12 Cool Facts That Completely Changed Our View of the World

During school lessons, we often looked into the window and didn’t listen to the teachers that tried to explain to us how the world worked. And when we came back home from school, we’d turn the TV on to watch some popular music videos, cartoons, or play video games and we didn’t notice some very important details.

We at Bright Side decided to learn some facts that we missed when we were kids.

1. Flames don’t cast a shadow.

Flames don’t have a shadow because they are a source of light. This is why a wall or an obstacle where a shadow would be, will be covered in firelight unless there’s a brighter light source.

2. Tape makes matte glass transparent.

When light falls on the rough surface of matte glass, it gets scattered, this is why the glass is dull. The transparent tape has a smoother surface than matte glass, so the light gets less scattered and the glass becomes transparent.

3. A yellow bottle cap means the drink has special ingredients.

You’ve probably seen soda bottles with a yellow cap on them. This is how the manufacturer marks the special kosher version of the drink with beet sugar whereas the classic soda contains corn syrup.

4. Finger skin wrinkles in the water to help make our lives easier.

Wrinkling helps our fingers hold wet objects with better adhesion. And the wrinkles appear because the blood vessels under the skin become narrow.

5. If you search 241543903, you will see photos like this.

Try this — Google 241543903. You will see lots of photos of people putting their heads into the freezer or the fridge. David Horvitz was the first person that posted a photo like this with this unique number. He started a movement. The number 241543903 is the combination of David’s fridge serial number and the bar codes on the packs of beans he had in his fridge.

6. Buddha’s head is covered with 108 snails, not hair.

The ancient legend says: Buddha went for a walk, started meditating, and didn’t notice the Sun go high in the sky and start burning his head. Snails got on his head to protect him from the sun. While the snails cooled his head down, the Sun dried out the snails themselves and they died.

7. Bananas and cucumbers are berries, and strawberries are not.

In botany, a berry is a certain type of fruit with thin skin and a juicy middle that always has seeds inside. This is why grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, bananas, chili peppers, and eggplants are technically berries. But strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are actually nut fruits.

8. The houses in SpongeBob are made of trash.

As the fans of SpongeBob SquarePants noticed, the shapes of the houses in the cartoon are very much like car mufflers people threw away into the ocean.

9. Mario doesn’t smash anything with his head.

Many people remember Mario the plumber that saves his friend Princess Peach. We’ve always thought he broke things with his head but more attentive fans noticed that Mario always used his fist to do it. And we’ve noticed that the clouds are the exact same shape as the bushes.

10. Texts were sent with Microsoft Excel in a popular music video.

You probably remember this video from the beginning of the 2000s when only celebrities could afford smartphones. This is why nobody noticed that Kelly Rowland tried to send a text through Microsoft Excel.

11. The Egyptian sphinx has a tail.

Many people have seen the famous face of the sphinx on the pages of history books but few people know that it also has a tail.

12. How old were you when you found out that in the center of any cards with an eight, there’s a silhouette of the number 8?

Share the discoveries you didn’t make until you were already an adult? Tell us in the comment section below!