Random Facts

[Hummer bob 1 4]

The average toilet flushes in the key of E-flat.

More people are killed by donkeys than in plane crashes each year.

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: TheSixCents

Originally posted by: Duke87 ↑ in a similar fashion, you never have the president, the vice president, the speaker of the house, and all of the president's cabinet in the same place at the same time.

This way if the place gets bombed or something someone in the chain of succession to the presidency survives.quote>

What about the State of the Union?

Most of the Cabinet, the VP, the Speaker, as well as 'da Prez quote>

Key point being "most of the Cabinet".  They always pick someone to stay behind.

Guess I should include one . . .

In Lexington, Tennessee, it's illegal to transport an ice cream cone in your pocket.

[TheSixCents 0]

Hence why the Next President could be the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[fukuda 351]

Modern means Cro-Magnon, no?

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Lord-myre 0]

If Wal-Mart were a country, it would rank as China's 8th largest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia, and Canada. Edit: The only letter not on the Periodic Table is the letter "J."

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Some things I picked up on a cable show about James Bond...

The boat jump in Live And Let Die was a world record that has never been broken, 126 feet.

The Jet-Ski was introduced to the world for the first time in The Spy Who Loved Me as the 'Wetbike'.

The car barrel roll in Man With The Golden Gun was born of an engineering experiment at Cornell University, the mechanics of it are still a secret that the chief engineer will take to his grave.

[ididntdidit 0]

great thread

Yellowstone National Park is the world's largest volcano

We know more about the surface of the moon than we do the bottom of the deep ocean

The Universe does not in fact revolve around the Earth

Our solar system exists on one of the outer spirals of the galaxy and there is a black hole in the center of the galaxy

Black Magic Woman was originally done by Fleetwood Mac

Hayden's nickname was "Papa" Hayden

[astronelson 339]

e^(i*pi)+1=0

Where e is the base of natural logarithms, i is the square root of -1, and pi is the ration of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

[jammy 0]

The driest place on planet earth is .... Antarctica (Parts of the continent have not had any rain for 2 million years)

The tallest mountain in the world is ... Mauna Kea in Hawaii, it is 10,200m high compared to Mount Everest which is a mere 8,848m high (most of Manua Kea is below sea level though.

The biggest thing a Blue Whale can swallow ... A grapefruit

Goldfish have a memory in excess of 3 months, not the commonly thought 3 seconds

the most dangerous animal that has ever lived ... The mosquito ... they have killed an estimated 22.5Billion humans in history

Chameleons do not change colour as they touch different coloured objects... never have, it is a complete lie that they ever did.

No human built objects can be seen from the moon, not the Great Wall of China or anything else.

considering space begins only 60miles above earth roads, railways, cities, fields, ships on the sea and even some individual buildings can be viewed from space.

Fortune Cookies are an American Invention

The steam engine was invented in Ancient Greece but was never to a vehicle and rendered useless by the general public

Champange is a 100% British invention

Only one breed of frog on the planet goes 'Ribbit', the Pacific Tree Frog which lives in California is the only frog that does. despite this in almost every movie involving a rainforest of some description a frog will be heard going 'Ribbit'

Humans have how many senses? ... 9 at least. They are Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Hearing, The sense of Heat, The Perception of pain, Bodily Awareness. Some people include Thirst, Hunger, The sense of understanding, the sense of depth and so on are also senses.

Silver is the best conductor of electricity that exists, water is an extraordinarily poor conductor.

The moon apparently smells like gunpowder

The earth has at least 7 moons, obviously the moon is the only visible one, the other 6 are near earth objects that follow the earth in its orbit around the sun, but will in the future settle into a regular orbit pattern around the earth.

In asteroid belts asteroids are around 1,250,000miles apart from each other, so if anything was to fly through one it is extremely likely one will be even seen let alone the object being struck by one

[jammy 0]

The atom mostly consists of ... nothing.

