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We don't know about you, but we love it when random fascinating facts catch us off guard at times. For the most part, a lot of us tend to enjoy and are entertained by surprising or strange tidbits of information from the fields of science, history, and even some like pop culture.

Here is a collection of some random and entertaining trivia that can pique your interest if you've happened to turn into the family's glorified quiz master and are getting ready for the holiday weekend full of family gatherings. It's also perfect to use at your upcoming dinner party (holidays aside).

A page on Instagram called ‘Did You Know?’ collects and shares interesting and unusual facts that are guaranteed to surprise you in one way or another. And if this post isn't enough, we urge you to check out our previous post sharing some of the best facts from the page!

More info: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | DidYouKnowFacts.com

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#10

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Fish Fingers
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Do they do it on a park bench wearing dark glasses and trenchcoats? Please tell me they do it on a park bench wearing dark glasses and trenchcoats!

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Danielle
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A month isn’t nearly as long as ‘infinite’. Those researchers just weren’t patient enough.

PolymathNecromancer
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Agreed. Plus the theorem doesn't say that the monkeys will write Shakespeare on the typewriter; maybe they will write it in shiit. In which case they are swiftly on the right track.

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PattyK
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also, the probability of the monkeys typing Shakespeare, or any other recognizible work, is so infinitely (pun intended) miniscule as to be negligible.

Lawrencium
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Solution to the infinite monkey theorem: The earth will be swallowed by the sun and the last stars will eventually fade out before random chance has given the monkeys enough time to recreate Shakespeare's works. Alternatively, given infinite monkeys working in parallel: the universe will collapse in on itself due to the infinite mass.

VonBlade
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tangentially related, people have created websites that do the same, and the best they've managed so far is about 8 letters in a row.

Thomas Ewing
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They're off to a good start! Give them a few million years, you'll see!

moon_magic
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

'How many monkeys do we need?' 'Uh, infinity...' 'Budget will cover six. Get to work.'

Edda Kamphues
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The last time I encountered a macaque it hopped on my shoulders and tried to louse me. Enough said. I didn't even have lice.

Evelyn Haskins
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sensible macaques, We do NOT need another Complete Works of Shakespeare,

April Pickett
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wrong monkeys. Try another group see if it goes better. Don't let the macaques be the example for all monkeys.

MagicJacket
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Someone doesn't understand the concept of infinity. It is vaster than you can really imagine. Not only would the monkeys do the complete works of Shakespeare, but they would do so an infinite number of times. They would also do it with one typo in it an infinite number of times. They would do all variations of everything an infinite number of times. Shakespeare, Stephen King, complete gibberish, lyrics to every song imaginable...all an infinite number of times.

Philly Bob
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you've been on facebook, you know the theorem is totally false! LOL!

Luna Crow
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Much like the hairless apes commenting online (myself included)

HarriMissesScotland
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My mother taught typing in my very small high school. She would have laughed at this.

Riley Quinn
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's right on the tips of my fingers to write something snarky about old Bill, but Philomena Cunk did such an excellent job, I'll just stop here.

SobyKay
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I always thought that theorem was a pile of gobbledygook 😂

David
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This saying is like those job interview questions where they don't really care about the question, they care about how you answer the question. The ruse: "Monkeys / typewriters / Shakespeare" The truth: "We'll find out who the true monkeys are by seeing which idiots actually believe this improbable random nonsense to be a 'fact'.

Let’s Be Kind
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So if they’d been given an actual typewriter, watch out Shakespeare! 🤪

Tom Hardeveld
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

so what you are saying they write the complete works of shakespeare one letter at the time and they have the "s" covered? That is brilliant!

JL
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The book wasn't for us, it was written for snakes.

michael hale
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So they they found the critics, few more monkeys and they might find the writers.

B.Nelson
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In math, monkey = random chaos. My favorite math concept involving monkeys is the following: you have just stuffed a number of addressed invitations into similarly addressed envelopes. You place these in a closet where a monkey comes in, opens every envelope, mixes everything together, then restuffs all the envelope with 1 invitation each. What's the likelyhood that they stuffed X amount of letter correctly.

glowworm2
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, they got pretty close. The monkeys typed the letter s for Shakespeare.

Bob La Capra
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If they typed 5 pages of the letter S that means they taught themselves how to put paper in the machine which is nothing to sneeze at. Which they probably did as well.

JB
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

gotta start somewhere, the complete works of Shakespeare weren't written in a day

Spack225
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love when people use this to suggest that random chance could produce our universe. It’s funny, on paper it sounds like a worthwhile theory, in practicality you get c**p in a keyboard. Point is, no theory can disprove the reality of a designer.

the vintage macaron (she/her)
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1 year ago

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#13

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Michael Sanders
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Man. Joe has dysentery real bad, someone should take care of him. Wtf wants to nurse a guy through dysentery? No one that’s the problem! Wait, don’t we have a baboon around here?

