Funny Did-You-Know Facts

Will and Guy's Collection of Did You Know Facts

If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches? 

• Funny Did You Know Facts?
• Simple Question: Why?
• Funny Did You Know Facts - If's and Buts
• Latest Gadget - Intelligent Paper Memo
• More Funny Facts
• Did you realize that
• Fascinating Did You Know This Facts

Funny Did-You-Know Facts?

• More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.
• Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath once a year.
• No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver and purple.
• The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
• The only two nations who's names begin with an 'A', but don't end in an 'A' are Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.
• A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
• Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
• Every dog in my house is required by law to take a bath once a year.

Simple Question: Why?

• Why are boxing rings square?
• Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat?
• Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
• Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?
• Why does a round pizza come in a square box? 
• Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up, like, every two hours?
• Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know there is not enough? 

Funny Did You Know Facts - If's and Buts

• If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
• If someone with a split personality threatens to commit suicide, is it a hostage situation? 
• Can you cry under water?
• What level of importance must a person have, before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered? 
• If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches? 
• If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing? 

Have You Tested the Latest Gadget - Intelligent Paper Memo

British technology company in Cambridge, England has invented an intelligent paper memo post-it note.  It's key feature is a built-in alarm clock that can be programmed to flash or beep. 

It's called the Ixp-Note and it's just 1mm thick.  A secret process uses thermo-chromic ink to display a digital clock readout on paper.  It was invented by Lyndsay Williams, in the Girton Labs,  her idea is that people can place them at strategic places around the house with reminders such as 'take the bread out of the oven', or 'time for my vitamin pill.  Look out for the post-it notes in 2009, they should be about $20 for a pack of ten.

Did You Appreciate These Facts About Letters?

Letters 'a', 'b', 'c' and 'd' do not appear if you spell any of the numbers between 1 and 99
[Funnily enough, letter 'd' comes for the first time in Hundred]

In addition, letters 'a', 'b' and 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999
[Strange, but true, letter 'a' comes for the first time in Thousand]

Neither letter 'b' nor 'c' appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999,999,999
[Letter 'b' comes for the first time in Billion]

Letter 'c' does not appear anywhere in the spellings of entire English counting.

More: Funny Did You Know Facts?

• The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
• Coca-Cola was originally green.
• Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.
• The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.
• Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.
• City with the most Rolls Royce's per capita: Hong Kong.
• State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.
• Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
• Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
• Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33
• Cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400 [£3,500]
• Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
• Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
• The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
• The youngest pope was 11 years old.
• First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
• The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

Did You Know That....

• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades - King David
Clubs - Alexander the Great,
Hearts-Charlemagne, and
Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

• If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.  See an update of this statue 'did you know fact'.
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
• 'I am'. Is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
• The phrase 'rule of thumb' is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

  ∞

• The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the 'General Purpose' vehicle, G.P.
• The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

Did You Realize That...

• In just one year, each and every American on average consumes enough wood and paper to construct a tree 100 feet tall and 16 inches in diameter.
• Over three million Americans stutter.  Stuttering is gender related and affects three to four times as many males as females.
• The maximum speed that raindrops can fall at is around 18mph.  The precise speed depends on their size.
• Because of thermal expansion the Eiffel Tower is 15cm taller in summer than in winter.
• The human head contains 22 bones.
• A bolt of lightning contains enough energy to toast 160,000 pieces of bread. Unfortunately, the bolt only takes 1/10,000 of a second - so turning the bread over might prove difficult!
• The tomato is the world's most popular fruit.
• Worldwide, 20,000 brands of beer are brewed in 180 styles, from ales, lagers, pilsner and stouts to bitters, cream ales and iced beers.
• The largest flower in the world is Rafflesia arnoldi.  Surprisingly, it is a a parasitic plant that  grows only on Sumatra, Indonesia.  The genus Rafflesia was named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the great explorer.
  
  Its petals can reach a foot and half long, if you were to touch one the leaves are 1 inch thick.  See picture
• In 1313, King Edward II stated that, 'You are forbidden from dying in parliament.'
• In Melbourne, Australia it is illegal for men to parade in strapless dresses, however, they are allowed to cross-dress in anything with sleeves.
• King George V changed the name of the British royal family from the German sounding Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor in 1917.  As the great war was at its height King George V wanted to distance himself from his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.
• Ravens are kept in the Tower of London because, according to myth, the British throne will come to a fall if the ravens leave the tower. The wings of the ravens are clipped to prevent them from flying away.

Five Fascinating Did You Know This Facts

1. The Jersey or walking stick cabbage has a stem as high as a man and can grow 16 feet tall.
2. Kilts were invented by the Irish. The word "kilt" is, in fact, Danish.
3. The human body burns about 60 calories an hour while asleep, 85 while eating and 130 sitting working at a computer.
4. In a national anthem survey, 79% of Americans know the first line of the 'Star-Spangled Banner', but only 37% of Canadians know the first line to 'Oh, Canada', which is really pathetic considering the first line of 'Oh, Canada' is 'Oh, Canada'. – Jay leno.
5. When they are closed quickly, the crossover point on a pair of scissors is moving faster than the speed of light.*

* This fact may well get children thinking, our reader says it originally featured on the BBC website.  It certainly has a few adult debating the merits of this 'fact'.  For example, is there a typo, should it read not 'speed of light', but 'speed of sound'.  No! 

Next comes the question how long are these scissors.  The answer is exceedingly long, in fact one light year long, this is how the blades get to exceed the speed of light when the scissors close - theoretically.  Finally, can anything move faster than the speed of light?  Not if Einstein is right.

Five Further Fascinating  Did You Know This ....

1. Until 1800, cookery was so dangerous that it was the second commonest cause of death among women after childbirth.
2. The American musician John Cage [1912-92] is best known for his 1952 composition 4'33", which consists of nothing but total silence. Its three "movements" are "performed" without playing a single note.
3. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
4. The 'sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick' is thought to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
5. Charlie Chaplin once won only third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

One more for luck: Apparently, we're told that 35% of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

Footnote:
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