Not all facts seem intuitive. Some take people by surprise or feel strange even after knowing them for a while. The reasons for this may vary from limited knowledge of the area, something having very different features from other things of a similar kind, to our senses perceiving something in such a way that it is tempting to the mind to draw some false conclusions, as is the case with various optical illusions, such as one line looking shorter than the other when that isn’t the case. People are sharing these kinds of facts, answering one Redditor’s question: “What’s something that sounds completely illogical but is actually correct?”
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#1
Aluminum is infinitely recyclable and one of the worlds most recycled metal
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194points
#3
Sloths can hold their breath under water longer than dolphins
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165points
#4
Mail is still delivered via donkey to a place at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
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164points
#5
The double-slit experiment in quantum physics, where you're firing electrons at a barrier with two slits. Logic suggests you should see two lines on a screen behind the barrier, but instead, you get a pattern like waves interfering with each other, implying each electron goes through both slits simultaneously.
Yet, if you observe which slit they go through, the electrons revert to acting like particles, forming only two lines, as if they 'know' they're being watched. It's a mind-bending phenomenon that sounds illogical but is scientifically proven.
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150points
#7
You hear your own voice differently than others, that's why a lot of people get shocked when they listen to their own recordings.
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145points
#8
Water expands when frozen but almost everything else contracts when frozen
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143points
#10
Inflammable means flammable
127points
#11
There is a nerve that connects your brain to your larynx (voice box), but first it goes down your neck, into your chest, and under your aorta before coming back up.
Giraffes also have it despite the length of their necks.
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110points
#12
The US Army tried a "Camel Corps" in the Southwest, in the early 19th century, mostly as pack animals or using for mail service, as far West as southern California; when the Civil War interrupted their experiment, they sold the camels off, but some escaped. As a result there were feral camels at one point in the Angeles National Forest.
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108points
#13
Both the moon and Sun are about 400 times farther from Earth than the sizes of their respective diameters. This means that the moon will block out, or “eclipse,” anything behind it that has the same ratio. This is the “cosmic coincidence” that makes solar eclipses possible.
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107points
#14
Spaces between words weren’t introduced until the 7th to 9th centuries, with more widespread adoption occurring in the 10th century.
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105points
#15
It took decades after the invention of the can to invent the can opener.
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102points
#17
We live closer in time to the reign of Cleopatra than she did to the building of the pyramids.
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97points
#18
If you have 23 people together in a room there is a 50% chance that 2 of them share a birthday (same day and month, not necessarily the same year).
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87points
#19
Hmm, did you know that technically speaking, a strawberry isn't a berry, but a banana is? Sounds weird, but it's true!
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85points
#20
If your mayonnaise is too thin add more oil to thicken it. Emulsions are weird.
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82points