Not to be an ultracrepidarian (see #6), but these 36 facts might just blow your mind. From common misconceptions to surprising origins, this is the trivia that might just help you win the next trivia night.
1.We tend to think of all the dinosaurs coexisting, but many species weren't even close to seeing each other. To put into perspective just how long dinosaurs ruled the Earth, let's take the Tyrannosaurus. The T. Rex is closer in time to us than it was to the Stegosaurus.
2.The Wife Carrying World Championships are held every year in Sonkajärvi, Finland. The tradition started in 1992, and the prize is your wife's weight in beer.
3.Bubble wrap was originally invented as wallpaper. Engineers Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes created the stuff in 1957 by sealing two shower curtains together, and they thought it'd really tie your place together.
4.When tractor-maker Ferruccio Lamborghini felt that his Ferrari's clutch broke too easily, he drove to Enzo Ferrari's home and told him. Ferrari didn't take it too well, and told Lamborghini to "stick to making tractors." On the drive home, Ferruccio decided that he'd make a car with a much better clutch, and that was the start of Lamborghini sports cars.
5.There is a huge quasar (a hungry black hole) about 12 billion light-years away, and surrounding it is a massive reservoir of water. How massive? It holds 140 trillion times the amount of water on Earth (which is over 96% water).
6.Next time someone's being a know-it-all about something they clearly have no business talking about, feel free to call them an ultracrepidarian. The word refers to a person who talks like they know more than they actually do.
7.Napoleon Bonaparte is often thought of as being short, but in reality he was slightly taller than average. Napoleon is only remembered as being short because of this cartoon by James Gillray.
8.Henry Ford gets a lot of credit for being the man who invented the automobile, but he wasn't the first. Karl Benz (of Mercedes-Benz) built the first gas automobile.
9.Not one woman was burned at the stake during the Salem Witch Trials. This horrific form of execution was popular in Europe, but most of the "witches" who were accused in Salem were hung. Still not great!
10.Shaving does not make your hair grow back thicker, but it's understandable to think so. When you shave, the tips of your hair are slightly frayed and coarse. This gives the illusion of thicker, fuller hair.
11.Screaming $#!% when you stub your toe might actually soothe the pain. Studies support that swearing when we're hurt may help our mind react to physical pain.
12.Movies like Limitless and Lucy may claim that we only use 10% of our brains, but this is a flat-out lie. We use our entire brain!
13.Green Eggs and Ham was written on a bet. Dr. Seuss's publisher, Bennett Cerf, bet the author that he couldn't write a book in 50 words or less. Of course, Dr. Seuss won.
14.The former planet Pluto was named by an 11-year-old! Her name was Venetia Burney.
15.Many people speculated that you'd be able to see the Great Wall of China from space, but guess who rained on their parade? Astronauts. The Apollo crew definitively answered the age-old question: you cannot see the Great Wall from space.
16.Coffee beans may look like little beans, but they're actually fruit! Well, fruit pits. But still, next time someone makes a comment about your third cup of coffee, just tell them you're on a fruit flush.
17.We actually have more than five senses. Experts don't all agree on the exact number, but most estimate we have about 20 senses.
18.The "forbidden fruit" in the Bible probably wasn't intended to be an apple. The Bible never mentions the fruit by name, and experts believe it was likely a peach, grape, banana, or pomegranate.
19.There is no dark side of the moon. The misconception is that, since the Earth and the Moon are both rotating, one side is in constant darkness. But Earth rotates on an axis, so all parts of the Moon get some rays.
20.The last movie rented at a (corporate) Blockbuster was This Is the End, which makes sense. The reason I say it was the last rental from a corporate location is because there's still one Blockbuster left!
21.Water doesn't drain in different directions in Australia or the US because of the Coriolis Effect. Whether it drains clockwise or counterclockwise is usually due to factors like water jets, the shape of the sink/tub, or the water's momentum.
22.You may have heard that your fingernails keep growing after you die, but this is an illusion. What's actually happening is the skin around your nails is contracting due to dehydration, making it look like your nails are longer.
23.You ever notice artificial banana flavoring doesn't really taste like actual bananas? That's because the bananas used to make the flavoring no longer exist.
24.From 1997 to 2016, the mayor of Alaskan town Talkeetna was a cat named Stubbs.
25.Michel Dansel, a French academic, wrote an entire book without using a single verb. The 2004 novel, called Le Train de Nulle Part, was Dansel's method of protesting the verb, which he called a "usurper of our literature."
26.Quick! Is an avocado a fruit or a vegetable? If you guessed vegetable, you're wrong! Avocados are a fruit (bonus points if you said they're a single-seeded berry).
27.The only part of our bodies that can't heal itself is our teeth. The enamel that coats our teeth is not a living tissue, so it can't regenerate.
28.Glitter is so unique and hard to get rid of that it can be used as forensic evidence. There are several examples of how glitter has been used to solve crimes in this paper written by retired criminalist Bob Blackledge.
30.Sugar does not make kids hyper. Yes, kids seem to go crazy after inhaling some candy, but research suggests this is unrelated to the sugar. Children are just like that.
31.Scotland wins the "coolest national animal" award. Theirs is the unicorn to honor Celtic mythology. Additionally, the unicorn symbolizes dominance, chivalry, purity, and innocence. Also, it's badass.
32.Want to join the Olympics but don't feel like risking physical injury? A hundred years ago, you could have! Between 1912 and 1948, competitive art was an Olympic sport. There were medals for music, painting, sculpture, and architecture.
33.The dating scene in Antarctica is chillingly bad, but two people on the seventh continent managed to match on Tinder! In 2014, a man at the United States Antarctic McMurdo Station matched with a woman camping less than an hour away.
34.Hashtag? Pound sign? Numbers symbol? The real name for this symbol (#) is actually the octothorpe.
35.For 16 years, ketchup was sold as a medicine. Dr. John Cooke Bennet created a "special recipe" in 1834 that he claimed could cure ailments like diarrhea, jaundice, indigestion, and joint pain.
36.Not sure about these facts? You can always BackRub them. Doesn't really roll off the tongue as well as "Google," does it? That's right, Google's original name was...BackRub.
What's your favorite random trivia? Let me know in the comments!
