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Not everything that you read on the internet is true. In a similar vein, far from everything that sounds made up is fake. Fact is often stranger than fiction, and some truly bizarre things about life on Planet Earth are closer to reality than myth.

Reddit user u/Mmemyo sparked an interesting discussion on r/AskReddit. They invited everyone to share the “stupid facts” they knew which might sound suspicious and weird but are actually correct. We’ve collected the most intriguing ones to share with you, Pandas. Scroll down to check them out! Hopefully, you'll learn something new.

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#1

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#2

The Eiffel Tower can be 15 centimeters taller during the summer due to thermal expansion.

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#3

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real There are clouds of alcohol floating around in space.

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#4

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Cows have best friends and can become stressed when they're separated from them.

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#5

-40C and -40F are the same temperature.

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#6

You have to kill about 400 people to get enough iron from their blood to make a sword

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#7

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real A man named John Young brought a corned beef sandwich to space illegally and shared it with his colleague on board and he would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for the recording of them talking about the sandwich.

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#8

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Someone named the fear of long words hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.

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Binky Melnik
Binky Melnik
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If this is genuinely, truly, honest-to-gosh true, it’s hilarious! 🤣

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#9

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Sloths are most vulnerable to predators when pooping. They have to climb down to the trees to the floors floor, and it is a bit of a process for them to actually poop leaving them at risk of predators.

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Lene
Lene
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It looks a bit like a little dance when they poop. 😏

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#10

When basketball was first invented, at every game, they would have a man who would go up a ladder to retrieve the ball after every basket. It took them around 20 years to figure out maybe it would be a good idea to cut the bottom of the basket out to make retrieving the ball a lot easier. 20 years!!!

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Michael MacKinnon
Michael MacKinnon
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is a Canadian TV heritage minute. If I remember correctly, the intervening step was to cut a **small** hole in the bottom of the basket, so that the caretaker could poke the ball out with a broomstick.

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#11

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Pink is really just a light shade of red, but we think of it as a distinct color because we have a word for it that stuck. Not all languages have that. In Italian, they have a similar word for light blue, called “azzurro,” and it’s so common they actually think of it as a separate color from blue. We have the word “azure” in English, but it isn’t nearly as common, so we tend to think of that color as just a shade of blue.

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#12

A bone “break” is the same as a “fracture.” Fracture is just the medical term. It does not have any correlation with the severity.

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Binky Melnik
Binky Melnik
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Huh. All my life, I’ve thought a fracture is a crack, and a break is … er, a displaced fracture. You know: it’s no longer in one piece. I have no idea whether someone told me this, I saw it on a medical drama, or I worked it out myself (incorrectly, apparently).

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#13

A species of frog, the African clawed frog, was the most reliable pregnancy test for a few decades before at-home tests were widely affordable and accessible.

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Sky Render
Sky Render
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The test was that the woman peed on the female frog. If the frog began to ovulate, the woman was pregnant. It was actually pretty accurate.

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#14

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real The vikings, who came from Scandinavia, used iron as their main ingredient for forging weaponry, but it was also common practice to add the bones of dead animals to the mix. The belief was that it would infuse the weapon with the spirit of the creature, making it stronger, but they ended up making a primitive version of steel because of the carbon in the bones mixing with the iron making the weapon stronger, just as they thought it would. 

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Ace
Ace
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Pure speculation. There's every reason to believe that the vikings were borrowing technology from the Middle East and Asia to produce their steel, nothing to suggest that they just threw bones in at random. In any case their production, especially of the very special "Uthbert" swords, would require charcoal, so they must have known what they were doing, even if it was not fully understood.

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#15

A man named Wilmer McLean owned a farm in Manassas, Virginia USA where the very first battle of the US Civil War was fought. After the battle he's like "I'm outta here" and bought a farm way out in the country at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia...where Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses Grant in McLeans living room four years later.

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Ba-Na-Na
Ba-Na-Na
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So he can be all, “ It started with me and ended with me!”

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#16

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real If you open your eyes in a completely dark room, the name of the color you will see is eigengrau, a kind of dark grey shade

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martymcmatrix
martymcmatrix
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I finally decided to translate it with »custom gray«...beside that, it's spelled correctly »Eigengrau«...🌫️

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#17

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Bananas are berries, but strawberries are not true berries (in botanical terms berries are defined by their structure, and bananas fit the bill while strawberries don't)

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#18

Our planet will exist long after humans go extinct

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#19

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real - [ ] Of the few people who have top secret clearance at the White House one of them is the person who writes all of the party invitations.

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ADDee
ADDee
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And in the previous administration they added two clowns named Ivanka and Jared.

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#20

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real The longest place name in the world is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu

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Ms. Mack
Ms. Mack
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not a single person with hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia lives there.

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#21

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real You can go the rest of your life without breathing.

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#22

The average number of skeletons in a human body is more than 1.

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#23

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real For every single human being on Earth, there are 2.5 MILLION ants.

