Facts

Here are some interesting facts on a variety of topics:

Science and Technology

  1. The human nose can detect over 1 trillion different scents.
  2. The shortest war in history was between Britain and Zanzibar on August 27, 1896, and lasted only 38 minutes.
  3. The largest living organism is a fungus called Armillaria ostoyae, covering over 2,200 acres in Oregon, USA.
  4. The human brain uses 20% of the body's energy while accounting for only 2% of its mass.
  5. The first computer bug was an actual insect that got stuck in the Harvard Mark II computer in 1947.

History

  1. The Great Wall of China is not visible from space.
  2. The oldest known piece of music is the "Hymn to Nanna" from ancient Sumeria, dating back to around 4000 BCE.
  3. The first email was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, who also invented the "@" symbol as a way to address messages.
  4. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, which reads, "Jesus wept."
  5. The oldest known surviving piece of literature is the Epic of Gilgamesh, dating back to around 2100 BCE.

Nature

  1. Butterflies taste with their feet.
  2. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.
  3. The largest snowflake ever recorded was 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick.
  4. The world's largest waterfall, by volume of water, is actually located underwater and is called the Denmark Strait Cataract.
  5. The longest mountain range in the world is not the Himalayas, but the Mid-Ocean Ridge, which runs for over 40,000 miles.

Food and Drink

  1. The world's hottest pepper is the Carolina Reaper, with an average Scoville heat unit rating of 1,569,300.
  2. The largest pizza ever made was over 13,000 square feet and weighed over 5,000 pounds.
  3. The world's most expensive spice is saffron, which can cost up to $10 per gram.
  4. The longest recorded hot dog was over 20 feet long.
  5. The world's largest ice cream sundae was over 5,000 pounds and had over 500 toppings.

Miscellaneous

  1. The longest recorded word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine particles of silica.
  2. The world's largest collection of airsickness bags belongs to a man named Niek Vermeulen, who has over 6,000 bags from around the world.
  3. The longest recorded duration without sleep is 264.4 hours (11 days), set by Randy Gardner in 1964.
  4. The world's largest ball of twine is over 40 feet around and weighs over 17,000 pounds.
  5. The longest recorded duration of hula hooping is 75 hours and 30 minutes, set by Marawa Ibrahim in 2014.

I hope you find these facts interesting and enjoyable!