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While scrolling through social media, we often stumble upon fun and quirky facts that make us smile or shrug. But then, there are those facts that make you pause and wonder, “Wait…is that really true?” So when a curious Redditor asked, "What’s a fact you learned that instantly made you question reality?" people flooded the thread with some of the most jaw-dropping facts they’ve ever encountered. Ready to have your mind blown? Keep reading, Pandas!
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#1
I read somewhere that we can only see about 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning we’re practically blind to most of what’s going on around us. It made me question how much of reality is hidden from us, existing beyond what our senses can perceive.
Another one that shook me was learning that trees can communicate with each other through underground fungal networks, sharing nutrients and even warning each other about threats. It completely flipped my understanding of forests — they’re not just a collection of individual trees, but more like an interconnected community working together. Reality suddenly seemed a lot more complex.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 month ago (edited)
Trees communicating through fungi, it is called the World Wood Web.
#2
That some people don’t have an inner monologue or voice; and that some people literally can’t picture things in their minds.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 month ago
I sometimes wish I had this just to shut up the voice in my head.
#3
I was raised Mormon. When I learned how much was copied from the Freemasons, I began looking at the non-church sources for information. Finding out your whole life has been a lie is a hell I wish on no one.
Colleen Glim 1 month ago
Any church is just a cult. People don’t need religion to tell them how to be a good person
When we sit down to eat, we often don’t think about the science or history behind what’s on our plate. But food is more than just something to fill us up—it’s full of surprises. From our favorite fruits and veggies to those delicious snacks we’ve been enjoying for years, there’s a lot more to food than meets the eye.
For instance, did you know that your beloved strawberries aren’t actually berries, but bananas are? These little-known facts about everyday foods can completely change the way we see our favorite snacks and meals.
#4
The Romans figured out how to make heated floors. Central heating sounds like a modern invention, but apparently its been around for 2000 years.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 month ago
The Romans had a spinning toy which was a basic steam engine.
#5
That everyone you know or have met has a different version of you in their minds. Their perceptions are based on their interactions or impressions of you. No one really sees you exactly the same way.
#6
My son is 5 now and I still look at him dumbfounded at times. Like I MADE you. You grew inside of me and now you exist with your own consciousness. And continue to grow. Crazy.
Many of us enjoy eating classic berries like strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, but here’s a twist—they’re not real berries at all! Surprisingly, bananas are scientifically classified as berries, along with eggplants, grapes, and oranges. Confused? You’re not alone!
The reason behind this mix-up is pretty simple: people started calling certain fruits "berries" way before scientists came up with a proper definition.
#7
That there is no way to know for sure if you and any other person sees the same color when looking at the same thing.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 month ago
Orange as a colour did not used to exist for us English. Tribes have been found to see different colours than the outside world, due to the language they use and how they identify colours.
#8
You know those fun universe animations that starts out with the earth, or maybe something on earth, then zooms out bit by bit, comparing us to something larger in the universe? Then it keeps going. You can't see earth anymore, but you can focus on the sun. But then the sun is gone. And we're still getting smaller because we haven't gotten to the biggest object yet. Smaller and smaller and smaller. We barely even exist. But I complain about the drive to Dallas.
#9
Not really a fact, but a feeling. I was raised in a religious setting, so the question became "If God made everything, who made God?" I used to spiral into these thoughts, like "How does the universe exist?" "Where did everything come from?" "How is it possible to exist? Nothing can exist!" I eventually learned about dimensionality and stuff and put it to bed with the fact that whatever the answer is, I have no capacity to understand it anyway.
Rose the Cook 1 month ago
I remember aged about 5 asking in scripture class, "Pease Miss, who was God's mummy and daddy?"
According to Judy Jernstedt, a plant sciences expert from UC Davis, the word “berry” was used for centuries without a scientific explanation. But now, we know that for a fruit to be a true berry, it needs to have three distinct layers: the exocarp (which is the skin), the mesocarp (the juicy middle), and the endocarp (the part that holds the seeds).
#10
These were both from when I was relatively young, 7 or 8. And obviously as a result of the religious environment I was raised in.
