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40 fun facts about animals, the world and games

Fun facts about animals, space, history and video games, all true and checked. Polarzinho started with the panda facts, of course.

By Polarzinho ·

Polarzinho holding a magnifying glass, surrounded by floating fun facts: a purple octopus, a ringed planet, a chip, a pyramid and an exclamation mark

Did you know an octopus has three hearts? I did, but only because I spent the night reading fun facts instead of eating bamboo. I gathered the 40 best for you.

Here are fun facts about animals, nature and space, history and video games. All of them are well-known, checked facts, none of those made-up "facts" that spread online.

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Fun facts about animals

  1. An octopus has three hearts and blue blood.
  2. Giant pandas spend a large part of the day eating bamboo.
  3. A newborn panda is tiny: around 100 grams.
  4. Pandas have a "false thumb", an enlarged wrist bone that helps them grip bamboo.
  5. Hummingbirds can fly backwards.
  6. Flamingos are pink because of what they eat.
  7. Sea otters hold hands while sleeping so they do not drift apart.
  8. A blue whale’s heart is about the size of a small car.
  9. A giraffe has the same number of neck vertebrae as a human: seven.
  10. A starfish has no brain.
  11. Sloths come down from their tree about once a week.
  12. Bees communicate with a "dance" that shows where the flowers are.

Fun facts about nature and space

  1. A day on Venus lasts longer than a year on Venus.
  2. Lightning is hotter than the surface of the Sun.
  3. Ice floats because water becomes less dense when it freezes.
  4. Botanically, a banana is a berry. A strawberry is not.
  5. Properly stored honey does not spoil.
  6. The Eiffel Tower gets a few centimeters taller in summer, because metal expands in the heat.
  7. Sunlight takes about eight minutes to reach Earth.
  8. Astronomers estimate there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches.

Fun facts about history and the world

  1. The shortest war in history, between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896, lasted under an hour.
  2. Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid.
  3. Oxford University was already teaching before the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan.
  4. Brazil borders every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.
  5. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world by area.
  6. Mexico City was built on a lake and sinks a few centimeters every year.
  7. Chocolate comes from Mesoamerica: the Maya and Aztecs were already drinking cacao.
  8. Japan has more than 14,000 islands, according to an official 2023 recount.

Fun facts about video games

  1. The first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, came out in 1972.
  2. Tetris was created in 1984 by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union.
  3. Before he was Mario, gaming’s most famous plumber appeared as "Jumpman" in Donkey Kong.
  4. Pac-Man’s creator has said the idea came from a pizza with a slice missing.
  5. Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time.
  6. Chrome’s dinosaur game appears when your internet drops and has existed since 2014.
  7. The Atari 2600, from 1977, made cartridges popular.
  8. The Game Boy put video games in your pocket in 1989.
  9. The first computer games appeared in the 1950s, like OXO and Tennis for Two.
  10. Many games today run right in your browser, with nothing to install. Polar Games titles work that way.
  11. Pixel art was born from the limits of early video games and is still a popular style.
  12. Speedrunning is the art of finishing a game as fast as possible, with competitions around the world.
Barrio Kick kickoff, a pixel-art browser game, with players on a dirt pitch

PolarzinhoBonus fact: this panda once lost to his cousin in Barrio Kick. That stays between us.

Barrio Kick: 1980s pixel art in a modern browser game.

Test your knowledge

Enjoyed the facts? In Zabum!, the Polar Games general knowledge quiz, you answer questions from seven categories, with a live scoreboard and rooms to play with friends.

Zabum! question about Ayrton Senna with four options and the players’ scores

PolarzinhoAfter 40 fun facts, I felt ready for Zabum!. Zabum! disagreed.

Zabum!: general knowledge questions and a live scoreboard.

FAQ

What is the most surprising fun fact?

Many people are surprised by the Cleopatra one: she lived closer to the Moon landing than to the Great Pyramid’s construction.

Are these facts true?

Yes. They are well-known facts from science, history and gaming. Unsourced "facts" were left out.

Which animal has three hearts?

The octopus.

Now tell someone

Pick your favorite fact and drop it at the next family lunch. Then test what you know in Zabum! below.

Play Zabum!