Fast Facts


Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Things you've always never wanted to know

  • The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

  • The state with the longest coastline in the U.S. is Michigan.

  • "Pulp Fiction" cost $8 million to make, with $5 million going to actors' salaries.

  • "Underground" is the only English word that begins and ends with the letters "U," "N" and "D."

  • The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.

  • A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness beer.

  • If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times, but closer to 4,950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.

  • The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.

  • Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula," and can be abbreviated to 3.6 percent of its size, "L.A."

  • A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

  • Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

  • In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

  • "Facetious" and "abstemious" contain all the vowels in the correct order.

  • A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge. A dime has 118.

  • "Diddle for the middle" is a slang expression used for the start of a darts game. Opposing players each throw a single dart at the bull's eye. The person who is closest starts the game.

  • "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

  • "Guddling" was the act of fishing with one's hands by reaching under stones along river banks. It is now a largely obsolete term.

  • A bowling pin needs to tilt only 7.5 degrees to fall.

  • A cluster of fireworks that revolves is called a "girandole."