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In the world of fake news, shams, and bogus claims, it’s hard to tell a fact from fiction. And you simply get used to doubting things. You read "unicorns exist" and the mind detects deceit. But what if I tell you they’re just bulky and we call ‘em rhinos? Sounds about right.

So when someone on r/AskReddit asked what fact sounds fake at first but is actually real, redditors rolled up their sleeves. 26K upvotes and 14.3K comments later, we have the finalists of these mind-boggling facts ready down below. Get ready to get that trivia muscle pumped up for the next game after quarantine is over. After you're done, take a look at our previous lists of crazy-sounding facts here.

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#1

Ancient sailors believed that cats were magic and would often risk their own lives, even in an "every man for himself" situation, to save a cat from a sinking ship. All ships had at least one ship's cat as cats would eat the rats that have always plagued ships. The ship's cat would often be given a rank and sailors would generally take excessively good care of their cats.

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    #2

    Cheetahs can't roar. They meow like house cats.

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    #3

    Because the number of possible combination of genes isn't infinite, there are probably at least 7 humans that looks the same as you.

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    #4

    The sun is so loud, if space was filled with air instead of being a vacuum, we'd be hearing screeching sun noises at 125 decibel at all times.

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    #5

    T-Rex (~64 million years ago) is nearer to now in years than it is to Stegosaurus (~151 million years ago)

    Images depicting them fighting are very very wrong.

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    #6

    The founders of Adidas (Adi Dassler) and Puma (Rudolf Dassler) are brothers.

    ..and their HQs are literally next door to each other in Germany.

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    #7

    That most of the oxygen on earth doesn’t come from trees. It’s comes from plankton in the ocean

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    #8

    Distance from USA to Russia 4 kilometers

    This fact is always amusing.

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    #9

    One horse is actually 15 horsepower.

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    iseektheunvanquishedtruth avatar
    zims
    zims
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    4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    When you team them up their horsepower goes exponential, too

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    #10

    Pocahontas and Shakespeare lived during the same time

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    kaisu-reinikainen avatar
    Kaisu
    Kaisu
    Community Member
    4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Sometimes it's hard to kind of understand when different historical things happened. Like for an example, when Jesus lived, the Stonehenge was already a ruin

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    #11

    President Coolidge got sent a raccoon for Thanksgiving one year, but instead of eating it, he granted it a pardon because it was "cute"

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    #12

    Lyrebird's imitations will seriously sound exactly like the thing they're trying to imitate. If they imitate a chainsaw, you will think it's a chainsaw. It sounds like a perfect recording.

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    #13

    Jack the Ripper was still active when Nintendo was founded

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    everclearshovel21 avatar
    Hello it Smee
    Hello it Smee
    Community Member
    4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Nintendo was founded in 1889, they started with playing cards.

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    #14

    A lot of the earliest war gods were actually goddesses.

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    mphseti avatar
    mph seti
    mph seti
    Community Member
    4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Before the three main Abrahamic faiths took over the western world, there were lots of Goddesses. It's a shame...

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    #15

    There isn’t a single bridge across the amazon river.

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    #16

    Astronomer here! The coldest place we know of in the universe is actually... on Earth!

    To explain further, the coldest places we know of that naturally occur in the universe are inside dark nebulae with little to no star formation, and thus no starlight to heat things up. The coldest one known so far is the Boomerang Nebula, where the temperature has been measured as low as 1 degree above absolute zero (−272 °C or −458 °F). However, we regularly get below this temperature in labs on Earth! Specifically, absolute zero is at –273.15°C (or –459.67°F) and labs on Earth regularly get to within a tenth or even a hundredth of a degree of that.

    Pretty cool!

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    #17

    It takes about 3-4 generation before your entire existence is completely forgotten (assuming you don't invent the cure for cancer or discover the fifth dimension or anything like that)

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    carolinehelies02 avatar
    Caroline
    Caroline
    Community Member
    4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I think it's sad to think that one day I'll be completely forgotten. I know it's life and it's normal, but still.

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    #18

    Netflix was founded before Google

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    #19

    Iran arrested 14 squirrels on suspicion of espionage

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    #20

    Orcas are a natural predator to moose

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    #21

    You can fit all the planets in our solar system touching end to end between Earth and the moon.

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    #22

    There is no Date between 03-Sept-1752 to 13-Sept-1752,

    Checkout the September Calendar of 1752. 11 days are missing in the Calendar.

    This is due to the fact that we converted our Calendar from Julian to Georgian calendar on 2nd of September 1752.

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    Wendy Warner
    Wendy Warner
    Community Member
    4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Not cool for the people who had their birthday between the 03 and 13/09/1752 ...

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    #23

    It takes 2 years for a pineapple to grow.

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    Ben Smith
    Ben Smith
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    4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It’s an odd looking plant too. Tastes amazing though....but NOT ON PIZZA.

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    #24

    The guy who sang Peanut Butter Jelly Time died in a police shootout. Also, his brother in law was there trying to talk him out of shooting himself. You know who that brother-in-law was? F***ing Snoop Dogg

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    #25

    The Ethiopian calendar is seven years behind the rest of the world. Edit; yeah guys it's still 2013 there

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    troufaki13
    troufaki13
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    4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    A little heads-up guys: 2020 is gonna be one helluva year!! Be prepared!

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    #26

    One ten inch pizza is more pizza than two seven inch pizzas.

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    #27

    Every Canadian is allowed to get a free Canadian flag from the government. However, if you ordered a flag today you would get it in about 110 years.

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    #28

    Chickens are one of many species of birds that dont have penetrative genitalia. Read; cocks are cockless. The method of reproduction they use is commonly called a "cloacal kiss" and you can think of it as chickens scissoring, because "bumping holes" is the grossest possible way to phrase chicken sex.

    Also chickens are not a flightless species like lots of people think and are generally totally capable of short flight.

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    #29

    A typical cumulus cloud actually weighs 1.1 million pounds (498,951 kg)

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    chi-weishen avatar
    chi-wei shen
    chi-wei shen
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    4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Let's say it is 500,000 kg. In light of the variable weights that's precise enough.

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    #30

    That ants don't take fall damage

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