Rare and interesting facts from all over the planet. Unbelievable and scary facts about the things that surround us

A new book for kids from National Geographic cites a lot interesting facts which many of you probably did not know about. By the way, the book is called "5000 amazing facts (about everything) 2". If you need to show off your mind in the company or start some kind of discussion or conversation, these Interesting Facts can help you. We replenish our stock of erudite.

(50 photos total)

1. In 1889, the Queen of Italy, Margarita of Savoy, ordered the first pizza delivery.

2. In Japan, you can buy eel-flavored ice cream.

3. In Portugal it is considered indecent to write in red ink.

4. Although rarely seen in the wild, the red lynx is the most common wildcat in North America.

5. The tail of a cat contains almost 10% of all bones in its body.

6. The gecko has millions of tiny villi on its paws, which stick to surfaces with the help of a special chemical bond, which allows these reptiles to climb walls and hang, holding on to only one toe.

7. The word "astronaut" comes from Greek words which mean "star" and "sailor".

8. Calcium in our bones and iron in our blood come from the ancient explosion of huge stars.

9. The Nile crocodile can hold its breath under water for up to 2 hours while waiting for prey.

10. Jellyfish in English are called jellyfish - literally "jelly fish", but in fact they are not fish, because they have no brain, no heart, and no bones.

11. The Chinese giant salamander can grow up to 1.8 m in length, making it the largest salamander in the world.

12. Studies have shown that people tend to prefer blue toothbrushes over red ones.

13. Used to be people thought that kissing a donkey would go away from a toothache.

14. Scientists claim that the best time to take a nap - between 13:00 and 14:30, because that's when the drop in temperature in our body makes us sleepy.

15. Due to the change in the rate of rotation of the Earth over time in the era of the dinosaurs, a day consisted of only 23 hours.

16. Hummingbird wings can beat 200 times per second.

17. On the territory North America more than 1200 water parks.

18. The seahorse can move its eyes in the opposite direction - to find food in the water and spot predators in time.

19. To cook scrambled eggs on the sidewalk requires the sidewalk to warm to 70 ° C.

20. A group of jellyfish is not called a flock, not a school, or a herd. It is called relish.

21. The mass of the Sun is 99.8% of the total mass Solar system, and the diameter is 109 times the diameter of the Earth - the Sun can accommodate 1 million Earth planets.

22. There is no ice on only 1% of Antarctica.

23. The most a big wave the one that was ever swum on a surfboard was the height of a 10-story building.

24. A team of beagle dogs, which are used at 21 airports in the United States, help customs officials find and prevent the entry into the country of about 75,000 illegal items a year.

25. Some apples can weigh almost as much as 2 liters of milk.

26. Corn is grown on all continents except Antarctica.

27. Unlike most fish, seahorses are covered in bony plates rather than scales.

28. Every day you lose 50 to 100 hairs.

29. The second name of the battleship - "armadillo" - means "armored baby" in translation from Spanish.

30. The world's smallest fruit - the achene - the size of a tiny ant.

31. New Jersey has the most shopping centers.

32. Komodo lizards can eat 2 kg of meat in less than a minute. Extra fat is stored in their tail.

33. Not all moons are dry and dusty like ours. For example, Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean beneath an ice crust.

34. Some of the Viking leaders were buried along with their ships.

35. Clouds constantly cover about 60% of the Earth.

36. All monkeys laugh when you tickle them.

37. Spotted hyenas can digest skin and bones.

38. The length of the needle of African porcupines is 3 pencils.

1. The voice of Lajos Kossuth (1890) was recorded on the very first gramophone record.
2. The first US national flag and the first "Levi" s "jeans were made from hemp.

3. Every third American family has a Scrabble game (analogous to the "Scrabble" game).

4. CDs are read from center to edge and written from edge to center.

5. Shoe sizes were invented in 1792 by the shoemaker James Smith.

6. The American 25 cent coin has 119 serifs on the side.

7. There are 293 different combinations for exchanging the US dollar.

8. One good ballpoint pen can write approximately 50,000 words.

9. One of Napoleon's many drinking cups was made from the skull of the famous Italian adventurer Cagliostro.

10. In 1890, figurines of the sage Fukurimi were brought from Japan to Russia. Now we call such figures ... nesting dolls.

