Did you know?... The Interesting Fact Thread

[braisler]

Originally Posted by rickscales

I don't know if this is true, as I live deep in the heart of Arkansas, but I have heard that on the Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

Snopes says False. Another urban legend debunked. Perhaps this thread should be redirected. New title: Stuff I've heard is true?

Real Canadian money

Ok, new fact... hmmm. Many non-flammable materials are flammable as fine particulates. Example: baking flour. Now with linkage!

[Drayab]

The male platypus has a poison barb on the inner side of each hind leg. It's potent enough to kill a dog.

A liger is the mating of a male lion and a female tiger. A tigon is what you get when you cross a male tiger and a female lion. Why the distinction? A male liger is a giant cat at ~900lbs and 12 feet tall/long. Tigons are dwarfs and generally weigh in under 350lbs.

[GeePeeS'r]

Did you know:

That 12 men have walked on the moon?
That when they were on the moon, they placed small 12"x12" mirriors aimed back at earth so that we can shoot earth based lasers at the moon and precisely track its position? (LLR - Lunar Laser Ranging)
That in doing this precise position tracking, they realized that the earth - due to its liquid core - experiences "Solid earth tides" that - like the ocean tides - cause the actual solid ground to move up and down (up to a couple inches) due to the moons gravity?

That Christopher Columbus never set foot on America. He discovered Haiti - and died still convinced he had landed on India.

Just random stuff I seem to remember.

[itch vaccine]

One drop of Cobra poison can kill an elephant.

correct me if I'm wrong though. This is what I've heard.

[dy156]

the huge sea floor earthquake that caused the tsunamis affected the earth's rotation, making it wobble slightly.

Wow - hope we don't go plummeting into the sun!

Slate article confirming it

[The Prophet]

Originally Posted by braisler

Many non-flammable materials are flammable as fine particulates. Example: baking flour.

During the American Civil war, when large amounts of explosives were in short supply, bags of flour were shot through cannons into buildings. These were then followed by a small explosive charge. The resulting explosion blew up the building or to started it on fire.

[itch vaccine]

X'mas , the short form of Christmas.

The X does not represent anonimity like in Mathematics. The X stands for "Christ" in Greek.

Originally Posted by http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=xmas

Xmas has been used for hundreds of years in religious writing, where the X represents a Greek chi, the first letter of, “Christ.” In this use it is parallel to other forms like Xtian, “Christian.” But people unaware of the Greek origin of this X often mistakenly interpret Xmas as an informal shortening pronounced (ksms). Many therefore frown upon the term Xmas because it seems to them a commercial convenience that omits Christ from Christmas.

[itch vaccine]

dark chocolate is loaded with flavonoids, which helps blood flow and is good for the heart

link : http://my.webmd.com/content/article/88/99702.htm

[Faygo]

You can drop an ant from any height and it won't die.

[blitz.fenix]

Did you know Stalin was a state capitalist?*


*My friend is a communist and his parents lead a communist party. He strongly says that Stalin was a state capitalist and that no country in the world has ever had communism.

[Faygo]

Communism is a great idea on paper but it just doesn't work out in real life.

[high_way]

did you know : -459F, -273C are equal to 0K, which is absolue zero. also that atoms stop moving at 0k and everything dies..


did you know : that no matter how big the number is, that if it is a multipul of 9 that you can add the numbers together until they become 1 number and that number will always be 9 (wow isnt that confusing).

[cataklysm]

The first Life Saver flavour, which was peppermint, was invented in 1912 and it was called Pep-O-Mint.

[MageB420666]

Originally Posted by high_way

did you know : -459F, -273C are equal to 0K, which is absolue zero. also that atoms stop moving at 0k and everything dies..


did you know : that no matter how big the number is, that if it is a multipul of 9 that you can add the numbers together until they become 1 number and that number will always be 9 (wow isnt that confusing).

hmmm...... 9 X 9263 = 83367 and 8 +3 + 3 + 6 + 7 = 27, not 9. So if that's not how it's done than you need to explain it a little better.

