Crazy Facts That Will Shatter Your Concept Of Time
Number 12.
Harvard Founded Before Calculus Many people know Harvard, or "New College"
as it was originally called, is America's oldest college.
It was established in 1636, a full 140 years before America itself even became a nation.
What you might not know, is that calculus classes would not be available for at least
50 years after its founding.
Calculus grew out of two publications.
One was the "Nova Methodus" by Gottfried Leibniz (1684), and the other was Sir Isaac Newton's
"Principia" in 1687.
Yes, that is right, Harvard was also around many years before Newton famously traced the
gravitational pull the earth had on an apple.
This is the one period of time most of would have been able to get A's in math and science
at Harvard.
Number 11.
Cleopatra Closer to Pizza Hut Than Pyramids.
Thanks in most part to Hollywood movie magic, Cleopatra is one of the most famous Egyptian
rulers.
It is easy to think of her with her black hair all done up with gold, overseeing the
construction of pyramids, but she is actually much closer to the moon landing.
The Great Pyramids of Giza, the ones we are all most familiar with, were constructed around
2560 BC.
Cleopatra lived from 69 BC – 30 BC.
The first Pizza Hut was constructed in Wichita, Kansas in 1958.
Without even using a calculator we can therefore determine that Cleo was born a whopping 500
years closer to Pizza Hut than the pyramids she is so frequently associated with.
Number 10.
On Venus, One Day Longer Than a Year.
Let's go back to basic science to wrap our heads around this one.
Traditionally on Earth, a "day" is amount of time it takes the Earth to rotate itself
completely around once.
As the earth rotates, it is exposed to the sun, and then the vastness of space.
This creates day and night.
One "year" is the amount of time it takes the Earth to move completely around the sun.
The different orbit spaces is what creates seasons.
Venus, for some reason, does not feel the need to rotate quite so quickly.
It takes 243 earth days for Venus to rotate itself once, but only 225 earth days for it
to complete its orbit of the sun.
If Venus had seasons, which it doesn't, you would live through all four and the first
half of one before the day was even over.
Sheesh, talk about a long day.
Number 9.
Cambridge Older Than Easter Island Statues.
We have all seen the famous longheaded statues of Easter Island, but most of us don't know
too much about them other than they are "ancient".
Well, a little research will show you that is not exactly accurate.
Easter Island itself is an extremely secluded island east of South America in the Pacific
Ocean.
It is one of the most secluded places to ever be inhabited before modern times.
However, things didn't really get popping on the island until around 1200 AD.
This is when archeologists believe the grand statues were made.
Halfway across the world, the University of Cambridge were beginning their very first
semester.
King Henry the III granted the college an official Royal Charter in 1231, which is when
it can be assumed the Easter Island inhabitants were just about getting the noses done.
Number 8.
Betty White Older Than Sliced Bread No, this is not a bad joke.
"This is the best invention since sliced bread!" is a common phrase.
If you have ever baked bread and tried to cut it evenly without ruining the entire loaf,
you will understand why this phrase is so popular.
The first known iteration of sliced bread was brought to market by the inventor Otto
Frederick Rohwedder in 1928.
Before this, bakers were concerned pre-slicing bread would keep it from staying fresh.
Otto was able to prove them wrong and create an enduring classic turn of phrase in the
process, one that almost certainly overtook, "this is the best thing to come along since
Betty White!" who was born 8 years earlier in 1922.
Although it is sad sliced bread took that phrase from her, at least she only had to
endure 8 years without it.
Number 7.
Moon Landing Before Wheeled Suitcases Maybe you've heard the phrase, "We can put
a man on the moon, but we can't…"
This means, I can't believe humans can achieve something so brilliant, but not something
so seemingly easy.
Well, safe to assume this phrase was in its heyday the first 3 years after Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin first landed on the moon in 1969.
It's also safe to assume the most popular accompanying sentence to that phrase was "…but
we can't put wheels on a suitcase!"
For those three years, families walking through the airport must have been absolutely flabbergasted
towards the reason why they had to carry every single heavy suitcase on their journey.
They were saved in 1972 when Bernard Sadow finally was able to sell his rolling suitcase
idea to department stores.
Bernard claims he was turned away for years by everyone claiming that no one would pull
a piece of luggage, maybe they thought the laziness wasn't stylish.
Well, flash forward to 2018 and everyone is dressed head to toe in pajamas while they
roll their suitcases at the airport.
Note to inventors, capitalize on laziness.
Number 6.
