Did You Know: 65 Weird But True Facts To Amaze and Surprise Everyone

 

Where’s a shrimp’s heart located? How did Bert and Ernie get their names? What’s a nurdle? Finding the answers to these questions and more will leave your classroom shook. We’ve put together this list of weird fun facts to surprise and amaze everyone in your classroom.

Our Favorite Weird Fun Facts

1. Australia is wider than the moon.

The moon sits at 3,400 kilometers (2,113 miles) in diameter, while Australia’s diameter from east to west is almost 4,000 km (2,485 miles).

2. Headphones can increase the bacteria in your ears.

Wearing headphones for just an hour could increase the bacteria in your ears by 700 times. (Ew!)

3. Scotland chose the unicorn as its national animal.

In Celtic mythology, the fictional creature is connected with both chivalry and dominance as well as purity and innocence.

4. Avocados are not vegetables.

Avocados are fruits because they are single-seeded berries.

5. You probably eat bugs in your sleep.

There’s a good chance that we will swallow 10 spiders and 70 types of insects (or more) in the course of our lifetimes. This is one of the weird fun facts we could do without. Yuck!

6. The Eiffel Tower gets taller in the summer.

When the iron heats up, the tower can be up to 15 centimeters (6 inches) taller due to thermal expansion.

7. Only four words in the English language end in “dous.”

Horrendous, tremendous, hazardous, and stupendous.

8. Human teeth are the only part of the body that can’t heal themselves.

Teeth are not made of live tissue and are coated in enamel, which can’t spontaneously regenerate.

9. Bert and Ernie’s names came from a Christmas movie.

The Sesame Street characters were named after Bert the police officer and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.

10. Switzerland prohibits the ownership of just one guinea pig.

Since guinea pigs are such social creatures, one guinea pig would get lonely so having just one is considered animal abuse in Switzerland.

11. Tigers have striped skin.

It’s not just striped fur! Even their skins after the fur has been removed is striped.

12. A shrimp’s heart is in its head.

If that wasn’t interesting enough, due to the nature of their open circulatory system, shrimp have no arteries so their organs just float around in blood!

13. An 11-year-old accidentally invented ice pops.

In 1905, young Frank Epperson left water and soda powder outside overnight with a wooden stirrer in the cup. When he discovered the mixture had frozen, the “Epsicle” was born.

14. We are more creative in the shower.

Here’s one of the most useful weird fun facts! If you’ve ever felt like you think better in a warm shower, you’re probably right! The warm water increases the flow of dopamine and makes us more creative.

15. Sloths can hold their breath longer than dolphins.

Dolphins need to come up for air every 10 minutes, but by slowing their heart rate, sloths can actually hold their breath for 40 minutes!

16. Froot Loops are all the same flavor despite their different colors.

This is such a disappointment, but it makes sense when you think about it!

17. The first airplane flight was on December 17, 1903.

Wilbur and Orville Wright took the first airplane on four short flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

18. Supermarket apples can be a year old.

Are those apples you just bought actually a year old? Maybe! Farmers often pick apples in the fall, cover them in wax, hot-air dry them, and then put them in cold storage. This keeps them edible and ready to sell for 6 to 12 months!

19. Most wasabi paste isn’t real wasabi.

If you’ve always thought that your store-bought wasabi tastes more like horseradish, you’re probably right. It’s often used as a substitute since real wasabi is expensive.

20. Venus is the only planet that spins clockwise.

Every 225 Earth days, Venus travels around the sun, but Venus rotates clockwise once every 243 days.

21. People used to say “prunes” when taking pictures.

In the 1840s, it was considered childish to smile for pictures so it became popular for people to say “prunes” instead of “cheese” in order to keep their mouths taut.

22. Nutmeg is a hallucinogen.

Because it contains myristicin, a natural compound that has mind-altering effects, you can experience hallucinations if you ingest large quantities. Yikes!

23. McDonald’s serves spaghetti in the Philippines.

The meat sauce pasta comes with a side of “McDo” fried chicken. This sounds too tasty to be considered one of our weird fun facts!

24. Competitive art was once an Olympic sport.

From 1912 to 1948, artists could earn medals for painting, music, sculpture, and even architecture.

25. 3 Musketeers candy bars used to come in three flavors.

The original candy from the 1930s had three different kinds of nougat: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry (hence the name!). Unfortunately, it had to be cut down to one during World War II due to rations being too expensive.

26. The Spanish national anthem has no words.

The “Marcha Real” is one of only four national anthems in the world (along with those of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, and San Marino) to have no official lyrics.

27. Cat urine glows under a black light.

Black lights can be used to detect any body fluids, but cat urine glows particularly brightly under ultraviolet light primarily because it contains the element phosphorus.

28. Before we had toilet paper, Americans used corn cobs.

There’s no way that was comfortable.

29. “Kuchi zamishi” is Japanese for unconscious eating.