[MageB420666]

The moon is moving away from the Earth at 3.8 centimeters per year.

The original color of bubblegum was pink, not white.

Christopher Columbus was not a genius because he thought the world was round, the idea had already been accepted by scholars of the day, Christopher Columbus thought he could make it to India because he was incredibly bad at math, he miscalculated the circumfrence of the earth, shrinking it by almost 8,000 nautical miles. Other people thought he was crazy because they new the actual circumfrence of the earth* and beleived it to be all sea from Europe to China, a journey that ships of that day would not have been able to make over open ocean. If the Western Hemisphere had actually been ocean Columbus and his crew would have starved on the journey, they only brought enough food for a one way, 3,000 mile trip, which incidently happens to be roughly the distance from the Canary Islands to America.

*approximatly the correct circumfrence, but much closer than Columbus' estimate.

You shed your skin once every three months.

[Gatorade Frost]

hmmm...... 9 X 9263 = 83367 and 8 +3 + 3 + 6 + 7 = 27, not 9. So if that's not how it's done than you need to explain it a little better.

9 X 9263 = 83367
8 +3 + 3 + 6 + 7 = 27
2 +7=9

It works with all multiples of nine.

[ICER]

Did you know that in 10 to 25 years we will run out of our main source of Helium, and the Earth will be virtually helium-free by the end of the 21st century.

[BK1017]

Originally Posted by itch vaccine

dark chocolate is loaded with flavonoids, which helps blood flow and is good for the heart

link : http://my.webmd.com/content/article/88/99702.htm

Chocolate and marijuana both have neurotransmitters in them that act on the same brain receptor, causing the production of dopamine which causes feelings of well being ("high"). Chocolate contains anandamide, which is already present in the brain (but is broken down quickly), and marijuana contains THC. A 130 pound person would have to eat 25 pounds of chocolate to get a marijuana-like effect.

Chocolate also contains phenylethylamine (related to amphetamines) that cause blood-sugar to rise, causes blood pressure to rise, and quickens the pulse. These effects are also found when someone is in love (phenylethylamine is called the "love-drug").

[BK1017]

Vespa mandarinia, thre Japanese Giant Hornet, measures on average from 27-45mm, but the queen can reach sizes of 55mm (to reference this, I just measured my pinky and it is 65mm). They feed on bee colonies, specifically eating the pupa, which are rich in protein. One giant hornet will scout out the bee's nest and mark it with a pheremone . This pheremone will allow the other giant hornet's to find the nest and attack together.

There was a National Geographic show called "Hornets from Hell" which filmed a giant hornet attack on a nest of European honeybees. There were 30 giant hornets and 30,000 honeybees. The attack lasted 3 hours and all the honeybees were killed. Wow.
Video of giant hornet attack

The giant hornets can annihilate the European honeybees, but cannot attack the native Japanese honeybee. When the giant hornet tries to mark the nest with pheremone, the honeybees all swarm the hornet in tandem and move their bodies to create heat. They do not bite, but simply make a big ball of heat around the hornet. They raise the temperature above 47 degrees C, which kills the hornet, but does not harm the honeybees, who have an upper temp limit of about 50 C. The nests' location dies with the hornet and the bees survive.

Read more here

[itch vaccine]

Originally Posted by BK1017

Chocolate and marijuana both have neurotransmitters in them that act on the same brain receptor, causing the production of dopamine which causes feelings of well being ("high"). Chocolate contains anandamide, which is already present in the brain (but is broken down quickly), and marijuana contains THC. A 130 pound person would have to eat 25 pounds of chocolate to get a marijuana-like effect.

Chocolate also contains phenylethylamine (related to amphetamines) that cause blood-sugar to rise, causes blood pressure to rise, and quickens the pulse. These effects are also found when someone is in love (phenylethylamine is called the "love-drug").

So it is in the end, bad for health? ....

[BK1017]

Originally Posted by itch vaccine

So it is in the end, bad for health? ....

