Did you know?... The Interesting Fact Thread

[Hain]

When you drink water, you are drinking both an acid and a base! This is because water can partially disassociate in itself.

[nofnway]

deeded is the only six letter word with just two letters and 3 of each

[asudevil83]

i've got one.....compliments of The Straight Dope

Dear Cecil:

In elementary school I remember the teacher telling me that the vowels were AEIOU and sometimes Y and W. But I can't think of a single word where W is used as a vowel. Are there any? --Michael S., Baltimore

Dear Michael:

Sure. Try "how," which is phonetically equivalent to "hou," as in house. Ou and ow are diphthongs--that is, two vowel sounds that kind of slide together when you say them. W and Y are often called semivowels because they go both ways, as it were, depending on the company they keep within the word. (Low morals are obviously a problem at every level of our society.) In cow, for instance, W is a vowel, but make the word coward and you can hear W working as a consonant. Similarly with Y become I in copy and copier. I could also expound on the vowel-likes, yet another class of letters with an identity crisis, but I think we've had enough angst for one column already.

BTW, this website answers all sorts of questions.....many of which i've wondered but had no idea how to answer. you could spend days there just reading cool shit. www.straightdope.com

[Demeter]

Originally Posted by THGL

Did you know that if you dropped a diamond in a bottle of Clorox, it would eventually desolve?

Bleach will not affect the diamond, but may dissolve some minerals in the metal setting.

[0energy0]

You can see kernels of corn in your fecal matter.

Octopus legs still move when you cut them off while they are alive.

[BigBen]

About flour being flammable;

My grandfather was a grain elevator operator (grain buyer) all his life, and a heavy smoker. He never lit a cigarette inside the building, because grain dust is not only flammable, but EXPLOSIVE!!

In the early 60s, he was on the roof of the elevator (about 17 stories tall) and decided to have a quick dart. He threw the butt off the edge of the building (heck, no fault, he was on the outside, right?) and it landed in the intake of a grain hopper car sitting on the train tracks outside the building. The hopper car BLEW UP, causing massive damage to the building, surrounding cars, and ol' pappy's pride. The wheat pool issued a policy that smoking was not allowed 50 feet from the building, and therefore that included the roof.

Gotta love those 60s. I hear a lot of cool shit went down back in those days...

[ScottKuma]

Thomas Watson received the first phone call on March 10, 1876....

Wow... that's tomorrow!

[Daoust]

Don Quixote, De Profundus, La Morte D'Arthur and Mein Keimpf were all written while their authors were in prison.

[cierah]

- it takes 7 days to make a jelly-bean
- double-bubble is pink because that's the only color dye the dude had in his house when he invented it
- polar bears are left handed
- Armadillos can be housebroken
- It takes 9 minutes for a snowflake to fall from 1000 feet up.
- In 1938, LA passed a law requiring that a man obtain a liscense before seranading a woman.

[SVT01Cobra]

Originally Posted by Phage

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

Eh, all Snopes did was give the run-around like they always do.

"If these spiders were indeed deadly poisonous but couldn't bite humans, then the only way we would know that they are poisonous is by milking them and injecting the venom into humans. For a variety of reasons including Amnesty International and a humanitarian code of ethics, this research has never been done."

They have not proven NOR disproven the validity of the statement.

[Hain]

Did you know:
Super glue was originally made to quickly attend wounds on soldiers in war time? It's true, that is why it sticks to your fingers so damned good.

[Phage]

Originally Posted by SVT01Cobra

Eh, all Snopes did was give the run-around like they always do.

"If these spiders were indeed deadly poisonous but couldn't bite humans, then the only way we would know that they are poisonous is by milking them and injecting the venom into humans. For a variety of reasons including Amnesty International and a humanitarian code of ethics, this research has never been done."

They have not proven NOR disproven the validity of the statement.

"If you put a polar bear in zero gravity, it will turn blue over the course of a week."

