35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group

I just learned this: there are more castles in Germany than McDonalds in the U.S.

When it's so quiet you can hear snow falling, you're actually hearing the static discharge of the snowflake hitting the ground. It gathers the electricity while it's falling to Earth.

A graveyard is connected to a church while a cemetery is not.

Oxford University existed 250 years before the Aztecs existed. Oxford University first opened in 1096, the Aztec period was from 1345-1521. Oxford University is second only to the University of Bologna for continuous operation.

Greenland sharks can become up to 400 years old and don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re 150

Sharks have been around longer than the rings of Saturn.

Edit: It's an easy Google. The rings of Saturn formed no more that 100 million years ago, we know what they are made of, how fast they move, and the rate of decay. Sharks have been around for about 450 million years. We have fossilized records of this.

that sahara desert used to be under the ocean, and you can still find seashells in the sand there

Neptune was originally discovered as apparently inexplicable changes in the orbital path of Uranus. Because a man named Le Verrier observing these alterations decided that there must be an orderly reason for it, he calculated where another planet would have to be to cause Uranus to act like that, and still keep the laws of gravitation discovered by Sir Isaac newton. He then sent his calculations to Royal Observatory in Berlin, and the prediction was within 1° of its actual position.

The beginning of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony sounds like this: "di-di-di-dah".

That is the Morse code representation of the letter V: (...-)

V is the Roman numeral for five.

Purely coincidence, as the Fifth was written 40 years before Morse code was invented.

The Goonies go underground on the exact same day (Saturday, Oct. 26, 1985) as Marty travels back in time to 1955.

All the Botox in the world, literally every gram, is produced in a factory in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland.

you know when you get up too fast and feel dizzy? squeezing/stiffening your buttocks together stops the dizziness.

There are more trees on planet earth (~3 trillion) than there are stars in our galaxy (~800 billion).

Note it says our galaxy (the milky way), not the entire universe. Still I find the sheer number of trees on our planet impressive

Whales are closer to artiodactyls (even toed hoofed animals) than they are to seals or manatees.

Whales are *essentially* just wet deer with extra steps.

Ancient Egypt and mammoths existed at the same time.

Tamales are one of the oldest dishes on earth still commonly eaten today.

As an Italian in the us it’s that Pepperoni actually would mean peppers in Italy and has absolutely nothing to do with thinly sliced meat.

George Washington died in 1799.

Dinosaurs were discovered in 1824.

George Washington didn't know dinosaurs existed.

Giraffes have the same number of neck bones as humans.

In Volkswagen’s official Parts catalog, one of the official Volkswagen parts, with its own part number (199 398 500 A), is a currywurst sausage they serve to their staff in Wolfsburg, Germany.

199 398 500 B is ketchup.