You know what they say: knowledge is power.
Learning is crucial to our existence – think of it as sustenance for the mind rather than the body. It helps us develop new abilities, perspectives, and values; it gives us a feeling of accomplishment and unveils endless opportunities; it boosts our confidence and allows us to engage in the most random conversations.
Some might argue that with the development of the good old internet, basking in new things doesn't feel as necessary perhaps as it would have before – however, now that knowledge is at everyone's fingertips, why not learn a fact or two to impress a couple of your pals?
“What is your go-to fact that blows people’s minds?” – this netizen turned to one of Reddit’s favorite communities asking members to share their go-to facts that never fail to impress others. The thread has managed to receive over 12K upvotes, as well as 9K worth of comments and mouth-opening statements.
More info: Reddit
#21
When airline pilots are trained to fly a new type of jet, the first time they fly it is with paying passengers on board. All the training and testing is done in a simulator.
Of course they have a lot of flight time in other airplanes and there is a specially qualified training captain in command. However my first jet takeoff was LAX-DEN with 68 unsuspecting passengers.
126points
#22
The Earth is traveling through space at 2.1 million km/h (1.3 million mph) relative to the cosmic background radiation. Which means by the time you finished reading this, you've travelled roughly 8,700km (5,420 mi) through space.
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125points
#23
You can see your nose all the time.
It is always within your field of view, unless you force your eyeballs to roll up as far as they go.
Your brain filters it out of your perception to save resources, but if you pay explicit attentio to it (as you may be doing now), it becomes obviously visible.
Do not despair, tho.. after a brief time, you forget about it and it "disappears" again.
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124points
#24
The earth's crust (which is too deep for humans to drill through, much deeper than the deepest ocean) compared to the rest of the planet is similar to the skin of an apple compared to the rest of the apple.
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122points
#25
Black apples exist.
We tend to think of apples as being red, though there are, of course, some popular green and yellow varieties. But did you know there are also black apples? Called Black Diamond apples, they're found in Tibet and are from the Hua Niu family of apples, also known as Chinese Red Delicious. Aside from the black outer color—actually an extremely dark shade of purple—these apples look just like other Red Delicious apples, down to the white flesh inside.
119points
#26
The gene for six fingers is dominant, five fingers recessive.
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113points
#27
Almost 100% of the matter that composes plants comes from the air, not the ground.
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113points
#29
German Chocolate Cake was invented in New York by it’s baker Samuel German who wanted to do his version of a Black Forest Cake
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108points
#31
A tablespoon of oil can calm about half an acre of water. It spreads out to form a layer 1-molecule thick on top of the water. That's why oil spills are so harmful and destructive. The largest oil spill (BP) was about 61,488,636,185 tablespoons, or about 68,000 miles of damage.
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97points
#32
In the US, the dash lines on highways are generally 10 feet long, not 2-3 like most people assume.
94points
#33
There are more ways to arrange a deck of cards than there are atoms on earth.
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93points
#34
In a group of 23 random people, the probability of two of them sharing a birthday is over 50%.
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91points
#35
In the 1920s, Hawa‘ian music was the biggest selling category of sheet music.
88points