The above situation can never occur naturally, and nobody has ever tested it for various important reasons. It is not valid as a little known fact because it was never tested.

[Hain]

Originally Posted by SVT01Cobra

Eh, all Snopes did was give the run-around like they always do.

"If these spiders were indeed deadly poisonous but couldn't bite humans, then the only way we would know that they are poisonous is by milking them and injecting the venom into humans. For a variety of reasons including Amnesty International and a humanitarian code of ethics, this research has never been done."

They have not proven NOR disproven the validity of the statement.

OK, you don't have to inject the poison into a human to test to see if it is deadly to us. You can analyze it chemically. It's been done before, watch Court TV. Do you think all the poisonous things on this planet were discovered from experimentation???

[Hain]

Originally Posted by Phage

"If you put a polar bear in zero gravity, it will turn blue over the course of a week."

A bird in zero gravity will die of dehydration in micro-gravity. This is because it cannot swallow without the aid of gravity for there are no muscles in its esophagus.

[Seanland]

Did You Know:
An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.

[kenshee]

A duck's quck doesn't echo.

[Phage]

Originally Posted by kenshee

A duck's quck doesn't echo.

At least attempt to make a real fact. :P

[liquidlight]

Mixing chlorine bleach and brake fluid creates smoke.

[Hain]

Originally Posted by kenshee

A duck's quck doesn't echo.

Yeah it was disproven on some show on TLC.

Originally Posted by liquidlight

Mixing chlorine bleach and brake fluid creates smoke.

-Mixing Clorox Bleach and motor oil equals fire.
-Bleach and Ammonia equals deadly gas. Please do not try this at home or anyone else's home. Some of us did and can warn the rest of you.

[liquidlight]

Originally Posted by Augi

-Mixing Clorox Bleach and motor oil equals fire.
-Bleach and Ammonia equals deadly gas. Please do not try this at home or anyone else's home. Some of us did and can warn the rest of you.

Not motor oil, brake fluid! Though I'm sure that it's still not a very good idea

[Molo]

Originally Posted by kenshee

A duck's quck doesn't echo.

Actually, the Myth Busters took this one up. Apparently the quack just sounds awfully like an echo to our ears (and most equipment). But highly sensitive equipment can pick up the echo, it's just very faint, and blends in very well.

[kenshee]

Thanks for the correction guys

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down hence the expression "to get fired"

[Hain]

Originally Posted by kenshee

Thanks for the correction guys

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down hence the expression "to get fired"

:Laughs: Well that's a cheery way to come back!
And thanks for the correction LiquidLight, but a fun idea when done right!

OK... Thermite reactions, like thermite that the military uses, is nothing more than iron oxide (RUST!) mixed with powdered aluminum heated slightly (usually with a magnesium strip).

The reaction that occurs is called an oxidation reduction reaction (redox for short). The oxidation potential (how willing something is to take on oxygen) of aluminum and iron are changed releasing LOTS OF HEAT!

[passthru]

Originally Posted by Augi

OK... Thermite reactions, like thermite that the military uses, is nothing more than iron oxide (RUST!) mixed with powdered aluminum heated slightly (usually with a magnesium strip).

If it only needs to be heated slightly, why do they have to use magnesium ribbon? I thought it was used because just using ordinary flame (match, lighter) was not hot enough to ignite it.

IRC was created in Finland in 1989.

Major US breweries (Budweiser, Miller) started brewing with rice during WWII in an attempt to make their beer less strong and therefore more appealing to women, and never switched back, which is one of the reasons their beer is so shitty.

D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a major anti-drug program in the US, defines 'drug' as any substance that alters your perception or behavior. (Then they make sure you know that "soft drugs" are drugs, but fail to mention that that definition also includes things like food.)

Howcome nobody's mentioned that in the other hemisphere, the water in toilet bowls goes the other way? =) Actually I think that's really determined by the direction the water outlets point in your bowl..

