I got an e-mail with the topic 36 facts you may not know. My wife and I know that number 9 is wrong, and I’m just curious about the rest. I think they’re right, but just in case…
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
The longest one syllable word in the English language is “screeched.”
On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament
building is an American flag.
All of the clocks in the movie “Pulp Fiction” are stuck on 4:20.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or
purple.
“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt.”
All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the
back of the $5 bill.
Almonds are a member of the peach family.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”
tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
Los Angeles’ full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los
Angeles de Porciuncula.”
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert
the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube
and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Mr. Rogers (from the children’s’ show) is an ordained minister.
The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
“Stewardesses” is the longest word that is typed with only the
left-hand.
There is only one word in the English language that has a completely
different meaning depending upon whether or not it is capitalized: polish
vs.Polish.
Well,some of those statements were explored and/or refuted in that thread, but only those that the OP’er thought were questionable.
I know that #8 is not strictly true. While “screeched” is one of the longest one-syllable words in the English language, it is not the only one. The word “strengths” is also nine letters long, with only one syllable. Also, it is the longest word in the English language with only one of the five main vowels (A,E,I,O,U).
I’m sure some math whiz can figure out the veracity of this statement, but I’m no math whiz.
**
It’s been a while since I’ve been to D.C., But doesn’t the actual Memorial have the states’ names going around the Memorial, not just on one side? If my recollection is true, then this statement would be false. Looking at the $5 bill in my pocket shows 11 names just above the pillars, and I can’t make out anything else.
**
I can’t find a cite, but I’ve heard before that this isn’t true.
**
I remember reading this…
in a Stephen King book. I think that may be the origin of this “fact.”
**
Well there’s the capital of a state, and then there’s the Capital building in Washington D.C. The word kinda changed its meaning there with just a capital letter.
5. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
A shark (or rather some sharks) are the only fish which even have eyelids!
**6. There are more chickens than people in the world. ** True. The site mentions that “8.459 billion ‘broiler’ chickens” were killed for food in 1998.
14. Almonds are a member of the peach family.
False. Both peaches and almonds are members of the Rosaceae family (there is no “peach family”). However, peaches belong to the subfamily Prunoideae, while almonds belong to subfamily Rosoideae (which also includes roses proper).
19. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
False (but close). Only 30.
**20. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. **
True. The ostrich has the largest eyes of any (extant) terrestrial vertebrate.
**21. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. **
True.
29. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
True. A giant squid’s eye measures 10" in diameter.
**35. “Stewardesses” is the longest word that is typed with only the left-hand. **
Not by me it isn’t…
18: True. Almost every day, I used to walk by the official plaque with that name on it, right on the site of the Zanja Madre. It is now Olivera Street, a crappy tourist site.
<<21. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. >>
My cat has black and white fur, and under his fur, his skin is dark and light as well. He has spots on the roof of his mouth, too. Stands to reason other cats would be the same way.
25 and 26 aren’t true. The other thread talked about dragonflies living for weeks/months. I’ve kept goldfish for years - they can definately recall things that happened more than three seconds ago. There are a few threads about that, but here is one I made a post on.
If you use a dollar coin, and consider that “making change.” Else, it’s 292.
But that’s not correct, either.
The half-cent, two-cent piece, three-cent piece, and 20-cent pieces are still all legal tender, though you’re not likely to receive one in change (and it would not be good economic sense to use them at face value). With those coins, the combinations (or is it permutations?) go into the many thousands.
31 - It is true. The guy was working on a RADAR set and just died this year.
34 - False. I think it used to be true, all balls did have the same number. Now they vary the size, shape and dimple count for differing balls to affect aerodynamics.
Not quite true. Something I read years ago on the subject of a rhyme for “month” contained this bit of doggerel:
Among our numerous English rhymes,
They say there’s none for month.
I tried and failed a hundred times,
And did it the hundred-and-oneth!
If you can get a copy of the book “101 Dalmations”, there is a chapter titled “The One-hundred-and-oneth Dalmation”. In America, we’d say “one-hundred-and-first”, so I guess that this is an example of British vs. American English.