11. The Ramses condom brand is named after the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, who, by the way, had 160 (!) Children.

12. The British Imperial Crown has exactly 1,783 diamonds, including the famous "Star of Africa" ​​(weight - 309 carats).

13. John F. Kennedy's rocking chair was auctioned for $ 442,000.

14.In ancient China the best gift the birthday of the parents was considered a coffin.

15. Toilet paper was invented by New Yorker Joseph Gayetti in 1857.

16. The cost of the Rolls-Royce bumper figurine is $ 5,000.

17. The mass of the largest diamond ever found on Earth (before processing) was 3106 carats.

18. The first ballpoint pens went on sale in 1945. The cost of each was $ 12.

19. The first coin issued in the United States was the silver dollar, which was born on October 15, 1794.

20. American John Winthrop first used a fork at the dinner table. It happened on June 25, 1630.

21. The total weight of air in a glass of milk is approximately equal to the weight of one aspirin tablet.

22. In England, the toilet cistern has a capacity of 4 liters, while in France it is 6 liters.

23. Flint for lighters is actually made of cerium, lanthanum, iron, magnesium and copper.

25. The corkscrew was invented by M.L. Brian in 1860.

26. More than 200 types of Barbie dolls are produced in the world.

27. Play gloves are made of llama leather.

28. The violin consists of almost 70 wooden parts.

29. The smallest denomination coin ever minted in Russia - half a half - 1/8 kopeck.

30. Men's skirts are part of the full dress uniform of not only the Scottish military, but also the Greek.

31. In 1850, Levi Strauss sold the first jeans he produced for $ 6 in gold.

32. All American presidents except Gerald Ford and George W. Bush had their own pianos.

33. The first product made of aluminum was a rattle made for the French emperor Napoleon III in the 50s of the 19th century. In addition, Napoleon very often bestowed knives and forks made of pure aluminum to his most honored guests. In those days, aluminum was so rare that its price exceeded the price of gold.

34. In 1880, Procter & Gamble launched new brand white soap. This soap immediately became popular with the Americans, due to the fact that it did not sink in water. The reason for this was initially a technological error in production - an impurity got into the soap mixture.

35. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was advised to make a condom like this: "Buy completely fresh veal intestines from a butcher, immediately thoroughly clean and wash them, disinfect them for safety, for which you can keep them in a mercuric chloride solution for a day, and you can immediately use them."

36. "Black Velvet" is a procedure for checking the quality of the sharpening of razor blades. If the blades are stacked together, the surface formed by the cutting edges should be absolutely black when perfectly sharpened. The slightest defect is revealed by a bright point.

37. The violin has only 4 strings.

38. In India playing cards round.

39. The bra was introduced in the 1900s in the United States.

40. The diameter of Soviet cigarettes is 7.62 mm.

41. In ancient Russia, the sundress was exclusively men's clothing.

42. Half a million toothpicks can be made from one cubic meter of wood.

43. By etiquette business card should measure 3 "by 1.5".

44. Musical instrument the bassoon is always made from maple.

45. The first car for a Barbie doll appeared in 1962. It was a coral Austin made by the Irwin Corporation.

46. ​​In 1939-41 the largest German newspaper "Voelkischer Beobachter" was published under the motto ... "Workers of all countries, unite!"

47. The first ties appeared in Croatia. Apparently this is what explains English name tie - cravat (Croatia - Croatia).

48. The body tag of Lee Harvey Oswald, suspect in the assassination of President Kennedy, was auctioned for $ 6,600 in 1992.

49. The piano has 52 white keys and 36 black keys.

50. The roughest plane is called sastrug.

51. The screwdriver was invented before the screw.

52. The diameter of a Soviet penny coin is 15 mm.

53. Each thread of this women's stocking is woven of 100 microfibers. Moreover, one microfiber is 60 times thinner than a human hair. The length of the threads of one stocking reaches 5500 meters. It weighs only 6 grams and consists of 1500 loops.