1. There are religions other than Roman Catholicism. I thought RC was just what everybody did.
2. People *actually believe their religions are true*. I thought that everyone else was just going along with things for whatever reason - as I was - because, even as a kid, none of it made sense. I quickly learned that questioning things just got you in trouble so did what I was told.
#11
That one about how bananas are berries but strawberries aren't really berries... like what even is fruit anymore.
Toothless Feline 1 month ago
Botanically speaking, fruit is the mature reproductive organ of a plant. Berries, seeds, drupes, nuts, melons…these are just some of the subcategories. Many modern fruits cultivated for human consumption no longer contain seeds and reproduce through manual intervention by budding, grafting, and other similar methods, but in the naturally evolved varieties, all fruits carry seeds. This is their purpose: to entice other organisms to consume them and leave the seeds behind in their droppings elsewhere later.
Ece Cenker 1 month ago
Tomatoes and eggplants are berries, therefore, fruits. Okra is also a fruit, apaprently...I was going to find out and write more, but this is a rabbit hole I've just decided to avoid.
I'm.Just.A.Girl 1 month ago
If I can recall, it's all about botany and the plants producing from one single ovary. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.
Joe Belkin 1 month ago
Humans like labeling things, all 'labeling' are artificial human constructs (like race) ... a lot of birds called "incorrectly" like a shoebill stork is not a stork but of course, people just made visual guesses ...
WindySwede 1 month ago
Maybe more so the common name, but the science name is more precise.
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Curry on... 1 month ago
Sounds like the folks who label things a certain way are just messing with us.
Charley128 1 month ago
Actually the seed on the outside of the strawberry are the berries. The strawberry is a stem. And they say God doesn't have a sense of humor.
R.A. Haley 1 month ago
In 1893, the Supreme Court Of the United States of America decided that... tomatoes are a vegetable, not a fruit. So let it be written. So let it be done.
martymcmatrix 1 month ago
That's right...banana = monkey steak, pizza = mafia pie, beer = hop blossom tea, cigarette = lung roll......🍌 🍕 🍺 🚬
Miliukov Oleksandr 1 month ago
That one is about scientist be totally out of reasons with natural language. You had al the Latin to choose from so why assign some word with already known meaning to some thing and then say - we are using it wrong?! So p**s of, strawberries are berries and peanuts are nuts. If you don't like it, make you own "correct" term, but don't touch my berries! (and my nuts)
highwaycrossingfrog 1 month ago
Shockingly, some people, like yourself, already know certain facts, whilst others do not and may be surprised by them
Load More Replies... #12
Dude when I found out honey never spoils like how is that even real... is it just magic or what?
Just like bananas, watermelon also fits the scientific definition of a berry because it has those same three layers. In bananas, the peel is the exocarp (outer skin), the flesh we eat is the mesocarp, and the little seeds inside are protected by the endocarp.
Watermelons have the same structure—though the exocarp is tougher, appearing as the thick rind, and the juicy red part is the mesocarp. Who would’ve thought that bananas and watermelons would have so much in common?
#14
When you do a proper shuffle of a normal 52 card deck, the resulting shuffle order of the cards has a very near 100% chance of that being the first time that order has ever happened in the history of the universe.
#15
My physicist husband claims that there are differently-sized infinities. Apparently, a lot of mathematicians think that, too. HOW????
If you’re a fan of peanuts, here’s a fun fact: you're actually snacking on legumes! That’s right, despite the “nut” in their name, peanuts belong to the same family as beans, lentils, and soybeans. They grow in pods, just like other legumes. Still, many of us think they are tree nuts like walnuts, almonds, or hazelnuts.
#16
The double-slit experiment. Even when you slow the experiment down so that it's only a single photon, electron, etc. being measured you still see the interference pattern. Unless you put your detector behind the slits, then it's a solid set of two lines behind the slits.
It's almost like the universe is rendering itself differently based on observation.
