The world, and our brains, are crammed full of facts. Some facts are helpful, some not so much. But here I’ve collected a handful of facts you didn’t know you needed to know.
Turtles can breathe through their butts
I’d like to thank Frozen 2 for this gem of a fact. Olaf is correct when he says turtles can breathe out their butts. Not all turtles, but a lot of turtles. You wouldn’t want to fart and breathe in at the same time.
Would you be able to bring air in and out at the same time? And if they can breathe through their butts, does that mean they could fart out of their mouths? Or would a fart out of the mouth just be a burp?
Now I mention it… I’m not even sure turtles can burp… I quickly looked it up and I’m delighted to confirm that turtles can burp.
The hair is strong in you
I’m not sure any of us appreciate how strong the hair on our heads is. A single strand of hair might look thin and weak but it can actually support the weight of roughly 100 grams.
I guess if we ever run out of string we can just use our hair instead!
cube poop
It wouldn’t be a not-so-romantic blog without at least some mention of poo.
Wombat poop is cube-shaped. At least you’ll know who pooped your lawn if it was cubed.
two fears only
When we’re born we are born with only two fears. A fear of falling and a fear of loud noises. Every other fear we have is learned.
But how do we learn those fears?
We learn to fear if we have a direct experience with danger. But we also learn them from those around us and warnings from others.
I wonder if that means that if someone has two parents who are scared of spiders, they will also be scared of spiders.
Interesting thought.
A lot of toast
I don’t know about you but I really enjoy a slice or ten of toast in the morning- usually with marmite on.
If you ever needed to make a lot of toast at the same time because you were having a huge toast party then look no further than lightning.
The average bolt of lightning contains enough power to turn roughly 100,000 pieces of bread into toast.
Cone hotline
In the early 1990s, there was something known as the cone hotline in the UK. This was a number people could call if they saw a traffic cone on the road for no reason.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the hotline was disbanded after three years with a grand total of zero phone calls.
o.m.g
It seems everywhere I go the phrase “O.M.G” follows. But here’s a fact you didn’t know you needed to know. The first written evidence of “O.M.G” was in a letter to Winston Churchill in 1917.
moo?
Did you know cows have accents? A whole research project took place and it was found that cows from different parts of the country have slightly different moo’s.
A-moo-sing right?
Oh, and cows also have best friends.
Nostril
Most people only breathe through one nostril at a time.
As you read that you tried it right?
Have you ever noticed that when you have a cold one nostril feels more stuffy (or runny) than the other? That’s because we do 75% of breathing through our nose in one nostril and only 25% in the other.
We also swallow a litre of snot every day. Actually, I’m not sure I needed to know that.
salt
The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean. I’m not expanding on that.
Tight parking
It sounds so unbelievable that it is difficult to believe. But you can fit all the Solar System planets between the Earth and the Moon. You do have to tilt Saturn and Jupiter to squish them in though.
The average distance between the Earth and the Moon is about 384,400 km, which is probably further than you imagine.
what to read next
If you’ve enjoyed this not-so-romantic blog, then here are some blogs I recommend you read next.
- Cool facts about dinosaurs
- 10 mindblowing facts about space
- 10 facts you didn’t know about the Romans
Thank you for reading this not-so-romantic blog, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it and hope to see you again soon!
See ya!