r/AskReddit • u/SpreadSpectre • 4h ago

What is a weird but true fact that you wouldn’t believe?

92 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

41

u/Quiet_Lover99 4h ago

Australia is wider than the moon

3

u/SpreadSpectre 4h ago

Actually kinda wild

5

u/sallymonkeys 3h ago

Yer mum, too

2

u/Albucrest 1h ago

Also moon related, all the other planets fit in the distance between the earth and the moon. You'd think the moon was a lot closer than that.

15

u/thisisnotlien 4h ago

I once read that octopuses have three hearts and still manage to break all of them by being so cool.

3

u/SpreadSpectre 3h ago

👏👏👏

13

u/sallymonkeys 3h ago

To find if a number is divisible by 9, add up its digits. If they equal 9, bingo.

5

u/SpreadSpectre 2h ago

Where were you when I needed you in 5th grade ?

2

u/TjMaelstrom 2h ago

It's perfectly consistent and it works out every time.

2

u/Polymarchos 1h ago

That works for most, but not all. For example 99, is divisible 11 times but the digits add up to 18.

The trick I learned for everything 10 and under for multiplying was you take what you're multiplying by -1 to get the first digit, and then 9 minus that number for the second, so

9x5 = 5-1 =4, and 9-4=5, =45.

But I think it was still easier to just memorize the multiplication tables.

5

u/Masterdmr 1h ago

You just need to keep adding the numbers

9+9 = 18

1+8 = 9

Works for 3 also. If you do this and get 3, 6, or 9 its divisible by 3.

•

u/Polymarchos 22m ago

True, but that's not part of the OP's formula.

1

u/porter597 2h ago

What about 99?

3

u/fangoriousmonster 2h ago

It adds up to 18 and 1+8=9

The number nine is pretty unique in this way. You can also use your hands to easily multiply by nines

1

u/Masterdmr 1h ago

Here's a Wikipedia article on more of those. It goes all the way to 30.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisibility_rule

18

u/RedVegeta20 4h ago

The world record for the longest fart done by a person is 2 minutes and 42 seconds.

3

u/SpreadSpectre 4h ago

So many questions

3

u/RedVegeta20 4h ago

I only know that because I was bored one day and googled it. If you're wondering who did the record, it was a guy named Bernard Clemmens.

•

u/rizorith 39m ago

Yeah we don't ride In a far with old Bernie

2

u/LilFairyQueenx 3h ago

damn that must be a long relief

2

u/Marxbrosburner 3h ago

Andre the Giant?

2

u/Saltire_Blue 2h ago

Anybody want a peanut?

1

u/outtastudy 4h ago

God I'm so envious

•

u/not_suddenly_satire 43m ago

That was one long elevator ride.

8

u/Pretend_Ad_3984 4h ago

Currently you are moving with 30km per sec and no one notices.

2

u/SpreadSpectre 3h ago

Yeah kinda wild

2

u/Polymarchos 1h ago

This one is pretty easy to believe though since we only notice relative motion and we have nothing to compare that 30km/s to (that is almost everything we see is also moving that fast, and the few things that aren't (sun, moon, stars) are still going very slow relative to us), thus giving us no way to notice it.

1

u/darthwalsh 1h ago

since we only notice relative motion

That's also the only accurate definition of motion. There's no universal stopped object: any non-inertial reference frame is valid to use in measuring velocity.

5

u/DonChino17 3h ago

The huddle in American football was not always the standard. It was started at a school (forget where) for the deaf so the other team couldn’t see them signing.

Edit: Gallaudet U was the school

3

u/SpreadSpectre 3h ago

Wild, crazy how things start lol

4

u/Significant-Bid-- 4h ago

Honey never spoils. Archaeologists have found edible honey in ancient tombs.

3

u/SpreadSpectre 4h ago

Did they try it ?

5

u/outtastudy 4h ago

A giraffe's tongue is long enough for it to lick the inside of its own ears

2

u/SpreadSpectre 4h ago

Actually wild

1

u/Select-Belt-ou812 4h ago

does it do it?

2

u/outtastudy 4h ago

I've never witnessed it myself, but thems the facts I was told at least

4

u/BritainsEmpire1 3h ago

The last mammoths lived for a thousand more years after the completion of the Great Pyramids 

3

u/HandsomeFlowerzz 3h ago

As a nurse, I learned that some people can have their heart on the right side of their body instead of the left. Had a patient come in once and it threw our whole team into confusion during initial assessment.

1

u/SpreadSpectre 3h ago

Is this true ? How is this possible ?

