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In the world of fake news, shams, and bogus claims, it’s hard to tell a fact from fiction. And you simply get used to doubting things. You read "unicorns exist" and the mind detects deceit. But what if I tell you they’re just bulky and we call ‘em rhinos? Sounds about right.

So when someone on r/AskReddit asked what fact sounds fake at first but is actually real, redditors rolled up their sleeves. 26K upvotes and 14.3K comments later, we have the finalists of these mind-boggling facts ready down below. Get ready to get that trivia muscle pumped up for the next game after quarantine is over. After you're done, take a look at our previous lists of crazy-sounding facts here.

#1

Ancient sailors believed that cats were magic and would often risk their own lives, even in an "every man for himself" situation, to save a cat from a sinking ship. All ships had at least one ship's cat as cats would eat the rats that have always plagued ships. The ship's cat would often be given a rank and sailors would generally take excessively good care of their cats.

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#2

Cheetahs can't roar. They meow like house cats.

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#3

Because the number of possible combination of genes isn't infinite, there are probably at least 7 humans that looks the same as you.

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#4

The sun is so loud, if space was filled with air instead of being a vacuum, we'd be hearing screeching sun noises at 125 decibel at all times.

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#5

T-Rex (~64 million years ago) is nearer to now in years than it is to Stegosaurus (~151 million years ago)

Images depicting them fighting are very very wrong.

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#6

The founders of Adidas (Adi Dassler) and Puma (Rudolf Dassler) are brothers.

..and their HQs are literally next door to each other in Germany.

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#7

That most of the oxygen on earth doesn’t come from trees. It’s comes from plankton in the ocean

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#8

Distance from USA to Russia 4 kilometers

This fact is always amusing.

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#9

One horse is actually 15 horsepower.

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iseektheunvanquishedtruth avatar
zims
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When you team them up their horsepower goes exponential, too

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#10

Pocahontas and Shakespeare lived during the same time

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Kaisu
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sometimes it's hard to kind of understand when different historical things happened. Like for an example, when Jesus lived, the Stonehenge was already a ruin

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#11

President Coolidge got sent a raccoon for Thanksgiving one year, but instead of eating it, he granted it a pardon because it was "cute"

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#12

Lyrebird's imitations will seriously sound exactly like the thing they're trying to imitate. If they imitate a chainsaw, you will think it's a chainsaw. It sounds like a perfect recording.

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#13

Jack the Ripper was still active when Nintendo was founded

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#14

A lot of the earliest war gods were actually goddesses.

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mph seti
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Before the three main Abrahamic faiths took over the western world, there were lots of Goddesses. It's a shame...

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#15

There isn’t a single bridge across the amazon river.

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#16

Astronomer here! The coldest place we know of in the universe is actually... on Earth!

To explain further, the coldest places we know of that naturally occur in the universe are inside dark nebulae with little to no star formation, and thus no starlight to heat things up. The coldest one known so far is the Boomerang Nebula, where the temperature has been measured as low as 1 degree above absolute zero (−272 °C or −458 °F). However, we regularly get below this temperature in labs on Earth! Specifically, absolute zero is at –273.15°C (or –459.67°F) and labs on Earth regularly get to within a tenth or even a hundredth of a degree of that.

Pretty cool!

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#17

It takes about 3-4 generation before your entire existence is completely forgotten (assuming you don't invent the cure for cancer or discover the fifth dimension or anything like that)

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Caroline
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it's sad to think that one day I'll be completely forgotten. I know it's life and it's normal, but still.

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RaroaRaroa
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have photos on my wall going back 5 generations from my daughter. My dad has compiled a family tree that goes back further, so they won't be completely forgotten.

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Jim Ellington
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is before the internet. Now your duckface selfies will be remembered for eons.

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Nia Loves Art
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Three generations would be your grandkids. That seems too short a timeframe. I know who my great grandparents and some of my great great grandparents were because my own parents and grandparents grew up with them.

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Eddie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Every year in December I participate in Wreaths Across America where a is laid upon the tombstone of a military service member. Their name is said out loud so they are never forgotten.

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djinnjeannie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you mean by people who actually knew you sure, but that would the same no matter you invented (or killed). I never met any grandparent beyond “great” but I’m still aware of the existence of several generations back. I know their names, where they lived, what they did for a living.

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Lynda Momalo
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's part of the reason that I have been tracing my family history for decades. I feel like I'm giving some of them new life by being remembered. I trace back each line as far as it can go. I have many, many lines I've traced back to 1000 AD (my self-imposed cut off.) I find as many little facts as I can about them in order to get some idea of what they were like as individuals.

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Stannous Flouride
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But your good works and positive behavior can echo down through the generations to come.

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NMN
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I grew up hearing about 4 gen up (great great grand parents or grandparents' grandparents to be easier) and I intend on telling future offspring about it, so it all depends on the family.

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Disa Marnesdottr
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

MyHeritage is up on my other monitor. I have my family tree back 8 generations in every line, 9 in most lines, and 10 in about half. Anne Ebbesdotter, born in 1558--you are not forgotten! Now...which Ebbe was your father?

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Vicki Stafford
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Rubbish. Lots of people remember their great-grandparents and know quite a bit about their great-greats

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Rei
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Which brings us to the question of why Jesus is still so well known to mankind from about 2000 years ago. Born in an insignificant small country in a ghetto, and crucified innocently. He should have been forgotten long long ago, yet he is still around. And alive. Think about it.

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Full Name
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All the music and literature you think is soooo important now will also be soon forgotten.

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#18

Netflix was founded before Google

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#19

Iran arrested 14 squirrels on suspicion of espionage

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#20

Orcas are a natural predator to moose

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#21

You can fit all the planets in our solar system touching end to end between Earth and the moon.

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#22

There is no Date between 03-Sept-1752 to 13-Sept-1752,

Checkout the September Calendar of 1752. 11 days are missing in the Calendar.

This is due to the fact that we converted our Calendar from Julian to Georgian calendar on 2nd of September 1752.

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Wendy Warner
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not cool for the people who had their birthday between the 03 and 13/09/1752 ...

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#23

It takes 2 years for a pineapple to grow.

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Ben Smith
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It’s an odd looking plant too. Tastes amazing though....but NOT ON PIZZA.

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#24

The guy who sang Peanut Butter Jelly Time died in a police shootout. Also, his brother in law was there trying to talk him out of shooting himself. You know who that brother-in-law was? F***ing Snoop Dogg

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#25

The Ethiopian calendar is seven years behind the rest of the world. Edit; yeah guys it's still 2013 there

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troufaki13
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A little heads-up guys: 2020 is gonna be one helluva year!! Be prepared!

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#26

One ten inch pizza is more pizza than two seven inch pizzas.

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#27

Every Canadian is allowed to get a free Canadian flag from the government. However, if you ordered a flag today you would get it in about 110 years.

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#28

Chickens are one of many species of birds that dont have penetrative genitalia. Read; cocks are cockless. The method of reproduction they use is commonly called a "cloacal kiss" and you can think of it as chickens scissoring, because "bumping holes" is the grossest possible way to phrase chicken sex.

Also chickens are not a flightless species like lots of people think and are generally totally capable of short flight.

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#29

A typical cumulus cloud actually weighs 1.1 million pounds (498,951 kg)

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chi-wei shen
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Let's say it is 500,000 kg. In light of the variable weights that's precise enough.

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#30

That ants don't take fall damage

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Note: this post originally had 74 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.