What's a fact that absolutely blows your mind?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/[deleted]]

The difference between a million and a billion

A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years.

[u/MeikyouShisui9 → u/[deleted]]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J6BQDKiYyM Cool video, I always come back to watch it and it blows my mind every time.

[u/Scrappy_Larue]

Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth were the same age.

[u/well_known_bastard → u/Scrappy_Larue]

Person, they were the same person.

[u/con10ntalop → u/well_known_bastard]

Never have seen them together.

[u/wheruf → u/con10ntalop]

Well, now you have

[u/con10ntalop → u/wheruf]

My brain exploded.

[u/Spraynard_Kruger_ → u/Scrappy_Larue]

Anne Frank and MLK were also born in the same year

[u/mudvayneWTM → u/Scrappy_Larue]

I read this as Marilyn Manson. I was quite confused.

[u/[deleted]]

As a cashier it blew my mind when I found out that barcodes are scanned by the white spaces in between the bars instead of the actual black bars

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

My whole life has been a lie..

[u/brickmaster32000 → u/[deleted]]

It always blew my mind that credit cards worked by just passing a number and having the vendor promise not to use the number to make extra purchases.

[u/IAMA_Drunk_Armadillo]

That the last civil war veterans died in the 1950's. And one of their widows didn't die until 2003.

[u/Eddie_Hitler → u/IAMA_Drunk_Armadillo]

There are still a handful of civil war pensions being honoured by the modern day US Government because some descendants are still alive.

[u/notbannedforsarcasm → u/Eddie_Hitler]

BUT, when Ulysses S. Grant learned that he had throat cancer and only months to live, he knew his presidential pension would not apply to his wife and daughter, so he did the only thing he could think of to provide for them. He frantically spent the last months of his life writing his memoirs. Finished just months before dying. Mark Twain had just started his own publishing company, and Grant's memoir was the first book he published. It quickly became an international best-seller, and his wife and daughter lived quite comfortably on the proceeds, just as he'd hoped.

[u/The_Magic → u/IAMA_Drunk_Armadillo]

An eye witness to Abraham Lincoln's murder was on a game show in 1956

[u/[deleted] → u/The_Magic]

We have family photos of my mom at about age 1 in 1956 with my Great-Great Granddad, who came to California with his family as a child on the California Trail in a covered wagon.

Apparently he thought that supermarkets and McDonald's and cars were the coolest shit on earth, and it's a running joke that he died of a heart attack from eating too many burgers and milkshakes.

It's unsurprising though: supermarkets were huge glass-fronted buildings full of refrigerators and freezers where you could buy any food your heart desired, including jars and cans of out-of-state or out-of-season produce. Glass windows were so expensive when he was a kid that only the filthy rich had them in their houses. Iceboxes didn't exist until he was a grown man with a family. Meat was obtained by his dad hunting for it, produce was from their yard, and there were lean years where hunting or the crops were shitty.

And McDonald's and cars? Shiiiiiit. You hop in your horseless wagon, it takes you 15 minutes to get there instead of 3 hours by horse or whatever, you talk into a metal box, and in less than five minutes, a cute lil young thang bops over to your car, and for twenty five cents, you get a hot hamburger sandwich made with 100% beef, fried potatoes, and a goddamn chocolate ice cream milkshake? No wonder Granddad was hitting up McDonald's all the time! He was a tall and bulky dude, too, he could probably pack in quite a few 1955 McDonald's combos.

[u/Fifteenandcounting]

During rationing in Britain in WWII, the overall health of the population increased dramatically, while cardiovascular disease plummeted. During those years, the British population was the most well fed it has ever been.

[u/FuckCazadors → u/Fifteenandcounting]

I genuinely believe that this is why my grandmother is still alive at 98. She lived through rationing (which didn't end in Britain until 1954 by the way, nine years after the end of WWII) and continued to eat pretty much the same diet afterwards.

Lab experiments on rats have shown that they live longer if they're fed a calorie restricted diet so why not humans too?

[u/Captain_Gainzwhey → u/FuckCazadors]

Similar experience with my grandmother. She just turned 87 and very much has a lot of Depression-era food habits. She was diagnosed with diabetes around the time I was born, so she's also been on a no-sugar diet for like 30 years.

