Sitting alone, feeling bored? Why not use this time and learn some interesting fun facts? Here is a list of of 10 random fun facts to kill your boredom. These facts will help you to get an edge over your friend or you can use them to impress your crush. You can even use them as  conversation starter. So, don’t think, just keep on reading.

1 During the mid-1880s, aluminum was more valuable than gold. Now we use aluminium in every field.

Today aluminium is one of the most common and vital metals. It is now found in a number of products such as cooking equipment, soft drink cans, airplanes, automobiles, guardrails, etc…; but during the mid 1880s aluminium was so valuable that wealthy women wore it as jewelry. It was more valuable than gold! Even Napoleon used to provide aluminium cutlery to his most important and distinguished guests. Those who were deemed less worthy were served meals with cutlery made of mere silver.

Later, aluminium lost its distinguished position when the Hall-Heroult process of aluminium extraction was invented. This process allowed aluminium to be extracted on large scale, and by 1891 the price of aluminium dropped down to below $1 per pound. When the Wright Brothers took their first flight, they used a lightweight aluminium crankcase as part of their engine. By then the price of aluminium had dropped to $0.30 per pound.(source)

2 The placebo effect can take place even when the person taking the placebo knows it. 

Placebos are usually regarded as “fake” treatments and are commonly known as “sugar pills”. Some people actually respond positively to placebos even though it shouldn’t have anti-symptomatic effects on their body. This is known as the “placebo effect”. It is a common belief that the placebo effect takes place because the patient is unaware that they are being given the “sugar pills” instead of medicinal pills. Their expectation or belief that they are getting real treatment makes their body respond.

Recent studies in this field shows that placebo effect can take place even when the person taking the placebo knows it. These are known as “open-label placebos”. Dr. Ted J. Kaptchuk, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has been studying placebos for more than 20 years. In one study he gave open-label placebos to study volunteers suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. He found that there was a dramatic and significant improvement. He said that these won’t work for every medical situation, but can work for conditions that are defined by “self-observation symptoms” like pain, nausea, or fatigue.(source)

3 Male Irish mummies are often found with nipple mutilations leading many experts to believe Irish leaders may have wore nipple rings, as kissing a King’s nipple was believed to be a sign of respect.

Archaeologists have discovered a number of male Irish mummies, commonly known as “bog bodies”, on the borders between ancient Irish kingdoms. One of the most famous bog body is that of “Old Croghan Man”. The location of these bodies and the costly ornaments which adorned them led experts to believe they were royal sacrifices. In ancient times, Irish kings symbolically married the fertility goddess. According to Irish traditions, any occurrence of famine meant that the goddess had turned against the king. They believed that to appease the goddess the king should be sacrificed.

The bog bodies discovered, including the Old Croghan Man, had mutilated nipples. In ancient Ireland, the subjects demonstrated their submission by sucking on the ruler’s nipples. Because of this experts believe that after killing their king their nipples were cut to mark him as a rejected ruler.(1,2)

4 Every atom on the surface of the Earth can be assigned an IPv6 address.

IPv6 is a 128-bit value which is 16-bytes long. The total number of IPv6’s that we can assign is 3.4 x 10³⁸.

The total number of atoms on the surface of Earth is estimated to be 1.26×10³⁴,^ which is much less than the total number of IPv6 addresses.

So, we can easily assign an IPv6 address to every atom on the surface of the earth. Even then we would be left with enough to addresses to do more than another 100 Earths!(source)

5 “Inner speech”, the voice you hear inside your head when you’re reading or thinking is accompanied by tiny muscular movements in the larynx.

When we read our mind tries to access the meaning of the things we are reading. So, our mind makes a silent internal speech. Surprisingly this speech is followed by minute movement of muscles in the larynx and other muscles used during articulation of speech. This silent speech is called subvocalization.

Subvocalization can be detected with the aid of a machine. Scientists at NASA are trying to computerize subvocalization using nerve signals in the throat. This could help astronauts to talk to each other in space. It could also be used in noisy places like airport towers to capture commands from an air-traffic controller.(1, 2)

6 Moray eels have 2 jaws. The first is a normal jaw, but the second is hidden in their throat and lunges forward when the eel bites down on prey. 

The head of Moray eel is narrower than most fishes. Due to this, they are unable to create the low pressure required to swallow their prey. So, nature compensated by giving them a second set of jaws in their throat. The first jaw a normal jaw like any other fish. But the second jaw called the pharyngeal jaws has teeth and is located in their throat.

The Moray eel at first bite into their prey with the first jaw. Then the pharyngeal jaw lunges forward and again bites on the prey captured in the first jaw. Then the second jaw retracts, pulling the prey inside the eel’s gullet.(1,2)

7 If you count the number of times a cricket chirps in 15 seconds and add 37, you get the temperature in Fahrenheit.

The frequency of chirping of cricket varies according to temperature. So, if you want to have a rough estimate of temperature then you can rely on the chirps of crickets. Simply count the number of times a cricket chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37 to it. The resultant number will be an approximation of the temperature in Fahrenheit.(source)

8 Charge present in a battery determines the height of its bounce when it is dropped on a hard surface.

It is a popular belief that when you drop a good battery it won’t bounce. But studies have proved that a good battery can bounce if it has less than an 80% charge. This shows that the bounce of a battery is determined by its charge.

When a battery generates electricity, the chemical reaction causes zinc to change into zinc oxide. The zinc oxide inside the battery is the reason behind its bounce. A new battery does not contain any zinc oxide. When we use the battery the chemical reaction inside it starts converting zinc into zinc oxide. So, as the charge keeps on decreasing, the amount of zinc oxide keeps on increasing and the battery starts to bounce when dropped on a hard surface.(source)

9 There are more ways to arrange a deck of cards than the number of atoms in the world.

A deck of cards contains only 52 cards but they can be arranged in 8 x 10⁶⁷ ways.

There are many more atoms in the world than we can count, but scientists have estimated that there are approximately 1.33×10^50 atoms in the world.

Surprisingly, this number is quite small when compared to the number of ways a deck of card can be arranged.(1,2)

10 Giraffes and humans have the same number of neck bones.

The tallest animal in the world, the giraffe, could be assumed to have a large number of neck bones due to their long neck. More than half of their height is due to their neck. Looking at their long flexible neck one might wonder as to the number of neck bones, i.e. vertebrates in their neck. Surprisingly, they have the same number of neck bones as that of a human, i.e. just seven vertebrates.(source)