The Eiffel Tower gets taller in the summer. When the iron heats up, the tower can be up to 15 centimetres (6 inches) taller due to thermal expansion.
100 Mind-Blowing Due Facts
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!
3 Musketeers candy bars used to come in three flavours. 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.
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.
The moon has moonquakes. They occur due to tidal stresses connected to the distance between the Earth and the moon.
Pigs can’t look up into the sky. Due to the anatomy of their neck muscles and spine, pigs are unable to look upwards.
Your nails grow faster in the summer. This is probably due to increased blood supply to the fingertips from the heat. After all, fingernails also grow faster in hot countries!
Cat urine glows under a black light. Due to containing phosphorus, cat urine glows brighter under an ultraviolet light.
Pigs cannot look up at the sky. It’s all due to the anatomy of their neck muscles and spine.
In the summer, the Eiffel Tower gets taller. As it is made out of iron, due to thermal expansion the Eiffel Tower can rise to 6 inches taller.
On Mercury, a day is twice as long as a year. Technically, one Mercurian day lasts 59 Earth days, while a year lasts 88. However, due to Mercury’s very eccentric orbit and alignment with the Sun, the length of time from sunrise to sunrise, known as a ‘solar day’, is equal to 176 Earth days — twice as long as a Mercurian year.
You could survive for a couple of minutes in a leaky spacesuit. Although films such as Total Recall show instant explosions and rapidly puffed-up spacesuits, the effects of being exposed to space are slightly less dramatic. Although it would be unpleasant, you could survive for a couple of minutes. After around 10 seconds, you would lose consciousness. The lower pressure of the vacuum would cause your blood to boil, along with other body fluids (the moisture on your tongue, for example) – but this boiling alone would not be fatal due to the pressure maintained by our blood vessels themselves. Gas bubbles would form in your bodily fluids, causing your body to swell up and bloat. The low humidity of space would cause you to cool down rapidly, and your eyes may freeze over. Within one to two minutes, the lack of oxygen would be deadly. The stress of the situation may make these symptoms worse – you would become oxygen-deprived more quickly. A rapid decompression would cause damage to your lungs, eardrums and sinuses, along with bruising and bleeding from soft tissues.
There is gravity on the International Space Station. Footage of astronauts on the International Space Station may give the impression of a gravity-free environment, but onboard gravity is only 10-11% weaker than it is on Earth’s surface. This particular one of our facts relates to the common belief that there’s no gravity in space. Astronauts float freely due to the Space Station’s continual state of free-fall, the same effect experienced by skydivers. The difference with the ISS is that it also has horizontal motion. As the ISS moves ‘sideways’ and falls towards Earth, the horizon curves away beneath it at the same rate, keeping the ISS in orbit and simulating a feeling of weightlessness for anyone on board.
Due to World Wars, the Olympics have been cancelled three times.
Atacama is the driest place on Earth. The Atacama Desert, located in South America, is widely considered to be the driest place on Earth, outside of the Antarctic dry valleys. This vast expanse of land spans over 100,000 sq km and receives an average of less than 1 mm of rainfall per year. The harsh climate of the Atacama is due to a combination of factors including its location in a rain shadow caused by the Andes mountains, the presence of the cold Humboldt Current offshore and a lack of moisture-bearing winds. Despite its arid conditions, the Atacama is home to several unique species of plants and animals that have adapted to survive in this harsh environment. The desert is also known for its stunning landscapes, including salt flats, geysers and towering volcanoes – making it a popular destination for adventurous travellers.
Due to scientific advancements and life today, more twins are being born now than ever before. In the early 1980s, there were 9 twin births per 1,000. Today, there are 12-14 twin births per 1,000. More and more families use fertility treatment which results in a higher chance of multiples. Many adults are also delaying childbearing to accommodate careers. Doctors also associate twins with older maternal age.
In 2017, Chau Smith decided to celebrate her 70th birthday by running seven marathons on all seven continents in seven days. Her amazing feat almost did not happen due to travel delays, however.
PEOPLE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR AROUND THREE-QUARTERS OF ALL WILDFIRES. Between 2001 and 2015 23% of global forest loss was due to wildfires.