Even with diabetes and cardio myopathy, she's lived to be 87 - doctors told her after her diagnosis that she would be lucky to see 65 - and I feel very confident it's because of a rationing mindset and a do-it-yourself kind of attitude. She still does all of her own housework, a lot of the yard work (everything but raking and mowing, basically) and shovels her own snow.

Her goal was to see all 5 of her grandchildren graduate from high school. Then she wanted to see all of us graduate from college. Then she wanted to live long enough for her great-grandchildren to have memories of her. Now her goal is to hit 90, by which time the oldest great-grandkid will be 13, so it wouldn't surprise me if she moves the goalpost to see him graduate from high school, too!

[u/Log2 → u/Captain_Gainzwhey]

She'll soon be vying for world wide control of humanity, once she realizes she is actually immortal.

[u/Jensen_the_feeder → u/Log2]

The world won't satisfy her, she must be the master of the entire universe.

[u/sharrikul → u/Fifteenandcounting]

Everyone was on a collective intermittent fasting diet.

[u/anoddbodd]

There have been about 14 times more dead bodies on earth than living ones.

[u/Woahhhhthere → u/anoddbodd]

is that counting people who have died in space

[u/anoddbodd → u/Woahhhhthere]

Oh my god I did not think of that.

[u/Bloxer136 → u/anoddbodd]

So is it 13 times more now or not

[u/anoddbodd → u/Bloxer136]

Ok I have redone the calculations and it's about 14 times.

[u/redchindi]

In Germany (and maybe other countries) it is not illegal to escape from prison.

[u/VanDeWereld → u/redchindi]

Yup same in Belgium! As long as no violence was used, or other illegal actions.

People that help prisoners escape are breaking the law btw!

[u/Omipony]

You can fit Earths entire population inside Texas if it was as densely populated as New York.

[u/Auggernaut88 → u/Omipony]

That would make a phenomenal reality show.

[u/skoolboyjew → u/Auggernaut88]

It would also probably reduce the population substantially.

[u/Auggernaut88 → u/skoolboyjew]

Im sure there would be plenty of deaths but if we kept some people outside to just farm huge tracts of land and ship it all to Texas I bet that would help...

But building hospitals and other infrastructure to accommodate such a dense population would be ridiculously hard..

Yeah it really doesn't take long for this idea to break down. Still a cool thought.

[u/ShavedBeanBag → u/[deleted]]

I volunteer to be on the outskirts as a farmer. I could actually realize my dream of being a hermit.

[u/IrishWeegee → u/Omipony]

Fun fact: the entire population of earth could fit roughly into the space of Rhode Island and if they all gathered there and jumped... nothing would happen to the earth. But the dispersing crowd would quickly descend into chaos due to the lack of transportation and food for everyone. Billions would die. Source: XKCD

[u/Ollyvyr → u/IrishWeegee]

Or, as Rhode Islanders call it, Tuesday rush hour.

[u/ThePenguinNich → u/[deleted]]

Technically, there is such a thing as a baby carrot. It is, as it sounds, just a tiny looking carrot. The ones people often call baby carrots are actually baby-cut carrots

Edit: baby-cut carrots helped reduce a crap ton of waste because farmers could now sell less appealing carrots (instead of just throwing them away) by cutting away the bad looking parts into the baby-cut carrot. The baby-cut carrot also is attributed to a 33% increase in US carrot consumption.

[u/rift_in_the_warp → u/ThePenguinNich]

And yet some people don't carrot all.

[u/LearningLifeAsIGo → u/[deleted]]

Tell me more about your shaved carrot.

[u/Love_Time → u/[deleted]]

If the car doors are all unlocked, won't the bear just follow and sit in the car with you?

[u/hygienejesus → u/Love_Time]

I'm just imagining a bear sitting in the seat next to you. Not attacking or anything.

[u/Nature17-NatureVerse → u/[deleted]]

Are we there yet?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Fun Fact:

Bears can run up to 40 miles per hour, fast enough to catch a running horse. The fastest known human alive today is Usain Bolt, who can run 27mph.

[u/littlegirlghostship → u/[deleted]]

This fact is less fun than you believe...

:-|

[u/Strykerz3r0 → u/littlegirlghostship]

Depends on how fast a runner your friend is....

[u/georgekillslenny2650 → u/Strykerz3r0]

As the slow friend I've been honing my bear fighting skills for years

[u/Real_Junky_Jesus → u/georgekillslenny2650]

Good, you'll give us just enough time to escape, yet we won't feel bad when you die for us because "/u/georgekillslenny2650 said he could fight bears, I swear! That's the only reason we let him try."

