People Share Things That Are Not as Old as We Thought

We sometimes find ourselves scratching our head, trying to make sense of things when we find out some surprising new facts. For example, finding out that sharks are actually older than a whole feature of an incredibly old planet in our galaxy. It can be somewhat mind-boggling.

We at Bright Side were pretty surprised to find out the age of some of these things, and we would like to share them with you.

1. Sharks are older than Saturn’s rings.

You would think that something like Saturn’s rings would be older than an entire species on earth, but no. Sharks are actually way older, about 350 million years older to be exact. Recent research has shown that the rings are only somewhere between 10 million to 100 million years old, while sharks are actually 450 million years old.

2. The Tower of London is 400 years older than Machu Picchu.

During the Incan Empire, around 1450, Machu Picchu was ordered to be constructed by the Incan King, Pachacutec. It is a very old construction, but not older than one of England’s most historic castles. The Tower of London dates back to 1066, making it a 900-year-old historic monument.

3. Grass started growing just before the meteor hit that wiped out the dinosaurs.

If you thought that some dinosaurs probably ate grass, you are wrong. A lot of dinosaur movies help contribute to that idea, like Jurassic Park, for example, has lots of scenes with grass in it. Even though that is not a scientifically accurate movie, it creates a very vivid image in our heads. Well, it turns out that grass came into existence just before the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs hit.

4. Wheels on luggage came after the first Moon landing.

Now, if you were asked which came first, I’m willing to bet your answer wouldn’t be as straight-forward as you might’ve thought. It’s quite impressive that the Moon landing came before the innovation of putting wheels on luggage. Its first patent was only registered in 1972, 3 years after the moon landing. We’re guessing that they probably didn’t roll their luggage onto the spacecraft.

5. There were no standard paper sizes before the 1900s.

Paper, as we know it, wasn’t always regulated. In the early 1900s, DIN(German Institute for Standardization) was the first to introduce an internationally recognized standardized size of paper, called DIN 472. The standard size of paper is now DIN EN ISO 216, which is basically the A-paper series.

6. The first-ever high five appeared in 1977.

Since it is such a popular way of congratulating someone or celebrating a small victory, you would think that the high five was a pretty old gesture. However, it, surprisingly enough, only came to be in 1977. It happened in a baseball game between the LA Dodgers and the Houston Astros.

The outfielder for the dodgers hit a home-run and while celebrating his teammate lifted his hand up in the air, and since the outfielder didn’t know how to react, he slapped it.

7. The television is older than the chocolate chip cookie.

Chocolate chip cookies are delicious, and eating a chocolate chip cookie while watching our favorite TV show is pretty satisfying but until the late 1930s, this wasn’t possible. The invention of the chocolate chip cookie happened a whole century later after the television. The first televisions, which were mechanical, date back to as early as the 1800s.

8. Wearing a white dress to your wedding didn’t become popular until the 1800s.

It’s quite interesting to think that before Queen Victoria debuted her white wedding dress in 1840 at her own wedding, wearing white wasn’t exactly the norm. Before this, brides got married in any color they fancied.

9. Knowing what the sun is made of

We only recently found out that the Sun is made out of hydrogen and helium. It was first shown by Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, in her thesis, that the Sun was composed of these 2 light-gases. It was assumed to be wrong because, before this, it was presumed that it had a composition similar to the Earth.

10. Pluto wasn’t truly discovered until 1930.

The search for the existence of this dwarf-planet started in 1905. Its discovery was announced in February of 1930. Clyde Tombaugh took photographs of the same part of the sky several days apart, and with the help of a certain tool, he managed to detect the now known dwarf-planet.

11. Soft toilet paper only came into existence around 1930.

It’s a bit mind-boggling, but soft toilet paper wasn’t a reality until just a century ago. Before that, toilet paper used to have splinters. Can’t imagine what that would have been like, right?

12. Hallways didn’t become popular until the 1800s.

Before, hallways were commonly used as a means of circulation and all rooms were connected. For example, room doors would open into other rooms, and people would often have to pass through those rooms to reach one that was even further away. This can be seen in some mansions and palaces, and it’s called an Enfilade.

13. Phones are much younger than vending machines.

Phones are very old, but vending machines, however, are older. Around 870 years older. The first phone came into existence around 1200 years ago, and it was much different than it was today. It first showed up as a cord that united 2 gourds (which is a fruit). The first vending machine is much older. It was one of Heron of Alexandria’s invention’s during his lifetime, about 2,000 years ago.

Do you know of anything that people usually think is recent, but that is actually old? Let us know in the comments!