It describes the act of eating when you’re not hungry because your mouth is “lonely.”

30. The Statue of Liberty was once a lighthouse.

About a month after the statue’s 1886 dedication, it became a working lighthouse for 16 years, with its torch visible from 24 miles away.

31. Jennifer Lopez inspired the creation of Google images.

After she wore her infamous dress at the 2000 Grammys, the search engine added the function because so many people were looking for pictures of her outfit!

32. British military tanks are equipped to make tea.

If the crew needs hot tea or coffee, they can just reach for the boiling vessel inside the tank.

33. Big Ben’s clock stopped at 10:07 p.m. on May 27, 2005.

It was particularly hot in London that day-31.8 degrees Celsius (89 degrees Fahrenheit)-so it’s possible that the clock stopped due to the heat.

34. You can see four states from Chicago’s Willis Tower.

Head to the top of the building formerly known as the Sears Tower and you can see Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

35. Walt Disney has won the most Academy Awards.

The House of Mouse has won 26 Oscars and was nominated 59 times.

36. A blue whale’s heartbeat can be heard over 2 miles away.

And their hearts weigh almost 400 pounds!

37. There’s a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding.

Native to Central and South America, the fruit is called black sapote and it tastes like a combination of sweet custard and chocolate.

38. Mickey and Minnie Mouse’s voices got married in real life.

Wayne Allwine (Mickey) and Russi Taylor (Minnie) were wed in 1991.

39. Queen Elizabeth II was a trained mechanic.

As a teenager, Queen Elizabeth II joined the British employment agency at the Labour Exchange and learned about truck, engine, and tire repair.

40. The real name for a hashtag is an octothorpe.

While we know that “octo” refers to the symbol’s eight points, even Merriam-Webster is unsure about the “thorpe” part.

41. The Easter Island heads have bodies.

We’ve seen those iconic stone heads, but did you know that in the 2010s, archaeologists found that two of the Pacific Island figures actually have torsos? Here’s a video!

42. Salvador Dalí designed the Chupa Chups logo.

The surrealist artist created the iconic design in 1969.

43. M&Ms are named after its creators.

Two businessmen, Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, came up with the sweet treats, but their relationship was bitter.

44. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.

Incredibly, it’s 120 times smaller than Manhattan!

45. The letter “J” was the last added to the English alphabet.

It dates back to 1524. Shockingly, before it became a letter, the letter “i” was used for both “i” and “j” sounds!

46. The moon has moonquakes.

They occur due to tidal stresses connected to the distance between the Earth and the moon.

47. Ketchup used to be sold as medicine.

Back in 1834, people with indigestion were given a prescription for the condiment.

48. You can’t hum while you’re pinching your nose.

Go ahead and try!

49. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

Their little brains are genuinely smaller than one of their eyeballs.

50. The longest walking distance in the world is 14,000 miles.

You could walk from Magadan in Russia to Cape Town in South Africa without needing a vehicle.

51. Humans are the only animals that blush.

Some people believe we may be the only animals who feel embarrassment.

52. Pigs can’t look up into the sky.

Due to the anatomy of their neck muscles and spine, pigs are unable to look upwards.

53. The [i]iCarly[/i] set was also used by other high school shows.

It was the same set used for Saved by the Bell and That’s So Raven.

54. There are more than 200 Kit Kat flavors in Japan.

Japan loves Kit Kats and creates unique flavors for different cities, regions, and even seasons.

55. Humans have tongue prints.

Just like our fingerprints, our tongue prints are unique!

56. The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be in Barcelona.

When Gustave Eiffel’s design was rejected by the Spanish city for being too ugly, he pitched it to France. The locals weren’t in love with it either, but tourists from around the world flock to Paris to see it!

57. The shortest commercial flight in the world is in Scotland.

The quick 1.7-mile journey between Westray and Papa Westray islands takes just 90 seconds by plane.

58. Dolphins give each other names.

A unique whistle is used to distinguish members in their pod.

59. There’s a Shell garage that’s actually shaped like a Shell.

In the 1930s, Shell built a series of shell-shaped service stations, but only one remains today in North Carolina.

60. Ikea rugs were used for the Night’s Watch cloaks in [i]Game of Thrones[/i].

They shaved and dyed the rugs to make them look like medieval cloaks.

61. The blob of toothpaste on your toothbrush has a name.

It’s called a nurdle.

62. A blue whale’s tongue can weigh as much as a young elephant.

The tongues of some whales are large enough that even an adult elephant could fit on it!

63. Crocodiles can’t stick out their tongues.

A sturdy membrane sticks the alligator’s tongue to the roof of its mouth.

64. There’s an ant species that’s unique to New York City.

Biologists found them in a specific area of New York City and named them ManhattAnts.

65. You could fall to the center of the Earth in 19 minutes.

Thankfully, no one has tried this yet.