The word antihelix has nothing to do with shapes or gemoetry, it's actually a part of your ear.

Does anybody know the average airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

[Phage]

Originally Posted by passthru

If it only needs to be heated slightly, why do they have to use magnesium ribbon? I thought it was used because just using ordinary flame (match, lighter) was not hot enough to ignite it.

I would guess that the decision was based on a magnesium ribbon being waterproof.

Originally Posted by passthru

Does anybody know the average airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/
This guy looks like he knows!

[Hain]

When I say heated slightly, it takes an ordinary kitchen stove burner to ignite the magnesium strip, but that magnesium itself will burn much hotter . Sorry about that.

[questone]

Blue reflectors in the middle of a street indicate the location of a fire hydrant

[qualhiveldorf]

Fact#1 Iron with sufficent surface area, in a flow of concentrated oxygen can burn with enough initial energy, ie: oxy-acetelyene torch or magnesium strip. This is the basis behind the thermal lance which is an iron/steel pipe often stuffed with wire, connected on one end to an oxygen tank and it is one of the strongest gas torches reaching 4000*C. These are often used in safecracking because they can cut through very thick metal.

Fact#2 Coconut milk is sterile and can be used intraveniously in place of a water sugar solution.

Fact#3 Very small particles of gold (in the 20 nm range) mixed into water can appear crimson or violet in color.

Fact#4 Flourine gas is so reactive that it can't be stored in glass, infact hydroflouric acid is used to etch glass.

Fact#5 Almost all energy on earth has come from our sun or meteor impacts, even or oil and coal got its energy from the sun when it was once a plant or animal. So thats why everyone should use some form of solar power, it only makes sense.

Fact#6 Glass is not a liquid like many people claim, it is an anamorphous solid. And those windows with the elongatted tear drop cross section comes from the way that glass panels were manufactured at the time, placed with the heavy side down so that they would be less unstable. Infact some have been found upside down.

Fact#7 The great rift valley in Africa will likely seperate from africa in millions of years though.

Fact#8 With the right pressure and other factors hydrogen can actually reach a metallic state, this is occuring in the center of Jupiter right now.

Fact# 9 Lots of food products are made from the scraps that didn't meet specifications for another product. Tater Tots are made from the sub-par french fries which are then ground up. Fish sticks are made from the little bits of crummy meat left over from the cutting of the fish. Baby carrots are often made out of substandard carrots using a lathe like machine.

Fact#10 Most hydrocarbon gases have no odor, the gas plants, distributors or utility companies add an odor so that leaks can be detected.

Fact#11 All gasoline is mostly the same, it all comes from the same network of pumping lines, the only difference is in the additives that the individual company adds at the pumping station for the big tankers.

Please tell me if any of these are incorrect and I will remember to stop spreading the lies.

[Hain]

Only this one:

Fact#8 With the right pressure and other factors hydrogen can actually reach a metallic state, this is occuring in the center of Jupiter right now.

It is theorized that hydrogen becomes metallic at high enough temperatures. It has never been proven--so says the chemistry text.

[ObieX]

Originally Posted by qualhiveldorf

Fact#3 Very small particles of gold (in the 20 nm range) mixed into water can appear crimson or violet in color.

This can be accomplished with hollow gold nanospheres. Even more interesting is that if you change the thickness of the walls of the spheres they can change color from these crimson or violet colors, or even become completely transparent like water. Totally clear gold.

Edit: Also, gold and silver nanospheres are currently being studied to help restore sight to people who are visually impaired in certain ways.


http://www.solarisnano.com/vision.php

Solaris Nanosciences is developing biologically active metallic nanostructures which can selectively bind within nanometers of the remaining healthy photoreceptors to dramatically enhance their light harvesting capability. By increasing the sensitivity of remaining photoreceptors, we hope to partially restore visual acuity for those people affected by AMD and DR.

