Random Facts So Interesting You will be amazed to know Part 8

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1. The English word with the most definitions is "set."

According to Guinness World Records, "set" has the largest number of meanings of any word in the English language, with 430 different senses listed in the 1989 edition of Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. The word "sets" the record with an entry running 60,000 words, or 326,000 characters, and no other English word has come close since.

2. Creedence Clearwater Revival has the most No. 2 Billboard hits—without ever hitting No. 1.

John Fogerty's swamp rock band has the odd distinction of having seen more of its singles hit No. 2 on the charts, without ever hitting No. 1, than any other musical act. Between March 1969 and Oct. 1970, the band scored five No. 2 singles on the Billboard Top 100—"Proud Mary," "Bad Moon Rising," "Green River," "Travelin' Band," and "Lookin' Out My Back Door"—but never saw one of its songs get to the top spot. No other act has topped this dubious honor since.

3. Pigeons can tell the difference between a painting by Monet and Picasso.

In a 1995 study published in the Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior, researchers reported being able to train pigeons to discriminate between paintings by Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso when shown slides of their works that they had previously never seen before. When the Picasso images were inverted, the little art connoisseurs could still tell it was a Picasso. Maybe that's why they like landing on statues so much.

4. The dot over the lower case "i" or "j" is known as a "tittle."

That tiny dot above lower case "I" and "j" letters has an actual name: tittle. It is thought that the phrase "to a T" is actually derived from the phrase "to a tittle"—a phrase that was used in the same sense dating back to the early 17th century. (The first recording of the phrase is in the 1607 play Woman Hater by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, in which the line reads, "I'll quote him to a tittle.")

5. Chewing gum boosts concentration.

Next time you are having trouble focusing, you might want to reach for a stick of gum. A 2013 study in the British Journal of Psychology found that those subjects who chewed gum while taking part in a memory challenge were able to stay focused for longer periods of time than those who did not chew gum.

6. Superman didn't always fly.

The original comic book Superman could leap tall buildings in a single bound. But then he had to come right back down to Earth—because he didn't fly. It wasn't until the 1940s, when animators for a new animated series decided it would be too difficult to routinely draw him bending his knees, that it was decided that Superman could take off into the air. Readers got to see smooth animation, and a superhero gained a new power.

7. The first computer was invented in the 1940s.

These days, supercomputers are everywhere—and they really don't need much space at all. Have an Xbox One posted up in your living room? That's a supercomputer. A laptop-tablet hybrid in your bag? That's a supercomputer, too. (Don't even get us started on the thing in your pocket…) But when supercomputers first came around, they needed much, much more space. Just take a look at the world's first one: The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC).

Originally built at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering, in 1946, ENIAC weighed 60,000 pounds and took up a room larger than most studio apartments (1,500 square feet). Shortly after construction, ENIAC was sent off to the military, where it was used to calculate ballistic trajectories (translation: launch missiles) with frightening accuracy. Today, computer experts at Penn credit ENIAC with heralding in the "dawn of the information age."

8. Space smells like seared steak.

When you see footage of astronauts floating peacefully in space, do you ever wonder, What do space smells like? Well, according to some former astronauts, space does have a distinct odor that hangs around post-spacewalk. They've described it as "hot metal" or "searing steak."

9. The longest wedding veil was the same length as 63.5 football fields.

When Maria Paraskeva, a woman from Cyprus, got married in August 2018, her goal wasn't just to say "I do." She was also determined to set a record.

"My dream as a child has always been to break the Guinness World Record title for the longest wedding veil," she explained. She fulfilled her dream by wearing a lace veil that stretched 22,843 feet and 2.11 inches, or as long as 63.5 football fields.

10. The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland.

While Scotland proudly boasts the Loch Ness Monster, one of the world's most famous fabled creatures, the country opted to make another mythical beast its national animal: the unicorn. Although this might seem like an odd choice, Visit Scotland explains that unicorns played an integral role in the country's history. Back in the 12th century, William I used the "proud beast" in the Scottish royal coat of arms.