QUIZBURST

Trivia facts archive

200 hand-curated true-or-false facts with explanations. Tap any fact to read the answer in detail, or play the live quiz to test your streak across 30,024 questions.

• T A woman once won a men's Olympic gold medal in shooting.
• T The longest place name in the world contains 85 letters.
• F The discovery of the electron was accidental while studying cathode rays with a vacuum tube.
• F Mr. Pibb is a brand of soda owned by Coca-Cola.
• F Sound can travel through the vacuum of space in the form of electromagnetic waves.
• F Droughts never happen in polar regions.
• F The phenomenon where a sustained note seems to go up in pitch when played louder is called the 'Shepard tone'.
• T A diminished seventh chord contains two tritones.
• T Pluto is no longer classified as a planet because it did not clear its orbit.
• F The pitch of a note in 'Just intonation' is always the same as in equal temperament.
• T The 'Levitating vase' illusion involves sound waves making water droplets hover.
• F The first stock exchange was established in Venice in 1300.
• F The use of chaikum to protect from infections happened after a lab assistant wiped his cut on a contaminated cloth.
• T Rice is the only grain that is native to both Asia and Africa as a wild species.
• T The longest place name on Earth is in New Zealand.
• F A major chord played backwards still sounds like a major chord.
• T The first plastic, celluloid, was invented as a substitute for ivory in pool balls.
• F A parasite that lives in the brain can make a person behave like a zombie, permanently altering personality.
• F A flash of lightning lasts around one-thousandth of a second on average.
• F A cockroach has a similar blood color to an octopus due to copper.
• F The gold standard was abandoned in the U.S. in 1933 for all transactions.
• T The Mycelial network of a fungus operates similarly to a neural network.
• T A gymnast died during a vault in the 1960s Olympics.
• T The 'phantom words' illusion makes listeners hear words in random syllables.
• T A violinist's bow can cause the strings to move in a stick-slip motion that produces a sawtooth wave.
• F Plug plants into power strips to save energy during thunderstorms.
• F A single mosquito can flap its wings over 500 times per second.
• F The theory of the greenhouse effect was discovered through experiments with glass jars and boiling water.
• F Pi (π) is represented by 22/7 exactly.
• T Snow on peaks near equator remains year-round because cooling at altitude.
• F All musical scales across cultures use 12 equally spaced notes per octave.
• F A single cow can produce enough methane through burping to power a small fridge for a year.
• T A shark can detect a single drop of blood in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
• F Fermented kimchi contains fewer calories than fresh cabbage.
• F Underwater volcanoes spew molten lava that instantly explodes into sand-sized glass particles on contact with water.
• F The smell of freshly cut grass is a chemical attack designed to attract predators of herbivores.
• F The first mechanical computer was entirely powered by steam instead of electricity.
• T There is a material called 'unobtainium' used by NASA.
• T A human bone is four times stronger than reinforced concrete of the same weight.
• T The 'happy-left bias' in photos means people's left side is rated happier than right.
• F Balsamic vinegar of Modena must age for at least 12 years.
• F Swanfish produce bioluminescence deliberately to reveal their location for mating.
• T The invention of the fire extinguisher was spurred by a scientist's accidental observation of chemical inhibition.
• T A tornado can be invisible to the naked eye until it picks up debris.
• F Tasting food on the tip of the tongue is a myth.
• T A potted plant in a sealed glass jar can survive indefinitely without added water or air due to internal recycling
• F Trade deficits are always bad for a country's economy.
• T In a concert hall, sound reflected from walls can create a 'hot spot' where volume is louder than at the source.
• T Ants can be used as zombie slaves by certain parasitic fungi.
• F Olive oil solidifies when refrigerated, indicating adulteration.
• F Fungal intelligence is measured by the size of their brain-like mycelium.
• F The speed of Earth's rotation varies along its axis; it rotates fastest at the poles.
• T The word ``Sahara'' means desert in Arabic, making ``Sahara Desert'' redundant.
• T A white surface reflects more light than a mirror.
• F Cockroaches can survive a nuclear blast, but not a bad cold.
• F In sous vide, vegetables become more tender at 60°C than meat.
• F Soaking beans overnight removes all toxins from raw beans.
• F The world's oldest known coin hoard was found in a Chinese tomb dating to 600 BC.
• F The safety glass used in car windshields was discovered when a flask broke while drying.
• F The use of X-rays to image the body was discovered when a scientist held a hand in front of a cathode tube.
• T Roots of mature trees are kept informed of soil conditions by electrical pulses.
• T On climbing Mt Everest with no oxygen, some athletes hallucinate of Olympic medals beforehand.