[captanhero]

Originally Posted by Augi

Only this one:

It is theorized that hydrogen becomes metallic at high enough temperatures. It has never been proven--so says the chemistry text.

Actually, identifiable metallic hydrogen was produced in a laboratory setting for the first time in 1996, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It required pressure in excess of one million atmospheres and lasted about a microsecond. The results of that experiment have led scientist to theorize that there is actually more metallic hydrogen at the core of gas giant planets than previously suspected.

[Martian]

Augi - The daddy longlegs thing was actually covered by mythbusters as well, although with a slight variation (their myth stated that the daddy longlegs possess the most powerful poison known to man, but they aren't dangerous because their fangs aren't long enough to pierce human skin). They milked several daddy longlegs and tested the poison on mice, finding that the poison isn't the strongest out there by far (none of the mice were permanently damaged, for those concerned). They then tested the other half by having Adam put his arm in a tube filled with daddy longlegs and aggravating them until one bit him. He did receive a bite and suffered no ill effects because of it.

Let's see, useless trivia...

Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat using only the words listed in the average first grader's vocabulary at the time. Many of his works had similar themes. Green Eggs and Ham, for example, is written using less than 50 words.

[ColonelSpecial]

Originally Posted by qualhiveldorf

Fact# 9 Lots of food products are made from the scraps that didn't meet specifications for another product. Tater Tots are made from the sub-par french fries which are then ground up. Fish sticks are made from the little bits of crummy meat left over from the cutting of the fish. Baby carrots are often made out of substandard carrots using a lathe like machine.

Don't know about all processes to make baby carrots, but where I am from, they are rotated in a barrel with large beads to beat them down and then are washed and cleaned from there.

Did You Know:
Ants always fall on their right sides when intoxicated. I want to know who is spending money and good alcohol on ants!

[Martian]

Originally Posted by passthru

Howcome nobody's mentioned that in the other hemisphere, the water in toilet bowls goes the other way? =) Actually I think that's really determined by the direction the water outlets point in your bowl..

Right on the second one. Despite what Lisa Simpson says, the coriolis effect applies to air masses, not water in a toilet or sink.

And I guess I need a new fact, huh? Let's see..

Everybody knows the NHL's biggest trophy by far is the Stanley cup. The cup has a long and storied history. In it's time, it has been

-drop kicked into the Rideau Canal (which was fortunately frozen at the time)
-used as a dog's food dish
-used as a latrine
-to the bottom of more than one swimming pool
-stolen and recovered several times
-forgotten in a snow bank on the side of the road
-used as a flower pot
-used in a baptism

(source)

[RusCrimson]

Originally Posted by passthru

D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a major anti-drug program in the US, defines 'drug' as any substance that alters your perception or behavior. (Then they make sure you know that "soft drugs" are drugs, but fail to mention that that definition also includes things like food.)

I may have been too under the influence, but I believe the definition of drug to be "anything that alters how the mind or body works expect for food."

[Amano]

Originally Posted by qualhiveldorf

Fact#2 Coconut milk is sterile and can be used intraveniously in place of a water sugar solution.

Somewhat related to this is that honey is an antibiotic and can be used to disinfect wounds (the sugar content is too high for anything to live!)

[Phage]

Originally Posted by Amano

Somewhat related to this is that honey is an antibiotic and can be used to disinfect wounds (the sugar content is too high for anything to live!)

And the burn victims gave me funny looks when I started baste them...

[Karm_Locke]

The Union Jack flag of the UK is a cross between the old flag of England (The Cross of St. George) and the Scottish flag (The Cross of St. Andrew). Also, the Act of Parliament that formed the UK is called... The Act of Union. I think they need to get more creative..

[xepherys]

The official currency of both Panama and Ecuador is the US Dollar. I wonder if the average income is US$5000 or something... How strange!


(source)

[RCAlyra2004]

Somehow I feel like I haven't really learned anything.

Ooowww... I was just hit by a falling penny ... that stings

RCALYRA