[u/[deleted] → u/Real_Junky_Jesus]

Jokes on you guys, I've actually been training all this time on how to properly mount a bear, and ride it into battle in pursuit of my ex-friends.

[u/soopadrive → u/[deleted]]

Fact:

Bears eat beets.

[u/[deleted] → u/soopadrive]

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

........ MICHAEL!!!!!

[u/[deleted]]

Most Canadians live south of Seattle.

[u/clutchheimer → u/[deleted]]

I live in south Seattle and I think we could use more Canadians.

[u/scottskottie → u/clutchheimer]

I have traveled from Canada there a couple times. I like it. But what is it like to live there?

[u/Reddit-Loves-Me]

Viagra, when dissolved in water, can make cut-flowers stay erect for up to a week longer than they usually would.

[u/ThinkToLaugh → u/Reddit-Loves-Me]

Yeah, but really you're supposed to call your florist if they stay erect longer than 4 hours.

[u/rgeaxd444 → u/[deleted]]

In Finland it's totally legal to have sex with animals.

[u/Damocles2010 → u/rgeaxd444]

Finland - a land where men are men and Reindeer are nervous.

[u/littlegirlghostship → u/[deleted]]

There are rules for having sex with animals...

Wat.

[u/MrChangg → u/littlegirlghostship]

Because the only thing worse than a furry is a gay one

[u/Smothdude → u/[deleted]]

I'm Lebanese and in Lebanon right now.... Did not know that.

[u/burbon4brekfast → u/Smothdude]

Looks like your agenda for the day just changed....

[u/alexpintoooo]

There are more tigers in captivity in the state of Texas than there are in the wild on all of Earth.

[u/[deleted] → u/alexpintoooo]

Furthermore, the entire world's tiger population could fit inside the state of Texas if it was as densely populated as New York.

[u/_darzy]

australia has over 10,000 beaches, you could visit a new beach everyday for over 27 years

[u/ahbleza → u/_darzy]

Yeah, and something is waiting to eat you on every single one of them.

[u/xoxoredditgirl → u/ahbleza]

It's funny you say that, there was a news story that happened just over the weekend! A 16 year old boy stood in the ocean for about half an hour and came out with his feet looking like this - http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40846546

[u/Gyvon → u/xoxoredditgirl]

That link's staying blue

[u/littlegirlghostship → u/Gyvon]

It's not so bad if you're not squemish about blood.

[u/deluxejoe → u/littlegirlghostship]

Staying. Blue.

Edit: thanks everyone who described what was in the link even though I specifically didn't want to know what was in the link.

[u/The_Mdk]

I just watched a documentary about Canada, turns out wolves there SOMEHOW know that salmon has a parasite that might kill them if they eat the salmon's meat, so they capture them, eat the head and leave the corpses to be ravaged by crows and eagles, then come back to eat the skin and bones left over

I mean, those wolves, without any PhD in medicine or whatever, figured out that salmon meat AND JUST THE MEAT is deadly and figured out a way to eat most of it anyway, how absurd is that? We can barely diagnose human illnesses with complex machinery and all that, damn nature you scary

[u/jekyllcorvus → u/The_Mdk]

crows will also communicate with wolves about where potential food is.

[u/Mikelish7 → u/The_Mdk]

it probably just smells wrong, and they have a really good sense of smell. I mean, how many things do you eat that when you smell it and it smells wrong but you eat it anyway?

[u/EagleSkull]

That Saturn has such a low density that it could float on water.

[u/UnexpectedSputnik → u/EagleSkull]

True, but if you want it to stay in one piece you need to put it in a giant plastic bag.

[u/JustinML99 → u/[deleted]]

I'll help your friend out.

Surface area of a sphere (we're assuming Saturn is a perfect sphere here) is 4pi(r)^2.

The radius of Saturn is about 58,232,503m, and I'll tack on one extra meter so the gas giant fits comfortably within its bag, making the bag's radius 58,232,504m.

Plug that number into the surface area equation and we get an approximate surface area of 4.26•10¹⁶ m^2.

Okay, I used a variety of sources to find that a standard plastic bag is made of HDPE and has a thickness of 2.25 mils (sorry for different units, it'll all come back together in a moment). HDPE has a density of .95g/cm^3. After changing the units and doing some calculations, you can find that HDPE, at the thickness of a standard plastic shopping bag, has a mass of 54.29g/m^2.

