Cool facts!

[corksil]

Post them up... anything you have learned in your life that you think isn't 'common knowledge'... anything that is a trade secret in your field, anything you find interesting. No specific subject, just post them up. Let's learn some things from eachother so we can be the guy who sounds really smart next time there's a lull in the cocktail hour conversation.

I'll start....

Did you know?

To produce one meat patty found in a burger king whopper, the carbon footprint is as great as driving a modern automobile 64 miles.

Gravity is a universal constant -- regardless of all else. For example -- if you were to fire a rifle, handgun, firearm of any type... the speed at which the bullet in flight falls to the earth is the same as if you were to hold a bullet next to the muzzle and drop it at the exact time the round you fired left the barrel. Even though the round you fired from the firearm (in a perfectly horizontal trajectory to the surface of the earth) -- Even though the round you fired from the firearm may not impact the earth for over a mile away, the exact second it hits the ground is the same as if you were to drop an equal round next to the muzzle at the exact time the fired round left the barrel.

Bonus fact -- if you drive more than 32 miles for a booty call, it's officially classified as a 'carbon cockprint.' (Okay maybe I just made that up.)

I've got more but let's hear some from the rest of ya'll.

[corksil]

On average, it takes 10 seconds for swallowed food (once it passes the epiglottis, the dangling thing in the back of your throat) -- takes ten seconds for the food to travel through the esophagus and reach the stomach.

There are no snakes in hawaii. Not even in a zoo. Nor squirrels, nor chipmunks, nor beavers, nor elk. (okay, elk, that was obvious.)

The average human can lift 13% more weight if it makes an audible noise while lifting than if it lifts the weight without making a sound. (Surprising that there has been no study of exactly what 'type' of noise the human makes while lifting the weight.)

It's been said that 66% of all statistics are bogus. (Let's not get off topic -- TRUE facts that can be verified, this one is stretching the rules a bit.. There's no way to quantify/prove that fact. It's just my example.)

The modern cigarette contains over 2000 chemicals, and over 200 of them are proven to be carcinogenic. Before 1986, the typical store-bought/manufactured cigarette contained just over 1500 chemicals, but in 1985 a woman burned to death in bed after falling asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand. After a lengthy court trial, the judge ruled that cigarettes be "modernized" in such a fashion that they could not light a newspaper on fire under any circumstance -- intentional or otherwise. (If you don't believe me, try to light a newspaper on fire with a burning cigarette. Unless you're a pyromaniac, it's virtually impossible.)

The 'cruising speed' of a modern jet airliner passing over the pacific ocean is roughly 550mph, depending on wind and weather conditions.

The austrian firearm manufacturer "Glock" was originally a polymer compound manufacturer specializing in producing polymers for the global aeronautics industry (space ships!). In 1980, the austrian military announced that it would seek tenders for a new, modern duty pistol to replace their World War II-era Walther P38 handguns. The austrian military listed 17 criteria for firearm manufacturers to follow to be a competitor for the next service issue handgun and in 1982, after just 3 months of R&D, glock entered their glock 17 (the 17th approved patent in the company's history) in the trial and won. It was adopted into service in 1982, and the company currently supplies 65% of the market share of handguns for United States law enforcement agencies. (Pro-tip, the 'model number' is actually the patent number for the company. Glock 17, 17th approved patent. Glock 36, 36th approved patent.)

Fact. The planet is running out of helium gas at a phenomenal rate, and satellites can effectively track the passage of earth through the solar system by a trail of helium gas. Concentrations of helium gas in our atmosphere have been declining rapidly since the emergence of "civilized" human life on this planet.

Silver is the most thermally and electrically conductive element on the periodic table of the elements. That is to say it displaces both heat and electricity the most quickly/efficiently.

Final bonus fact... cat's cannot fly. But when they sleep, they dream that they can. That's why they can jump so high and climb up all kinds of stuff other than my pant leg. (Okay that one might be bogus, I didn't research it on the internet but I have been collecting evidence for years.)

Someone else's turn now...

(final bonus bonus fact... According to MLA rules of 'grammatically correct' regarding numbers, anything under or including TEN, should be written out. Number four, number three, two, nine, ten. Above "ten" -- it's considered grammatically correct to type the number as opposed to spelling it. 99, 3,006, 11, 37.) <<-- true. Look it up if you don't believe me.

[adouglas]

Originally Posted by corksil

There are no snakes in hawaii. Not even in a zoo. Nor squirrels, nor chipmunks, nor beavers, nor elk. (okay, elk, that was obvious.)

You sure about that fourth one?

[cbinker]

Link to original page on YouTube.

