The longest English word, at 45 letters, is ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’.
False - that title belongs to the Chemical name of titin, the largest known protein, at 189,819 characters:
Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl[…]isoleucine (full name)
Second place goes to a 183 character word transliterated from Ancient Greek:
Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhy-
potrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokich-
lepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephall-
iokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis sits firmly in third place, there are disputes as to its legitimacy, as it is claimed that this word was invented purely to serve as a long word. It should be noted that, Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest english word to be in a current major dictionary.
original claim: @OMGFacts; source: wikipedia, Oxford University Press
The Statue of Liberty is made out of copper. When originally built, it looked like a shiny new penny!
True - the green hue we recognize today covering the Statue of Liberty is known as patina, which is the result of a chemical reaction between copper and oxygen (oxidation). Patina, unlike rust (which forms when iron oxidizes), actually protects the underlying copper.
original claim: @OMGFacts; source: wikipedia
‘Typewriter’ is the longest English word that can be made by using only one row of a keyboard.
False - ‘teetertotter’ is the longest unhyphenated word that can be spelled on a single row of a typewriter keyboard (QUERTY layout), coming in at 12 characters. There are four (4) other 10 character words that can be spelled out on a single row of a keyboard: perpetuity, proprietor, repertoire, and shakalshas.
update: out of our own curiosity, we looked up the longest word that can be spelled on a single row of a Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, we found three (3) 10 character words: unhandiest, dianthuses, and astonished. If you can find/think-of anything longer, let us know!
original claim: @OMGFacts; source: Taxonomy of Wordplay
Earth is the only planet not named after a God.
True - the exact etymology of the planet “Earth” is a tough one as it’s likely something to have developed over most of human history, Lynn Carter goes more in depth into this in her January 2003 article.
The related link over at omg-facts.com is a bit misleading:
Saturn was actually named after a Titan, the father of Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune. He is famous for having attempted to eat all of his children. However, astronomers have identified thousands of planets outside of our own solar system, to the point where we likely have run out of good god names for them - that’s why we have planets named “2M1207 b”.
Titans were also gods, predecessors to the Roman and Greek gods we think of today, whom are collectively called the Olympians. Uranus was also a Titan.
Regarding naming conventions: it’s true that astronomers have moved to a systematic catalogue style naming convention; this is less due to running out of “good god names” but rather, to make research easier internationally and remove ambiguity.
Naming still occurs though (along side the systematic designation); Eris, discovered in 2005, is one such example; the dwarf planet also goes by “136199 Eris” and “2003 UB313”. Eris was also the Greek Goddess of Strife, we haven’t run out of god names yet!
original claim: @OMGFacts; source: Ask an Astronomer - Cornell