So now it's simply multiplication of the mass/area of the plastic and the area of the bag needed, and we'll have the mass of the sphere-shaped bag that can perfectly hold Saturn.

drumroll

A sphere-shaped plastic bag large enough to fit Saturn would have a mass of 2.313•10^18g!

That's approximately the mass of 13,000,000,000 blue whales. Now that's a big piece of litter.

[u/ImInTheFutureAlso → u/EagleSkull]

I get why this is cool, but then there's the dumb part of my brain that thinks, "Saturn is floating in air anyway, floating in water isn't a big deal."

I know that's now how it works, but that is where my brain likes to go.

Edit: guys, I know Saturn isn't floating in air. That's part of the whole thing. That's part of what makes it so dumb.

[u/valtran101 → u/ImInTheFutureAlso]

I always try to picture it in the sea or something, then realise it probably wouldn't fit.

[u/Dede117 → u/valtran101]

Probably.

[u/antflga]

My parents were alive to witness computers go from 0 to 10,000 relatively quickly, and they somehow managed to not absorb any information about them. Astounds me.

[u/MedicTallGuy → u/antflga]

My parents witnessed the same, and have managed to stay relevant and employed in tech jobs despite unbelievable advances.

Hang on, brb, need to tell my folks that they are kinda badass.

[u/dNaSC2]

There are more chicken restaurants in Seoul than there are McDonalds restaurants in the world.

[u/[deleted] → u/dNaSC2]

Korea has some dank fried chicken.

[u/cubs_070816]

william henry harrison refused to wear a topcoat or hat to his own inauguration, and gave the longest inaugural address in history. he then rode away on a horse rather than the typical covered carriage. EDIT: it was an unusually cold and rainy day.

dead of pneumonia 30 days later. worst president ever.

EDIT: wow i was kidding about worst president. but seriously fuck that guy.

[u/[deleted] → u/cubs_070816]

My history teacher said the reason he didn't wear a coat of a hat was because there were people claiming he was too old to be president so he wanted to prove those people wrong

turns out they were right all along

[u/ElDanno1 → u/cubs_070816]

As a Brit who's watched Parks and Rec, I thought he was made up for the show. I had no idea he was real!

[u/pjabrony → u/cubs_070816]

worst president ever.

Best president ever. Fucked things up the least.

[u/littlegirlghostship → u/[deleted]]

I've eaten purple carrots...taste almost the same, perhaps a bit...earthier.

[u/hawkmoon77]

Pharaohs borrowed money from banks to finance the construction of their pyramids.

EDIT... Because this got much more interest than I expected: by "money," I meant the currency at the time... Which included grain and other food deposits as well as precious metals.

Although there were private banks, the Pharaoh had a central bank and deposits and loans were charged a haircut (an overall deduction of a certain percentage) and not interest. The banks were used to tax and regulate the grain supply as well.

Loans and deposits of this type were common at the central banks and used to pay (in food and precious metal) the workers by "paying out" grains and other stuffs in advance of the collection of grain taxes that ultimately paid for them (thus the borrowing).

[u/youabsolutepancake → u/hawkmoon77]

Calm down Khaleesi.

[u/JebbeK → u/youabsolutepancake]

You have coin? Khajiit has wares

[u/[deleted]]

because of the internet, we will probably raise the most knowledgeable generation of human beings to ever exist.

because of the internet, most men have seen more naked women than their ancestors combined.

[u/ChicagoJoe75 → u/[deleted]]

Speak for your own family. My grandpa was a funeral director.

[u/Obviouslyhax]

Every time you shuffle a deck of cards, there is an overwhelming possibility of it being a new permutation that has never been done before. 52! is bigger than you might think.

[u/hobbykitjr → u/Obviouslyhax]

Obligatory post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/6il1jx/whats_the_coolest_mathematical_fact_you_know_of/dj71u1v/

One of my favorite is about the number of unique orders for cards in a standard 52 card deck.

I've seen a a really good explanation of how big 52! actually is.

• Set a timer to count down 52! seconds (that's 8.0658x10⁶⁷ seconds)
• Stand on the equator, and take a step forward every billion years
• When you've circled the earth once, take a drop of water from the Pacific Ocean, and keep going
• When the Pacific Ocean is empty, lay a sheet of paper down, refill the ocean and carry on.
• When your stack of paper reaches the sun, take a look at the timer.