[dcj13]

Good thread, Corksil! This one's gonna be fun!

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by corksil

Gravity is a universal constant -- regardless of all else. For example -- if you were to fire a rifle, handgun, firearm of any type... the speed at which the bullet in flight falls to the earth is the same as if you were to hold a bullet next to the muzzle and drop it at the exact time the round you fired left the barrel. Even though the round you fired from the firearm (in a perfectly horizontal trajectory to the surface of the earth) -- Even though the round you fired from the firearm may not impact the earth for over a mile away, the exact second it hits the ground is the same as if you were to drop an equal round next to the muzzle at the exact time the fired round left the barrel.

on paper sure. in reality, no.

any object traveling through a moving viscous fluid at high speed encounters a very large amount of turbulence. this change the characteristics of the body and the way spinning bullets fly causes it to lift or fall along a slowly increasing spiral. so a bullet fired horizontally along a range will actually be on quite a different path due to lift and other aero forces than something travelling through much less fluid (air).

also about "gravity being constant", did you know that the reason it is hard for satelites to maintain close orbits around the moon is because the surface of the moon isn't a consistent mass due to meteor impacts and other reasons and so as a satelite travels over different areas of the moon it experiences differing pulls?

here's a nice video

Link to original page on YouTube.

[antiant]

Looks like somebody needs to watch COSMOS!

[Snake]

Very cool facts guys!

[csmith12]

A human can bite just as hard(er) as a Pitbull!

A force as great as 268 pounds (122 kilograms) for molars (human) has been reported.

The Pitbull bite was measured at 235 pounds of pressure. It is the most highly recognized breed for jaw and bite strength.

[subxero]

did you know that the Spotted hyena is more closely related to cats than dogs?

Did you know that the female spotted hyena has a pseudo penis which makes it very difficult to tell apart males from females by plumbing alone?

Spotted hyena's also have one of the strongest bites of all mammals, probably in the #2 or #3 spot for mammals behind the jaguar which is a biting power house.

On that note, did you know that jaguars generally don't go for neck or the throat when attacking prey like most other cats? They go for the skull and use their incredible bite force to crush it killing their prey very quickly.

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by csmith12

A human can bite just as hard(er) as a Pitbull!

A force as great as 268 pounds (122 kilograms) for molars (human) has been reported.

The Pitbull bite was measured at 235 pounds of pressure. It is the most highly recognized breed for jaw and bite strength.

supposedly humans jaw muscles are strong enough to do more pressure but it would break your jaw/teeth

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by subxero

Did you know that the female spotted hyena has a pseudo penis

it's like a 4 inch clit?

[subxero]

^ pretty much but more complicated in the hyena, The girls whip it out to show off how big their fake cock is cuz clearly size matters and they can actually use it to pee.


for anyone who wants more detail

Link to original page on YouTube.

[corksil]

Originally Posted by alex.s

on paper sure. in reality, no.

any object traveling through a moving viscous fluid at high speed encounters a very large amount of turbulence. this change the characteristics of the body and the way spinning bullets fly causes it to lift or fall along a slowly increasing spiral. so a bullet fired horizontally along a range will actually be on quite a different path due to lift and other aero forces than something travelling through much less fluid (air). I do agree, and your logic is sound. However I was trying to oversimplify to the effect of an audience saying "wow, cool, never knew that before."

also about "gravity being constant", did you know that the reason it is hard for satelites to maintain close orbits around the moon is because the surface of the moon isn't a consistent mass due to meteor impacts and other reasons and so as a satelite travels over different areas of the moon it experiences differing pulls?

I also agree about gravity in regards to the atmosphere or lack of atmosphere, as in the case of space. I was referring to earth, namely on the surface of earth where gravity is easily predictable.

I'm also of the school of thought that anything can be disproven or proven in-accurate directly proportional to the degree of scrutiny.

For example you may say that the tire on your motorcycle is 'balanced' -- even use a machine that 'balances' the tire to a very precise degree. But if one were to increase their degree of scrutiny, it would be virtually 'impossible' to balance the tire 'perfectly.'

Balanced within >1gram of discrepancy between the high/low weights = balanced?
Balanced within >0.01g of discrepancy between the high/low weights = balanced?
Balanced within >0.0000001g of discrepancy between the high/low weights = balanced?

(Not trying to be a try-hard a-hole, just trying to articulate my point in a way that makes sense.)

And to be clear.. on the whole I absolutely agree with the truth and validity to your post. Thanks for contributing to the thread!

[corksil]

Originally Posted by antiant

Looks like somebody needs to watch COSMOS!

Originally Posted by dcj13

Good thread, Corksil! This one's gonna be fun!