#17
Apparently schizophrenia can hit anyone at any time, and using psychoactive d***s (like LSD and magic mushrooms) significantly increase the chances of you getting schizophrenia. To keep a long story short, it isn't a stretch to say that most religious and philosophical figures of our past were probably schizophrenic since many religions and metaphysical questions before science were based on visions, voices, and generic "signs" of whatever sparked their tirades. Makes me wonder a lot about how reality and unreality are just a matter of perception.
iseefractals 1 month ago
Psychedelic d***s do not cause schizophrenia, but they can be a trigger for people who are already predisposed to the disease, and it's not something that can "happen at any time" it presents sometime between mid 20's to mid 30's, with anything below 18 being classified as "early onset" and being extremely rare. Schizophrenia runs in families, there is a genetic component there, though it's not a single gene, it's some combination of genes that we've yet to identify. If you have zero family history of the disease, it's very, very unlikely that you're going to suddenly come down with it because you smoked a joint or dropped some acid.
#18
Most everything is made up of nothing. The distance between the nucleus of an atom and the electron is insanely large.
If the nucleus were a ping pong ball, the electron would be about 2 mi away.
sturmwesen 1 month ago
that concept f****d up my chemistry grade. nobody could explain to me why it's "nothing" and not vacuum or sth. unknown. I was so hung up on it I couldn't concentrate on anything else...that was when I decided it was not nothing but cola..just so that topic was solved for my brain. Just imagine a world where every nook is filled with soda pop
Broccoli might seem like a totally natural veggie that many of us might love or hate, but it actually has an interesting backstory. It’s a result of farmers tinkering with wild cabbage, also known as wild mustard, for centuries! The original wild mustard plant had edible parts, but they were pretty bitter.
So, farmers started picking and planting seeds from plants with traits they liked more, slowly creating what we now know as broccoli. This process is called selective breeding, where humans step in to guide how a plant evolves over time. So, broccoli wasn’t just found growing in the wild—it was carefully developed over hundreds of years!
#19
Octopuses have three hearts and blue blood. Like, what kind of alien sea creature is that?
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 month ago (edited)
The male octopus hands a sperm packet over to the female, who then fertilises herself with it.
#20
How infinite the universe is and we don't know much about it.
#21
Brain Eating Ameobas are everywhere and the only reason people don't constanly dying from them is because it's really hard for them to enter our bodies through our nose.
Most fruits take a while to grow, but pineapples are in a league of their own—they can take up to two years to ripen. So, the next time you slice into a pineapple, take a moment to appreciate the journey it took over those 24 months to become the sweet, juicy treat we love.
#23
It is literally impossible to describe, in words, what quantum superposition is. Everything you've heard about quantum superposition is, at best, "sort of right" but also "alot wrong" but we *don't have a way to describe it properly* so those half-assed (schrodinger's cat, both and neither at the same time, etc) 'explanations' just stick around because without understanding the math you just can't understand quantum superposition properly.
Quantum reality is simply that different from macroscopic reality. Our intuition cannot comprehend what is happening. I do not understand quantum superposition, and unless you're a theoretical quantum physicist neither do you. And some of them don't!
But we *know* it's real. It happens. It affects reality. We cannot convey what is happening with words. That f***s with me so hard.
Toothless Feline 1 month ago
I think that’s as much a failure of language as understanding. No human language has the right grammar to describe quantum superposition in a non-paradoxical manner. Human language is based on our macro-scale perceptions, and is full of assumptions about how things work that are true only above quantum scale. Even the math can’t really tell you what it is, only how it works, because the meaning of the mathematical symbols and expressions is understood through the same filter of macroscale experience. If you can manage to think about it without trying to label things, you *might* be able to come close to a fuller understanding, but thought free of language in a mind that has language is a difficult skill to master.
#24
That about 97% of the observable universe is already out of reach for us even with light speed technology.
Ketchup is a household staple that we don’t really need to introduce. Whether you’re dipping crispy fries or savoring crunchy onion rings, it’s hard to imagine enjoying appetizers without a bowl of this sweet and tangy sauce.
But did you know that ketchup’s journey began as a medicine, not a condiment? Back in the 1830s, people thought tomatoes could cure indigestion, so ketchup was actually sold as a remedy in pill form.
#26
Who ever spends more money on their lawyer, wins in court. Truth doesn’t matter. It only matters who argues better.
Kazza 1 month ago
Not always true. My previously never present ex spent over $100k on $500/hour lawyers in an attempt to leverage custody of our child to try to financially ruin me. I represented myself, used law libraries and free 15 minute consultations thru the ABA, told the truth, and won. My total costs? $7,500. Nobody knows your case like you do and sometimes, telling the truth and letting the other sides lies out themselves, wins.