Yes, this means that there are about 20 QUADRILLION ants on this planet.

If the ants decide to take over, are you strong enough to handle the 2.5 million that you'll be responsible for killing? If you've got kids, you might have to kill more because a 2 year old isn't going to accomplish a god damn thing if millions of ants are marching towards them.

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#24

Redheads require more anesthesia than non-redheads.

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#25

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Honey never spoils

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Apatheist Account2
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It does if you pour it into an electrical device - it spoils it good and proper.

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#26

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Coffee is not a bean it is the pit of the coffee plant which is a fruit.

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Jennie P
Jennie P
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have tasted the fruit, called a "cherry". It's a little sweet, a little bland. Not tasty enough, I guess, for coffee producers to make jam out of it.

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#27

The Earth is not round. It is an oblate spheroid.

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Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually I have it on good authority from YouTube that the world is flat and surrounded by a giant ice wall. The "globe" is what our secret lizard overlords want us to believe.

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#28

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real 18% of adult Americans claim they have seen or been in the presence of a ghost.

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Andy Pandy
Andy Pandy
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And they're all crazy, just like being abducted by aliens. Like they would really find intelligent life there!

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#29

The plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac

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

Plurals apply to the noun, not the adjective, hence mothers-in-law, courts martials, poets laureate, astronomers royal etc.

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#30

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Cleopatra is closer to the invention of the iPhone than the building of the Giza pyramids.

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#31

Dung beetles navigate using the Milky Way

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#32

Bald eagles are not actually bald. Balde is old english for white.

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#33

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real The original name for the color orange was "geoluhread," which means "yellow-red" in Old English

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

At least you can find something to rhyme with it.

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#34

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real A lot of averages.

Example: The average number of legs humans have is less than 2.

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#35

Racecar spelled backwards is racecar.

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El Cucuy
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The term for this is palindrome - when a word or series of words reads the same forwards or backwards. Fun fact: the longest single word palindrome in every day use is saippuakivikauppias (Finnish for a soapstone vendor).

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#36

Crows can be trained to bring you money

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#37

The Atari 2600's release date and the last execution by guillotine happened less than 24 hours apart.

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#38

Some invader (don't remember specifics) sent a letter to sparta saying that "If I invade Lakonia you will be destroyed, never to rise again" and the Spartans sent a letter back with a single word in it. "If" 

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#39

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real There are 5.87 Popes per square mile in the Vatican City.

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Ms. Mack
Ms. Mack
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

??? Vatican City isn't even one square mile (.19). If someone else understands this, please explain.

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#40

Pirates wear eye patches to see better in the dark (covered eye doesn't get used to sunlight and is more sensitive after uncovering).

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Doctor Strange
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is pure speculation. Much more likely, pirates wore eye patches because being a pirate was inherently dangerous, and many of them lost eyes. Point of fact, health insurance was invented by pirates. They would pay extra out to those who were injured during raids, with a set rate based on injuries.

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#41

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Less than 40% of great white sharks have filed their 2022 tax returns

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#42

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real Im always seeing my nose ..its just that my brain ignores it

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#43

The Bored Panda App used to be perfect, but now the App just wants to sell you stuff from Amazon which is a real shame.

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#44

There was a plan to dose Hitler with oestrogen in the hopes that the female hormone would make him less aggressive.

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Helena
Helena
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They thought giving hitler pms would make him LESS aggressive?

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#45

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real I’m closer to being a millionaire than Bill Gates is.

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#46

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real We thought to put wheels on luggage after we got to the moon.

The lighter the Roast the more caffeine coffee has.

A new car costs less than it's equal weight in Hamburgers.

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Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Neil Armstrong struggled with his luggage, taking it up the gantry to Apollo 11 without wheels.

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#47

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real There are more planes in the ocean than boats in the sky

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JimSteve
JimSteve
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But I think that, with your help, we can change that! Starting next year, we will make every boat on and under the ocean fly away!

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#48

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real New Mexico (the state) got its name before Mexico (the country)

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paul sa
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For that matter where is old york and old hampshire and old jersey

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#49

You are constantly clapping, but the claps are just spaced differently.

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#50

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real There are more Hydrogen atoms in a single molecule of water than there are stars in the entire Solar System.

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

This is just silly maths. I wish they wouldn't keep including it, it's the sort of thing that baffles a five year old, but I'd hope we were better than that.

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#51

50 “Stupid Facts” That Sound Fake But Are Genuinely Real 6X9+6+9=69

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#52

The Bored Panda App used to be perfect, but now the App just wants to sell you stuff from Amazon which is a real shame.

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JimSteve
JimSteve
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

AGAIN? (This is the third time I've seen this, from the same guy too)

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#53

Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon

created the name (Lululemon) to have many L's so that it would sound western to Japanese buyers, who often have difficulty pronouncing the letter. He later remarked that he found it "funny to watch (Japanese speakers) try and say it" and that "it was the only reason behind the name"

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