Originally Posted by Snake

Very cool facts guys!

Now would be the perfect time to post up some things you find interesting about the world.

Everyone is different, therefore everyone has a unique perspective to share.

For example maybe one of you works in a laundromat, and your 'boring' (from your perspective) 9-5 seems dull and uninteresting -- but you overlook the fact that you are an absolute expert on understanding the method of action which soap breaks down stains on a molecular level.

Or maybe you work at a car dealership and you know insider secrets that joe-average car-buyer doesn't know...

Let's all be clever together.

[corksil]

@csmith... amazing stuff. Committing that to memory now... 268lbs for human jaw, 235 pitbull. got it.
@subxero... spotted hyena has a massive clit, got it. jaguars typically kill prey by skull crushing, not neck biting. (didn't watch the whole video but it has a lot of animal penors if that's anyone's 'thing')

[corksil]

Okay lemme see what I can come up with off the top of my head... this is hard when you're prompted... brain.... get in gear.... uhhh...

Human hearing peaks around age 6, that is to say that the hearing of a 6yr old is a representation of the maximum capability of the human ear operating at peak performance.

Vision is a little later, age 12-14 I believe -- depending on what the eyes have been exposed to in terms of abuse. I was staring at fireworks and the sun from a young age so my vision probably fell off a little earlier.

Smell is almost impossible to quantify -- because of the relationship with the brain and the nose. The way the mind recognizes and identifies smells is complicated -- that is to say that the nose may be most "effective" at a younger age, but the brain is still "figuring out how to make sense of the data" for many years after the nose's capabilities decline. You could say that the nose peaks at an early age, but we aren't really capable of interpreting the data it feeds the brain and labeling/identifying scents until many years later.

So yea, by the time you hit age 15.... your senses.... it's all downhill from there.

edit -- I never verified these facts, but I was taught them by someone I consider to be a very intelligent scientist so I never researched them.

[Ninjinsky]

Since big bang the universe is only14 billion years old
You cannot exceed the speed of light
The universe is 93 billion light years in diameter
Beats me

In China a woman gives birth to a baby every 2 seconds!
(She's gotta be stopped !! )

[Desmoluci]

Here's one I've found to be fact more often than not.

[ally99]

This is now my favorite thread. I LOVE fun facts, so much so that years ago I typed up a 23 page document of fun facts I found. Here are a few:

The vocabulary of the average person consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words.

If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.

The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night.

Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they are immune to every known disease including cancer.

On average women say 7,000 words per day. Men manage just over 2000. (LOL!)

[ally99]

Here's a fun one. Time yourself and see how long it takes you to figure out the answer. What is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any state of the United States?

[csmith12]

One of the most common bone breaks in riding is the clavicle (collar bone). On average, it only takes about 10lbs of pressure to break it.

[subxero]

humans are considered the best long distance running mammal on the planet.

Being bipedal among other things makes us extremely efficient at running

^this being said, running is actually one of the worst exercises people can do to burn calories and get a cardio work out. We are naturally good at it and is not all that difficult especially after a person develops a decent technique and learns their pace and understands their mental limitations they can run for hours with out much issue.... other than chaffing of course but they make powders and creams for that

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by csmith12

One of the most common bone breaks in riding is the clavicle (collar bone). On average, it only takes about 10lbs of pressure to break it.

and most of the time, it is broken by the base of the helmet.

[allanoue]

everyone sees everything upside down

[dcj13]

Originally Posted by csmith12

One of the most common bone breaks in riding is the clavicle (collar bone). On average, it only takes about 10lbs of pressure to break it.

Sorry, but gotta ask:

Do you mean 10 pounds of force? Or 10 pounds per square inch of pressure?

[corksil]

Originally Posted by Ninjinsky

In China a woman gives birth to a baby every 2 seconds!
(She's gotta be stopped !! )

140k people are born each day, worldwide.

Only 40k people die each day, worldwide.

Originally Posted by Desmoluci

Here's one I've found to be fact more often than not.

Integrity is what you do when no one is watching.

[corksil]

Originally Posted by ally99

This is now my favorite thread. I LOVE fun facts, so much so that years ago I typed up a 23 page document of fun facts I found. Here are a few:

The vocabulary of the average person consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words.

If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.

The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night.

Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they are immune to every known disease including cancer.

On average women say 7,000 words per day. Men manage just over 2000. (LOL!)

Good ones! All true. Interesting to think that as you sleep, your joints relax and spread, and as you exist in day to day (vertical) life, they compound. I wonder how much shorter I am after lifting weights.