Moths are not attracted to flames, they travel in a straight line by keeping the sun in the same position. Considering a flame will wizz past they will fly in circles thinking that they are travelling in a straight line.

No centipede has 100 legs. The closest any centipede has got is 96 legs.

a two-toed sloth has 8 toes

There are more tigers in captivity in Texas alone than the whole of India.

The most common cause of death for sailors in eighteenth-century sea battles was infected splinters.

Only five people were killed in the 1666 Great Fire of London which devastated over 80% of the city

The number of the devil is not the commonly thought 666 but is actually 616

Water is not clear but is actually a very pale blue colour

Water goes down the plug hole in which ever direction the basin allows. It is a complete myth that depending in which hemisphere you are in changes the direction the water goes

[jammy 0]

There are technically either 46 States or 52 States in the USA. Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are all commonwealths not states. That would leave only 46. Although if they are included then there are two other commonwealths should be included which are Puerto Rico and the Northern Marina Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Baseball is a 100% English invention

The capital city of Thailand is not Bangkok. It is actually Grung Tape. The name Bangkok has not being in use for 200 years

The worlds largest city in the world in terms of area is ... Honolulu. The official city limits means it stretches 1500miles across the island of Oahu.

The most recent ice age is on going to this day. The term 'ice age' means that there is still ice in the poles. Which means we are still in an iceage

No one lives in igloos anymore and haven't done for some 85-100 years.

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Originally posted by: jammy

Silver is the best conductor of metal that exists, water is an extraordinarily poor conductor.

quote>

I believe you mean conductor of electricity.

[duack 14]

Interesting point about the atom jammy. Let's say the nucleus of an atom was the size of a marble, the electrons of the marble would be about the width of a strand of hair, and they would be spinning around the nucleus at a whooping 4 kilomteres (about two miles) from the nucleus. And on account of you can't even see an atom yeah its tiny!!!!

Oh great now you've got me in a physics mood...

And did you know that matter and anti-matter are created at the edge of black holes? Normally two are created together and then annhilate each other faster than you can say poop, but sometimes one or the other get sucked into the black hole and the survivor, well, survives.  This would mean galaxies are created by black holes rather than being destroyed by them. If you say Im crazy then your saying that stephen hawking is crazy cause thats where I got this fact from.

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Chef Boiardi (Boy-ar-dee) got a Medal of Honor for feeding the soldiers in WWII.

Falling coconuts kill 10 x more people in a year than sharks.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: astronelson e^(i*pi)+1=0quote>

More generally, e^ix = cos(x) + i sin(x). Plug π into that and you get -1.

This formula is fairly straightforward and simple to prove. However, said proof involves taylor series. Meaning that if I post it here most of you won't understand it.

Originally posted by: jammy

Silver is the best conductor of electricity that exists, water is an extraordinarily poor conductor.quote>

Actually, gold is even better. Silver comes second.

It is true that water is a very poor conductor. Pure water, anyway. All naturally occurring water on earth is not pure, it has stuff dissolved in it. And electrolytes in solution are good conductors, so it's still not a good idea to put a toaster in the bathtub.

The earth has at least 7 moons, obviously the moon is the only visible one, the other 6 are near earth objects that follow the earth in its orbit around the sun, but will in the future settle into a regular orbit pattern around the earth.quote>

Earth's moon is its only natural satellite. Of course, people have put plenty of artificial satellites into orbit, some intentionally, many more as just space junk. So Earth at this point in time has thousands, if not millions, of satellites, but only one "moon" (a moon being a natural satellite as opposed to a manmade one).

Moths are not attracted to flames, they travel in a straight line by keeping the sun in the same position. Considering a flame will wizz past they will fly in circles thinking that they are travelling in a straight line. quote>

Actually, it's the moon they navigate by, not the sun. Moth's are nocturnal.

But yes, moths are not attracted to light. It's just that artificial light sources mess with their navigational instincts and confuse the hell out of them, causing them to helplessly flutter about not knowing where they're going.

a two-toed sloth has 8 toes quote>

Or, two toes on each foot.

