Knowledge is something that can always be improved. At the same time, it's also a thing that no matter how much effort you put in, you'll have some blind spots because it's impossible to know absolutely everything, isn't it? There are things that we are doomed to never learn about. But today's list isn't about them. Instead, it's about the things many people don't know but can learn about. And when is a better time to start than now?

More info: Reddit

#1

If you want to stop and have a chat, you won't die if you move out of the walkway.

Image credits: Grandson_of_0din

#2

Ctrl Backspace deletes the entire word.

Image credits: Brueguard

#3

A company called Warner Chappell Music collected licensing fees for use of the song “Happy Birthday to You” all the way until 2015. That’s why characters in movies often sing other songs like “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and restaurant chains often have their own birthday songs they sing to customers.

Image credits: ItsMeCourtney

Probably many of us have heard the saying that “knowledge is power” at least once in our lifetime. This phrase comes from the Latin aphorism "scientia potentia est" (the words can be placed slightly differently, but it doesn’t change the meaning). Commonly, it’s attributed to Sir Francis Bacon, former Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, as the expression "ipsa scientia potestas est" ('knowledge itself is power') occurred in his book “Meditationes Sacrae” (1597).

As you can see, Francis Bacon didn’t use the exact aphorism that’s assigned to the “knowledge is power” saying. The first time this exact Latin phrase was written was in the 1668 version of “Leviathan” by Thomas Hobbes, an ex-secretary to F. Bacon.

#4

A burial plot is called a graveyard if it's part of a church lot. It's called a cemetery if separate.

Image credits: Missusmidas

#5

The only difference between chemistry and biology is life. If it's alive, it's biology, if it's not its chemistry.

Image credits: Jlbennett2001

#6

Scuba is an acronym, standing for self contained underwater breathing apparatus.

Image credits: JackCooper_7274

Yet, even though knowledge is power, everyone carries different levels of it. And this leads to the phenomenon of the “curse of knowledge” or “the curse of expertise.” It’s a cognitive bias where people incorrectly assume that everyone knows as much as they do on a certain topic. This makes it hard for them to imagine what it’s like to not have that knowledge.

One of the most interesting experiments done about this curse, which also quite easily explains the phenomenon, was conducted in 1990 by a Stanford University psychology graduate student Elizabeth Newton. She created a game, where people were assigned roles of “tapper” and “listener.” Tappers had to tap out the rhythm of a well-known song on a table, while the listeners had to guess the song.

Out of 120 songs tapped out during the experiment, only 3 were guessed correctly. Yes, only 3! Apparently, when a tapper taps, they hear the tune in their mind along with the taps, while the listener only hears the uncoordinated tapping sounds. And due to the curse, the tappers couldn’t see why it was so hard for listeners to understand the tune.

#7

Bananas are berries, and Antarctica is a desert.

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#8

Squirrels run faster up trees than on flat surfaces.

Image credits: sstebbinss

#9

Mammals pee an average of 22 seconds, no matter if mouse or elephant.

Image credits: strangerinthebox

This works with any other type of knowledge. Knowing some piece of information makes it hard to understand how others don’t know it, hence the curse in the phenomenon’s name.

And it’s not the only thing that's so cursed about it. In fact, this phenomenon creates quite a few problems between people:

Makes some teachers have difficulty understanding how their students can’t comprehend a topic;

Makes it difficult to communicate;

Makes it hard to understand or justify your own past behavior;

Makes it hard to predict or understand the behavior of others.

So, be aware that as you learn new things from this list, you might fall for the curse of knowledge. After all, as the question that prompted this thread suggests, the majority of people don’t know these facts, so don’t forget that!

Also, maybe you know any other facts that not many others know that weren't mentioned in this list? Share it with us in the comments! And don't forget to upvote the most interesting facts you learned from this list!

#10

Irukandji jellyfish grow only to about 1 cubic cm in size, but have an incredibly painful sting. One symptom of the sting is a strong impending sense of doom. Victims have begged their doctor to be killed as they were certain they would die anyways.

Image credits: NikkiRex

#11

Most the people involved in the Hindenburg disaster lived.

Image credits: CaligulaMoney

#12

SONAR stands for SOund NAvigation and Ranging.

Image credits: TinCanSailor987

#13

The Amazon River is over 4,000 miles long and doesn't have any bridges that cross it.

Image credits: Fuzzy-Fox-215

#14

The difference between a million and a billion, is approximately a billion.

Image credits: jonnyboyrebel

#15

Font describes the variation in style in which something is written: size, italic, bold, all caps etc.

