People Explain Which Facts May Sound Fake But Are Absolutely True

A lot of us enjoy discovering unusual and wild facts, but honestly, sometimes the facts we discover are so out there, we struggle to believe they are true.

Some of us even become angry when we discover something is true, because it’s so hard to believe!

Redditor ejaybugboy asked

“What’s a terrifying fact that keeps you up at night?”

Some enjoyed thinking about the days of the week.

“Here is the etymology of the days of the week in English:”

“Sun’s Day”

“Moon’s Day”

“Tir (Tew)’s day”

“Odin (Wodin)’s day”

“Thor’s Day”

“Freya’s Day”

“Saturn’s Day”

“Two celestial bodies, four Norse gods, and suddenly one asshole from the Roman pantheon for no godd**ned reason. What the f**k is Saturn doing there?” – IronOhki

“I like how they’re called in Serbian:”

“• Utorak (Tuesday) – Taken from old Slavic and means ‘second.’”

“• Sreda (Wednesday) – Means ‘middle.’”

“• Četvrtak (Thursday) – Means ‘fourth.’”

“• Petak (Friday) – Means ‘fifth.’”

“• Subota (Saturday) – Derived from the word ‘sabbath.’”

“• Nedelja (Sunday) – Means ‘not to work,’ or ‘the day when you don’t work.’”

“• Ponedeljak (Monday) – Literally means ‘after Nedelja,’ or ‘the day after the day when you don’t work,’ because laziness is on a whole other level here apparently.’” – TheCosmicSound

Others were more interested in wild animal facts.

“There are more privately owned tigers in Texas than there are wild tigers on the rest of the planet combined.” – j_flameIV

“Crocodiles can climb trees.” – MoravianPrince

“A flock of crows is called a murder. But a flock of ravens is called an unkindness or a conspiracy. Who even comes up with this s**t?” – thweet_jethuth

“Pretty much anything to do with naked mole rats. They are neither related to moles nor rats, they can use their teeth like chopsticks, they have the social hierarchy of bees, and oh yeah, THEY ARE COLD-BLOODED.” – JustAProxyForLurking

“In the cat family, cats can either roar or purr, but can’t do both. It’s to do with the structure of the throat.”

“Cheetahs can’t roar, but I hope you find some solace in the thought of them purring happily.”

“Incidentally, cheetahs are different from other big cats in another way too – they can’t retract their claws completely.” – Lenaandcats

Some were concerned about animal breeding for profit.

“English Bulldogs can’t mate naturally. The males are literally physically incapable of mounting the females, so they either have to be helped to do so, or the females are artificially inseminated.”

“The puppies are always delivered via cesarean section since their skulls would not fit through the birth canal. They will then live their entire lives with compromised breathing.”

“But you know, they’re so cute! With their little squished in faces and their adorable snorting!”

“Sorry… I get angry when it comes to purposefully breeding broken animals.” – kabjl

“Persian cats often have breathing problems and blocked tear ducts.”

“Breed two polydactyl (double pawed) cats together and you get kittens with eyes set very far apart and crooked front legs.”

“Intentionally breeding animals to create features people consider cute or fascinating at the expense of the animal’s health should be treated as animal cruelty.” – useatyourownrisk

There were crazy food facts, too.

“Bananas are berries but strawberries are not berries.” – NikiF**kingLauda

“Raspberries, blackberries, and boysenberries are also not berries.”

“Wanna know what else is a berry? A watermelon.” – Grayseff

Some had a lot of fun talking about words.

“Cannoli is already in plural form. The singular form is Cannolo.” – JimDumb22

“Coolth is an actual word and it’s the opposite of warmth. I love using it but my girlfriend fucking hates it.” – mackenzicles

“The terms ‘hardwood’ and ‘softwood’ have nothing to do with the actual hardness of the wood, but what kind of seeds the tree produces.” – Penguin_Out_Of_A_Zoo

“Inflammable and flammable mean the same thing. ‘Flammable’ is not considered a scientifically acceptable term for things-that-catch-fire-easily. ‘Inflammable’ is the proper term and comes from the word inflame.”