I think the high blood pressure and quickened pulse are short term effects (until the neurotransmitters are used).

Research reports indicate that DARK chocolate (not white or milk chocolate) contains flavanoids (also found in green tea) which acts to decrease the chances of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs = bad) getting oxidized, which would otherwise cause plaque buildup in arteries and lead to coronary artery disease (CAD). Dark chocolate also contains stearic acid, which acts to boost high density lipoproteins (HDLs = good).

However, chocolate also contains lots of saturated fats that are bad for you. Bottom line: eat dark chocolate if any and use moderation.

[Hain]

Originally Posted by bendsley

It is impossible to lick your elbow. (wondering how many of you might actually try this)

NOT TRUE. I have seen a guy in my calculus class that proved everyone wrong.

[Hain]

Theoretically, there is enough quantum fluxuations, or known as vacuum energy, in the volume of an empty mug to boil the Earth's oceans away.

[Hain]

Originally Posted by high_way

did you know : that no matter how big the number is, that if it is a multipul of 9 that you can add the numbers together until they become 1 number and that number will always be 9 (wow isnt that confusing).

The process of taking the sum of a number's component integers till a single integer is given is called a digital root.

Example:
15874
1 + 5 + 8 + 7 + 4 = 25
2 + 5 = 7

digital root of 15874 = 7


Also a digital root cannot be zero, unless you start out with zero.
Remember that one for Jeopardy.

[Hain]

Did you know that 666 (from base 10) into base 29 is MS... Microsoft???


(It is also PG in base 26 but that isn't quite as funny.)

[ianthegoat]

Speaking of the Civil War (15 posts up?)

Did you know that the man (Wilmer McClain) who owned the property that the first battle of the Civil War was fought on (Manassas, or 1st Bull Run) moved away to escape the violence of the war? Well, he moved to a town called Appomattox. The treaty ending the war was signed in his parlor.

The Civil War began in his yard, and ended in his living room. In different states.

[ianthegoat]

Corona is skunky. Heineken is skunky. Why?

The color of their bottles (clear and green).

Well, ultraviolet light cleaves a portion of the iso-alpha acids (source of bitterness in beer, from hops) which eventually leads to the formation of flavor-active sulfur compounds, and skunky flavor. Brown beer bottles protect against this phenomenon.

Why aren't Miller products (MGD and High Life, both clear bottles) skunky?

Well, they use "reduced iso-alpha acids." These have been hydrogenated at a specific location which prevents this cleavage from taking place.

And knowing is half the battle.

[Rangsk]

You can prove that any multiple of 9's digits add up to a multiple of 9 (and thus if you keep doing it, you'll eventually get 9)

Proof:
The "digits" of any number 9 can be expressed as:
dn-1*10^n + dn-2 * 10^(n-1) + ... + d1*10^1 + d0 * 10^0

10^n -1 is 999...9 (has n 9s), so we can write this as
dn-1*(999..9 + 1) + dn-2 * (999...9 + 1) + ... + d1*(9 + 1) + d0 * (1)

multiply it out, and you get two groups of terms. The first group is when you multiply by the 999....9 term, and those are automatically divisible by 9, since 9999..9 is always divisible by 9 (proof of that: it's 111...1 * 9)

The remaining terms are simply the digits:
9dn-1 + dn-2 + ... + d1 + d0

This is the sum of the digits. Thus, if the sum of the digits is divisible by 9, then the entire term is divisible by 9, and since the term is a representation of n, then n is divisible by 9.

You may also be wondering about the validity of the sum of multiples of x are divisible by x. Here's my proof:
if each number added is divisible by x, then you can write it as follows:
x is what each is divisible by, and k1 through kn are integers
x*k1 + x*k2 + ... + x*kn = x(k1 + k2 + ... + kn). k1 + k2 + ... + kn is an integer, and so x*(k1 + k2 + ... + kn) is an integer that's divisible by x.