#27
I learned that lobsters can theoretically live forever, and now I’m questioning why we’re not all trying to unlock the secret to lobster immortality.
If you have a favorite color when it comes to bell peppers, here’s a fun fact: they’re all the same pepper, just at different stages of ripeness. Green bell peppers start off as unripe versions, and as they mature, they transition to yellow, then orange, and finally red. Interestingly, the red bell peppers are the sweetest of them all.
It’s not just food that has surprising facts; the world around us is filled with intriguing tidbits, just like the ones in this post, that can genuinely make you question reality and change your perspective. Which one of these facts caught you off guard the most?
#28
One fact that often blows people’s minds is that the universe is constantly expanding.
#29
I remember watching a video on how the universe might end. It was a 30-minute time lapse of what occurs from the Big Bang to the "end." EARTH'S entire existence from beginning to end wasn't even a minute before it formed and burnt out. Really felt insignificant just trying to comprehend the time frame of the universe.
Philly Bob Squires 1 month ago
Guy: God, how long is a million years to you? God: A minute. Guy: How much is a million dollars to you? God: A penny. Guy: Can I have a penny? God: In a minute
#30
Human comprehension of reality is so far from accurate its functionally useless. Every understanding, scientific discover, whatever we make, is at BEST just us trying to make things make sense to us. But humans simply don't have the brainpower/hardware to come anywhere close to an actual understanding of reality.
It's like an ant walking on an iphone. Its brain can process things like "this surface is smooth" "there is no food here" and thats about as complex as it can get, but that's nowhere near the level of complexity of the iphone itself.
Skara Brae 1 month ago
The scientific method tries to explain how something works, then revise the explanation when new information proves the previous explanation is wrong. Repeat as often as new information comes in. The scientific method is useful, because even though we don't know everything, once we know enough we can use the knowledge for making things or avoiding things.
#31
Quantum entanglement. There are particles light years apart that react instantaneously when the other is touched. We live in a world of magic and wonder.
Savahax 1 month ago
This is also wildly misunderstood. You can not know if person A measured particle A without measuring particle B. There's always a + and a - because they're born this was and there is no way of knowing who measured what and when. Not going deeper into it right now just read the wiki. - - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-communication_theorem
#32
How big the universe is. Conversely, how small the smallest building blocks of the universe are.
Toothless Feline 1 month ago
We exist in a world of the infinitely large that is entirely made up of an infinitude of the infinitesimally small.
#33
"The Birthday Paradox" is a fun one. I wouldn't say I "questioned reality" as I am math nerd, but it's fun to share with people who aren't so inclined.
For those unaware, it deals with the probability of two randomly chosen people out of a larger group of people having the same birthday, and that you only need a room of 23 people for that probability to be greater than 50%. 50 people and it becomes 97%.
To explain a little further on why this ends up seeming so surprising/impossible for most people when they first hear this, it's because people often confuse the premise of "probability that 2 randomly chosen people share a birthday" with "probability that 1 other randomly chosen person shares MY birthday", which is not the same calculation.
#34
If you had a really long stick that connected to the Moon, and you pulled the stick, the other end of the stick wouldn’t move instantly. It would take as long as it takes for the speed of sound travelling through wood to reach the Moon from Earth for the other end to move as a result of your pulling the stick
I think the thing that gets me about this is I knew everything I needed to know to reach this conclusion on my own but I’d literally just never thought about this specific hypothetical before, and when you actually write it out like that it feels so counterintuitive even though I intellectually understand all the component pieces that make it true.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 month ago
Gravity travels at the speed of light. If the mass of the Sun was to instantaneously and radically change we would not know about it until eight and a bit minutes later.
#35
Light doesn't experience time. From its departure from a quasar on the far end of the universe to a sensor on a space telescope that was built a decade ago, the journey took almost the entire lifespan of existence.
And yet, as far as the photon is concerned, the trip was instantaneous.
If that wasn't wild enough, here's the real mindf***: There's no such thing as a free photon. They only exist as a carrier for energy exchange between electrons. For a photon to exist it has to have a sender and a recipient. Two electrons separated by the entirety of space and time somehow agreed to exchange a photon.