54. In the Middle Ages, the world's best swords were made in Toledo. They were distinguished by unsurpassed flexibility and strength. To demonstrate this, they were sold bent into a ring.

55. Some Chinese typewriters have up to 5700 characters. The width of the keyboard is about a meter and the fastest and most professional typists reach a typing speed of only 11 words per minute.

56. An amount of $ 1,000,000 exchanged for 1 dollar bills would weigh approximately 1 ton. If you put all the banknotes in a pile, then its height would be about 100 meters.

57. In the cold hourglass go faster than warm.

58. In Persia, chess was an obligatory gift for a wedding.

59. In the 17th century, Brandy was used in thermometers instead of mercury.

60. Thread N40 means that 40 meters of thread weighs one gram.

Secrets of ordinary things and household items

Many of us mistake some of the manufacturer's gimmicks for a long-term convenience. But some of us, picking up this or that thing, sometimes do not know about it true purpose... Everybody's usual household items are sometimes full of surprises and pleasant surprises- you just need to find them.

Chinese noodles packed in cardboard boxes are sometimes difficult to get, you have to catch them with sticks from the most inaccessible corners of the box. But it should be remembered that these packages are easily separated and, when unfolded, serve as convenient disposable "plates".

Cylindrical seals can often be seen on cables. This is not a mistake by the manufacturer, but a household necessity. The cylinder contains a ferrite filter, the task of which is to combat high-frequency interference in power grids. This accessory, sometimes sold separately, enhances the digital image quality.

The button on the back of the collar has a more decorative function today. But earlier, in the period of fashion for narrow ties, the clasp helped to hold the tie, making it invisible.

Why the bottom wine bottles has a recess? It is even higher for champagne and sparkling drinks. This is due to the strong pressure that occurs when the bottles are corked. The concave bottom shape distributes the pressing force evenly, preventing the bottle from bursting.

You probably stopped noticing that shirts have a horizontal loop at the very collar, with all other vertical ones. Clothing designers made an exception on purpose. It is dictated by utilitarian reasons: this part of the shirts is unbuttoned most often. To prevent inconvenience, a horizontal buttonhole was created, from which the button pops out more difficult than from the vertical one.

The sneakers have an extra lacing hole. It is used very rarely, and then only out of ignorance of its function. The hole is needed to make additional lacing - it helps to fix the leg, which creates convenience during training, and can also protect the leg from heel chafing.

Particularly interesting are the side holes on the sneakers. The first thing that comes to mind about the reasons for their appearance is the way of airing. But this is only one side of the invention. Originally sneakers were intended for basketball players. Sports shoes were laced not only through traditional holes, but side holes were also used. So the sneakers fit tighter to the leg and did not cause discomfort among the athletes.

There is a hole in the spaghetti spoon that makes housewives puzzle. It is needed in order to know how much spaghetti you need to take for one serving. How much "pasta" is displaced into the hole, so much is a portion per person.

A hole in the handle of a bucket or frying pan is needed not only to hang the dish on the hook. You can insert a spoon into it to stir the dish, using the hole as a holder.

Why do they make a hole in the caps ballpoint pens? It turns out to save the life of a child. Babies often gnaw on pens, it happens that they swallow the caps. Once in the child's respiratory tract, the hole will not let the baby suffocate.

The refueling icon in some cars on the dashboard has an arrow. It tells the owner of the rented car which side the fuel tank is on.

The Chupa-Chups, beloved by children, has a stick with several holes. They have a utilitarian meaning, and are used to securely fix the melted sweet mass when dipping a stick in syrup.

The trouser hands, which have become classics today, appeared quite by accident. At the end of the 19th century, trousers were exported. To send a large batch of trousers, they were folded and pressed. Arriving at the place and receiving the ordered pants, it was not possible to align the fold. I had to introduce arrows into fashion.

Pom-poms adorn our winter hats. These fluffy balls appeared in the 18th century - in the navy. The sailors put sewn pieces of fabric on their hats so as not to bang their heads against the low ceilings of the holds.

How to break off a dull part of a clerical knife? You can do this with your hands, with pliers, or you can use a plug at the end of the knife itself - for this it is intended.