Here's an example of working through the proof:
83367
= 8*10^4 + 3 * 10^3 + 3 * 10^2 + 6 * 10^1 + 7 * 10^0
= 8*(10000) + 3*(1000) + 3*(100) + 6*(10) + 7*(1)
= 8*(9999+1) + 3*(999+1) + 3*(99+1) + 6*(9+1) + 7*1
= (8*9999 + 3*999 + 3*99 + 6*9) + (8 + 3 + 3 + 6 + 7)
--------TERM 1--------------- -----TERM 2------
Term 1 is divisible by 9, because each number in it is divisble by 9, so if term 2 is divisible by 9, then 83367 is divisible by 9.
8+3+3+6+7 = 27
27 = 9*3, so it's divisible by 9.

Hopefully by working through an example of my proof, you can see that a number being divisible by nine is soley contingent on its digits adding to 9. Note that this will only work in base 10!

There is a similar proof that if the digits add up to a multiple of 3, they are divisible by 3. You can try to work that out yourself, if you want (it's basically the same proof).

[Keist]

Originally Posted by Augi

Theoretically, there is enough quantum fluxuations, or known as vacuum energy, in the volume of an empty mug to boil the Earth's oceans away.

Yep, also if the complete potential energy of a lighbulb full of Quantum Foam (Suposidly the absolute base state of matter) will do the same thing.

[Hain]

Originally Posted by Keist

Yep, also if the complete potential energy of a lighbulb full of Quantum Foam (Suposidly the absolute base state of matter) will do the same thing.

I thought Quantum Foam is the state of matter where everything is no longer divisible to particles: like mass collapsed into a black hole. Maybe it is both. I know I say some Nova special on it.

[kurtisj]

did you know that the chineses army could stand shoulder to shoulder and walk 5 abreast into the ocean and the would never run out because of the rate of growth in there military

[tug mcgroin]

Did you know...

-Coke (the soda) can be used to clean your toilet bowl.
-Pure Coca Cola is shipped in a tanker with a "corrosive" symbol on it.

anything containing Dihydrogen Monoxide is corrosive
http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

[kutulu]

Originally Posted by Drayab

A liger is the mating of a male lion and a female tiger. A tigon is what you get when you cross a male tiger and a female lion. Why the distinction? A male liger is a giant cat at ~900lbs and 12 feet tall/long. Tigons are dwarfs and generally weigh in under 350lbs.

This is a picture of a liger:



That's a big kitty

[shAzb0t]

Ramen Noodles were invented on August 25th, 1958.

PRAISE WHOEVER DID THIS!

[TheShadow]

Originally Posted by lpj8

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

'Slept' also falls under this category.

[retsuki03]

Originally Posted by TheShadow

'Slept' also falls under this category.

What about...wept?


And... Dreamt?

"Dreamt" is the only common English word ending in -MT. Others are the obscure "adreamt," "redreamt," "undreamt," or "daydreamt."

All of course with the dreamt root, so i am not sure if they count.

More word trivia....

The only countries in the world with one syllable in their names are Chad, France, Greece, and Spain.

[stevie667]

Originally Posted by kutulu

This is a picture of a liger:



That's a big kitty

Thats the kind of cat that uses the door instead of the flap...


My one: A daddy long legs (i think it's a crane fly) has an incredibly strong poison, enough to do some serious damage to humans, but it isn't strong enough to break through our skin and inject it.

[hulk]

Before their venture into games, Nintendo had such interesting venues as a by-the-hour Love Hotel, instant portioned rice and a taxi company.

The original playing cards produced by Nintendo back in the late 1800's were put into such heavy use by the Yakuza that production couldn't keep up with demand.

[Phage]

Originally Posted by stevie667

My one: A daddy long legs (i think it's a crane fly) has an incredibly strong poison, enough to do some serious damage to humans, but it isn't strong enough to break through our skin and inject it.

False.
http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/longlegs.htm

[Poloboy]

That link about dihydrogen monoxide (i.e. water) is pretty funny, just because all of the "hazards" they list are true if you think about them.