Truly Interesting Fun Facts
What're some interesting fun facts that are memorable for you? Bonus points for finance/economic facts–looking to compile insightful tidbits. Here are a few that come to mind:
- In the American diet, coffee and tea represent the single biggest source of antioxidants
- Every 1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die (thanks Brad Pitt inThe Big Short)
- Invasive species cost the global economy over $1 trillion each year
Looking forward to what you guys have to share.
What American banks exist in London and not NYC? Just curious
Source on American banks in London? I could maybe see it if you defined the two camps as [American banks with HQs in NYC] vs [American Banks with European HQs in London], but I’d be surprised if the number of straight London offices of US banks outweighs straight NYC offices of US banks
.
So I can commit tax fraud, hide out in Bali for ten years, and come back with no legal consequences?
According to Lionel Hutz, yes.
Who the hell can get by on only taking 20 breaths a day? That's insane!
This is a joke before some intern comes at me
TON 618 is an extremely bright quasar in the constellation of Canes Venatici, 18.2 billion light-years away. It contains the largest, brightest and most massive black hole known. It is 66 billion times more massive than the Sun and 11 Solar Systems can fit in it side by side.
66 billion times more massive than the sun, but only 11 times wider than the solar system. That really shows how fucking empty space is.
It's terrifying, liberating, incomprehensible. Our most Lovecraftian fiction pales in comparison to the dark reality of the universe.
I was going to use this fact! Just for additional context, it has more mass than all stars in the entire Milky Way combined and is 140 trillion times more luminous than the Sun.
When he was around the same age as Alexander the Great at his death, Julius Caesar was a relatively obscure Roman official serving in Spain and came upon a statue of Alexander and openly wept because he compared his life accomplishments up to that point to Alexander. Little did he know that over 2000 years later people would view them both as pillar figures of antiquity.
Thomas Jefferson had received a 1,600 pound block of cheese from Massachusetts farmers. To try and one-up their gift, farmers from New York later gifted President Andrew Jackson a 1,400 pound chunk of cheese. He left it on display in the White House for a year until his final party where he let everyone hack at it and eat it.
This is a hilarious quote from a guy who was there:
"For hours did a crowd of men, women and boys hack at the cheese, many taking large hunks of it away with them. When they commenced, the cheese weighed one thousand four hundred pounds, and only a small piece was saved for the President's use. The air was redolent with cheese, the carpet was slippery with cheese, and nothing else was talked about at Washington that day. Even the scandal about the wife of the President's Secretary of War was forgotten in the tumultuous jubilation of that great occasion."
Every time you shuffle a deck of cards, chances are that you have put them in an order that has never been seen in the history of the universe.
Yeah this is true. Mindblowing.
Also, username checks out.
In the U.S. today, there’s about $14 trillion in total money supply (M2), of which physical currency makes up only about 11% or $1.5 trillion of the total value.
Meaning, if everyone were to try to go to cash, there is only 11% printed cash available to satisfy the demand.
Horses generally weigh 1000lbs and have a 20in D. That's a 50:1 weight to D length ratio. So if you're a 200lb human with a 4in D, you're technically hung like a horse.
The Russian aristocracy (and royals) during the time of the Czars mostly spoke French amongst each other.
The Stegosaurus existed during the Jurassic period, which was ~ 140 - 150 million years ago. The T Rex on the other hand was alive during the Cretaceous period, which was about ~65 million years ago. Therefore, humans alive right now are closer to existing at the same time as T rex's than the T rex was to being alive at the same time as Stegosaurs'.
I like this fact because it also gives you a rough idea of just how long dinosaurs dominated the earth for. We have evidence that dinosaurs existed for roughly ~165 million years, whereas humans have been believed to have been around for roughly ~7 million.
Also, how about 95% of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were from the Cretaceous period.
In a room of 23 people, there’s a 50% chance two have the same birthday
No.
Ha it’s definitely true and an extremely well know stat.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem
The “trick” is you’re comparing every possible pair of people’s birthdays.
Two people having the same birth month out of 23 people is pretty much guaranteed.
Without going into all the statistics of it, an interesting way to think about it is to count up the total number of pairings in the room. If you're just looking at yourself there are 22 pairs, one for every other person in the room, but there are plenty of pairs that don't involve you, looking at the next guy he has 21 unique pairs, (we already counted the pair between him and you), and so on. The math is 22 + 21 + 20 + ... + 2 + 1, which is equal to 231 pairs, more than the 180ish days that cover half of the year.
There are more possible brackets in a single NCAA basketball tournament than there are grains of sand on Earth.
Every time a deck of cards is randomly shuffled, it is the first time that order had ever happened in the history of the universe. Or, precisely, the chances of it happening are 1 in 8 Unvigintillion. (10^66)
Nice one. Imagine being the guy who had to come up with all the "illion" levels for every number of zeros.
If you're ever in a store and wonder if pants or shorts fit your waist, just put them around your neck folded in half. Your neck is roughly half the circumference of your waist.
Quia nesciunt ab praesentium enim. Consectetur rerum ea sed eos possimus tenetur. Itaque et praesentium molestiae ea voluptatem libero distinctio.
Distinctio culpa beatae est nemo. Minus officia est esse nostrum.
Asperiores cupiditate eaque a temporibus consequatur. Maxime vitae qui et nemo dicta. Est corporis laboriosam ullam aut laudantium ratione.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Enim maiores inventore quia. Eos magnam suscipit dolore tenetur incidunt voluptas harum. Odit dolorem quia qui impedit eos velit nobis sit.
Sit sed voluptas et molestiae rerum exercitationem autem. Occaecati et qui minima quidem non. Et sequi eligendi quibusdam maiores ipsam accusamus totam omnis. Soluta nihil non consequatur tempora. Laudantium repellendus et iste architecto. Sequi qui sunt nesciunt provident laudantium.
Fugit ipsum quis est est. Veritatis nihil suscipit doloribus cumque quis explicabo perferendis.
Sit nihil ea dicta labore molestias. Sit omnis consequatur provident a fugit deserunt. Minima voluptatum amet provident ut. Quia consequatur voluptas in. Amet id est consequatur. Eaque inventore et repellat sed ipsam voluptas.