Interesting facts

[SolitaryTree]

I often think about why things are.
For example
“Why is a cold called a cold”
It’s actually because the symptoms are similar to those of being exposed to cold weather.
The medical name for the virus that causes the common cold is the rhinovirus/viral rhinitis.

Does anybody else have any interesting facts or just unanswered questions?

The phrase “sweating like a pig” is biologically inaccurate.
Pigs don’t actually have sweat glands.
Hence rolling around in muddy puddles to cool down (any puddle is probably adequate, I’ve just watched too much peppa pig in my lifetime).

Back in Shakespeare's day, children slept on a shelf above their parents bed until they married and moved out.
If they didn't marry they were quite literally "left on the shelf", which is where the term comes from.

Ants won't die from falling, no matter how high you drop them from - their terminal velocity is just too low to be fatal. Same as the fabled 'penny from the Empire State building' - if it even hit you (due to wind currents around it) - it wouldn't hurt, just an annoying bump, again due to low terminal velocity speed.

Platypuses have mammary glands but they don't have tests so the milk just comes through the surface of their skin, like sweat!

@AhCheeses

Platypuses have mammary glands but they don't have tests so the milk just comes through the surface of their skin, like sweat!

Teats! Not tests, obviously... 🙄

@Ohdoleavemealone

Back in Shakespeare's day, children slept on a shelf above their parents bed until they married and moved out. If they didn't marry they were quite literally "left on the shelf", which is where the term comes from.

Really? What's your source for this? I've had a search and found nothing that supports this and tbh it sounds pretty unfeasible...having visited a number of 16/17th c homes I've never seen a 'shelf' like this anywhere (but have seen actual beds for children) and it seems a bit unlikely that multiple children aged anything up to their twenties would fit on anything could be described as a shelf - plus it hardly sounds very safe to suspend your kids 7 foot in the air!

Boiled sweets aren’t actually boiled.
The syrups used to make the sweets are heated to 160• to make them whereas sucrose doesn’t actually melt fully until it reaches around 186•