I Totally Forgot About These 22 Fun Facts Even Though I Learned Them In Elementary School
Even if you don't remember, we learned a lot in our days in elementary school. When people reminisce about grades K-5, they often retell stories about happenings throughout the school day. What we learned from those years is rarely discussed because it seems so basic now as adults.
For this post, I spent a lot of time studying elementary school packets, quizzes, fun fact pages, study guides, and other materials for elementary-grade students that unlocked some wild information I had totally forgotten about.
So, I gathered a list of some amazing facts related to history, the human anatomy, space, etc., that are still pretty mind-boggling as an adult. Here's what I wanted to share with the rest of the class:
(If you do remember this stuff, good on you!)
1.The two countries with the largest populations in the world border each other.
2.A million Earths could fit into the sun.
Disney
This one we learned early on in elementary school, but I never really thought about it as an adult. We take the word "million" for granted. The circumference of the earth is about 25,000 miles.
I can feel my multiplication skills stressed by all the zeros.
3.Only humans have chins.
4.A human nose is capable of detecting a trillion different smells.
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If I was on a game of Family Feud, I would buckle under the pressure and not be able to name a single smell. A TRILLION? Hats off to our little sniffers.
5.Venus is the only planet that spins clockwise.
6.Neptune's days are 16 hours long.
Kurdistan Planetarium / YouTube / Via gfycat.com
Neptune's faster rotation results in shorter days.
Imagine how much it would suck to have an eight-hour workday and then go right to sleep. No thanks.
7.Human fingernails grow FOUR TIMES as fast as human toenails.
FOX
Cells are constantly being produced in fingernails, resulting in their speedy growth. They produce slower in toenails. I blame the pinky toe but have no science to back that up.
8.Abraham Lincoln was a pro wrestler.
9.The number four is the only number (in English) with the same amount of letters.
iamcardib / Tenor / Via tenor.com
F-O-U-R. Four letters for four. Four for four. My brain hurts.
I definitely recall an elementary school teacher sharing this and making us prove them wrong. This is the epitome of a useless fun fact.
10.Anchorage is NOT the capital of Alaska.
11.The United States and Canada share the longest border in the world.
12.Chlorophyll turns sunlight into food for plants.
Universal Pictures
It is also what causes the green pigment in plants. In general, learning about plants was a snooze-fest for me in the lower grades, but the more I relearn, the more I appreciate botany.
It's such a basic fact, too, and I forgot!
13.Sharks are boneless.
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Their bodies are made up of a cartilaginous skeleton, which is lighter than bone. That's why you never see a shark skeleton in museums and only ever see the jaws and teeth.
14.More than an estimated one-third of Europe's population was wiped out thanks to rats* (but, maybe humans).
15.The Gulf of Mexico is the largest gulf in the world.
16.There are only three basic types of rock.
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I don't know why this one shocked me so much. There are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. So, that's 5,000 known materials that can be separated into three groups.
Please correct me if I'm wrong in the comments, my knowledge of the subject is a bit...rocky.
17.Algebra dates back to the 9th century.
18.Submarines are "boats," not "ships."
19.A human eyelash doesn't stay attached longer than a year.
Nickelodeon
The average lifespan of an eyelash is three to five months. As someone with a pretty thick beard, it's hard to believe there is no thicker individual hair on the human body than the eyelash.
20.Shrimps' hearts are in their heads.
21.We can create any color by mixing two different colors.
Interregional Program Service
This one feels a little cheap because it all depends on what colors you have available. In reality, two primary colors make secondary colors.
22.For six-sided dice, opposite faces always have a sum of seven.
NafiTDS / Tenor / Via tenor.com
I forgot about this little trick back when we used dice for counting:
1+6=7
2+5=7
3+4=7