SHOCKING: Rare everyday facts - What They Never Told You

The world has so many little secrets we might have no idea about. Like the fact that giraffes' 50 cm-long tongues are black. Well, they're not black exactly, more accurately, they are dark purple or very dark blue. Still, why is that? 

Scientists explain that it's nature's way of protecting their tongues from getting sunburned. Because they feed so high up, giraffes' tongues get exposed to the sun a lot. The density of dark melanin pigments in them offers better protection against UV rays.

Who hasn't experienced the sensation of falling when trying to fall asleep? Probably very few of us. You know that feeling of getting jolted awake right as you're drifting into a sweet, sweet nap? That's called myoclonus.

Scientists say that we feel the sudden jerking or falling sensations as we drift from one sleep phase to another. They call the movements "hypnagogic jerks," and they usually happen in the first light stage of sleep. Our brains interpret it as being awake and sometimes check in by waking up our muscles as a means of protection.

Here are a couple of fun facts about the Sahara desert: it used to be a lush rainforest and it also has snow from time to time. The lush jungle was there more than 6,000 years ago, verified by academics Robert Korty and William Boos found in 2016 by analyzing precipitation patterns today and from the Holocene era.

In 2022, the Sahara saw unusual snowfall in its Algerian territory. However, that wasn't the first time we could see snow, as the phenomenon was also recorded in 2017, 2018, and 2021. The temperatures in the desert get awfully high, at about 50°C during the day, but they also drop very low at night. In 2005, in Algeria, the lowest recorded temperature was -14°C. When the temperature is cold and there's moisture in the air, snow forms.

Let's go to the animal kingdom and explore some fun facts about them. The ever-cute otters are a good place to start. Did you know that they have skin pockets underneath their armpits? what do they put in there? The food they plan to eat later or rocks they'll use to crack open mussels and other hard-shelled snacks.

Another fun animal fact in our list is that guinea pigs must have a companion in Switzerland. Such a rule is included in the Animal Protection Ordinance. Yet the Swiss themselves claim that actual enforcement of this animal protection requirement depends on the opinion of the cantonal veterinary services. Other animal species that have to be kept in groups or at least pairs, are guinea pigs, mice, gerbils, rats, degus, and chinchillas, and for birds, Japanese quails, macaws, cockatoos, parakeets, parrots, canaries, estrildid finches and lovebirds.

The first calculations of Mount Everest did indeed show that it was 2,902 ft high. But nowadays we measure the peak at 29,029 ft. What's more interesting is that if we would measure it from the Earth's center, it wouldn't be Earth's highest peak. That title would go to Mount Chimborazo, which is farthest from the Earth's center due to the planet not being perfectly round.

Speaking about planets, if someone were to ask you what color is the Sun, would you say "Yellow?" Unfortunately, it's not, and neither is it orange, red or any other tone of those. To our eyes, the Sun appears white, but it's actually all colors mixed together. 

We can see different colors of the Sun during different times of day. At sunset, it's yellow, orange, or red, because these have the longest wavelengths and they make it through the Earth's thick atmosphere. During midday, the sky looks blue to us because the shortest waves (blue, green, and violet) bounce around and scatter around the atmosphere.

Have you ever wondered how the clouds keep floating in the sky and not falling? If you haven't you probably didn't know that a typical cumulus cloud weighs around 551 tons. Clouds don't fall because the rising air that they form out of keeps them floating in the air. The air below the cloud is denser and allows it to float atop.