Oxford Older Than Aztecs It is safe to assume everyone has studied
the mighty Aztec Empire.
It has undoubtedly produced some of the most interesting relics to study in textbooks and
museums, and most students assume it was an ancient empire that predates most civilizations.
This is not the case at all.
The official beginning of the Aztec civilization traced to the completion of the city of Tenochtitlan
in Mexico, which did not actually occur until 1325 AD!
This is a full 229 years after the first classes at the University of Oxford began in 1096!
What is even crazier is that the Aztecs barely had a rule at all.
They were overtaken by Spanish conquerors in 1521, only 196 years after their beginning.
That means the White House has been constructed and the home of presidents longer than the
Aztecs ruled over central Mexico.
Number 5.
T. Rexs and Stegosauruses NOT Close If you've ever watched the Land Before Time,
or any other kids show about dinosaurs, it's common for all of the species to be lumped
together.
That is completely long.
In fact, two of the most well known dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Stegosaurus
lived almost 100 million years apart from each other.
Stegosauruses lived about 150 million years ago and T. Rexs lived about 66 million years
ago.
That means that the Tyrannosaurus Rex is closer to humans!
It just goes to show you how deep time goes compared to how we think.
Number 4.
Printing Press Invented During Roman Empire Along with the light bulb, the telephone,
and cotton gin, the printing press is one of human histories most notable inventions.
Before its invention, books had to be written by hand.
Most of them were written in Latin, which common people did not understand.
By inventing a press that could turn out books, namely, The Bible, at a rate previously considered
impossible, commoners were given a completely new source of knowledge almost overnight.
This led humans out of the dark ages of medieval times, into what is known as "The Enlightenment".
This was truly the first age of information.
You may know it was invented by Johannes Gutenberg, a German.
What you might not know, is that it was invented under the rule of the Roman Empire.
Yes, that Roman Empire, from, well, The Bible.
Although the Western Roman Empire collapsed with the fall of Rome in the 400s, the Eastern
Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire) remained in power over areas such
as Germany until the collapse of Constantinople, which fell in 1453, 13 years after the invention
of the printing press.
Number 3.
Queen Elizabeth II Has Ruled During 13 US Presidents.
Perhaps "ruled" is a strong word, as the King and Queen of England is more of a figurehead
than the actually sovereign lord over England.
Nonetheless, she is literally an irreplaceable part of English politics.
Queen Elizabeth the Second has sat on the throne in Buckingham Palace longer than any
other Queen.
During that time she has seen 13 US Presidents enter and leave the White House.
Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1952, when she was only 25.
During that time, Harry S. Truman was president.
Since then she has met every President except for Lyndon B. Johnson.
God save her to make it to 14.
Number 2.
Species Lived Longer Than Time Between Dinosaurs & Now
When you think about dinosaurs, you might think they are some of the oldest species
that ever existed on Earth.
Especially since they have taken over the "prehistoric" labels.
This is not the case, as there were many organisms that predated them by an insane amount of
time.
If you know anything about fossils, you probably know about trilobites.
For reference for all the millennial viewers, they look exactly like a Kabuto from Pokemon.
Short, scaly, kind of a combination of a lobster, a stingray and the Predator.
These little guys are amazing.
They were the first creatures to develop complex eyes.
In a way, humans owe our sight to them.
Most importantly, they had a strong exoskeleton, which is probably why they were able to thrive
on planet Earth for nearly 300 million years!
To put that in perspective, dinosaurs only survived earth for 180 million years.
Humans have only been around for 200,000 years!!
If you're curious, humans missed dinosaurs by about 66 million years, roughly 1/5th of
the amount of the time trilobites were able to exist.
Number 1.
Humans Have Barely Been Around Let's do a thought experiment.
It is easy for us to understand the Gregorian calender in terms of the passing of time.
Winter seems so long, but finally it's spring.
When you're in school, you wait and wait until it's finally summer.
Maybe you have a birthday you look forward to.
You count down the days till Christmas, etc.
Now, lets take all of the Universe's history (13 billion years) and scale it to the 365
days of a calendar.
When you do this, do you know where we as humans show up?
If you guessed "before Christmas", you are wrong.
In fact, humans don't show up until around 11:52 PM on New Years Eve!
Columbus wouldn't arrive in America at the very last second of the very last minute of
the very last hour on the very last day of the year.
When you count down New Years, in between "1!" and "0!", that's how long America has
been around.
That's how massive time is compared to us.
Here is hoping we make it another second.