21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread

Some, like mathematician Roger Antonsen, believe that numbers are the key to understanding the world. (Antonsen even gave a brilliant TED talk to explain this statement, which I highly recommend.) And there's a Reddit thread that vividly illustrates the point.

It started when platform user JustinMGH made a post, asking others to share facts and stats that sound like obvious exaggerations but actually aren't.

Immediately, people started delivering fascinating, weird, and even disturbing titbits of information, changing each other's perspective about everything around them, even if ever so slightly.

This post may include affiliate links.

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread The difference between million and billion is huge (relatively):
1 Million seconds = 11 Days
1 Billion seconds = 31 years

TheIshark , Sarah-Rose Report

Final score:

260points

POST

MargyB 1 year ago

Was only quoting this today to a workmate, scary!

41points

View More Replies...

View more comments

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread The budget to send to the Curiosity Rover to the Mars is less than the worldwide military expenditure for thirteen hours

anon , Robert Sullivan Report

Final score:

246points

POST

MargyB 1 year ago

That's just sad.

124points

View More Replies...

View more comments

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Cleopatra was alive closer to the Moon landing than she was to the construction of the great pyramids.

anon , Christopher Michel Report

Final score:

244points

POST

Tabby_Sohee 1 year ago

I’ve heard this one a hundred times and it blows my mind every single time… what a history

82points

View More Replies...

View more comments

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread USA citizens privately own more firearms than all countries combined. Even more than most militaries.

ChikNoods , Jamal Fanaian Report

Final score:

225points

POST

Kurichfield 1 year ago

Not even remotely surprising...

175points

View More Replies...

View more comments

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Pocahontas and William Shakespeare died less than a year apart less than 150 miles away from each other.

LibraryLass , Ann Longmore-Etheridge Report

Final score:

223points

POST

Captain Kyra 1 year ago

Barbara Walters, Anne Frank, and Martin Luther King Jr were all born the same year.

119points

Jack Waltz 1 year ago

Captain Kyra don't pay attention to Jordan this is actually the first I've heard of that. So thank you from one Bored Panda to another for stating that fact.

13points

Load More Replies...

Ahmadu Suleiman 1 year ago

This is the first time I'm hearing this ♥

3points

Stannous Flouride 1 year ago (edited)

Look up famous people born in 1929- Grace Kelly, D¡¢k Clark, Yassir Arafat, June Carter Cash, André Previn, Audrey Hepburn, Bob Newhart, Popeye the Sailor, and many more, including in a bitterly ironic twist, James Earl Ray, the murderer of Dr King.

3points

Kawazoe 1 year ago

It's the first time I have read this fact, so thank you. And shut up, Jordan 😴

2points

Malina Balatocan 1 year ago

I hear that a lot, and it still blows my mind

1point

LinkTheHylian 1 year ago

I was born in the same year as Lionel Messi and Sir Andy Murray. Whether I'm famous or not is a matter of perspective.

0points

tHeBoRdEsTpAnDa 1 year ago

Thomas-Jef...270bca.png

0points

Jordan 1 year ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Robert T 1 year ago

This puzzled me for a while, as they were clearly born on different continents. It turns out that Pocahontas lived in England for a time and became ill as she was returning to the States and died in Gravesend, which is not that far from Billy Wobbledagger.

5points

David H 1 year ago

Yes, she and her husband John Rolf (Who was British) went to London, Rolf later moved back to America, and their son later became a leader who worked to make peace between natives and europeans.

8points

Load More Replies...

Agnes Jekyll 1 year ago (edited)

I might get downvoted for this, but she was kidnapped and separated from her newborn son and her Indigenous husband. Calling her English husband "husband" is being reevaluated--it appears that he was pressured to marry her (she was impregnanted on the voyage to English and none of the men claimed her son). Her community brokered a deal for her return after years away, and she died the night before she was to begin her return home. Her father died of heartbreak. Her English "husband" never acknowledged her son as his child, but as he died without any heirs, his title and home went to Amonute's son.