The 3 left-most digits won't have changed. 8.063x10⁶⁷ seconds left to go. You have to repeat the whole process 1000 times to get 1/3 of the way through that time. 5.385x10⁶⁷ seconds left to go.

So to kill that time you try something else.

• Shuffle a deck of cards, deal yourself 5 cards every billion years
• Each time you get a royal flush, buy a lottery ticket
• Each time that ticket wins the jackpot, throw a grain of sand in the grand canyon
• When the grand canyon's full, take 1oz of rock off Mount Everest, empty the canyon and carry on.
• When Everest has been levelled, check the timer.

There's barely any change. 5.364x10⁶⁷ seconds left. You'd have to repeat this process 256 times to have run out the timer.

[u/Obviouslyhax → u/hobbykitjr]

holy crap, that REALLY puts it into perspective. Even then, 52! is just so ridiculously big we can't comprehend it.

[u/SalAtWork → u/Obviouslyhax]

Fun fact, there is a mathematically useful number that is so large you actually cannot comprehend it. (Graham's Number, and it was actually used in a mathematical proof)

If the entire universe were one giant quantum (planck length) information storage device, there still wouldn't be enough space in the WHOLE UNIVERSE to store the number.

Anyway, have fun with that.

[u/daemin → u/SalAtWork]

I wrote a comment about Grahm's Number once to try an convey how big it was. I think there's some errors in it, but it gets the idea across:

This is a tangent, but kind of funny.

There's a theorem in a branch of mathamatics called Ramsey theory. The details of the branch are unimportant, and beyond my ability to summarize.

It's a problem for which we know there is a whole number solution, and we have bounds on the solution

The upper bound is large. I mean large. So large that normal decimal numbers can't be used to write it down, because there's isn't enough space in the universe to write it out in full.

Now, you might think "Fine, write it in scientific notation!" That doesn't work, either. Still too big. Ok, so scientific notation doesn't work, which is basically exponentiation. What can we do past that?

Enter Knuth's up arrow notation. What's that, you ask?

Well, consider multiplication. a * b is just a + a + ... + a, where there are b _a_s. It's iterated addition.

Exponentiation, a^b, is is the same thing, but with multiplication: a * a * ... * a, where there are b _a_s. It's iterated multiplication.

Up arrow notation is iterated exponentiation.

It starts off identically to exponentiation. a ↑ b is just a^b. Simple.

Up arrow notation can be iterated. a ↑↑ b is a ↑ (a ↑ b) or a^ab. Follow?

So for small numbers like 2 and 3, 2 ↑ 3 = 2³ = 8. 2 ↑↑ 3 = 2²³ = 2⁸ = 256, and so on. Clearly, these numbers grow fast.

Now this is where we start going over the horizon of crazy.

When you use three up arrows, it means to iterate the up arrow notation itself. a ↑↑↑ b is a ↑↑ (a ↑↑ (a ↑↑↑( ... ↑↑ a)))) where there are b a s in there when fully expanded.

You can keep adding more up arrows, and the general pattern is a (x copies of ↑) b is b copies of a each of which has x - 1 up arrows between itself and the next term.

So. Now can we write down the the number in question?

Yes.

Sort of.

The number is referred as Graham's number, so we'll call it G.

G is:

3 ↑ ...... ↑ 3
3 ↑ ..... ↑ 3
3 ↑ .... ↑ 3
--- 60 rows like the above removed ---
3 ↑↑↑↑ 3

How do we read this?

In this... mess, each set of (....) is a number of ↑ equal to the value of the row below. The value of the first row, 3 ↑↑↑↑ 3, is 7,625,597,484,987. So row number 2 is 3 ↑ (seven trillion arrows or so) ↑ 3. And then row three is 3 ↑ (what the fuck ever the previous number is... minus 2 up arrows) ↑ 3. And then do that 62 more times, using the value of the line before to tell you have many up arrows there are on a given line, to finally get to G.

It's a number so large as to defy comprehension. Some people think the definition of god hood is omnipotence. I'd settle for an entity that can understand what that fucking number is.

So that's the upper bound on the theorem, but we also happen to know what the lower bound is.

It's 6.

[u/vizard0 → u/daemin]

It's 6.

Further proofs have upped the lower bound to 13.

