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You know what they say: knowledge is power. 

Learning is crucial to our existence – think of it as sustenance for the mind rather than the body. It helps us develop new abilities, perspectives, and values; it gives us a feeling of accomplishment and unveils endless opportunities; it boosts our confidence and allows us to engage in the most random conversations.

Some might argue that with the development of the good old internet, basking in new things doesn't feel as necessary perhaps as it would have before – however, now that knowledge is at everyone's fingertips, why not learn a fact or two to impress a couple of your pals? 

What is your go-to fact that blows people’s minds?” – this netizen turned to one of Reddit’s favorite communities asking members to share their go-to facts that never fail to impress others. The thread has managed to receive over 12K upvotes, as well as 9K worth of comments and mouth-opening statements. 

More info: Reddit

#1

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group I just learned this: there are more castles in Germany than McDonalds in the U.S.

itijara , IMBiblio Report

#2

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group When it's so quiet you can hear snow falling, you're actually hearing the static discharge of the snowflake hitting the ground. It gathers the electricity while it's falling to Earth.

KeithCSchatz , James Mann Report

#3

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group A graveyard is connected to a church while a cemetery is not.

FirstBankofAngmar , Jörg Weingrill Report

#4

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Oxford University existed 250 years before the Aztecs existed. Oxford University first opened in 1096, the Aztec period was from 1345-1521. Oxford University is second only to the University of Bologna for continuous operation.

WhozTheDaddy , Chris Rycroft Report

#5

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Greenland sharks can become up to 400 years old and don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re 150

AggravatingDriver559 , Hemming1952 Report

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Jihana
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And they are poisonous. That's why the Icelanders of old let the meat rot ("ferment") in the ground for a few months and then let it air dry. It does not taste as bad as it sounds, but it's still disgusting.

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#6

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Sharks have been around longer than the rings of Saturn.

Edit: It's an easy Google. The rings of Saturn formed no more that 100 million years ago, we know what they are made of, how fast they move, and the rate of decay. Sharks have been around for about 450 million years. We have fossilized records of this.

itsmyfrigginusername , leah Report

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Emerald Ocean
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is why we need to protect sharks. We can and still are learning so much from them.

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#7

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group that sahara desert used to be under the ocean, and you can still find seashells in the sand there

breadcrumb1996 , cattan2011 Report

#8

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Neptune was originally discovered as apparently inexplicable changes in the orbital path of Uranus. Because a man named Le Verrier observing these alterations decided that there must be an orderly reason for it, he calculated where another planet would have to be to cause Uranus to act like that, and still keep the laws of gravitation discovered by Sir Isaac newton. He then sent his calculations to Royal Observatory in Berlin, and the prediction was within 1° of its actual position.

JaywrightCat , Kabsik Park Report

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#9

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group The beginning of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony sounds like this: "di-di-di-dah".

That is the Morse code representation of the letter V: (...-)

V is the Roman numeral for five.

Purely coincidence, as the Fifth was written 40 years before Morse code was invented.

dittybopper_05H , Thomas Quine Report

#10

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group The Goonies go underground on the exact same day (Saturday, Oct. 26, 1985) as Marty travels back in time to 1955.

misterfriend , Warner Bros. Report

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#11

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group All the Botox in the world, literally every gram, is produced in a factory in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland.

RedditIsAShitehole , Rodolphe Breard Report

#12

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group you know when you get up too fast and feel dizzy? squeezing/stiffening your buttocks together stops the dizziness.

eggypotato- , Masa Israel Journey Report

#13

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group There are more trees on planet earth (~3 trillion) than there are stars in our galaxy (~800 billion).

Note it says our galaxy (the milky way), not the entire universe. Still I find the sheer number of trees on our planet impressive

Dependent-Status-880 , Rich Kenington Report

#14

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Whales are closer to artiodactyls (even toed hoofed animals) than they are to seals or manatees.

Whales are *essentially* just wet deer with extra steps.

magcargoman , Jose Antonio Navas Report

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Bunzilla
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Check out pictures of the Kutchicetus. It was a whale ancestor, and it's pretty weird to look at and then imagine it somehow turning into a whale. Heck, it's just pretty weird looking period. Further back and even less whale-looking was the Pakicetus.

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#15

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Ancient Egypt and mammoths existed at the same time.

Sir_Scizor20 , Chris Hunkeler Report

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In the historically accurate film 10,000 BC, the Egyptians used mammoths to move the huge blocks needed for the construction of the pyramids. The film is cheesy as hell but I love it.

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#16

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Tamales are one of the oldest dishes on earth still commonly eaten today.

BitPoet , kinwart Report

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#17

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group As an Italian in the us it’s that Pepperoni actually would mean peppers in Italy and has absolutely nothing to do with thinly sliced meat.

Only-Possibility-114 , MattCC716 Report

#18

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group George Washington died in 1799.

Dinosaurs were discovered in 1824.

George Washington didn't know dinosaurs existed.

DrySoap__ , David Kryzaniak Report

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not quite right. Fossils have been known about for many many years. Some people collected them. Nobody seriously thought to classify them. Up until 1824. When fossil studying got serious.

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#19

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Giraffes have the same number of neck bones as humans.