“But flammable caught on because inflammable sounds too much like resistant-to-being-caught-on-fire, which is potentially quite a dangerous misunderstanding.” – Guinefort1

“The word ‘Helicopter’ is not made up of the words ‘Heli’ and ‘Copter,’ but rather ‘Helico’ and ‘Pter,’ which are Greek for ‘Spiral’ and ‘Wing.’” – Zaptagious

“That ‘unlockable’ means both: Able to be unlocked AND Unable to be locked.”

“My 11-year-old pointed this out, and I had nothing for her other than a blank stare and then thinking, ‘Well, s**t. Good job.’” – jenfers

Some were interested in grammatically-correct sentences.

“The fact that this sentence is grammatically correct: ‘All the faith he had had had had no effect.’” – WoodyPoleSmoker

“Get ready:” 

“‘James, where John had had ‘had,’ had had ‘had had;’ ‘had had’ had had a better effect on the teacher.’ is correct.” – halatian6

Two Redditors knew a fun fact about potato chips.

“All crisps (chips for any Americans) in the UK go out of date on a Saturday. It annoys me because a smug friend pointed it out and i have been unsuccessful in proving him wrong.” – Rossco1874

“I had to Google this and found this from Walkers…”

“In the manufacturing sites, we work on production weeks which start on a Sunday. All product produced in that week will have the same Best Before date. As the week ends on Saturday, the Best Before date will always end on a Saturday.” – IsItMeYourLooking49

One Redditor described what would happen if sawdust was mixed with water.

“If you mix water and sawdust and freeze it, the resulting ‘ice’ melts extremely slowly. like, ‘weeks at room temperature’ slowly.” – btaylos

Some were entertained by unbelievable science facts.

“The fact that in an electric circuit, even though the electric current is electrons moving from negative pole to positive pole, the definition of a current flow is that it moves from positive to negative.”

“And similar misses in definitions in physics/science that was just decided to stay because changing definitions would be confusing at first.” – Versalis_A

Though some of the Redditors struggled to believe these facts were true, there was no arguing these facts were fascinating.

It’s an amazing reminder there is something new and fun to learn lurking around every corner.

People Share The Best Trivial Facts They’ve Picked Up On The Job

Random knowledge is always being thrown at us and there are some things we’d never hear about if not for our jobs.

The workplace can be one of the best places to learn and thrive.

Case in point, I learn everyday from reading threads like this. I gather knowledge about science, geography, humanity, murder—the list is endless.

It can be useful and useless all at once. And that’s fun.

Redditor HugSized wanted to discuss all of the random knowledge many of us pick up in the workplace.

They asked:

“What trivial fact do you know only because of your job?”

Let’s get ready for Jeopardy…

A Special Time of Season

“The reason many TV shows have ‘holiday special’ episodes is because TV viewership is very low the week of Christmas but if they call it a special they don’t need to include it when they calculate their average ratings for the season.”

“Also the day Americans watch the least amount of TV is the 4th of July.”  ~ thisisanewusername57

Inch by inch by inch…

“Tulips will continue to grow, on average, two inches more after they’ve been cut. Generally not while they’re in cold storage, but once they’re in a warmer environment.” 

“Usually the entire flower will get bigger. They will grow in length, but also as the petals open the petals will become larger as well.”

“Taking them out of cold storage will make them continue to grow, and do they!”

“I think it’s the cells becoming larger as they get warmer. Like they expand and contract with temperature and light.”

“A lot of flowers will open in light and close in dark. There is a point of no return.” ~ marefo

“As someone who worked in floral making arrangements for a while, tulips have become my least favorite flower to work with.”

“Those flimsy ass stems that just flop over because they’re so top heavy, and since they tend to grow at different rates, it is hard to use them in arrangements.”

“Plus the soil is always packed into their leaves, leading to dirty water if you happen to miss a spot when cleaning them.”   ~ amugnai

Buying. Selling. For a bit. 

“The average length of a Real Estate Agent’s career is about four months.”  ~ Bunktavious

“I lasted three years. I didn’t have the money to pay the Realtor fee at the time or the car to impress.”