Typeface is the variation in the style of letters (Arial, Times New Roman, Comic Sans) that most people refer to as fonts.

Image credits: gigglesmcsdinosaur

#16

If your nerve is broken in the wrong way, the nerve will send a pain signal to the brain and it won't stop.

Image credits: RhiannonCrystalLady

#17

The bow-wow theory of language (aka the onomatopoeic theory), which states that our imitation of natural sounds is the basis of language development.

Image credits: no-recognition-1616

#18

An 18 inch pizza is more than two 12 inch pizzas.

And to do the math, the surface area of a circle is pi x r squared.

Pi is the constant. 18 in pizza has a 9 in radius, or r. 12 inch has

6. 9 squared is 81, 6 squared is 36. 36 x 2 is 72. 81 is greater than 72.

Image credits: Who_Else_but_Macho

#19

The amount of [crimes] that happens on cruise ships. Most of them unresolved too.

Image credits: PeacefulKillah

#20

Centralia PA, Its a ghost town in Pennsylvania. Somehow they managed to set a coal mine on fire and its been burning since 1962. There are still a few people living there apparently but there are noxious fumes venting out of the ground so the government doesn't allow new people to go there.

Image credits: Adorable-Chemistry64

#21

The chances of a good recovery after CPR is abysmal.

Image credits: Aswedfrog

#22

Your eyes have a separate immune system from the rest of your body. If they get damaged in such a way that it affects anything other than your eyes, your regular immune system can attack the damage and will not recognize them, meaning your own body can permanently blind you.

What's worse, your body cannot tell the difference between either eye. If one of them gets infected or damaged, your immune system can attack your healthy eye and take away your sight entirely.

Image credits: RhiannonCrystalLady

#23

When you get killed by army ants it's not the poison or biting that kills you.

>!But the invasion of lungs!<.

Image credits: Kysman95

#24

The only Spanish-speaking country in Africa is Equitorial Guinea. Its capital, Malabo, is on an island slightly northwest of the country’s mainland.

Image credits: Dre_Lake

#25

Everything is made of chemicals and every single one of them will kill you with a sufficient dose.

Image credits: Insertsociallife

#26

Sharks predate trees.

Image credits: External_Crazy_6568

#27

The tip of a shoelace is called an aglet.

Image credits: poker_face-_-

#28

Water doesn't conduct electricity.

Edit cuz I should probably explain; pure water doesn't conduct electricity. Getting water to that level of purity is relatively costly however.

Image credits: Dexember69

#29

Migatte-no-Blakae said:

A broken clock is right twice a day, but a clock ticking in reverse is correct FOUR times a day.

peckx063 explained:

Start one at midnight going forward and one backward. After six hours they'll both be at 6, after another six hours they'll both be at 12, after another six hours they'll both be at 6,after another six hours they'll both be at 12.

Image credits: Migatte-no-Blakae

#30

You can collapse your lungs from laughing.

Image credits: ContentTask2032

#31

If you get a tooth abscess on the maxillary (top arch) canine to canine. It needs to be taken care of ASAP. The area is called the triangle of death when it comes to abscess or infections.

Source: Dental Hygienist

Also

Image credits: QuickenZ

#32

Your immune system has at least 1 cell to combat every single infection that could ever exist. Your T-cells are cells that, when created, go through a sort of training phase in the thymus where they are allowed to change their genetic code at random, in order to be able to battle 1 random very specific disease. During this, the body also kills any T-cells that are accidentally adapted to kill human cells. Then the T-cells are sent to lymph nodes, to be found later by presenting an antigen (a part of a pathogen) to it. Basically you have something for everything in your body, the problem is just finding it, as it takes a good few days for your body to locate the specific one.

#33

The human body has no means of sensing "wetness", and thus doesn't know what "wetness" is. It can only sense temperature and pressure. Put on a latex glove and submerge your hand in water, and it will feel wet.

The movie The Fifth Element is the only movie to reach general audiences, in which the protagonist and antagonist are never made aware of one another, let alone meet on screen.

Domestic cats have what's known as a "Non-Fatal Terminal Velocity". Which means that, provided they are of healthy age and weight, you could punt one out of a 747 at cruising altitude and it would hit the earth with no measurable damage.

To temporarily reduce, or remove entirely, the symptoms of tinnitus, cover your ears with your palms as hard as you can, and ensure you middle fingers are touching behind your head, then rapidly tap the entire length of your fingers against the base of your skull.

You may own your phone, as in the piece of hardware in your hand, but you own exactly none of the things it can do. Remember that when texting, taking pics, posting online, or anything else you do.