ShmoopTube

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[Dino and Coop singing]

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So you've probably been going to school for a while now, and in that time you've probably [Boy appears from behind his book]

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learned lots of facts.

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Maybe even more facts than you thought you'd ever need. [He is stood on a pile of books]

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But have you ever stopped to wonder: what is a fact?

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Well, it's pretty easy!

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A fact is something that's true.

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And there are tons and tons and tons of facts in the world. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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For example, the Eiffel Tower is 300 meters tall… [The Eiffel tower being measured with a tape measure

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… the river Seine runs through Paris…

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…and croissants contain egg.

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And believe it or not, there are even facts that have nothing to do with France. [France is wiped off the blackboard]

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In general, we can break facts down into two big categories: historical facts and scientific facts [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

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Scientific facts are facts we can establish by repeatable observations, like running a [Scientists in a lab]

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bunch of experiments.

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So when you perform experiments to show that salami slides down windowpanes slower than

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mustard, you're establishing a scientific fact. [Salami and mustard on the windows]

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Yeah, on second thought, maybe save this experiment for the lab.

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On the other hand, historical facts are things that actually happened in history, or stuff

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that just happens to be true. [Picture of an apple]

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Like the fact that on May 10th, 1796, Napoleon won the Battle of Lodi.

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Or the fact that today your friend Jill is wearing a blue shirt.

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Historians might care a little bit more about one fact than the other, but they're both

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still historical facts.

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Whether we do an experiment to test a scientific fact…

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…or look up historical facts in a book, there's always a way to check our facts. [Scientist holding up a slice of salami]

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Facts can also be distinguished from opinions or preferences, which are really just personal

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viewpoints.

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You might think that chocolate is the best flavor of ice cream, but that doesn't make [Boy thinking about ice cream]

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it a fact.

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And good luck trying to prove it with an experiment. [The ice cream explodes]

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