Do you know an interesting fact about Heinz ketchup? It has the inscription "57" This number marks the place on the bottle, which must be hit with the palm of your hand if the ketchup has stopped pouring.

During our life we ​​manage to learn a lot of all sorts of interesting things, but some of them, unfortunately, remain behind the scenes. I suggest you familiarize yourself with interesting, and sometimes a little comical facts in order to replenish the baggage of knowledge a little.

In fact, we are all constantly living in the past - for about 80 milliseconds. This is how long it takes for our brains to process information.

Human who served the most a large number of lawsuits on a variety of occasions, tried to sue the Guinness Book, when there was a note about his kind of record.

The age of a fish can be determined in much the same way as the age of a tree. On its scales, "annual rings" are also formed.

When a person is thrown a rather long distance under the influence of an electric current, this is the result of a sharp and strong muscle contraction, and not a shock, as many think. In this regard, the question arises about the true strength and capabilities of the musculature of the human body.

One day a Florida resident woke up with a terrible headache. The pills did not help, and he went to the hospital, where the doctors removed ... a bullet from his head. It turned out that his wife tried to kill him at night.

For a long time, the inhabitants of a Chinese city wondered how married couple I manage to work in my small family restaurant for 21 hours at day while looking fresh and rested. It turned out that two people were working in the restaurant. married couples... Both men and women are identical twins.

Even flies are albinos.

70% of England's land is still owned by 1% of its citizens, most of which are descendants warriors army of William the Conqueror.

In the early 19th century, inmates in prisons were fed lobsters - and this was considered a cruel and sophisticated punishment.

Japanese macaques have learned to steal handbags and wallets, pull out coins, throw them into vending machines, and thus obtain a treat for themselves.

Tomato ketchup is an example of a non-Newtonian liquid - that is, the viscosity is not constant and depends on the velocity gradient. This explains why it does not pour out of glass bottles at once. The more you shake it, the more liquid it becomes.

Bulletproof glass can be one-sided. This means you can fire back and hit the target while staying safe (your bullet will only leave a small hole without damaging the rest of the glass).

Japanese aquarium fish koi named Hanako changed several owners during her life and died in 1977 at the age of 226.

Belarus is the only country where Opera is the most popular web browser.

A few interesting facts about the things around us in everyday life.
Candy wrapper

When they talk about the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison, they mainly recall several of his famous creations: phonograph, typewriter, exchange telegraph (apparatus for transmitting current stock quotes by telegraph or telex), alternator, carbon microphone and, of course, a light bulb. The latter was actually patented by the Russian scientist Alexander Lodygin, and Edison has already begun to improve it.

The world's first direct current power plant was built in New York by Edison's design in 1882. He created a device that was the prototype of a dictaphone, an apparatus for recording telephone conversations, designed an iron-nickel battery and much more (about 1000 patents in total). And among all this splendor, few people remember that in 1872, Uncle Edison also invented waxed paper, which served as the first wrapper for sweets. Eh, if not for him, how would we store sweets now?

Toilet paper


How our ancestors had to dodge in order to perform an elementary hygienic procedure after coping with natural needs!

François Rabelais believed that the most pleasant thing to do this with the help of a live duckling.
In ancient Rome, a sponge was adapted for these needs: it was attached to a stick and, after use, was placed in a bowl of salt water.
Vikings wiped themselves with hairballs, Native Americans with all kinds of leaves and ears of corn.
The French kings approached this issue in a very sophisticated way and did it with lace and linen rags.
The Chinese were the first to use paper in this matter, but not mere mortals, but exclusively emperors.
Much later, all the others around the world turned to paper: old newspapers, catalogs, almanacs were used. It wasn't until 1857 that New Yorker Joseph Gayetti had the idea to cut the paper into neat squares and pack it into reams. He was so proud of his invention that he printed his name on every piece of paper. It is not possible to establish the name of the person who invented to roll toilet paper into rolls: for the first time such rolls began to be produced by the American paper mill "Scott Paper" in 1890.