The number of the devil is not the commonly thought 666 but is actually 616 quote>

Che? Source on this? I don't believe that one.

There are technically either 46 States or 52 States in the USA. Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are all commonwealths not states. That would leave only 46. Although if they are included then there are two other commonwealths should be included which are Puerto Rico and the Northern Marina Islands in the Pacific Ocean. quote>

They may call themselves "Commonwealth of" in their names, but that doesn't make them not states. A state is defined by whether it has ratified the costitution and been granted admission to the union by congress, thus grantng it all the rights and responsibilities of statehood. So, there are 50 states.

Also, it's "Marianas Islands", not "Marina".

Baseball is a 100% English invention quote>

While baseball does borrow some elements from the Birtish games crickett and rounders, the sport itself developed in America.

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

Originally posted by: Duke87

The number of the devil is not the commonly thought 666 but is actually 616 quote>

Che? Source on this? I don't believe that one. quote>

How's this?

This is actually old news.  Came out a while back.

Barbarossaquote>

 

Does that mean I no longer have to be afraid of bar codes?

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

LOL, I thought you knew I was being facetious. No, I'm not afraid of UPCs, yet.

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

How's this?quote>

Your link's a tad broken. Allow me to fix it.

If you just type in a URL starting with "www.", the forum software will stick "http://www/simtropolis.com/forum/" before it, since a bug makes it try and treat it as a subdomain of this site. It looks like you shouldn't have to, given it's in the dropdown menu to the left, but you have to type the "http://" protocol part in there as well or it won't work properly.

Anyways.... the official bible still says 666. That parchment does not prove that it is a mistake, it merely proves that there was a revision prior to the final draft - something which happens all the time in writing.

The mark of the beast in the "beta version" there may have been 616, but it is quite clearly 666 in the final. And it is the final version which has the final word (or number, in this case ), so it is incorrect to state that the number is "actually 616" as if there's some huge common misconception, which there is not.

[Duke of York 23]

Well...Here are a few facts...

A poler bear's skin is black....It's fur is not white, but actually clear.

Women blink nearly twice as much as Men.

Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland becouse he doesn't wear pants.

The name Wendy was made up for the book " Peter Pan ". There was never a recorded Wendy before.

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

Do you know that.....

Queen Elizabeth 2nd is the 63rd Monarch of England.

She is the 6th Queen to reign in her own right. (ie. not the wife of a King)

Se has reigned 56 years so far, 1952-present

The shortest reign was Lady Jane Grey 1553 ( 9 days), the Longest was Queen Victoria 1837 - 1901 = 64 years.

The English and Scotish Monarchies joined in 1603, when James 6th of Scotland became James 1st of England.

[Duke87 1,070]

In general, tall buildings are safer in earthquakes than short ones.

Now, let's see if anyone can figure out (or knows) why.

[Jezus53 18]

Here's some ineresting facts about this thread!

There are five dublicate facts in this thread.

There are 14 confirmations on facts given

There are 17 replies disproving "facts" or correcting facts.

About the regular world:

It is still (last I heard) illegal to sneeze in public in San Jose, CA so you do not scare the horses. Seeing as how we do not tie up horses in front of businesses anymore it isn't enforced, but it is still in the books.

I'm gonna take a stab at that question Duke and say that it's because higher buildings are built to withstand intense winds. They are basically designed to sway somewhere around three feet (depending on building height) in all directions. This swaying motion is the same affect an earthquake would have since the shock wave would move the building in a back and forth manner like the wind. Am I right?

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Jezus53

I'm gonna take a stab at that question Duke and say that it's because higher buildings are built to withstand intense winds. They are basically designed to sway somewhere around three feet (depending on building height) in all directions. This swaying motion is the same affect an earthquake would have since the shock wave would move the building in a back and forth manner like the wind. Am I right?quote>

You should have just stopped at the first sentence. You hit the nail on the head there. But then your other elaborations after that are flawed.