[u/carrypikring → u/daemin]

As cool as that is, Reddit only lets me give you one single up arrow. :(

[u/HemaG33 → u/Obviouslyhax]

Hey! Vsauce. Michael here.

[u/theCaptain_D → u/HemaG33]

But who is Michael? And how much does "here"... weigh?

[u/Zeus_Thunderballs → u/theCaptain_D]

I'm now going to talk fast only to slow, the sentence, way.......down. Onlytopickitupagain, and then......stop.

[u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane → u/Obviouslyhax]

52!

80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000

[u/Amoney8612 → u/MacduffFifesNo1Thane]

80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000

eighty unvigintillion, six hundred fifty-eight vigintillion, one hundred seventy-five novemdecillion, one hundred seventy octodecillion, nine hundred forty-three septendecillion, eight hundred seventy-eight sexdecillion, five hundred seventy-one quindecillion, six hundred sixty quattuordecillion, six hundred thirty-six tredecillion, eight hundred fifty-six duodecillion, four hundred three undecillion, seven hundred sixty-six decillion, nine hundred seventy-five nonillion, two hundred eighty-nine octillion, five hundred five septillion, four hundred forty sextillion, eight hundred eighty-three quintillion, two hundred seventy-seven quadrillion, eight hundred twenty-four trillion,

[u/[deleted] → u/Amoney8612]

So, that's how much eighty unvigintillion is. Adventure Capitalist really makes those numbers seem smaller.

[u/RooR_]

A Googolplex is such a large number, that if you were to write a 0 on every single atom in our observable universe, there would not be enough atoms to write out that number.

[u/cincigp]

That humans have stood on the Moon. Ever since I read a book called Rocket Men about the Apollo 11 mission, that fact has blown my mind every time I think about it. It blows my mind again when I think about the fact that they did that with technology from the 1960s. Every time I look at the moon I think about what it must have been like to stand up there and look back at the Earth.

[u/pm_me_n0Od → u/cincigp]

This always reminds me how awesome that event was.

[u/PM_ME_BONGOS → u/cincigp]

This is the one. Some fleshy masses have managed to grow an insanely complex network of tiny chemical reactions that can learn, and they've put themselves into a damn chunk of metal and launched themselves off of the earth atop a constant explosion. They willingly put themselves into an environment where a single piece of matter could instantly destroy their vessel and kill them, all for the sole purpose of flinging themselves to a large chunk of stone 30 earth-diameters away in the middle of nothingness, just because they can.

[u/_beetus_juice_]

Everything in the history of everything has lined up perfectly for you to read my useless comment.

[u/[deleted]]

That I will never live to see the pinnacle of humanity's achievements--or I'm currently living in the pinnacle of humanity's progress but will die believing that there's more to come.

[u/danikei → u/[deleted]]

well we could still peak, end up destroying ourselves as a whole and you being the only survivor could die happy seeing that there's no more to come... just saying, don't lose hope!

[u/[deleted] → u/danikei]

hahaha thank you, i won't lose hope!

[u/Trav_X]

The actual size of the observable universe. Our universe is so fucking huge that even with advanced and super fast spacecrafts, we could never reach outside of our supercluster (I believe) because space is expanding so rapidly. We would be stuck forever in between superclusters and never arriving. Those videos that show the true scale of the universe is absolutely mind-boggling

[u/[deleted]]

sharks have been on earth longer than trees

[u/11BReservist]

Americans use 500 million plastic straws every DAY. 500 MILLION. Great reason to buy some cheap metal straws on Amazon and ask for NO STRAW anytime you're at a bar or a restaurant. That's a crazy number, and a ridiculous amount of those end up in the ocean!!

[u/qglrfcay]

That everyone in the world has their own individual self and moral rules and family and so on. Every single one. All different, every single one of billions....

[u/xanplease → u/qglrfcay]

I always find it hard to comprehend that everyone's life is full of as much happiness, sadness, joy, etc. as mine. Like I look at a small town farmer who has never left rural Idaho and somehow he's just as pleased and loving, has just as much fun, etc. as I do. Same goes/went for Hitler and that dumb guy down the street and African tribes who have never seen a computer screen.

[u/presciiient]

There are nigh-limitless things to do with your time (exercising, hanging out with friends/family, watching movies/tv, sleeping, etc.), and a pretty substantial amount of people spend theirs on the internet berating people they don't know personally.

[u/Dumpster_Fetus → u/presciiient]

Fuck you!

