True or False? 40 Facts That Sound Fake

True or False? 40 Facts That Sound Fake: questions and answers

Try to answer first, then tap a question to see the answer.

1. Lightning is hotter than the surface of the Sun.

   True – Lightning can reach about thirty thousand degrees, around five times hotter than the Sun's surface!

2. Goldfish only remember things for three seconds.

   False – Goldfish can remember things for months, and can even be trained!

3. An octopus has three hearts.

   True – Two pump blood to the gills, one pumps it to the rest of the body!

4. Bananas are berries.

   True – To a botanist, bananas are berries, but strawberries are not!

5. You can see the Great Wall of China from the Moon.

   False – It is far too narrow. Astronauts on the Moon can't see it.

6. A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.

   True

7. Bats are blind.

   False – Bats can see, and many also find food with echoes!

8. Bulls charge because they hate the color red.

   False – Bulls can't really see red. The cape's movement makes them charge.

9. Wombats make cube-shaped poop.

   True – The cubes don't roll away, so wombats use them to mark their spot!

10. Ostriches bury their heads in the sand when scared.

    False – They lower their heads to turn their eggs, which looks like hiding!

11. Polar bears have black skin under their white fur.

    True – Their fur is actually see-through and only looks white!

12. Butterflies taste with their feet.

    True – They stand on a leaf to taste if it's right for their eggs!

13. Camels store water in their humps.

    False – The humps store fat, which camels can turn into energy.

14. Lightning never strikes the same place twice.

    False – Tall towers get struck many times every year!

15. Peanuts are not actually nuts.

    True – They are legumes, like peas and beans, and grow underground!

16. Chewing gum stays in your stomach for seven years.

    False – It passes through your body in a few days, like other food.

17. The Eiffel Tower can grow taller in summer.

    True – Heat makes the iron expand, by up to about fifteen centimeters!

18. Vikings wore helmets with horns.

    False – Horned helmets come from operas in the 1800s, not from real Vikings.

19. Penguins live at the North Pole.

    False – Wild penguins live in the southern half of the world.

20. Koalas have fingerprints almost like ours.

    True – They are so similar, they could confuse a crime scene!

21. There are more trees on Earth than stars in our galaxy.

    True – Around three trillion trees, but only a few hundred billion stars!

22. Napoleon was very short for his time.

    False – He was about average height for a Frenchman of his time.

23. A sloth can hold its breath longer than a dolphin.

    True – Sloths can slow their heart and stay underwater for about forty minutes!

24. Old windows are thicker at the bottom because glass slowly flows.

    False – Glass is solid. Old glass was just made unevenly.

25. Dogs only see in black and white.

    False – Dogs see blues and yellows, they just can't tell red from green.

26. Sound travels faster in water than in air.

    True – About four times faster!

27. Mount Everest grows a few millimeters taller every year.

    True – India is still pushing into Asia, lifting the Himalayas!

28. Bananas grow on trees.

    False – A banana plant has no wood: it is the world's biggest herb!

29. A fluffy cloud can weigh as much as a hundred elephants.

    True – A big puffy cloud can hold about five hundred tonnes of water!

30. The Statue of Liberty used to be a shiny copper-brown.

    True – It turned green over about thirty years as the copper weathered!

31. Fortune cookies come from China.

    False – They were popularized in the United States, with roots in Japan.

32. Mount Everest is the tallest mountain from base to peak.

    False – Hawaii's Mauna Kea is taller from its base on the ocean floor!

33. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

    True

34. The Sahara is the biggest desert on Earth.

    False – Antarctica is bigger: a desert just means very little rain or snow!

35. A penny dropped from a skyscraper could seriously hurt someone.

    False – A coin is too light and flat: air slows it down to a harmless speed.

36. Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire.

    True – Teaching at Oxford began around 1096, and the Aztec capital was founded in 1325!

37. Hawaii moves a few centimeters closer to Japan every year.

    True – The Pacific plate carries it about seven to ten centimeters a year!

38. Shaving makes hair grow back thicker.

    False – It only cuts hair at a blunt angle, so it feels thicker.

39. One teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh about a billion tonnes.

    True – Neutron stars are the densest objects we can see in space!

40. A day on Venus is shorter than a year on Venus.

    False – Venus takes 243 days to spin once, but only 225 days to orbit the Sun!

41. How many hearts does a squid have? One · Three · Five

    Three