Seismic loading is directly proportional to the weight of the building (well, there are other variables, but that's the most important one). As you increase the height of the building, the weight increases near linearly. If you make a building twice as tall, it will likely be only slightly more than twice as heavy.

On the other hand, wind loading is directly proportional to the wind speed... squared. And, naturally, the higher up you go, the stronger the wind. So, with taller buildings, wind governs the lateral system design, not earthquakes.

As for buildings being "designed to sway around three feet", that's not quite how it works. A building is going to sway in the wind. It's unavoidable. You'd need infinite bending stiffness for it not to. The building isn't designed to sway X feet so much as it is designed to not sway more than X feet. As for what X is, a typical permissible value is 1/450th the height of the building. So, to be allowed to sway 3 feet at the top, you'd need a 1350 foot tall building. That's about as high as the old twin towers were; I'm guessing that's where you got three feet from.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Some of you will recall that on July 8, 1947, a little over 60 years ago, witnesses claim that an unidentified flying object (UFO) with aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell , New Mexico .

This is a well known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies and organizations.

However, what you may NOT know is that in the month of April 1948, nine months after that historic day, the following people were born:

Albert A. Gore, Jr.

Hillary Rodham

John F. Kerry

William J. Clinton

Howard Dean

Nancy Pelosi

Dianne Feinstein

Charles E. Schumer

[Jezus53 18]

Originally posted by: Duke87

You should have just stopped at the first sentence. You hit the nail on the head there. But then your other elaborations after that are flawed. quote>

I always do that ! Oh well, I got it right.

As for buildings being "designed to sway around three feet", that's not quite how it works. A building is going to sway in the wind. It's unavoidable. You'd need infinite bending stiffness for it not to. The building isn't designed to sway X feet so much as it is designed to not sway more than X feet. As for what X is, a typical permissible value is 1/450th the height of the building. So, to be allowed to sway 3 feet at the top, you'd need a 1350 foot tall building. That's about as high as the old twin towers were; I'm guessing that's where you got three feet from.

quote>

I guess I just worded it differently, I had the same thought you put into words. And yes, I got that number from the WWT building. Architecture and Engineering are interests of mine.

Nancy Pelosi

Dianne Feinstein

quote>

I guess that could explain a few things.

Since I love the Rubik's cube, I'll give some interesting facts about it!

Did you know:

...it's Rubik's cube, not rubiks cube? Many spell it wrong, but since it was made by Erno Rubik it is his cube. Therefore, you need to capitalize the " R " and put an apstrophy before the " s ."

...the fast time for solving a 3x3x3 (standard) cube was at the Czech Open in 2008 by Erik Akkersdijk at 7.08 seconds!

...the most cubes solved in 24 hours was set by Milan Baticz of Hungary in November of 2008. Milan solved 4786 cubes.

...fastest one handed time for a 3x3x3 cube is 14.34 seconds

...fastest time with only feet for a 3x3x3 cube is 36.94 seconds

...the most expensive cube is the Masterpiece Cube made by Diamond Cutters International in 1995.The cube is real size and fully functional. It is made of 22.5 marats of amethyst, 34 karats of rubies, and 34 karats of emeralds set in 18-karat gold. It is worth 1.5 million USD.

...fastest time for a 4x4x4 cube is 40.05 seconds

...fastest time fore a 5x5x5 cube is 1:13.28 minutes

...fastest time for a 6x6x6 cube is 2:56.34 minutes

...fastest 7x7x7 cube is 4:16.17 minutes

Personally, my best for the 3x3x3 is 27 seconds, 4x4x4 is around 5 minutes (?), and 5x5x5 is about 6-8 minutes. Fun stuff right there. I was at the comp in 2006 when Toby Mao set the record at 10.48 seconds. Of course I was horrible back then so I had the horendous time of 1:00:01 minutes. So close to under a minute. But I ranked 76th (?), and that's in the world. Oh yeah...