› added 2 years ago

58

TIL: that the tallest mountain in the solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars, which stands at a height of 22 kilometers (14 miles). Almost three times the height of Mount Everest!

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

LkNGr TIL that all ships visiting the ancient city of Alexandria were obliged to surrender their books for immediate copying. The owners received a copy and the originals were placed in the Library of Alexandria
pYWVe TIL about Inca polygonal masonry, where they would use huge stones cut into unique shapes that fit so well together that they didn't use mortar. The largest of these (at Sacsayhuamán) was ~200 tons, or 80 times the size of the blocks used at Giza. They didn't use draft animals, wheels, or pulleys.
yQm4X TIL that Shirley Temple, following the end of her acting career, made an unsuccessful run for congress and later became United States ambassador to Czechoslovakia
yVLxv TIL Humans reach negative buoyancy at depths of about 50ft/15m where they begin to sink instead of float. Freedivers utilize this by "freefalling", where they stop swimming and allow gravity to pull them deeper.
1aEr7 TIL a weird 'Boomerang' earthquake detected under the Atlantic Ocean. The temblor shot eastward across a deep gash in th seafloor, and then zipped back to where it started at incredible speeds. It moved so fast it created the geologic version of a sonic boom.