The Great Big Useless Facts Thread

[marcdeo]

Originally Posted by richie67

your eyes are the same size now as they were when you were born.

100% false.

[Clarion]

We are currently in an Ice Age that began over 2.5 million years ago. We are in an inter-glacial period which means we are experiencing above average temperatures. Scientists don't know if the green house effect will put us in a glacial period or take us out of the Ice Age.

About 3% of the world's water is fresh and 21% of it is in the Great Lakes.

Koala's are not bears. They are marsupials and common to marsupials the males have a double pronged penis and females two vaginas; one for reproduction and the other for urinating.

The world's most deadliest creature (not animal) is the mosquito. It's responsible for millions of deaths due to disease transmission.

Only female mosquitoes feed on blood which is used as a protein source for the eggs. Males feed on nectar and plant juices.

If you want to go to Hell you have two choices: you can go to the Cayman Islands (in the Caribbean) or you can go to Michigan (about an hour west of Detroit). However, only one Hell will likely freeze over.

[LuckyRVA]

Originally Posted by Clarion

If you want to go to Hell you have two choices: you can go to the Cayman Islands (in the Caribbean) or you can go to Michigan (about an hour west of Detroit). However, only one Hell will likely freeze over.

This is true. Source: I have been to Hell.

[drroy]

I always found these interestin,concerning NHRA top fuel dragsters

* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (8,000 HP) than the first 4 rows of cars at the Daytona 500.

* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

* A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to merely drive the dragster's supercharger.

* With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

* At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

* Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence.

* In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G's.

* Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

* Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

* The redline is actually quite high at 9500 RPM.

* THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000 per second.

0 to 100 MPH in .8 seconds (the first 60 feet of the run)
0 to 200 MPH in 2.2 seconds (the first 350 feet of the run)
6 g-forces at the starting line (nothing accelerates faster on land)
6 negative g-forces upon deployment of twin 祖hutes at 300 MPH An NHRA Top Fuel Dragster accelerates quicker than any other land vehicle on earth quicker than a jet fighter plane . . . quicker than the space shuttle.

The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.420 seconds for the quarter-mile (2004, Doug Kalitta). The top speed record is 337.58 MPH as measured over the last 66' of the run (2005, Tony Schumacher).

Putting this all into perspective:

You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged & ready to launch down a quarter-mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line & pass the dragster at an honest 200 MPH. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.

The dragster launches & starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums & within 3 seconds the dragster catches & passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter-mile away from where you just passed him.

[poutanen]

Originally Posted by Donutz

40% of sick days happen at the beginning or end of a weekend.

LOL, considering Monday and Friday make up 40% of the work week. I actually find that hard to believe, should be much higher!

Originally Posted by drroy

* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (8,000 HP) than the first 4 rows of cars at the Daytona 500.

* Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

* Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

And that's why a 500 ci engine can produce 8000 HP while a NASCAR engine is under 1000.

What's more amazing are F1 engines. They produce 700+ HP from 2.4L (146 cubic-inch) natural aspirated (non-turbo or supercharged) V8s. They rev to 18,000 RPM (higher than sportbikes). They run on unleaded gasoline, not nitro methanol. They do an entire 2 hour race on one tank of fuel. The engines have to last for several complete race weekends, including testing, qualifying, and the race. These engines likely do up to about 1000 km before being replaced. F1 cars can pull up to 5g in a corner and at least that under braking.

Originally Posted by Donutz

What's interesting is that although the two cups of water started out at approx 120* and 50*, by the time the experiment was terminated they were both at 0* within the error limits of my shitty thermometer. This is not surprising since how fast a body loses heat is dependant on the difference in temp between the item and the environment. As the two cups of water cooled to the temp of the freezer, the hotter cup would have lost heat a lot faster initially.

Actually the reason they were both at 0 degrees has more to do with the energy required to freeze the water. It takes 1 calorie of energy to heat 1 ml of water 1 degree C. It takes 80 calories to freeze it.

So if you started with a cup of water at 0 degrees (that was totally in a liquid state), and a cup of water at 79 degrees and put them in equal environments, the cold cup would barely be frozen solid as the first ice crystals were forming in the warm cup.

[that1guy]

I loved Zingers way more than I could ever love a twinkie

[Leo]

Revival because this is a fun topic...

These are useful facts, but not for us layman.

Stars don't actually twinkle. That is caused by our atmosphere.

If the estimated size of VY Canis Majoris is true, that star's surface would extend past the orbit of Saturn in our system. To put into perspective, over a billion of our Sun would fit into this massive star.

You can fit about a million Earths in the Sun.

There is about 1 trillion galaxies in the known Universe. Each of these galaxies contain billions of stars. Each of those stars could have multiple planets orbiting them.

Europa, a moon of Jupiter, is slightly smaller than our own moon, yet has in upwards of 3 times the volume of water as that of Earth's.

Voyager 1 and 2 are still sending information back to Earth. They are currently heading to the edges of the Heliosheath (the very limits of our Sun's influence). Basically put, they are about to be truly in space. Oh, and they are both traveling many times the speed of sound.