15 Random Facts That Will Actually Leave You Dumbfounded

Random facts are sometimes a great opportunity to show off your education. Besides, it’s always great to enjoy showcase your knowledge during small-talk. Not to mention being an erudite inspiration to everyone around you.

We at Bright Side have collected these pieces of bewildering information for you. And many of them are far from common knowledge.

• Twins can be born 87 days apart. Though, hopefully, these cases are really rare.

• Without saliva, we are not able to enjoy any of the flavors of our meals. Just try to wipe your tongue with a paper towel until it’s dry and then try your favorite food. Surprisingly enough, your taste receptors won’t work, and the food will have no flavor.

• A Giant Squid has a donut-shaped brain, with the esophagus running right through the hole in the center. So when it eats, the food literally passes right through the hole in its brain.

• A lost or knocked-out tooth has better chances of being saved if it’s put back into the socket immediately after the accident, while the injured person waits for medical assistance, whether it’s a child or an adult tooth. If this isn’t possible, try to put it in cow’s milk within 5 minutes. In this case, the root’s cells remain preserved for about an hour.

• There is a simple reason why our shoelaces untie so quickly no matter what we do. It’s all because of the gravitational force acting on the knot with every step is surprisingly high: up to 7 G. This means it is 7 times higher than normal. For comparison, the most powerful roller coaster in the world produces a g-force of 6.3 G.

• The moving dots or “worms” you see when staring at the sky or something very bright are created by white blood cells flowing through the eyes. But it’s completely okay to see them. Besides, they normally disappear after a second or less.

• Though the letter “Z” is the last one in our alphabet, it was “J” that was added to it the last. Until 1524 it was just a fancy way of writing the letter “I”. And only later did the 2 letter forms become 2 separate letters with 2 separate sounds.

• The apples you buy in the supermarket are not fresh — they are one year old. Usually, many fruits are put in cold storage before making their way to the supermarket.

• It might sound weird, but starfish don’t have blood or a brain. They use seawater instead. So starfish blood is actually filtered seawater.

• Premature babies are almost twice as likely to be left-handed rather than right-handed.

• Leeches are multisegmented annelid worms with 10 stomachs, 32 brains, and a few hundred teeth.

• It took about a hundred years till the first smiles started to become the standard expression in photographs. Some say that people were so serious back then because it took too much time to capture a photograph. However, others say it was all because of dental problems, which were very common in those days.

• There are hundreds of different phobias out there. But some of them are pretty unique. Like pogonophobia, which is the fear of beards.

• Sloths, the laziest and slowest animals in nature, can do only about 40 yards in one day. However, they happen to be ridiculously good swimmers. Their speed in the water is 3 times better, compared to land.

• Polydactyly is a genetic disorder that causes a person to have additional fingers on their hands or feet. If at least one parent has this trait, each child has a 50% chance of inheriting it.

What other facts were you truly surprised to find out? Which of them affected you personally? Please share some knowledge with us in the comments below.