“Then I moved out of town, got divorced, spent a whole year broke before I was back on my feet, with other 9-5 entry level positions.”

“I’ve wanted to get back into it but with such a bad market where I live and the necessity to make money asap, it is a hard decision.”  ~ LLL84

Better to Breathe

“Babies born vaginally tend to have less respiratory distress than babies via c-section of the same gestational age because the squeeze through the birth canal helps get amniotic fluid out of their lungs.”  ~J ohnnytucf

“This saved my nephew.”

“He would have died if delivered cesarean but being born vaginally, the squeeze pushed his intestines back through the hole in his diaphragm and into his abdomen allowing his lungs to expand.”  ~ neinta

“Also the sudden change from chilling in their own pee to suddenly being squeezed, relatively slowly, through a very small space causes a release of stress hormones which also help absorb fluid in the lungs as well as triggering breathing.”

“Babies born through C-section don’t get as much of that stress.”  ~ kjhwkejhkhdsfkjhsdkf

Shopping in Secret

“In the state of Nevada, only licensed private investigators are allowed to work as mystery shoppers.”  ~ cattemonstre

“I had a secret shopper twice in a row.”

“He was making sure we checked IDs. I asked for his ID when he ordered, gave me a green card indicating I passed, I gave that to my manager, started talking to him.”

“Saw him again the next month, said hello and just asked for his ID before he said anything.”

“He just smiled again, gave me another green card and I bought him an appetizer so he could just sit and relax a bit.”  ~ illgot

“Based on my experience, I think mystery shopping companies that operate in Nevada recruit current PIs to do mystery shopping work on the side, rather than encouraging aspiring shoppers to get licensed.”

“The locations being shopped also have somewhat higher security needs (stores and restaurants in casinos, etc.), so that might have something to do with it.”  ~ cattemonstre

For the price of ink…

“You know those vintage looking shirts at the store that are distressed on the print. It saves the company a ton of money on ink costs.”

“My boss says that trend is what made him a millionaire.”  ~ PlopsMcgoo

“Also makes it easier to print/less waste.”

“Didn’t get solid pressure all the way through the push? No problem, it’s distressed. Didn’t flood the screen fully in one spot?”

“It’s ok, distressed. Pretty much any error is easily hidden in a distressed design.”

“When you need crisp, sharp lines is where errors become majorly obvious and any error can mean recording and printing a new shirt.”  ~r edebekadia

Gimme your grade…

“The most common type of stainless steel is grade 304. The second most common is grade 316, which is used for food and surgical purposes.”  ~ mycatiswatchingyou

“Most common because it’s the cheapest grade of stainless steel, 316 has higher quantities of more expensive elements, 321 more so.”

“You can then kick it up a notch and look at Duplex and Super Duplex stainless steels if you have the budget and the need.”  ~ KarmannosaurusRex

Food Prep Areas

“Ground moles have kitchens just like us!”

“They will paralyze earth worms (their primary food source) by biting its head and will drag the worms to a designated burrow where they store the bodies to save for later.”  ~ GraeBabe

I’lll just take two of these…

“So many companies will let you walk in say ‘I’m with the computer company’ and walk out with a computer.” ~ SirPasta117

“I’ve seen this work at a tech company. Had more than a dozen developers hand their laptops over to a random guy with a cart.”

“I’m from IT doing a laptop upgrade, here to collect the old ones”

“From the security footage, one of the devs ran after the guy to stop him… to hand over the charger that goes with the laptop.”

“We only found out when we started getting angry calls a few hours later from developers demanding to know how long the replacement was going to take.”  ~J uan_Golt

Head Held High! Moooo!

“Cows have a tendon running down the back of their necks that holds their head up.”

“It’s called a paddy whack and you can dry it out and give it to dogs like a rawhide bone.”

“That’s the source of Knick knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone.”  ~ ellipses1

Well that is a ton to process. I don’t know if I’ll ever make an episode of Jeopardy! but it’s good to have knowledge tucked away.

It can be fun to just blurt out random facts at a party.

You know when we do, people might be inspired to follow up in research. And then we’re all learning.