Wheel


Who, when and why first invented the wheel remains one of the greatest mysteries of history. The oldest wheel was found on the territory of Mesopotamia, and it was made about 55 centuries ago. Previously, various cargoes were transported using what is now known as a sled. On a Sumerian pictogram from the 35th century BC. for the first time a semblance of a wagon was depicted: a sled on wheels. Wheels at the time were solid discs carved from wood.

The first spoked wheels were invented on the peninsula Asia Minor(the westernmost peninsula of Asia, now belongs to Turkey) in the XX century BC. and in the same century they reached Europe and China and India. Such wheels were used only in chariots for transporting people, but in Egypt they began to be used for cargo as well. Wheels and all kinds of carts were most widely used in Ancient Greece and then Rome. Wheels and carts appeared in America only with the arrival of Europeans.

Laces


Strangely enough, for some reason history did not retain the name of the genius who invented the laces, but somehow it retained the date when this event occurred - March 27, 1790. It was on this day in England that the first shoe lace in the form of a rope with metal tips at the ends appeared in England, which did not allow it to fray and helped to thread the lace through the holes on the shoe. But before the advent of this invention, all shoes were fastened with buckles.

A spoon and a fork


Button


Ancient people, instead of buttons, connected pieces of their clothing with plant thorns, animal bones and sticks. In ancient Egypt, buckles were already used, or one piece of clothing was threaded through a hole made in another, or the ends were simply tied.

Who exactly invented the button is unknown: some scientists are inclined to believe that it was the Greeks or the Romans, others that the button came from Asia. They were made mainly of ivory. Buttons became widespread only in the XIII century. And almost until the 18th century they were a sign of wealth and noble birth: kings and aristocracy could afford to order buttons made of gold and silver. At the beginning of the 18th century, buttons began to be made of metal and copper, but almost until late XIX For centuries, buttons were so expensive that they were altered from one garment to another.

Clip

Joining together sheets of paper began in the 13th century: cuts were made in the upper left corner of each page, through which a ribbon was passed. Later, they began to rub the tape with wax, so that, firstly, the tape became more durable, and secondly, it was easier to remove or insert the necessary sheets.

In 1835, New York physician John Ireland Howie invented a pin-making machine. Pins were, of course, invented for tailors to make it easier for them to join pieces of fabric while sewing, but they also began to be used to fasten paper. The Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler first came up with the idea of ​​connecting paper with a twisted piece of wire in 1899, but it did not look like the current paper clip. And the paper clip in the form in which it now exists was invented by the English company Gem Manufacturing Ltd, but for some reason no one has ever patented this invention.

Comb


The oldest combs used by the inhabitants of the Earth can be considered fish skeletons. It is not known where and when the first comb was made, but one of the oldest ridges was found during excavations in the area. Ancient rome... It was made from a wide animal bone with a handle and eight hand-carved teeth, spaced 0.2 cm apart.

Subsequently, combs were also made from wood, coral, ivory, turtle shell and the horns of various animals. This ridge material has been used up to mid XIX century. In 1869, two brothers - Isaiah and John Hiatt - invented celluloid, which completely changed the combs industry. Elephants and turtles were saved from total annihilation, and people received cheaper combs from a material that looks very similar to corals and ivory, and to the shell of a turtle.

Matches




In all kinds of ways, people made fire before the appearance of matches. They rubbed wooden surfaces against each other, beat out a spark with silicon, tried to catch a sunbeam through a piece of glass. And when it was possible to do this, they carefully supported the burning coals in earthen pots.