• T The mathematical concept of 'zero' was independently developed by the Mayans before any Old World civilization.
• F A sound of intensity 12 decibels is twice as loud as 6 decibels.
• T Tomatoes are scientifically classified as fruits.
• T Birds are more closely related to crocodiles than to lizards.
• F Your tongue has taste maps for different flavours.
• T The largest trade surplus in the world today is held by China.
• F A Stretched octave on a piano is mathematically perfect than a just octave.
• T Infrasound from wind turbines can make people feel uneasy even below hearing threshold.
• T Your brain automatically corrects colors in different lighting to seem constant.
• T The body louse carries a dangerous bacterium that causes typhus.
• F Adding salt to water raises its boiling point permanently.
• F The first successful vaccine for polio was made from a human cell line grown in a petri dish.
• T Roman concrete was made with volcanic ash that could self-heal cracks over time.
• T The longest migration by any bird is the Arctic tern, which can travel over 50,000 miles yearly.
• T Non-stick cookware releases toxic fumes when overheated.
• F Diamonds can be formed from a dead star explosion.
• F There are roughly as many trees on Earth as stars in the Milky Way.
• T Brain cells called neurons can regenerate throughout life in humans.
• F A spiral of a nautilus follows the golden rectangle exactly.
• T Miso contains live probiotics only when unpasteurized.
• T The invention of the stethoscope occurred when a doctor rolled a paper tube to hear a patient's heartbeat.
• T The discovery of the phenomenon of the Doppler effect came from observing stars at night with a spectroscope.
• T Archimedes' principle explains that a floating object displaces its own weight of fluid.
• T The platypus is venomous; male spurs deliver painful toxins.
• T A Venus flytrap can count to five when capturing prey.
• F Mount Everest is the closest point to space on Earth.
• T Creole languages typically arise from mixing two parent languages.
• T Lichens are a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a photosynthetic partner
• T Hearing loss due to loud music is associated with damage to hair cells in the inner ear.
• T A sound wave travels faster through water than through air.
• T The tritone interval was banned in medieval church music for being too dissonant.
• F The resonant frequency of a wine glass is the same regardless of its water level.
• T An Olympic athlete may be disqualified for their hair being too long.
• T Tardigrades can survive the vacuum of space, extreme radiation, and near-absolute zero.
• F Hard-boiled eggs can be peeled easier if refrigerated first.
• T Butter burns at a lower temperature than olive oil.
• F The word 'sarcasm' originates from Greek meaning 'to tear flesh like a dog'.
• F The smallest banknote ever issued was a 1 cent note from the U.S. in 1800s.
• T Birds can sleep while flying.
• F Peaches have a fuzzy skin because of trichomes made from plant cellulose.
• T The Eastern redbud's flowers grow directly out of its trunk.
• F The Pythagoreans believed that numbers were the ultimate reality, but they considered 5 as unlucky.
• F Camels store water in their humps for long journeys.
• T Pandas do not hibernate due to the lack of enough nutrition from bamboo.
• T Mice can laugh when tickled, producing high-frequency chirps.
• F The Colosseum in Rome was built in less than a decade.
• T Plastic bottles can be recycled into insulation for houses.
• T Rum was once used as a form of currency in colonial America.
• T Inflation was so high in post-WWI Germany that wheelbarrows of cash bought bread.
• T Reverb can create a sense of depth in a recording even if no sound changes pitch.
• T The 'Shepard tone' is an auditory illusion of a pitch that seems to go up forever.
• F Perfect pitch is universally genetic and cannot be learned.
• F The smoke detector was discovered by a physicist testing smoke particles for a different experiment.
• F The brain is the largest known parasite ever found in humans.
• F Spider venom can cause paralysis in humans, but there is no known antivenom.
• F Millipedes and centipedes both have 100 legs each.
• T The sign language used by the Albanian deaf community is unrelated to other sign languages.
• F A country's trade surplus always increases its gold reserves under the gold standard.
• F The development of the ink-jet printer was inspired by observing a flower's natural ink sac.
• T A single root may be longer than the entire shoot system above ground.
• F In the world of fungi, truffles are considered a mushroom species.
• T The Möbius strip has only one continuous surface that cannot be painted with two colors without crossing the edge.
• T Dolphins sleep with one hemisphere of their brain at a time.
• T A nap of just 60 minutes increases mental alertness.
• F Modern English has more in common with German than with French.
• T Cacti grow spines from modified leaves as defense
• T The most expensive spice by weight is saffron.
• F The world's first publicly traded company was the British East India Company.
