Reddit user u/ExpiringFrog lulls his daughter to sleep, not with a bedtime story or a lullaby, but with pieces of interesting facts. You know, inquisitive kids are really fond of trivia and tidbits of surprising facts. Whether it’s a fun fact or even a weird one, kids will surely appreciate any piece of amazing knowledge. But even our vast repository of knowledge has its limit. So when this particular father ran out of interesting facts to tell his eager daughter, he decided to ask for help from his fellow Redditors.
When he posted his dilemma on Reddit five months ago, many Reddit users immediately came to his rescue. With over 20,600 responses, interesting facts that most of us don’t even know keep on piling up. Not just for kids, even adults would also be delighted to read this thread. Now, this father has an endless depot of interesting facts to impress his daughter. We’ve picked out 40 of the most interesting facts from the thread that will surely blow your minds.
The_First_Viking:
“Some species of burrowing spiders keep teeny tiny frogs in their burrows to keep it free of bugs too small for the spider to get that might try to eat the spider’s eggs. This means that tiny frogs are spider cats.”
janello710:
“Maybe not mind-blowing, but sometimes dogs/wolves in movies need CGI tails if they’re supposed to be acting mean [because] they’re so excited to be doing a good job acting that their tails can’t stop wagging.”
McDoogles:
“In Switzerland, it’s illegal to own just one guinea pig; if you have any, you have to have at least two. They get lonely!”
DoctorWho426:
“Sea otters hold hands when they sleep and have a favorite rock to hold onto in a secret pouch.”
DoctorWho426:
“Oxford University in England is older than the Aztec empire.”
luxylove916:
“Animals that lay eggs don’t have belly buttons.”
babiferari:
“Dogs can tell when you’re coming home by how much of your scent is left in the house if you have a daily routine”
pumpkinadvocate:
“Cows have ‘best friends’ and get stressed when separated.”
-eDgAR-:
“Humans are bioluminescent and glow in the dark, but the light that we emit is 1,000 times weaker than our human eyes are able to pick up.”
Pacot33:
“The Lichtenstein army went to battle in 1866, during the Austro-Prussian War with 80 soldiers and came back with 81. They befriended an Austria man along the way and he joined them.”
Delica:
“Most elephants weigh less than a blue whale’s tongue!”
lovealwayscharlie666:
“Tigers have striped skin.”
pumpkinadvocate:
“Wombat poop is cube-shaped.”
B3ximus:
“The name for the Arctic comes from the ancient Greek word for bear – arktos. Named after one of the constellations Ursa Major (Big Bear) or Ursa Minor (Little Bear), but there are bears living there too. So basically, the Arctic is called ‘Bear’, and the Antarctic is called ‘Not Bear’”
swil-phift:
“Scotland’s national animal is a unicorn.”
calibrateichabod:
“Cows get excited when they solve puzzles.”
Consequence6:
“If you choose to not have children, you’re the first person in your direct line of ancestry to make this choice since the first organism to exist on Earth, about 4 billion years ago.”
gruenoms:
“From the time Pluto was discovered until the time it was demoted from planethood, it still hadn’t made one complete revolution around the sun.”
Consequence6:
“Adwaita, a giant tortoise who died in 2006, was born before the United States existed in 1750.”
SinusMonstrum:
“When a bee is chosen to be the new queen, they are given a special type of honey that completely changes their bodies. Kind of like how a Pokémon evolves.”
calibrateichabod:
“When a cat walks towards you with its tail up that means it likes you and is excited to see you.”
AmerisaurausRex:
“A day on Venus takes longer to complete than a year on Venus. How? It simply takes longer for Venus to do one complete rotation around its own axis, than it does for the planet to rotate around the sun.”
DoctorWho426:
“There were wooly mammoths on the planet when the Pyramids were being built.”
unknown:
“Bees tell their friends about good nearby flowers by dancing.”
phillybookwoman:
“Before 1914 parents could mail their kids to Grandma’s – through the postal service.”
Leifur311:
“Lobsters were considered disgusting and low-class food, to the point that feeding them to prisoners too often was considered cruel and unusual punishment. Also, they’re basically just big sea roaches.”
DoctorWho426:
“The frequency of a cat’s purr has been shown to improve bone density and strength.”
D-Evolve:
“Pufferfish are full of water….not air.”
Bluelabel:
“Bananas are berries, but strawberries aren’t.”
swil-phift:
“At birth, a baby panda is smaller than a mouse.”
McDoogles:
“There’s an island in Japan populated by fluffy bunnies!!”
Consequence6:
he Moon’s diameter is 400 times smaller than the Sun’s. However, the Sun is 400 times further away. This is why we can have both solar and lunar total eclipses.”
crucible:
“There is a bank in Italy that trades entirely in Parmesan cheese.”
DoctorWho426:
“The pyramids were ancient when Cleopatra was around.”
The-Goodest-Boi:
“Cashews come from a fruit.”
Consequence6:
“Sharks predate trees.”
DoctorWho426:
“A blue whale’s heart is as big as a Volkswagen beetle.”
Truffle__Fries:
“Kangaroos can’t walk backwards.”
CryoWreck:
“Otters have skin pockets for their favorite rocks.”
Toykio:
“There is the term ‘rubberducking’ which is used by programmers to help them find mistakes. They explain their problem to a rubber duck and by doing so often find a solution.”
This article was originally published on Awesome Inventions.