And only in late XVIII life has become easier for centuries - the French chemist Claude Berthollet experimentally obtained a substance later called berthollet's salt. So in Europe in 1805 there were matches - "dumplings" - thin splinters with heads smeared with berthollet's salt, which ignited after dipping them in a solution of concentrated sulfuric acid.
The world owes the invention of the first "dry" matches to the English chemist and pharmacist John Walker. In 1827, he discovered that if a mixture of antimony sulfide, berthollet's salt and gum arabic (this is such a viscous liquid secreted by acacia) is applied to the tip of a wooden stick, and then the whole thing is dried in the air, then when such a match is rubbed against sandpaper the head ignites quite easily. Consequently, there is no need to carry a bottle of sulfuric acid with you. Walker established small production their matches, which were packed in tin cases of 100 pieces, however big money on his invention did not work. Plus, these matches had a terrible smell.
In 1830, 19-year-old French chemist Charles Soria invented phosphorus matches, a mixture of berthollet's salt, phosphorus, and glue that would ignite easily when rubbed against any hard surface, such as the sole of a boot. Soria matches were odorless, however, they were harmful to health, since white phosphorus is poisonous.
In 1855, chemist Johan Lundstrom realized that red is sometimes better than white. The Swede applied red phosphorus to the surface of the sandpaper on the outside of the small box and added the same phosphorus to the head of the match. Thus, they were no longer harmful to health and were easily ignited on a pre-prepared surface.
Finally, in 1889, Joshua Pucy invented Matchbox, however, the patent for this invention was given to the American company Diamond Match Company, which came up with exactly the same, but with an "incendiary" surface on the outside (Pusey had it inside the box).
Phosphorus matches were brought to Russia from Europe in 1836 and were sold for a ruble in silver for a hundred. And the first domestic factory for the production of matches was built in St. Petersburg in 1837.

Needle


The history of sewing goes back more than 20 thousand years. Primitive people the skins were pierced with a prehistoric semblance of an awl made of thorns or hewn stones, the sinews of animals were threaded through the holes and in this way they constructed a "suit" for themselves.

The very first needles with an eye, made from stones, bones or animal horns, were found in the territories of modern Western Europe and Central Asia about 17 thousand years ago. In Africa, thick veins of palm leaves served as needles, to which threads, also made from plants, were tied.
It is believed that the first steel needle was made in China. In the same place, in the 3rd century BC, a thimble was invented. The tribes that inhabited Mauritania (in ancient times the region in northwest Africa, the western part of the territory of modern Algeria and the eastern part of the territory of modern Morocco) brought these inventions to the West.
The mass production of needles began only in the XIV century in Nuremberg, and then in England. The very first needle was made using mechanized production in 1785.
The first great-grandfather of modern scissors was found in ruins Ancient egypt... Made from a single piece of metal rather than two crossed blades, these scissors date from the 16th century BC. And the scissors in the form in which they are now known were invented by Leonardo da Vinci.

Heel


The first heels appeared among oriental horsemen in the 12th century, but it was difficult to call them heels in general. These were some kind of blotches that served for very practical purposes: men pinned them to their shoes so that their feet would hold tightly in the stirrup when jumping. But who and when invented the real heel is not known exactly, but it is generally accepted that this happened in the 17th century in Spain with light hand craftsmen from the city of Cordoba.

They developed the structure and construction of the heel, the main shapes of which were beveled inward and "French" - with a "waist" in the middle. In the Rococo era, the heel moved closer to the center of the shoe, thereby, as it were, reducing the leg. Over time, the shape of the heel underwent various changes: from high heels-glasses to wide square ones, which were invented especially for girls who danced a twist.
And finally, in 1950, the Italian fashion designer Salvatore Ferragamo invented the famous stiletto heel: he proposed a long steel stiletto rod as a support for the heel.

Toothbrush
The ancient Egyptians took care of oral hygiene as early as three thousand years before the birth of Christ: in their sarcophagi were found prototypes of toothbrushes made from tree branches with fluffy ends. But the inventor of modern brushes is considered chinese emperor, who built the first brush in 1498.

The bristles of Chinese toothbrushes were made from hair from the scruff of a Siberian wild boar, and the handles were either wood or animal bone. When this invention reached Europe in the 17th century, where brushing was not accepted at the time, the harsh boar hair was replaced by a softer horse mane. Prior to that, clean Europeans used toothpicks made from goose feathers, while those who are richer used copper or silver, or simply rubbed their teeth with a rag.
The wool and bristles of animals, in particular the same wild boar, were used in the manufacture of toothbrushes until the twentieth century. In 1937, nylon was invented, and since 1938, brush fibers have been made from it.
However, brushes of "animal origin" continued to be more popular, as they were softer and did not scratch the gums, unlike artificial ones. It wasn't until 1950 that the nylon bristles of toothbrushes became as soft as they are today.