KingKimoi , virtualsphere Report

#20

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group In Volkswagen’s official Parts catalog, one of the official Volkswagen parts, with its own part number (199 398 500 A), is a currywurst sausage they serve to their staff in Wolfsburg, Germany.

199 398 500 B is ketchup.

Brotherbeam , RoadOver Report

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BasedWang12.3
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"The product has been described as the most produced of any of Volkswagen's parts, some 6.81 million sausages being manufactured in 2018. In many recent years the company has produced more sausages than cars."

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#21

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group When airline pilots are trained to fly a new type of jet, the first time they fly it is with paying passengers on board. All the training and testing is done in a simulator.

Of course they have a lot of flight time in other airplanes and there is a specially qualified training captain in command. However my first jet takeoff was LAX-DEN with 68 unsuspecting passengers.

usmcmech , alex lang Report

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#22

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group The Earth is traveling through space at 2.1 million km/h (1.3 million mph) relative to the cosmic background radiation. Which means by the time you finished reading this, you've travelled roughly 8,700km (5,420 mi) through space.

AngryBuddha01 , TheMuuj Report

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But how does that work when we live on a flat Earth and the Moon is a projection created by the Illuminati?

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#23

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group You can see your nose all the time.

It is always within your field of view, unless you force your eyeballs to roll up as far as they go.

Your brain filters it out of your perception to save resources, but if you pay explicit attentio to it (as you may be doing now), it becomes obviously visible.

Do not despair, tho.. after a brief time, you forget about it and it "disappears" again.

RandomStuffGenerator , AbbyD11 Report

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$cagsy
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What else is my brain hiding from me? Could be a whole 'nother dimension out there that we aren't seeing because our brains don't think we're ready. Could be fairies and stuff. Even I don't know if I'm ready for fairies but it's the principle.

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#24

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group The earth's crust (which is too deep for humans to drill through, much deeper than the deepest ocean) compared to the rest of the planet is similar to the skin of an apple compared to the rest of the apple.

Relevant-Charity9689 , jon collier Report

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Cubbypotato
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I heard this when I was little and did not understand it. I always got scared if my dad or older brothers were digging in the yard hoping they would not fall into lava.

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#25

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Black apples exist.

We tend to think of apples as being red, though there are, of course, some popular green and yellow varieties. But did you know there are also black apples? Called Black Diamond apples, they're found in Tibet and are from the Hua Niu family of apples, also known as Chinese Red Delicious. Aside from the black outer color—actually an extremely dark shade of purple—these apples look just like other Red Delicious apples, down to the white flesh inside.

Ok_Zucchini_4303 , Forest Starr and Kim Starr Report

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#26

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group The gene for six fingers is dominant, five fingers recessive.

D0fus , andrea castelli Report

#27

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Almost 100% of the matter that composes plants comes from the air, not the ground.

teabagalomaniac , Herry Lawford Report

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Frances M
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Water and minerals come from the ground but the carbon and other elements come from the air, that’s why a 1,000 ton tree is a bigger carbon sink per square meter of land then anything else. But the biggest land based carbon sinks are actually grass land and bog land because they turn that CO2 into soil through composting, think peat lands…

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#28

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group Moose are naturally attacked by orcas.

BernieceTAnderson , Bryce Bradford Report

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Moose like to swim, and can swim between islands looking for food. Then comes the Orca! CHOMP!

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#29

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group German Chocolate Cake was invented in New York by it’s baker Samuel German who wanted to do his version of a Black Forest Cake

signaturefox2013 , Mikel Ortega Report

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Ace
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Everyone knows what Black Forest Gateau is, who's ever heard of something called "German cake"?

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#30

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group "OMG" usage can be traced back to 1917.

GoGreenOnEm , Ben Chun Report

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Taibhse Sealgair
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Even more surprising is that it was first found in a letter that the British admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher a British statesman named Winston Churchill.

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#31

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group A tablespoon of oil can calm about half an acre of water. It spreads out to form a layer 1-molecule thick on top of the water. That's why oil spills are so harmful and destructive. The largest oil spill (BP) was about 61,488,636,185 tablespoons, or about 68,000 miles of damage.

deqb , GPT Environmental Report

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Curly potato
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I doubt anyone here will know what I'm talking about, but they did this experiment on the show Duck Quacks Don't Echo. Worth watching, it's very entertaining! Besides, you can't get any funnier than Lee Mack :D

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#32

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group In the US, the dash lines on highways are generally 10 feet long, not 2-3 like most people assume.

Color09 , Doug Kerr Report

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They should start painting them in metre lengths. The colonies WILL learn to use metric.

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#33

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group There are more ways to arrange a deck of cards than there are atoms on earth.

stocksNcrpt , Erwan Martin Report

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Curly potato
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Those look a little like dixit cards. By the way, I highly recommend dixit to anyone who hasn't played :)

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#34

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group In a group of 23 random people, the probability of two of them sharing a birthday is over 50%.

pizzaninjatx , Dark Dwarf Report

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Amanda Jayne
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I married someone with the same date of birth as me. It was not a good reason

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#35

35 Random Jaw-Dropping Facts, As Shared In This Online Group In the 1920s, Hawa‘ian music was the biggest selling category of sheet music.

lapsteelguitar , Franklin Park Library Report

Note: this post originally had 37 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.

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