6points

Siobhan Gournay 1 year ago

I live in gravesend - we have a statue of her near the river Thames in a churchyard

4points

LizzieBoredom 1 year ago

James T. Kirk, Luke Skywalker and Donald Trump are all fictional characters who might have been born on the same day.

3points

Michael Largey 1 year ago

Typo. The third one is a frictional character.

14points

Load More Replies...

ravn 1 year ago

But only one of them was kidnapped...

0points

ravn 1 year ago

One of them was kidnapped.

0points

Katy Cordeth 1 year ago (edited)

C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died on the same day JFK was assassinated, so their deaths went mostly unnoticed. Same thing with Farrah Fawcett; she passed on the day Michael Jackson did.

0points

GPZ 1 year ago

Curious as to where they were when they died

0points

Nunya Bidness 1 year ago

And the Astrodome and the first teepee

0points

Donkeywheel 1 year ago

What’s a « mile » ?

0points

View More Replies...

View more comments

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread The original height of Mount Everest was calculated to be exactly 29,000 ft high, but was publicly declared to be 29,002 ft in order to avoid the impression that an exact height of 29,000 feet was nothing more than a rounded estimate.

Chiper136 , watchsmart Report

Final score:

213points

POST

Natalie Bohrteller 1 year ago

It's different with meters 🤓

97points

View More Replies...

View more comments

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread The typical cloud weighs 1.1 million pounds

anotherpoweruser , C Dustin Report

Final score:

201points

POST

Headless Roach 1 year ago

that's expensive 🙃

167points

View More Replies...

View more comments

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn’t survive WWII.

anotherpoweruser , Signal Corps Archive Report

Final score:

199points

POST

Nea 1 year ago

I so wish this was a massive exaggeration.

90points

View More Replies...

View more comments

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread 1 in 2 Australians will get skin cancer in their lifetime

Wibbles20 , Caleb Russell Report

Final score:

191points

POST

Headless Roach 1 year ago

Put on some sunscreen, mate

112points

View More Replies...

View more comments

#10

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Neutron stars are so dense that if you dropped a gummy bear from one meter away it would hit the surface in a microsecond with the force of 1,000 nuclear bombs.

Endless_Vanity , Kevin Gill Report

Final score:

181points

POST

ThatG 1 year ago (edited)

One teaspoonful of this matter weighs more than 3 billion tons. If we were capable of dropping a small piece of neutron star onto the ground, it would slice through Earth like a bullet through cotton and come out the other side.

83points

View More Replies...

View more comments

#11

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread The state of Maine has more Black Bears than black people.

The_Real_BenFranklin , Patrick Connelly Report

Final score:

174points

POST

oktopus 1 year ago

This does actually appear to be more-or-less correct, depending on the estimation of the bear population and the accuracy of the first Maine demographic statistics which popped up in a quick web search. Also, with the same caveat, there seems to be approximately one black bear for every square mile of Maine.

43points

View More Replies...

View more comments

#12

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Vatican city has a population of 2 popes per 1 square kilometer.

Darghy , Presidenza della Repubblica Report

Final score:

172points

POST

Thomas Alskit 1 year ago

Haha. I just realised why.

53points

View More Replies...

View more comments

#13

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread More silent films have been lost than saved

We live in an era where everything is saved, and it's hard to imagine such a massive loss of creative material. Plenty of films are lost, as late as the 1970s too.

ahhh_zombies , Richard Hsu Report

Final score:

169points

POST

Kurichfield 1 year ago

Truly a shame...

53points

View More Replies...

View more comments

#14

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread Monsters Inc was released closer to the fall of the Berlin wall than to the present day.

setsomethingablaze , HarshLight Report

Final score:

164points

POST

Headless Roach 1 year ago

Tell me I'm old without telling me I'm old

155points

View More Replies...

View more comments

#15

21 Facts That Seem Fake, But Are Actually Real, As Shared In This Online Thread All the ants in the world weigh about the same as all the people in the world.