Axolotls vary in colour from brown to pink to green. They have webbed feet and a long tail to aid with swimming, while many people say they look like they’re always smiling due to the shape of their mouths.
Due to Covid-19 lockdowns, deodorant sales declined, and ice cream sales soared.
The average mattress doubles in weight over 10 years due to the accumulation of dust mites and dust mite poop.
Due to breathing, your ribs move about five million times a year.
In Singapore, when you turn 21, you’re automatically registered as an organ donor. The Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA) was first introduced in 1987 due to extremely low organ donation rates. It was only in 2009 that citizens and permanent residents were automatically registered as organ donors. You can opt out, but you may not want to as you’ll be lower on the waiting list for organs should you need a transplant.
Stephen Hawking was rumoured to run over the toes of people he didn’t like. The world-renowned physicist used a wheelchair from the age of 22 due to a severe form of motor neuron disease. This didn’t stop this from having a bit of fun, crushing the toes of many who drew his ire – including the UK’s Prince Charles himself! When confronted about this tendency, Hawking passed it off as a “malicious rumour” before jokingly threatening to run over the toes of anyone who repeated it.
The moon has its Catholic bishop. You read that right; the Catholic church does claim the moon to be a part of their religious jurisdiction and has done so since man first landed on the moon. This is due to a Catholic law that states that any newly discovered territory falls under the jurisdiction of the bishop from whence the expedition departed. Because Apollo 11 was launched from the jurisdiction of Bishop William Donald Borders in Orlando, Florida, he became the bishop of the moon.
In the 18th Century, the doctor to the Danish King seized control of Denmark. Johann Friedrich was the royal physician for King Christian VII of Denmark, who could not truly serve as king due to mental illnesses. Friedrich soon realized the position of power he was in and declared himself the country’s de facto regent. During this time, he changed 1,069 laws, including abolishing torture, press censorship, and slave trading in the Danish colonies, and reformed the nation’s universities, among many other things.
The German word “Kummerspeck” literally translates to “grief bacon” or “sorrow fat.” It refers to weight gain due to emotional eating.
The tallest living man is 39-year-old Sultan Kösen, from Turkey, who is 8 feet, 2.8 inches, and set the record in 2009. His growth is also due to a pituitary issue.
Wombats are the only animal whose poop is cube-shaped. This is due to how its intestines form the faeces. The animals then stack the cubes to mark their territory.
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal in the world: They kill more people than any other creature, due to the diseases they carry.
Days on Venus are longer than years. Due to its slow axis rotation, it takes 243 Earth days to spin once; but it only takes 225 Earth days to go around the sun.
Our modern interpretation of Santa Claus with a red outfit and white beard is due in large part to holiday Coca-Cola ads that began in 1931.
“123456” is the most used password in the world!! NordPass released the list of the most common passwords of 2020. Over 2.5 million users decided to use the password “123456”. Unsurprisingly, that’s a weak password that nobody should ever use. It was cracked over 23.5 million times in 2020. Hackers can crack the password in less than a second due to its sequential and common nature. For better or worse, NordPass lists “12345” as the most common password from 2019. That password fell to number eight on the company’s list for 2020. The most secure passwords include letters, numbers, and symbols. Also, a longer password is always more difficult to crack than a shorter one.
This man threw a hard drive loaded with 7500 bitcoins into the trash. James Howells mined 7,500 Bitcoins in 2009 and stored them on a hard drive. At that point, Bitcoin’s value amounted to almost nothing. The cryptocurrency slowly started to grow in value after a few years, and Howells thought he owned a small fortune. Only then did he realize he accidentally threw away the hard drive sometime in 2013? Howells lives in Wales and contacted the Newport City Council to excavate the local landfill. He offered the City Council over $70 million if the hard drive was recovered. Based on today’s rate, the hard drive is worth more than $375 million. The City council baulked at the offer due to environmental regulations and the required cost.
MySpace lost all of its content before 2016. Due to a faulty server migration, every photo, song, and video that was uploaded to this once-popular social network was accidentally deleted. That accounts for 50 million songs from 14 million artists like Lily Allen and Arctic Monkeys. Of course, many of these have backups that are probably on Spotify by now, but those that didn’t are now lost forever.
