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![Play-Doh was originally used to clean soot that furnaces often left on walls in the 1930s]()
The now-famous kids’ toy used to be an off-white dough people would roll across their walls.![There are over 1,000 varieties of bananas but we only eat one of them.]()
The most commonly eaten variety in the U.S. is the Cavendish banana, partly due to its long shelf life, lack of seeds and lower production costs.![Female giraffes give birth while standing up, causing its newborns to enter the world with a nose dive]()
This birthing method actually helps snap the female giraffe's umbilical cord. It also stimulates the newborn's first breath and even prevents damage to their necks.![In 18th century Europe, pineapples were so rare and exotic that they were reserved for royalty. Sometimes, people would rent them out for special occasions.]()
At dinner parties, attendees wouldn't eat the fruit but admire it.?![A blood cell makes a loop within the body every minute]()
At this speed, blood can travel about three feet per second, according to the Albert Vein Institute.![There are no stop signs in Paris. Instead, drivers give the vehicle on the right priority.]()
The French capital removed its stop signs to make police intervention "from secondary ways" smoother and avoid penalizing residents, according to the country's police prefecture. However, other cities in France still utilize them.![China cuts down 20 million 20-year-old trees every year to produce 80 billion disposable chopsticks per year]()
A forestry expert estimated the burden of producing disposable chopsticks in 2013, according to the South China Morning Post.![China owns nearly all of the world’s giant pandas and rent each one out for $1 million per year]()
While $1 million is a hefty price, some zoos are far from going bankrupt over the pandas, according to Business Insider. Scotland's Edinburgh Zoo saw a 51% increase in attendance due to their pandas in 2012. The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., also saw its food and merchandise sales double following the arrival of its two pandas in 2001. ?![Contrary to their male counterparts, female productivity levels in the office increase when the office temperature is higher]()
While men and women have different productivity levels depending on office thermostat settings, the relationship between temperature and female work performance was more pronounced, according to a USC study.![Snails and slugs have a flexible band of thousands of microscopic teeth]()
While a slug's jaw cuts off larger pieces of food, its flexible band of teeth scrapes up the food particles.![To burn one calorie, you’d have to click a computer mouse 10 million times]()
It may take a total of 11.5 days of clicking to burn one calorie, according to Wired.![Canada’s Hudson Bay area is exhibiting signs of less gravity than other regions]()
The Laurentide Ice Sheet, which once covered much of Canada, caused a large indentation near the Hudson Bay. One theory suggests that the Hudson Bay's lack of mass has affected its gravity.![Left-handed people may have shorter life expectancies because everything is designed for right-handed people]()
Right-handed people tend to live longer than left-handed people by nine years, according to a 1991 study.![A NASA spacesuit cost about $20 million 50 years ago]()
NASA is in the process of developing its next generation of spacesuits, which will cost over $1 billion.![Dinosaurs used to experience 23-hour days]()
The length of an Earth day has been gradually increasing over the planet's 4.5-billion-year history. This is due to the Moon's influence in slowing down Earth's rotation, according to Dr. Rosemary Mardling, a mathematical scientist at Monash University.![There are more than 7,500 known cultivated varieties of apples]()
From honeycrisp to granny smith, there are 7,500 known varieties of apples in the world.![Atlanta has 71 variations of the word]()
The word peachtree was deeply rooted in the Georgia city due to an indigenous Muscogee settlement that translated into "Standing Peach Tree."![Airplanes fly slower today than they did in the past]()
In the late 20th century, airlines began reducing cruising speeds in order to save on fuel costs, which spiked dramatically following the 1970s oil crisis.![UPS drivers will make a left turn only 10% of the time]()
Because motorists spend a lot of time and gas waiting for left turn signals, UPS drivers usually make only right turns. This strategy also helps curtail accidents at traffic lights.![An average household has 300,000 items]()
While American kids make up 3.7% of the world’s children, they have almost half of all toys and children’s books, according to the Los Angeles Times.![A soccer field of forest was lost every second in 2017]()
A forest area equivalent to the size of Italy was lost that year due to deforestation.![3:44 AM is most common time to wake up at night]()
A study into 3,000 sleep-deprived Brits revealed that people were most likely to wake up at 3:44 a.m.![Flamingos can drink water near boiling point]()
Flamingos typically live near lakes with extremely high salt concentrations, so they often resort to boiling geysers for fresh water.![All the Nutella sold in one year could spread over 1,000 football fields]()
One jar of Nutella is sold every 2.5 seconds across the globe.![A pencil could potentially draw a 35-mile-long line]()
That’s enough to write 45,000-50,000 words or the entirety of "The Great Gatsby."![Astronauts can vote from space]()
The first people to vote from space were two Russian cosmonauts in 1996. NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to vote from orbit the following year.?![The word "hello" was previously used to attract attention, such as, "Hello, what do you think you're doing?"]()
The word "hello" was previously used to attract attention, such as, "Hello, what do you think you're doing?"![The Harvard University Library once contained a book bound in human skin but officially removed it in 2024 due to the book’s unethical origins]()
The original owner of the book, a doctor, sourced the binding from a deceased female patient at a hospital where he worked. According to him, "a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering."?![If the Earth were the size of a grain of sand, the Sun would be the size of a tennis ball]()
It would require 1.3 million Earths to fill the volume of the Sun.?![If a car could drive upward, it would take an hour for the vehicle to reach space]()
The distance between sea level and the edge of space is 62 miles.![Humans were able to place a man on the Moon before putting wheels on luggage]()
Wheels were added to suitcases in 1970, one year after Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon.![The current U.S. flag was designed by a high school student for a class project - he originally received a]()
