Interesting Facts by Topics

Here’s some of the most interesting and perhaps, unknown, facts. Originally appeared here.

Physical Sciences

1. A day on the planet Venus is longer than a year on Venus. (Yes, you read that right.)
2. On Saturn’s moon Titan, the gravity is low enough and the atmosphere thick enough, that by attaching small wings to your arms, you could fly like a bird.
3. Since its discovery to its declassification as a planet, Pluto never made a full orbit around the Sun.
4. There are more molecules in one glass of water than there are glasses of water in all the earth’s oceans combined.
5. The real trajectories of spacecraft are complicated ellipses.

Cultural Facts

1. A can of regular Coke sinks in water, whereas a can of diet Coke does not.
2. Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest and lost.
3. Indian housewives hold 11% of the World’s gold.
4. Honey is the only food item which never rots.
5. Neil Armstrong had to fill an immigration form while coming back to the earth from the moon.
6. We don’t know for sure who invented the fire hydrant because the patent for it was lost in the fire at patent office in Washington DC in 1836.
7. Cement is the most widely produced material today, but for ~1300 years we forgot the recipe.
8. A Japanese officer didn’t surrender in 1945, and continued the war for 29 years because he didn’t know the war was over.
9. There was a book written about the sinking of the Titanic, 14 years before it actually sank.
10. Vulcan Point is an island within a lake on an island within a lake on an island.
11. Scotland’s national animal is the Unicorn.
12. Austro-Hungarian man Adam Rainer was the only person in recorded world history to be both a giant and a dwarf.
13. There Is A Starbucks Cup Visible In Every Scene In Fight Club.
14. The world’s quietest room is -9 decibels, quite enough to hear your blood flowing.
15. There is mobile phone reception from the summit of Mount Everest.
16. Burj Khalifa is so tall that, from it, you can actually watch the same sun set or rise twice in a day.
17. Each of the main characters in Spongebob Squarepants was inspired by one of the seven deadly sins.
18. One in ten Icelanders will become a published author in their lifetime.

Biology

1. You have more bacterial cells living in and on your body than you have human cells.
2. The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans.
3. New Zealand rose from the ocean, and it’s animal life is interesting because of that.
4. Tardigrades, also called ‘water bears’ can survive freezing, boiling and irradiation.
5. The time difference between when Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus lived is greater than the time difference between Tyrannosaurus and now.

Geography

1. Russia is bigger than Pluto.
2. From Space, you can still see the division between East and West Germany due to different light bulbs.

Business and Politics

1. The president of Uruguay donates around 90 percent of his $12,000 (£7,500)  monthly salary to charities.
2. 10 corporations control almost everything you buy.
3. The tiny island-nation of Tuvalu receives $4M a year from .tv domain name sales.