Really Interesting Stuff You Don't Need to Know Mega Edition
Over 3,000 Fascinating Facts
Description:... With added illustrations !!
Do you love trivia and interesting facts? This is the be-all, end-all mega fact book with over 3,000 fascinating and educational facts including periodic illustrations to add even more to your enjoyment. It combines volumes 1 and 2 of Really Interesting Stuff You Don't Need to Know along with brand new facts and covers a wide range of subjects: animals, arts, history, literature, miscellaneous, movies, science and nature, sports, television, U.S. geography, U.S. presidents, and world geography. For example:
- In 2009, physicist Stephen Hawking threw a champagne party for time travelers. He didn't put out invitations until after the party hypothesizing that if someone showed up, it would be proof of time travel. No one came.
- Mount Chimborazo, Ecuador is closer to the Moon than any other place on Earth. It is 20,548 feet elevation but very close to the equator, so the bulge in the Earth makes it 1.5 miles closer to the Moon than Mount Everest.
- Over the last 20,000 years, the size of the average human brain has shrunk by about 10%. There are no clear answers why.
- The first concept of the atom was developed in the 5th century BC. Greeks Leucippus and Democritus called these particles atomos, meaning indivisible, and the modern word atom is derived from this term.
- Male pandas perform a handstand when they urinate. By doing the handstand, they get their pee higher up the tree allowing their scent to be carried further and increasing their mating chances.
- Wombats are the only animal in the world with cube shaped poop. It appears to be due to the irregular shape and elasticity of their intestines.
- In 18th century England, pineapples were so rare and such a status symbol that a single pineapple could sell for the equivalent of $8,000 today, and you could rent a pineapple for the evening to show off to guests.
- With an estimated 500 million copies sold, Don Quixote is the best-selling fiction book of all time; A Tale of Two Cities is second at about 200 million copies.
- An elephant has 40,000 muscles in its trunk; there are about 640 muscles in the entire human body.
- Adjusted for inflation, The Exorcist (1973) is the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time in the United States.
- Wi-Fi doesn't stand for anything. It doesn't mean wireless fidelity or anything else; it is just a branding name.
- A penny dropped from the 1,250-foot Empire State Building wouldn't kill a bystander below. Due to air resistance, the penny would reach its maximum speed after falling only about 50 feet. When it reached the ground, it would only be moving 25 mph, enough to hurt but nowhere near enough to kill.
- Under the Articles of Confederation, there were eight presidents prior to George Washington; each served a one-year term.
- There are more insects in one square mile of empty field than there are people in the world.
- Play-Doh was originally created as a wallpaper cleaning putty to remove coal dust in the 1930s.
- The first published use of the word hello was in 1827; hello is a relatively recent word and was initially used to attract attention or express surprise; it didn't get its current meaning until the telephone arrived.
- Huh is the closest thing to a universal word. It means the same thing in every language, and everybody in almost every language says it.
- Koala bear fingerprints are virtually indistinguishable from human fingerprints, even with careful analysis under a microscope. They have the same loopy, whirling ridges as humans.
- Nebraska has the most miles of rivers of any state; it has four major rivers - Platte, Niobrara, Missouri, and Republican.
- The Sun has made about 20 orbits around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy in its life.
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