Savahax 1 month ago
Both these claims are false. Not entirely, but simplified to such an extreme that's it's no longer accurate. To say that a photon "doesn't experience time" is more of a thought experiment than some physical reality. A photon has no reference frame, it's doesn't "know" anything. It's just an identity that came out of Einsteins time dilation theory. And secondly, photons travelling as Electro-magnetic waves through the universe are absolutely and 100% free
#36
When measuring a coastline, the smaller the unit of measurement, the longer it is.
Peter Parker 1 month ago
It's not about the units, it's about how many details you measure. On a large scale, you brush over the little crevices and bays so the total distance is shorter. The more detailed you measure, the more "left and right" you measure instead of a straight line, making the total length longer..
#37
Chicagos parking meters are paid out to a non USA nation for the next like 50! Years!
#38
I read once that the arrangements of molecules or cells or atoms (i really can recall what precisely) looks eerie similar to the way galaxies and clusters look.
This made me think that perhaps our universe is just a sumatomic thing within something larger, like a fly in a cats a*s.
Image that!
#39
Just learned today that if a photon enters a cloud of atoms that are cold it can leave that cloud before it enters.
negative time.
[https://www.newscientist.com/article/2448067-light-has-been-seen-leaving-an-atom-cloud-before-it-entered/](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2448067-light-has-been-seen-leaving-an-atom-cloud-before-it-entered/).
Savahax 1 month ago
It's behind a paywall and even the Archive version has it. But it's again, NOT TIME TRAVELING. The "fast-light" is a "trick" of wave mechanics. As the light pulse enters the medium, its shape gets distorted. The front edge gets amplified while the back gets suppressed, making it look like the pulse peak has jumped forward. This plays with the group velocity of light, which can exceed c without breaking physics, unlike the phase velocity that carries actual information. It's a weird a*s quantum effect, but ultimately just a reshaping of the light pulse, and not fcking time travel!
#40
Time dilation.
What do you think ?
Broad Panda 1 month ago
I know that these days the bulk of BoredPanda is stolen from Reddit, but it would be great if the 'author' copy and pasting could, at least, fact-check an article purporting to be facts.
Pandemonium 1 month ago
In the US this is an election year so facts are optional. (Myself I prefer fact-based decisions but the other side is embracing known lies.)
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John Harrison 1 month ago
The comments were wild. I weep for the BP community's scientific literacy.
Wandaluzt 1 month ago
Nobody came on here for a science lesson John. Unfortunately most people on here don't even realise they're replying to or asking questions of people on Reddit.
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Incognito11 1 month ago
Too many universe is big ones. How about this? Reading silently in your head wasn't always a thing. It's a learned skill. The only way people could read was by reading out loud. The inabilty to read silently is believed to date back to the middle ages.
Kelly H. Wilder 1 month ago
My favorite part of this article: the comments from other Pandas gave me several books for my reading list! Thank you, Pandas! 🤗
Disgruntled Panda 1 month ago
That doesn't mean you cannot be happy for people feeling that joy of discovering or realising something. Although since you've apparently always known these things I'm not sure you know how that feels
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Broad Panda 1 month ago
I know that these days the bulk of BoredPanda is stolen from Reddit, but it would be great if the 'author' copy and pasting could, at least, fact-check an article purporting to be facts.
Pandemonium 1 month ago
In the US this is an election year so facts are optional. (Myself I prefer fact-based decisions but the other side is embracing known lies.)
Load More Replies... John Harrison 1 month ago
The comments were wild. I weep for the BP community's scientific literacy.
Wandaluzt 1 month ago
Nobody came on here for a science lesson John. Unfortunately most people on here don't even realise they're replying to or asking questions of people on Reddit.
Load More Replies... Incognito11 1 month ago
Too many universe is big ones. How about this? Reading silently in your head wasn't always a thing. It's a learned skill. The only way people could read was by reading out loud. The inabilty to read silently is believed to date back to the middle ages.
Kelly H. Wilder 1 month ago
My favorite part of this article: the comments from other Pandas gave me several books for my reading list! Thank you, Pandas! 🤗
Disgruntled Panda 1 month ago
That doesn't mean you cannot be happy for people feeling that joy of discovering or realising something. Although since you've apparently always known these things I'm not sure you know how that feels
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