24 Facts That Cross Too Much Into Common Sense That I Feel Like I've Been Missing Something
Recently, I happened upon a Reddit post started by u/Tikitc that asked "What’s a little-known but obvious fact that will immediately make all of us feel stupid?" I went into it thinking I was a smarty pants and, wow, I'm kind of questioning that now???
1."There's a 'd' in fridge but not in refrigerator."
NBC
2."Tear ducts drain tears, they don't produce them."
3."World Wide Web contains fewer syllables than its intended short form – WWW, thus making the shorter version longer to say."
NBC
4."The word 'helicopter' has two components. They aren't 'heli' and 'copter.' They are 'helico' and 'pter.' 'Helico' (helix) and 'pter' (wing, like with 'pterodactyl')."
5."Percentages are reversible: 8% of 25 is the same as 25% of 8 and one of them is much easier to do in your head."
Legendary Pictures
6."Cats, dogs, and other similar animals can't see directly below their faces because their snout gets in the way. (That's why you have to point out the treat a million times, they're not stupid, the damn thing is just in their blind spot.)"
7."Words that are spelled the same but pronounced with emphasis on different syllables are actually indicative of the part of speech it is. Stress on the first syllable is a noun. Stress on the last syllable is a verb. Examples: CON-tract and con-TRACT. The former is a noun (sign this contract) whereas the latter is a verb (the muscles contract). Same with record, address, impact, object, and a few others."
Nickelodeon
8."If you touch a baby bird, the mother will not reject it. I don’t even know who came up with it."
9."'Thee' and 'thou' were actually the informal forms. The King James Bible used them so that the relationship with God would seem more personal."
Disney
10."Covered bridges are designed with roofs to protect and preserve the wooden structure from the elements. Without the cover they'd last about 20 years, with the cover they can last up to 100. They're not built that way just to look charming."
11."When a nurse gives you an IV, they aren't leaving the metal needle inside your arm, they actually remove that and only a soft plastic tube remains, so you don't need to keep your arm that straight, relax."
12."911 operators have no fucking clue where you are instantly unless you're on a landline. You HAVE to say where you are. It's not our fault movies made you think we have a spy-level video of you in your car. Know your location."
Disney
13."The plural version of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac."
14."When water boils, it is the same temperature no matter how big the bubbles are."
15."St John's, Canada is closer to Rome than it is to Victoria, Canada."
16."There is no 'n' in the word 'restaurateur.'"
Fox
17."Oil paint doesn't dry, it hardens."
18."Coconut milk is not the liquid inside the coconut, that's coconut water. Coconut milk comes from the white flesh inside. The white flesh is pulped or diced and left to soak in warm water. This pulp is then squeezed through a cloth giving you the milk."
19."Just like a dormitory is a place where you sleep, a laboratory is a place where you labor."
Netflix
20."Most cats are like super lactose intolerant, and drinking milk is really, really bad for them."
Disney
21."As you go higher in the atmosphere, you don’t actually get hypoxic (oxygen deficiency) because of lack of oxygen; you get hypoxic due to the decrease in pressure the higher into the atmosphere you go. This pressure is needed to actually allow your body to process the oxygen. Oxygen % is relatively constant throughout the lower levels of our atmosphere."
22."A chipotle pepper isn't its own type of pepper. It's just a smoked jalapeño pepper."
23."The modern keyboard layout is designed to make you type slower. When typewriters were a new thing, they had done the obvious thing and put the most-used letters on the home row. Result? People typed too fast and got the hammers tangled. You’re not an idiot, learning to type fast IS hard. It’s supposed to be!"
24.Finally, "You don't actually bite down. You bite up because of your lower jaw."
Hulu