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#20

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ItsJess
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is a pretty cool factoid (micro was one of my favorite subjects in college) but it's not exclusive to influenza; viruses in general have a coating called a capsid that protects the material inside while allowing it to attach to the host cell and replicate/infect.

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Lennart
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's actually not surprising to me. The main way radiation kills living organisms is via DNA Damage. The most susceptible is DNA being decoded, as unused DNA is curled up and will less likely be damaged by radiation. The faster stuff grows the more susceptible to radiation damage (that's why radiating tumors works). As a bonsai is by design being kept withing very strict growing boundaries it has a much higher chance of surviving radiation than a normal growing counterpart. Plus fact: there is a bacterial species called Deinococcus radiodurans which as you may have guessed ist extremely durable towards radiation, they do this via very good DNA repair mechanism but also low metabolism and division rates.

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#25

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Couldnt_find_a_decent_name
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Y’all this is really random but it’s 11:11 and it’s also almost Christmas. So I guess make a wish

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alias D.
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I may have tricked you but I tricked you into thinking that you tricked me(repeat seven times with progressively louder tones)

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Az
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm fortunate enough to be in this category. Love her like crazy.

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#33

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MissMePhoenix
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I remember this exact moment!! I thought it was so awesome, like literally awe-some lol

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PattyK
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ravens are considered to be among the most intelligent of birds (along with other members of the corvid family, e.g., crows, jays, magpies, etc.). They make and use tools and can solve simple problems.

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Winter
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Makes sense. Character relations often leak into relations amongst actors. Same reason actors playing love interests often fall in love for real.

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ConstantlyJon
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A $50 bet, per Snopes. For the curious, here is a list of the 50 words that appear in Green Eggs and Ham: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

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#38

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alias D.
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

10 verses of there’s a hole at the bottom of the sea plays in the background

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#42

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Zia Barrett
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Aside from the hypothesis being 80 years old, little dogs living half this, and chickens also being an outlier - us having longer lifespans than 35 years is nothing to do with modern stuff. People historically lived to 60/80/90, General Cao Cao was 65 when he died in the 3rd century of a brain tumour. Lif expectancy was lower in the past but that was because of the high infant mortality rate bringing the number down, not people dropping dead in their 30s.

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Fish Fingers
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But, we all knew it was the genie. He's even obviously voiced by Robin Williams, the voice of the genie.

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Ash
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All of this was very normal in this period. He was just following the fashions. (Men COULD wear wigs, but they also often styled their own hair.)

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#47

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Lord Mysticlaw
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've spent my kid's entire childhood telling other parents this, they all just think I'm an idiot. Oh well.

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#49

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ItsJess
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What I can't figure out is how people climbed on and got them going. It's not like a "normal" bike where you can stand with it propped between your legs and push off ..

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#55

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Will Cable
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It explains why so many of us have low self esteem from what happened to us during childhood.

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Nunya Bidness
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or they could just make them in the USA again. You know, have regulated labor and environmental practices and such.

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#60

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alias D.
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah all the companies that made lightbulbs basically have a giant meeting and said our lightbulbs are gonna last way too damn long we’re not gonna make any money so they decided to make the s****y ones that die in two years and it stayed like that till this day that lightbulb is probably one of those long lasting ones before they decided to screw us over

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#64

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David Phillips
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If children cheat on tests it's because the school values grades above learning.

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#66

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Donkeywheel
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is a tendon, not a muscle. Everybody has it, might be visible, might not be. This story of extra useless muscle is pure b******t.

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#73

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Stardust she/her
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And also because your hand has a lot of nerves so getting cut anywhere else would’nt hurt much

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#74

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Anyone-for-tea?
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wish this worked with chronic fatigue! (I’ve read this fact before and tried it on myself - it might give you some sort of temporary relief or distract you, but doesn’t work overall.)

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#81

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Dawn Marie
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So if that is true, then Hanks and Clooney are related. Nepotism, I should have known. LOL!!!

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#83

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Anyone-for-tea?
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like, “ 30 days have September, April, June, and November. All the rest have 31 except February… “ which has 28 and no one cares how the rhyme ends because you’ve worked out the month you wanted.

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Liz Downing
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In 24 years, my partner and I have never fought. We know we can disagree about a few things.

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#86

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Zia Barrett
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That is poorly worded. Of course they have muscles but not muscles related to motion. They do have tendons, which are strictly speaking part of a muscle, but now we're getting pedantic.

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