was sold out. Thank goodness.
96. In Japan you can try more than 200 flavors of Kit Kat. They are created exclusively for different regions, stations, cities… Some sound delicious, like banana or oreo ice cream. Others are not so appetizing, such as melon and cheese or roast potato. Although I would try them all, what about you?
97. The Guinness World Record for selling the world’s most expensive jeans goes to Gucci. A jean of this brand reaches $ 3,314.
98. Macbooks aren’t just good computers, they’re also great bulletproofs. It could be verified by a Brazilian user who was assaulted and protected himself with his Apple laptop. Even after being hit by a bullet, it was still working.
99. According to several psychologists and studies, the first 10 minutes of a first date is a real farce. It’s because we want to make a good impression, so don’t trust first impressions.
100. Another love curiosity. That beautiful stage, which we know as “falling in love”, only lasts three months. Then, we begin to show our true face, and we get to see both the good and the bad of the other person.

And, you can add your favorites in the comments section.

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