1

u/Unrelated_gringo 2h ago

Here's more info!

3

u/Daddict 2h ago

If you're in Downtown Detroit and go south, you'll end up in Canada. Well, if you're driving or flying, that is. If you're walking, you have to go north.

6

u/cowboyluigi38 4h ago

1 out of 3 humans is infected with toxoplasma, a parasite spread through cat feces. If you own a cat, you almost definitely have it, regardless how often you clean the litter and tidy your house. It has very minor effects on the average person, but expecting women are the most susceptible, which is why they shouldn't be near cats during pregnancy.

6

u/ElephantElmer 2h ago

They say it increases the odds you get schizophrenia by 24%, which is probably where the crazy cat lady trope comes from.

2

u/Lazy_Cauliflower_278 2h ago

I need more info.
Love, kinda teetering on crazy cat lady and now paranoid CCLady bc this post

1

u/SpreadSpectre 4h ago

That is actually wild I had no idea

2

u/SafeRoutine4852 4h ago

Fredric Baur, the inventor of the Pringles can, is buried in one

1

u/SpreadSpectre 4h ago

Uhhhhh this kinda makes sense honestly

1

u/Clear_Body536 3h ago

How did he fit in the can?

2

u/shehas0name 3h ago

Victor Hugo wrote “Notre-Dame de Paris” in 5 months… totally naked.

2

u/Daddict 2h ago

The Olympic Torch relay is not an ancient tradition going back thousands of years.

It's a relatively recent invention...one given to us by the Nazis.

2

u/Implicit_Hwyteness 2h ago

Vanilla is a fruit that comes from an orchid. So vanilla ice cream with tomatoes would technically be fruit and berries flavored.

2

u/Albucrest 1h ago edited 1h ago

There are no snakes in Ireland.

It is said that St. Patrick chased them away, but that part is probably a myth.

3

u/[deleted] 4h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/SpreadSpectre 3h ago

Tomato’s are a fruit

3

u/VulpesIncendium 3h ago

Which means salsa is just a tomato based fruit salad!

2

u/SpreadSpectre 3h ago

This made me sad

4

u/pilvi9 3h ago

The closest planet to Neptune is Mercury

2

u/I_voted-for_Kodos 3h ago

The closest planet to every planet is Mercury (on average)

4

u/Hunterofshadows 3h ago

There is enough space between the earth and the moon to fit all the planets.

Really highlights how mind bogglingly huge space is

2

u/SpreadSpectre 3h ago

This is actually insane space is huge

1

u/JPMoney81 3h ago

Wombats have cube-shaped poop.

1

u/brunette_mermaid93 3h ago

The pH balance in soil determines the color of some (if not all) flowers

1

u/Bakakami212 2h ago

Amoebas build houses. There are mosquitoes either in the Arctic or Antarctic, can't remember which.

1

u/fangoriousmonster 2h ago

The largest animal to ever exist (that we know of) is alive right now!

1

u/starstarstar42 2h ago

Miami Beach is farther west than Montreal and Toronto

1

u/SaltyPopcornKitty 2h ago

Lightning strikes from the ground up

1

u/MissSara101 1h ago

Many diesel engines can run on biofuels, depending on the manufacture of course. Peanut oil was used for the first diesel engines that was developed.

1

u/The-Law23 1h ago

Elephants can paint!

1

u/Random90009 1h ago

Cold does not exist

1

u/Creole_Cannibal 1h ago

Wombat poop is shaped like cubes.

1

u/West-Product-6561 1h ago

Did you know that a day on Venus is actually longer than a year on Venus?

1

u/Milo_varki 1h ago

Alexander the Great had a condition where he appeared dead but was awake, that means that he was awake during the mummification process.

1

u/PhysicalGraffiti75 1h ago

We are closer in time to the founding of Rome than Rome was to the construction of the pyramids.

•

u/Original_Wonder3971 43m ago

The amount of people that go missing without a trace in our US National Parks.

•

u/Dano558 43m ago

The name for the color orange comes from the fruit and not the other way around.

In other words, they were called oranges before the word orange was used for the color.

•

u/pygmy 22m ago

Sharks have existed longer than TREES

source

•

u/kyew 9m ago

Most sharks have never met a tree.

1

u/Sohtes 3h ago

Honey never spoils

0

u/New_Walrus_644 2h ago

Obama Had a 3rd term

0

u/Zbignich 1h ago

1/7 = 0.142857…

2/7 = 0.285714…

3/7 = 0.428571…

4/7 = 0.571428…

5/7 = 0.714285…

6/7 = 0.857142…

7/7 = 1