The biggest butterfly in the world has a 31cm wingspan. It belongs to the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing butterfly, which you can find in the forests of the Oro Province, in the east of Papua New Guinea.
100 Mind-Blowing East Facts
Australia is wider than the moon. The moon sits at 3400km in diameter, while Australia’s diameter from east to west is almost 4000km.
A laughing epidemic made 14 schools close in East Africa. In 1962, a laughter epidemic broke out in Tanganyika (now known as Tanzania). It started with three young girls and the uncontrollable laughter spread to neighboring villages. Symptoms included crying, fainting, rashes, and pain. All in all, it made 14 schools close.
David Bowie helped topple the Berlin Wall. During a performance in 1987, Bowie’s performance of ‘Heroes’ near the Reichstag could be heard by the police in East Berlin. This resulted in a police crackdown because such music was forbidden there. Some say that the violent police crackdown during the concert was a necessity in changing the mood against the state.
Australia is wider than the moon. The moon sits at 3,400 kilometres (2,113 miles) in diameter, while Australia’s diameter from east to west is almost 4,000 km (2,485 miles).
The Moon is drifting away from Earth. You read that correctly! The Moon is gradually drifting away from Earth at a rate of approximately 4 cm per year. This phenomenon is caused by the Moon pulling on Earth’s oceans creating tidal forces that produce a bulge of water on the side of Earth facing the Moon. This bulge in turn creates a gravitational pull on the Moon, causing it to accelerate slightly and move further away from Earth. Over time, this process has caused the Moon to move farther away from Earth each year. This gradual drift is not noticeable on a day-to-day basis, but over millions of years, it can have significant effects on Earth’s rotation. Today, most scientists believe the Moon is ‘Earth’s child’ – a large body collided with Earth, destroying our planet’s mantle and sending material into orbit from which the Moon formed. This ‘big splash’ theory would explain why the Moon’s rocks are similar to those on Earth. Bonus fun fact: Australia is wider than the Moon. The Moon sits at 3400 km in diameter, while Australia’s diameter from east to west is almost 4000 km. The Moon, as a sphere, has more surface area, but it’s still pretty impressive.
Fraser Island is the biggest sand island! The biggest sand island in the world is called Fraser Island! It is off the East Coast of Australia. The island is home to forests which, amazingly, grow through the sand!
The longest train journey in the world is in Russia. This should come as no real surprise, considering the absolute enormity that is Russia. The 5,778 miles (9,300 km) long Trans-Siberian Railway runs from Moscow to Vladivostok in the country’s far east. If you combine the length of the Trans-Siberian with all the other railway lines in the country, it would be able to circumnavigate the world twice!
Alaska is the farthest east, west, and north state in the United States.
Throughout history, different cultures around the world have experienced time in different ways. In the Western world, we tend to think of time as linear and flowing from left to right. But this isn’t the case for everyone. Language affects how people conceptualize time, particularly the spatial metaphors they use to describe and map it. Those who read languages that flow from right to left, such as Arabic and Hebrew, generally view time as flowing in the same direction. The Aymara, who live in the Andes Mountains in South America, consider the future to be behind them, while the past is ahead. In their view, because the future is unknown, it’s behind you, where you can’t see it. Some Indigenous Australian cultures, which rely heavily on direction terms like north, south, east, and west in their languages, visualise the passage of time as moving from east to west. If they’re facing north, for example, the past would be to their right, or east, whereas the future would be to their left, which would be west.
Sundials read differently depending on the hemisphere you’re in. In the Northern Hemisphere, the sun casts a shadow that moves from north to east, to south, to west. In the Southern Hemisphere, the shadow moves in the opposite direction. Our concept of “clockwise” is based on the way sundials in the Northern Hemisphere told time.
In 2024, the United States is the country with the highest average total cost of a data breach at $9.36 million. The Middle East is a close second with $8.75 million (IBM).
The two most common baby names are Olivia and Oliver: According to the Office for National Statistics, the top baby names across England and Wales in 2020 were Oliver and Olivia. Oliver has held the top position for over eight years, whilst Olivia has been at the top for five years in a row. Regionally, babies named Oliver were mostly concentrated in the North East of England and Herefordshire, whilst babies named Olivia were mostly born in the North East, especially in Craven, and along the South Coast of England.
The South East of England is mostly flat: England’s topography is quite varied, with the Lake District National Park being a great example of the country’s high elevation. If you venture towards the South East, you’ll find the opposite. This part of the country is mostly low-lying, offering flat countryside with uninterrupted views. Some of the best places to experience these views are the Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including the Cotswolds and Chiltern Hills. The glorious South Downs National Park offers a stunning mixture of coastal and countryside sights, including the Seven Sisters cliffs. It’s well worth checking out!
Independence Village: In 1977, East Sussex, a small community on the Welsh-English border, declared independence from the UK and needed visas for foreigners.
America Isn’t the Only Country that Uses the US Dollar: Besides the United States and its five inhabited territories, 11 countries in the world also use the U.S. dollar, the world’s reserve currency, as their official currency: The British Virgin Islands, Timor-Leste (or East Timor), Bonaire, Ecuador, El Salvador, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos, and Zimbabwe.