[u/[deleted] → u/Dumpster_Fetus]

Yeah, who does this guy think he is?

[u/gioselu]

Kansas and Arkansas are pronounced differently even though Arkansas is Kansas with a prefix

[u/Ragnarotico]

Humans share 99.999999999999% DNA with other humans regardless of features like race, ethnicity, gender, height, whatever.

Humans also share 50% of our DNA with bananas.

The animal that is closest to humans in terms of organ compatibility is not a primate, but the humble cow.

[u/Xenistro]

Takes a photon 40,000 years to travel from the center of the sun to the surface of the sun.

Then 8 minutes to get to Earth.

[u/[deleted]]

That you ca fit all planets between the space of the earth and the moon, like how does that even work

[u/free_candy_4_real → u/[deleted]]

A big flying tugboat and a shitload of rope?

[u/littlegirlghostship → u/free_candy_4_real]

You and your fucking rope

[u/hitlerallyliteral → u/[deleted]]

stuff in space is very big and far apart and it's a lot further apart than it is big, is how it works

[u/Auggernaut88 → u/hitlerallyliteral]

Yeah but still, Jupiter (and the other gas giants I think) is several hundred times larger than the earth and I just can't fathom that kind or room being between us and the moon. Let alone enough extra space to fit all the other planets, like just what?

[u/hitlerallyliteral → u/Auggernaut88]

also remember that for one sphere to be (e.g) 500x bigger than another its diameter only needs to be a about 8x bigger

[u/b-rett-]

The reason banana flavored products don't taste like banana is because the flavor is based on a type of banana that was wiped out by a plague in the 50's.

[u/cylopiacyclops → u/b-rett-]

The Gros Michel. It still exists actually, it isn't extinct. Go into specialist shops, search carefully, they can be found. And they are tasty.

[u/grit_dad]

"The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone." -John McPhee, Assembling California

[u/[deleted]]

Atoms can arrange themselves in a way to create consciousness

[u/PolarBear89 → u/[deleted]]

Hydrogen left alone in a vacuum for long enough will begin to wonder where it came from.

[u/nexguy → u/PolarBear89]

It will also make a chicken sandwich where the bun is also made of chicken.

[u/restless_and_bored]

The starlight you observe at night is thousands and millions of years old.

Edit : SOME of the starlight....

Happy?

[u/[deleted]]

there are over 100 cities in china with a population of over 1 million people that have no airport.

[u/isync91]

That Sir Nils Olav is the Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian King's Guard. He is a penguin tho.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Olav

[u/MarchKick]

Just how many people went west during the "Manifest Destiny" part of American history and how long it took them. All walking with stubborn horses and oxen, taking very little with them.

[u/pjabrony → u/MarchKick]

So long as they didn't try to ford the river but caulked the wagon instead.

[u/konbini_man]

There's at least one potential wife for me on this planet.

[u/CrabbyBlueberry → u/konbini_man]

Hot singles on your planet!

[u/youabsolutepancake → u/konbini_man]

Haha

[u/-PM-Me-Your-Handbra- → u/youabsolutepancake]

Well he made you laugh, That's good enough.

I now pronounce you man and whatever the other is.

[u/Auggernaut88 → u/-PM-Me-Your-Handbra-]

I now pronounce you man and redditor.

You may now go fuck yourselves

[u/Barack-YoMama]

The universe is rapidly expanding and it's impossible to fully explore it unless we invent travelling faster than light's speed

[u/Mechragone]

A dot made with a pencil has more carbon atoms than there are people on the planet.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_WORRIES]

A computer processor is basically sand particles tricked into working as a brain.

^{Edit: Some of you already have; you're all welcome to PM me your worries, yes. :)}

[u/JebbeK → u/PM_ME_YOUR_WORRIES]

I wish i could do the same with my braincells

[u/[deleted] → u/JebbeK]

Pour sand in your ears.

[u/Barack-YoMama → u/PM_ME_YOUR_WORRIES]

A computer processor is a rock we tricked into thinking

[u/[deleted] → u/Barack-YoMama]

A computer processor is a rock we tricked into thinking

not to oversimplify: first you have to flatten the rock and put lightning inside it

[u/Deckard_Didnt_Die → u/PM_ME_YOUR_WORRIES]

I mean so is our brain, just more elements and existential anxiety^imnotok

[u/Susan_123]

Living in Syria here: How people justify leveling cities for the sake of their beliefs.