His teacher later bumped his grade to an A after the U.S. Congress accepted it as America’s national flag.![The average person will spend about a total of 6 months waiting at red lights]()
People will waste sixth months of their lives waiting for traffic lights to turn green![Humans are about 1-2 cm taller in the morning after getting out of bed]()
Humans will start the day just slightly taller![Before the invention of the eraser, writers used to correct their graphite mistakes with wet bread]()
Writers used to use wet bread as erasers until the modern rubber tools were invented around 1770![Beer wasn’t classified as alcohol in Russia until 2013!]()
Many Russians considered beer a soft drink until a decade ago![Wombat feces are surprisingly cube-shaped, allowing the fecal matter to not roll away when the mammals mark their territory]()
The Australian marsupials are the only animals known to produce cube-shaped feces![A person typically produces enough saliva in their lifetime to fill two swimming pools!]()
Salivary gland production varies between 2-6 cups per day.![The world’s deepest Postbox is in Susami Bay, Japan, where people can dive 10 meters underwater to send messages]()
The underwater mailbox was proposed to attract more tourists and divers to Susami Bay![Cheese is considered one, if not, the most shoplifted food worldwide, with nearly 4% of total cheese inventory stolen each year]()
The addictive quality and small packaging of cheese makes the dairy product highly targeted among shoplifters![Singapore, one of the cleanest countries in the world, made chewing gum illegal in 1992]()
The 1992 law helps prevent people from spitting gum on the ground![A jellyfish species, the Turritopsis dohrnii, has been deemed biologically immortal, due to its ability to reset its developmental stage after reaching maturity]()
The "immortal jellyfish" can also hit the reset button when it becomes injured or threatened![The world’s largest cave, Son Doong in Vietnam, has its very own ecosystem, complete with a river, forest, sunlight and climate. It’s so big that it can fit an entire NYC city block inside!]()
Birds, monkeys and even snakes have been spotted inside the Vietname cave![In one lifetime, the average person will eat the weight equivalent of 6 elephants]()
An average person in the Western world eats about 70,000 pounds of food in a lifetime![The Eiffel Tower was originally intended to be a temporary exhibit until it became so popular that it was no longer in danger of demolition]()
The Eiffel Tower was scheduled to be demolished after 20 years![The average lightning bolt runs at temperatures five times hotter than the surface of the sun!]()
Lightning also moves about 30,000 times faster than a bullet![The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is more than twice the height of NYC’s Empire State Building]()
Dubai's Burj Khalifa set the record as the world's tallest building in 2010 when it first opened![Humans blink about 15-20 times per minute. If you live to be 80 years old, you will have spent about 5 years of your life with your eyes closed due to blinking.]()
People would spend 5 years of their entire life with their eyes closed solely from blinking.?![The Antarctic ice sheet is so massive that if it were to melt completely, global sea levels would rise by about 58 meters (190 feet).]()
Antarctic glaciers contain so much water that they would raise sea levels by 190 feet if they ever completely melted.![It takes about 1,800 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, which equals 10 full bathtubs to create one quarter-pound burger. This includes water used for drinking, feed, and processing.]()
A quarter-pound burger requires the equivalent of about 10 bathtubs of water to be created.![Mount Everest grows approximately 0.16 inches (4 millimeters) per year due to tectonic activity. Over a human lifetime, this growth can be quite noticeable, adding about 10 inches (25 centimeters) in 60 years.]()
Mount Everest could grow 10 inches in the span of a human lifetime.![There are more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way: While estimates vary, it's generally accepted that there are around 3 trillion trees on Earth, whereas there are estimated to be around 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy.]()
There are more trees than there are stars in the Milky Way.![To produce one pound of honey, a colony of honeybees must fly approximately 55,000 miles and visit around 2 million flowers.]()
Honeybees must visit 2 million flowers to create one pound of honey.![The Great Wall of China is over 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometers) long. If laid end to end, it would stretch more than halfway around the Earth.]()
The length of the Great Wall of China equates to more than half the Earth's circumference.![The global population reached 1 billion in 1804. It took 123 years to reach 2 billion (in 1927) and only 12 years to go from 7 billion to 8 billion (2022).]()
While it took over a century for the human population to go from one to two billion people, it took just over a decade for seven billion to go to eight billion.![Due to thermal expansion, the height of the Eiffel Tower can vary by up to 15 centimeters (6 inches) depending on the temperature. In hot weather, the iron structure expands, and in cold weather, it contracts.]()
The Eiffel Tower can stretch an extra 6 inches depending on the temperature.![A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus: Venus rotates very slowly on its axis, taking about 243 Earth days to complete one rotation. However, its orbit around the Sun only takes about 225 Earth days, making a day (rotation) longer than a year (orbit).]()
On Venus, a day shockingly lasts longer than a year.![Every day, about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created globally. That's equivalent to 250,000 Libraries of Congress.]()
Data equivalent to a quarter-million Libraries of Congress are created every day.![The total length of a human's blood vessels could circle the earth at least twice.]()
The total length of a human's blood vessels could circle the earth at least twice.![If all the blood vessels in the human body were laid end to end, they would measure approximately 60,000 miles, enough to circle the Earth more than twice.]()
The total length of a human's blood vessels could circle the earth at least twice.![Around the world, there are about 8.6 million lightning strikes every day. Around the world, there are about 8.6 million lightning strikes every day. That's over 100 strikes per second!]()
There are over 100 strikes per second around the world!Fun Facts: Play-Doh was originally sold and used as wallpaper cleaner
Did you know that Play-Doh was originally used to clean walls, and that bananas have over a thousand different varieties? Learn more with our fun facts of the day!
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- Fun Facts: Play-Doh was originally sold and used as wallpaper cleaner