Originally Posted by ally99

Here's a fun one. Time yourself and see how long it takes you to figure out the answer. What is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any state of the United States?

Redacted.

[corksil]

Originally Posted by subxero

humans are considered the best long distance running mammal on the planet.

Being bipedal among other things makes us extremely efficient at running

^this being said, running is actually one of the worst exercises people can do to burn calories and get a cardio work out. We are naturally good at it and is not all that difficult especially after a person develops a decent technique and learns their pace and understands their mental limitations they can run for hours with out much issue.... other than chaffing of course but they make powders and creams for that

From an evolutionary standpoint, humans did not evolve to run long distances. Running would be short, never more than half a mile. Running would be used in brief occurrences to evade a predator or catch prey. If you ask me, people running marathons is just asking for knee replacements. The body is just not suited for it.

Interesting fact, however.

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by corksil

Good ones! All true. Interesting to think that as you sleep, your joints relax and spread, and as you exist in day to day (vertical) life, they compound. I wonder how much shorter I am after lifting weights.

Redacted.

[Singh2jz]

The average person can't lick their elbow.




99.9% of the people that read the above will try it.

[corksil]

A cow has 32 teeth.

The lifespan of a housefly is 15-30 days depending on conditions.

The lifespan of a female mosquito is 14-21 days.

The 'wealth' division in america is roughly 400:the-rest-of-us. That is to say, 400 people collectively own half the 'wealth' -- while the entire rest of the united states population make up the other half.

[ally99]

Originally Posted by Singh2jz

The average person can't lick their elbow.




99.9% of the people that read the above will try it.

I tried it!

[ally99]

Sad.

The average duration of sexual intercourse for humans is 2 minutes.

[corksil]

I raise you this.

The speed of male ejaculate leaving the penor averages 27mph.

[Ninjinsky]

Originally Posted by ally99

Sad.

The average duration of sexual intercourse for humans is 2 minutes.

But the average duration of masturbation is 10 minutes.
(not sure about the implications of that )

[corksil]

That should be the quote of the day. "Give me 10 minutes to masturbate and I will spend 9:28 of them finding the perfect video."

How did this thread run this far off course?

Cat facts!

A cat has more bones than a human; humans have 206, but the cat has 230.

The cat's clavicle, or collarbone, does not connect with other bones but is buried in the muscles of the shoulder region. This lack of a functioning collarbone allows them to fit through any opening the size of their head.

Cats have 32 muscles that control the outer ear (compared to human's 6 muscles each). A cat can rotate its ears independently 180 degrees, and can turn in the direction of sound 10 times faster than those of the best watchdog.

A cat sees about 6 times better than a human at night, and needs 1/6 the amount of of light that a human does - it has a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.

Cats can be right-pawed or left-pawed.

Cats dislike citrus scent.

Cats purr at the same frequency as an idling diesel engine, about 26 cycles per second.

A domestic cat can sprint at about 31 miles per hour, depending on how fat it is and what's chasing it.

The life expectancy of cats has nearly doubled since 1930 - from 8 to 16 years.

[Ninjinsky]

Originally Posted by corksil

I raise you this.

The speed of male ejaculate leaving the penor averages 27mph.

Unless there's a camera.

[corksil]

Each year, approximately 4 million cats are eaten in asia. Good lord.

It takes approximately 24 cats to make a cat-skin-coat.

Reportedly, there are an average of 40k cat bites in the USA each year.

If you feed your cat milk, it will fart more than normal.

Cats are extremely sensitive to vibrations. Cats are said to detect earthquake tremors 10 or 15 minutes before humans can.

[corksil]

In some cases, sheep are bred to have skin with many folds, which allows an animal to hold more wool. However, the folds attract maggots, especially around the anus. In a condition called flystrike, the maggots eat the sheep alive. The traditional solution is called “mulesing,” in which huge chunks of flesh are sliced from the lamb’s hindquarters so that smooth scar tissue forms

A person can be declared dead in absentia or "legally dead” after 7 years of being listed as missing. This time can be reduced in certain cases, such as in mass disasters (e.g., Sept 11, 2001) or major battles.

Most of the Indian Ocean tsunami victims in 2004 were identified thought DNA extracted from molars. Since teeth are one of the hardest and most indestructible substances in the human body, they are likely to survive trauma. They are also a good source of DNA if there have been no dental fillings, root canals, etc.

Scholars note that the media focuses more on women, especially white women, who go missing because of society’s apparent obsession with “damsels in distress.” In other words, people are interested in cases in which young, beautiful, often blond, girls have been abducted and are in need of rescue. This is called “the missing white woman syndrome.

Over 83,000 Americans are missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the 1991 Gulf War.