Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Share Facts That Will Blow A 5-Year-Old's Mind

People Share Facts That Will Blow A 5-Year-Old's Mind
upload.wikimedia.org

There's nothing quite like the curiosity of the average five-year-old.

Five-year-old me was convinced the Bermuda Triangle was one of the world's most serious problems and could not understand why we hadn't done something to take care of all those disappearing ships I kept hearing about. (Just in case you were wondering what kind of kid I was.)

After Redditor BigNibbaDicc asked the online community, "What are some cool facts to tell a five-year-old?" people gave it their best shot.


"There are numbers..."

There are numbers below zero.

Sergeant_Dimitri

"Then you get..."

You can't lick your elbow.

Then you get a good 5min watching them try.

CriticallyNormal

"There are more stars..."

There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth.

OstensiblyStupid

Astronomer here! Clap your hands once, and then clap them again a second later. The two claps were actually done about 30,000 miles apart thanks to the Earth's motion in space!

I did the calculation once and interestingly most of the stuff you think of, like the rotating Earth or out orbit around the sun, is a negligible part of it. The real contributions are from our star orbiting the galaxy, and the galaxy's motion itself in space.

Andromeda321

"A group of zebras..."

A group of zebras is called a dazzle and a group of giraffes is called a journey.

Magicbean96

"We will never..."

We will never experience tomorrow as by the time it's "tomorrow", it will be today.

Thanos696969

"Birds like chickens..."

Birds like chickens descended from dinosaurs. Watch them look at their chicken nuggets in absolute awe.

Sqweedward

"It takes 8 minutes..."

It takes 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth. So when we look at the sun, we're actually seeing how it was 8 minutes ago.

Boring_Psycho

"By the standards..."

By the standards of the universe,you are both stronger and weaker than millions of things.

notsofancylad

"When you look up at the night sky..."

When you look up at the night sky and see a star, it's because a little particle of light called a photon shot out of the star and traveled across the vast distance of space and time to land safely in your eye. You're catching a little bit of ancient star whenever you see one.

lightknight7777

"Otters..."

Otters sometimes hold hands to sleep when in the water, so that they don't drift apart when floating in the sea.

gracegilligan

"Pluto..."

Pluto hasn't completed a lap around the sun since it was discovered.

Suckgarbanzo

"There's a disease..."

There's a disease know as Münchmeyer's disease, wherein the afflicted's damaged muscle tissue is 'healed' with skeleton tissue, eventually culminating in the afflicted's muscle system being converted into a secondary skeletal system, hence it's common name, second skeleton disease. It's completely incurable and largely untreatable. & since it symptoms usually don't appear until the age of 10, you could have it & we wouldn't know for another 5 years.

"Once formed..."

Thanks to a couple of quantum mechanical things that most adults would have problems comprehending, let alone a 5-year-old, it's entirely possible for what's know as a 'hard vacuum' (a place where no matter can exist) to spontaneously form anywhere in the universe. Once formed, it would propagate at lightspeed until it destroyed all matter in the universe.

GingerMcginGinII

"Sharks..."

Sharks don't actually like eating people (we apparently taste bad to them), that's why most shark bites stop there. Most sharks bite people out of curiosity or because the person unwittingly provoked the shark.

GingerMcginGinII

"Similarly..."

Most freshwater fish will die if placed in saltwater, & most saltwater fish will die in saltwater. Similarly, most deep-sea creatures cannot survive near the surface, & most surface-dwellers cannot survive the deepest depths.

GingerMcginGinII

"There are butterflies..."

There are butterflies which mimic the pattern of Monarch butterflies to avoid being eaten by predators, because Monarch butterflies are poisonous and predators avoid eating them. In nature, this is called mimicry.

theloneshewolf

"When they die..."

When they die, ants release pheromones attracting other ants to come and carry their dead bodies away to their graveyards.

theloneshewolf

"Animals and people with white fur and red eyes..."

Animals and people with white fur and red eyes are called albinos. Albinism is a condition caused by lack of pigmentation, resulting in extremely pale skin, white hair, and red/purple eyes. Red/purple eyes are themselves the result of seeing blood vessels in the back of the eye.

theloneshewolf

The oxygen that we breathe..."

The oxygen that we breathe is the same oxygen that has been around since ancient times. In other words, the air you breathe may very well be the same air breathed by a dinosaur.

theloneshewolf

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Sydney Sweeney
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for W Magazine

Sydney Sweeney Could Face Charges After Hanging Bras On Hollywood Sign Without Permission

Legendary and controversial showman P.T. Barnum has been credited with saying, "Any publicity is good publicity." Of course, Barnum was operating in the 1800s when he could shape the narrative and kill damaging news.

In the digital age, publicity can quickly reach a global audience. Any missteps or poor choices are out there before damage control can be done.

Keep ReadingShow less
Glenn Close; Donald Trump
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Glenn Close Offers Dire Warning To Trump Over His Regime's 'Inhumanity' In Powerful Video

Film legend Glenn Close shared her feelings on President Donald Trump and his regime's "inhumanity" in a viral video on Instagram, saying she felt "compelled" to speak out in the wake of the murder of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents on Saturday in Minneapolis.

Close—best known for starring in such classics as Fatal Attraction and who recently received raves for her work on Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery—condemned the "cold-blooded murder of American citizens" and warned Trump that "there will be hell to pay" as more and more people rise up against his leadership.

Keep ReadingShow less
Gavin Newsom; JD Vance; Tom Cotton
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Gavin Newsom Epically Rips JD Vance And MAGA Senator Over Their Hot Takes On Minneapolis Shootings

California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized Vice President JD Vance and Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton after they both posted heartless remarks about the recent killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis.

Earlier this month, ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed Good in her car. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed Good “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Kristi Noem
Andres Kudacki/Getty Images; Al Drago/Getty Images

AOC Goes Nuclear On Kristi Noem For Suggesting That Protesters Who Show Up With Firearms Deserve To Die

New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's hypocrisy after Noem responded to the murder of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis by claiming that protesters who show up with firearms aren't "peaceful."

Calls for an investigation have intensified from across the political spectrum after analysis of multiple videos showed ICE officers removing a handgun from Pretti—whom authorities said was permitted to carry but was not handling—before fatally shooting him.

Keep ReadingShow less

People Describe The Strangest Health Conditions They've Ever Experienced

The human body is complicated, fascinating, and sometimes difficult to explain.

While we know that, it's incredibly unnerving when we have a symptom that even our doctors struggle to explain or identify.

Keep ReadingShow less