Some, like mathematician Roger Antonsen, believe that numbers are the key to understanding the world. (Antonsen even gave a brilliant TED talk to explain this statement, which I highly recommend.) And there's a Reddit thread that vividly illustrates the point.
It started when platform user JustinMGH made a post, asking others to share facts and stats that sound like obvious exaggerations but actually aren't.
Immediately, people started delivering fascinating, weird, and even disturbing titbits of information, changing each other's perspective about everything around them, even if ever so slightly.
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The difference between million and billion is huge (relatively):
1 Million seconds = 11 Days
1 Billion seconds = 31 years
The budget to send to the Curiosity Rover to the Mars is less than the worldwide military expenditure for thirteen hours
Cleopatra was alive closer to the Moon landing than she was to the construction of the great pyramids.
I’ve heard this one a hundred times and it blows my mind every single time… what a history
USA citizens privately own more firearms than all countries combined. Even more than most militaries.
Pocahontas and William Shakespeare died less than a year apart less than 150 miles away from each other.
Barbara Walters, Anne Frank, and Martin Luther King Jr were all born the same year.
The original height of Mount Everest was calculated to be exactly 29,000 ft high, but was publicly declared to be 29,002 ft in order to avoid the impression that an exact height of 29,000 feet was nothing more than a rounded estimate.
1 in 2 Australians will get skin cancer in their lifetime
Neutron stars are so dense that if you dropped a gummy bear from one meter away it would hit the surface in a microsecond with the force of 1,000 nuclear bombs.
The state of Maine has more Black Bears than black people.
This does actually appear to be more-or-less correct, depending on the estimation of the bear population and the accuracy of the first Maine demographic statistics which popped up in a quick web search. Also, with the same caveat, there seems to be approximately one black bear for every square mile of Maine.
Vatican city has a population of 2 popes per 1 square kilometer.
Vatican City is about 0,5 square kilometre big (or small), having 1 Pope on half a square km equals 2 Popes per square km.
How else are you supposed to measure the inside area of a Volkswagen beetle?
Load More Replies...This is not correct, and hasn't been so since Pope Francis was en-popened. There are currently two popes in the Vatican (the current pope - Francis, and the pope emeritus - Benedict). Vatican City is 0.49sqkm in size. This means that per square km, there are 2/0.49 popes, or 4.08 popes.
I thought it was darth vader in the background at first because of the shape
No, he only comes around for tea on fridays.
Load More Replies...I know its pedantic but its actually 4.55 popes per square km. Vatican city is only 109 acres or .44 sq km so the density is actually higher. Density stats for very small areas and very large areas when combined with very large or very small number of individuals are meaningless because they skew horribly. On the other end of the spectrum, density stats say the sun doesn't exist. The sun is .0047 AU wide and the solar system is 79 AU wide for a density of .00000594 suns per solar system.
I know it‘s pedantic but there are only two popes living at this time. Franziskus & Benedikt.
Load More Replies...If they bring back the Inquisition, they can play good pope/bad pope on the perp.
Vatican City also has the most crime per capita than any other city on Earth. It has a tiny permanent population from which per capita statistics are calculated, but attracts a huge amount of tourists and pilgrims. The crowds are a Mecca (pun intended) for pickpockets and other criminals, so the number of recorded crimes per year is far greater than the number of permanent residents.
I'm so tired that my blurred eyes saw the pope with DARTH VADER on his shoulder... I really need to sleep
We don't tend to count them because they're not actually buried anymore, I keep them in the closet and take them out for our tea parties.
Load More Replies...But popes are like matter. Just like you cant' have matter and antimatter in the same place, you cant' have a pope and an antipope at the same time in Vatican City. They would instantly annihilate each other.
The state is only around 0,5 km² big and has 1 pope - that means statistically there are 2 popes per full km²
Load More Replies... More silent films have been lost than saved
We live in an era where everything is saved, and it's hard to imagine such a massive loss of creative material. Plenty of films are lost, as late as the 1970s too.
Monsters Inc was released closer to the fall of the Berlin wall than to the present day.
All the ants in the world weigh about the same as all the people in the world.
Also, they work extremely hard and live only about 8 days, while turtles don't do shït and get to live 150 years. Let it sink in.
Nintendo existed at the same time as the Ottoman Empire.
You could walk from North Korea to Norway and only pass through one other country.
Also, your feet would be a little sore.
Radio astronomer here! You exert more energy when you unfold a single piece of paper than we have collected in *all* the radio waves we have *ever* collected from outer space.
In a room with 23 people there is a ~50% chance that 2 people share a birthday
According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, every two days human beings create as much information as we did from the dawn of time until 2003.
The same facts that BP has posted 20 million times before. This s**t has been posted over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Annoying af
I try posting new articles and for whatever reason BP just won't publish them. Wonder how many people try and get the same results.
Load More Replies...9 US states have more cattle than people. Texas is not one of them due to being very populous but Texas has more cattle than there are people in 45 states and DC.
A light bulb, which is known as the Centennial Light, has been burning at a Livermore, CA firehouse since 1901. It is very rarely turned off, which accounts for its longevity, since turning bulbs off and on contributes to wear and tear. To put it in perspective, this bulb has been around longer than powered flight, and was shining all through the Chicago Cubs' notorious World Series drought.
The same facts that BP has posted 20 million times before. This s**t has been posted over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Annoying af
I try posting new articles and for whatever reason BP just won't publish them. Wonder how many people try and get the same results.
Load More Replies...9 US states have more cattle than people. Texas is not one of them due to being very populous but Texas has more cattle than there are people in 45 states and DC.
A light bulb, which is known as the Centennial Light, has been burning at a Livermore, CA firehouse since 1901. It is very rarely turned off, which accounts for its longevity, since turning bulbs off and on contributes to wear and tear. To put it in perspective, this bulb has been around longer than powered flight, and was shining all through the Chicago Cubs' notorious World Series drought.