Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts

Women speak about 20,000 words a day while men only speak 7,000

The stereotype is pervasive: women are talkative, men are not. Women love to share their feelings and talk things to death, while men are stoic and don’t feel the need to chat as much. It turns out that the basic fact behind this stereotype are true: women do speak more than men.
A lot more. Women have been found to speak about 20,000 words per day while men only speak about 7,000 words. That’s quite the difference. It turns out that women speak faster as well—sometimes twice as fast.

THIS IS CRUEL: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words.

There are a lot of interesting and random phopias out there. Dendrophobia is the fear of trees. Blennophobia is the fear of slime. And neophobia is the fear of anything new. However, the fear of long words may have the most ironic (and cruelest name).

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. So let’s say you do have this phobia. You’d be terrify to name your ailment. Kind of a conundrum.

Jellyfish evaporate in the sun. They're 98% water!

When jellyfish are in the water, they can be a bit intimidating. Their tentacles can pack a painful electrical shock. However, once they wash up on shore, they are anything but intimidating.

It turns out that jellyfish are 98% water. Most are transparent and bell-shaped. If they end up on the beach, they will most likely evaporate in a few hours and mostly disappear.

Jellyfish also don’t have brains, bones or a heart. They do have rudimentary sensory nerves though.

Those stars and colors you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.

Have you ever closed your eyes, rubbed them and seen stars? Or at least little pops of light? It turns out that those pops of light have a name: phosphenes.

They are a phenomenon characterized by seeing light without light actually entering the eye. This rubbing mechanically stimulates the cells of the retina causing this effect. Sometimes, these phosphenes can still be seen for moments after you open your eyes.

Meditators have also reported experiencing phosphenes, and they have actually been known since antiquity. Ancient Greeks described them. Other reasons people ‘see stars’ are because of sneezing, coughing, blowing your nose or receiving a blow to the head.

The total weight of all the ants on Earth is about the same as the weight of all the humans on earth.

Unless you leave food out and attract them, humans rarely have a need to think about ants. They're tiny, not poisonous and not particularly terrifying, like say, spiders. However, they far outnumber humans on earth--by one million to one!

Funnily enough, they are also roughly a millionth of a human in size too. Do the math--the total weight of all the ants on earth matches the total weight of the entire human population.

There are 10,000 different types of ants and they've been around for a long time. Ancients ants have been discovered in fossilized sap from 100 million years ago!

Over time, ants have changed very little. Their way of life and survival is successful. Some scientists attribute this to their unselfish ways. Ants live in colonies and bring their prey back to their many relatives to share.

Grapes EXPLODE when you put them in the microwave!

You may have heard of frozen grapes as a tasty snack, but what about heating grapes in the microwave? You probably shouldn't try this one. It turns out that grapes react very oddly when they're microwaved.

Since grapes are full of moisture, when they are microwaved, that moisture turns to steam. If the stem is still attached to the grape and there is nowhere for the steam to escape, it will explode slightly and rupture the skin.

If you place two grapes close together with their stem holes facing each other, some arcing and sparking will occur. If there is just a single grape with its stem hole open, it will let out a stream of steam. Good thing we don't serve grapes warm.

It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.

The film “Titanic” was incredibly successful. It won 11 Academy Awards and launched the careers of its leads, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. In order to make such an epic film, the producers had to spend a lot of money.

Specifically, it cost $200 million. Part of the cost of the film was building a partial replica of the ship itself. The movie actually cost more than the real Titanic.

In 1910-1912 when the Titanic was being built, it cost about $7.5 million. In 1997 dollars, when the movie was made, that would be about $120-$150 million.

Most people are unable to laugh on command.

Laughter is an interesting thing—it’s part of a universal human language that all people understand. It’s such a natural response that we often don’t even realize we’re doing it. People have many different types of chuckles and many different reasons for their laughter.

One thing is common though—most people cannot laugh on command. If they do laugh, it is forced and often inauthentic. It will take a few minutes to come up with an actual laugh. This suggests that we can’t deliberately activate the brain’s mechanisms for affective expression.

If you walk and talk with someone, eventually you will synchronize your steps with each other. 

                         

Interpersonal synchronization of stepping happens when people walk side-by-side. Little is known about this, but it has practical uses in therapy. In 2009, this phenomenon was the subject of a study to help impaired people in rehabilitation. Subjects were paired together to walk on treadmills side-by-side. The result? People started walking faster to keep up with their partners. 

 

As a punishment for misbehavior, Thai cops have to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands. 

                                                

A police chief in Bangkok, Thailand instituted a new policy for Bangkok cops in 2007. They have to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands with hearts on them as punishment for misbehaving. This punishment could be for just about anything: breaking the law, littering, showing up late to work, parking in the wrong place. 

"This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor. Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It's not something macho police officers want covering their biceps.

In early experiments, the unconventional punishment hasn't worked. Instead of feeling shame, the officers just took them home as souvenirs. 

Believe it or not, you actually CAN'T see the Great Wall of China from Space! 

                                                                  

You've probably seen this "fact" a bunch of times (we here at OMG Facts certainly have): 

"The Great Wall of China is the only human-made object that can be seen from outer-space." 

Turns out it's not even true. The first known publishing of this "fact" was back in 1938, long before anyone was traveling in space. Since then lots of people have gone into outer space and looked at the Earth and haven't found the Great Wall. 

The Great Wall is huge (5500 miles long) but in order to be visible from far away it would also have to be very wide and distinct looking from the ground. The Great Wall is very thin. If it were visible from space, every interstate highway would be too! 

On the other hand, you can see the Pyramids of Giza from space. You can also see Minutemaid Park, the Toyota Center, and the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX 

Source OMG-Facts.com