• T Water absorbs high-frequency sounds better than low-frequency sounds.
• F The value of VISA transactions in a month exceeds the world GDP of 1950.
• F The modern fire extinguisher was invented by a man who poured sand on a lamp flame but used chemical mixture.
• F The trampoline was invented when a circus performer used a net to bounce into the air.
• T There is a sleep disorder where people eat while asleep.
• T Baking yeast can produce ethanol in bread dough.
• F Fermenting vegetables requires a starter culture every time.
• T Hadal zone creatures often have transparent bodies to avoid detection.
• F The gulper eel’s stomach can stretch so much it can hold prey larger than itself.
• F Caramelization and the Maillard reaction are the same chemical process.
• F The Leaning Tower of Pisa was always leaning during its construction.
• T The tulip mania in the 1630s saw a single bulb sell for more than a house.
• T The color mauve dye was discovered when a chemist found a purple precipitate in a failed malaria experiment.
• F A person's blood vessels could circle the Earth about 2.5 times if laid end to end.
• T Cockroaches can live for up to several weeks without their heads because they breathe through spiracles.
• T Sherlock Holmes never said 'Elementary, my dear Watson' in the books.
• F Eating celery burns more calories than it contains.
• F Coconuts are considered tree nuts in the food industry.
• T Jupiter has a storm larger than Earth called the Great Red Spot.
• F Mercury is the hottest planet in our solar system.
• F The Great Lakes are older than the Atlantic Ocean.
• F Chocolate is toxic to dogs due to theobromine, but almonds are fine.
• F The first trade war in history was between Rome and Carthage.
• F Infrared thermometers can measure temperature of rain from the ground.
• T Looking at a blue sky longer than 3 minutes can lower your heart rate.
• T The pitch of a siren on an ambulance changes as it passes because the frequency of its sound changes.
• T Hearing your own voice on recording sounds different because your skull conducts sound differently.
• T A synthesizer can generate tones using only subtractive synthesis.
• T The fundamental frequency of a string thrice as long is one-third the pitch.
• T Bees see the world in entirely different colors than humans.
• F The lightning rod was invented after Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a storm to shock himself.
• T Tree rings can show Fibonacci patterns in their growth.
• T The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head.
• F Seafloor spreading occurs at convergent plate boundaries.
• F The mantle is composed entirely of molten rock.
• T The deep-sea-dwelling 'sea toad' is a type of anglerfish with a unique gait.
• T Lacto-fermented vegetables require salt to inhibit undesirable bacteria.
• T The smallest denomination coin ever used was a 1/1000th of a cent.
• F The largest single trade deal in history was the North American Free Trade Agreement.
• F Bacteria on mycorrhizal fungi improve plant defense, but fungal communication with plants is impossible.
• T Carrion flowers emit a rotting meat smell to attract flies for pollination.
• F When a pitcher plant traps an insect, it releases a chemical that numbs the prey.
• F Tennis balls were originally green.
• T Bananas are berries while strawberries are not.
• F The color red is the most visible to the human eye over long distances during daytime.
• T The longest running TV show is 'The Simpsons' (animated).
• F A ‘damascening’ pattern on swords is truly decorative only.
• T Dry lightning can cause wildfires without rain reaching the ground.
• F Leafcutter ants have jaws so strong they can cut metal.
• T Bananas are curved because they grow towards the sun.
• F When you taste a flavor, your brain triggers the same area as when you hear a pleasant melody.
• F On interstellar medium, color perception across different wavelengths modifies our visual reality minimally.
• T The GDP of a single country can exceed the entire world economy before 1800.
• T The concept of 'money' originally meant cattle in Latin.
• F Mirages occur because of reflection of light off hot air close to ground.
• T Chitin in insects is as strong as steel but flexible.
• T Parasite Toxoplasma gondii can make rats less afraid of cats.
• T A stellated polyhedron has faces that intersect each other.
• F Pickled vegetables lose fiber content during brining.
• F Capsaicin from peppers dissolves in water easily.
• F Aging meat reduces its moisture content significantly.
• T The beat frequency of two close notes is the difference in their frequencies.
• T The Yellow Calderea in Yellowstone is an active supervolcano.
• F Birds always migrate south for the winter.
• T The cock-eyed squid lives with one eye looking up and one looking down.
• F Cooked rice can be left at room temperature indefinitely without spoiling.
• F Acid, like lemon juice, prevents cut apples from browning indefinitely.
• F Cooking bacon at a higher temperature reduces its fat content.
• F The language 'Pirahã' has distinct words for 'mother' and 'father' without gender pronouns.
• T The U.S. never issued a $100,000 bill to the public.