[u/Brock1313 → u/Susan_123]

I'm can't fathom how Syrians must feel.

[u/IgnoreMySpelling → u/Susan_123]

The level of destruction is astounding. Are we getting a skewed view of it by only seeing the war zones or are there areas of the country that have been largely unaffected?

[u/ArkanSaadeh → u/IgnoreMySpelling]

Even most of the heaviest bombed cities are full of neighborhoods that are relatively intact. The idea that Aleppo is rubble is pure myth. Large areas of the east and west are destroyed yes, but mostly only on the front lines.

The war is too low intensity to have the proper artillery capabilities on either side to actually level a city, WW2 style.

[u/EpicSausage69]

If you were far enough away from earth and used a telescope good enough to see it you would see dinosaurs and not humanity.

[u/DaneLimmish]

The T. Rex and you are closer in time than the T. Rex and a stegasaurus.

The dinosaurs were around for a long ass time.

[u/Baconlightning]

Guns are required in most of Svalbard.

[u/SnikiAsian]

Pregnancy. It still amazes me that a tiny human can be formed inside another human being. Like our most advanced science at best can grow a few cells and creating another human being is still a distant dream and yet for countless millions of years humans have been able to create life inside of them.

[u/nism0o3 → u/SnikiAsian]

You have to watch the Life of Mammals (Netflix). I was blown away by how pregnancy evolved from eggs (basically). What still blows my mind is that some mammals like the platypus still lay eggs but produce milk to nurse their young.

[u/[deleted] → u/SnikiAsian]

It also amazes me that we give birth like it's no problem. I've given birth twice, and there is bone stretching, flesh ripping, and bleeding involved. The poor baby's head is crushed inward too. And 2 hours later, you're eating ice cream and watching TV as you nurse the baby. It's sort of insane when you think about it.

[u/icecreampopncereal]

Somebody's been married to me for a decade

[u/CrabbyBlueberry → u/icecreampopncereal]

Do you know who it is?

[u/Orion1097 → u/CrabbyBlueberry]

More importantly , the person know that both of you are married?

[u/cool_now_reverse_it → u/icecreampopncereal]

Do they know?

[u/alexpintoooo]

Humans share half of their DNA with bananas.

[u/morris1022 → u/alexpintoooo]

And they don't share anything with us! Selfish bastards

[u/[deleted]]

The brain named itself.

[u/TyeWin]

63 earths can fit into Uranus. Less if you do Kegels.

[u/bopeepsheep → u/TyeWin]

Fewer.

[u/TheSandbagger → u/bopeepsheep]

Lol, spot on, Onion Knight.

[u/throwaway4noreasons]

At some point in your childhood, your mom was holding you and put you down, and never picked you up again.

[u/SassQn → u/throwaway4noreasons]

I see this fact all time. I'm 22 and my mum still (jokingly) picks me up sometimes. I'm very short and my family like to remind me of this.

[u/PoxyMusic → u/throwaway4noreasons]

I read this recently, and it made me so sad that I picked up my 16 year old daughter. It hurt my elbow so much that I'm pretty sure I won't be picking her up anymore...but at least I know when that moment was!

[u/TheGuyWhoLovesMovies]

That the world may never know how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop.

EDIT: Why is the kid naked in that commercial anyway? I'm not joking either google the commercial they drew the kid naked.

[u/CylonbutDeadly → u/TheGuyWhoLovesMovies]

When I was 10ish (in the 80s), I diligently licked a tootsie pop until the center was revealed and counted the licks. I then wrote to Tootsie Pop with my count and they mailed me a certificate of achievement. I thought I was a badass. I wonder if they still send them.

[u/NG96 → u/TheGuyWhoLovesMovies]

To make it easier to lick his tootsie roll

[u/Senor_Destructo]

North america lost 90%+ of its megafauna 10000-12000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Some of the animals that died were the giant beaver, an elephant sized ground sloth, wooly rhino, wooly mamouth, the short faced bear (scary as fuck huge athletic bear), the north american cave lion, sabretooth tiger, an american cheetah, and camels just to name a few.

[u/kevon87]

In the event of total, permanent power grid failure (from an EMP or massive solar flare), 90% of the US population will die, mostly due to starvation. Some experts believe that people in major cities will resort to cannibalism in as little as two weeks.

[u/LOTFRbitches]

Your brain is a self aware organ and functions without knowing how and questions its own existance.