Some countries skipped the era of landlines. Nigeria, Ghana, and Bangladesh went from zero to 100. Due to a lack of resources, it was too costly to adapt to using landlines. Less than 1% of residents in these countries have a landline, but over 85% have access to cell phones.
Subway graffiti died out for the most part in the late 1980s due to heightened security. The last subway train with a significant amount of graffiti on it was taken off the rails in 1989. It didn’t die out completely, however, and some artists took to freight trains.
Tux, the Linux mascot, is a penguin, but have you ever wondered why it’s a penguin? The answer depends on who you ask: Linus recounts a story in which he was bitten by an angry penguin, infecting him with a (made-up) disease called “penguinitis”. Others say its selection was due to Linus’ fondness for the animal and/or its unsuitability as a corporate logo.
Linux Dominates Web Servers: By 2023, 96.3% of the top 1,000,000 web servers were reported to run on Linux. The Android operating system is based on a highly modified version of the Linux kernel. Many websites you visit daily are hosted on servers running Linux due to its stability and security making it a top choice for web hosting companies, as it can handle a heavy load of website visitors without slowing down.
Personal data belonging to more than 100 million Android users was exposed in a 2021 data leak due to misconfigured cloud services. (Check Point)
$17,700 is lost every minute due to a phishing attack. (CSO Online)
The cost of downtime to medical organisations due to attacks is estimated to be $15.5 million in 2023. (Comparitech)
52 per cent of legal and compliance leaders are concerned about third-party cyber risks due to remote work since COVID-19. (Gartner)
French was the official language of England for over 300 years: After William the Conqueror of France completed the Norman Conquest of 1066, French became the official language of England. However, the language was mainly spoken by noblemen, whilst lower classes spoke English. French continued to be the official language of England until 1362. Historians believe that the country reverted to being English-speaking due to King John’s loss of the French region of Normandy in 1294. This was encouraged further by the 100-year War against France, which started in 1337. Despite this, French names were popular throughout England, with Richard, Robert and William still being common names to this day!
There is an annual cheese rolling competition: The unusual sport of cheese rolling was guaranteed to make this list of facts about England. A unique event, the annual cheese rolling takes place on Cooper’s Hill in Gloucester and has been done since 1826. The event involves a 9-lb, round Double Gloucester cheese rolled down a hill, with competitors chasing after it to the bottom. The first person to reach the finish line wins the cheese. Contestants are often locals from the area, however, the event attractions competitors from all over the world. If you’re up for a challenge, why not sign up for the race? Please keep in mind that due to the fast pace of the race, the event can be quite dangerous.
The largest county in England is… Yorkshire: We’re continuing this guide on facts about England with a dive into the country’s geography. Taking up 11% of England’s land mass at 14,859 km², Yorkshire hails the title of being England’s largest county! Due to its large size, it’s no surprise that Yorkshire boasts a large variety of landscapes. From the stunning North Yorkshire Coast and Moors to the flat greenery of the Vale of York; there’s so much to explore here. The county is also home to a wealth of history, including two UNESCO World Heritage sites, Saltair & Salts Mill and Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal.
Banging Bangers: The term “bangers and mash” originated during World War I, when sausages that had been soaked in water due to a lack of food would explode (“bang”) when they were cooked.
The Longest-Running Show in the World Is in London: The longest-running performance in the world is being performed at St. Martins Theatre in London’s West End. Considering that Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap debuted in 1952, the show has been airing for over 70 years to this day. The plot of the show, which began as a radio play named Three Blind Mice, centres on seven strangers who become stuck at a rural house due to snowfall.
In Thailand, YouTube was blocked for five months in 2007 due to a 44-second video that showed pictures of the king being defaced.
OpenAI halted ChatGPT Plus sign-ups in November 2023 due to excessive demand surpassing GPT capacity and reopened subscriptions in December.
The daily cost of running ChatGPT is approximately $700,000 due to computational power and expensive servers.
OpenAI’s annualized revenue surpassed $1.6 billion in December 2023 due to ChatGPT’s growth, up from $1.3 billion as of mid-October.
Despite the statistics saying that AI will replace more than 80 million jobs, the World Economic Forum projects that more than 97 million new jobs will be created by 2025 due to AI technology. – PWC