The Great Big Useless Facts Thread

[Richie67]

Dont hesitate to add! Some facts that are probably of no use to us below but may be interesting none the less.



There's more stars in the universe than grains of sand on the Earth.

The dot above the letter i is called a tittle.

If you took $500 worth of American pennies and melted them down, you would have $1000 worth of metal.

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

It's impossible to keep your eyes open when you sneeze.

Hot water freezes faster than cold water.

The clitoris is designed purely for pleasure. It has no other biological function.

Clouds only move once every 1000 year's.

Coca Cola were responsible for the popular belief that Santa wears red clothes. Previously he traditionally had a green outfit and cocacola changed it for advertising purposes.

Disclaimer: All may or may not be true

[Donutz]

Originally Posted by Richie67

Hot water freezes faster than cold water.

Myth.

Originally Posted by Richie67

Clouds only move once every 1000 year's.

What the hell does that mean? If you take it at the literal meaning of the words, it's ludicrous.

[Richie67]

Originally Posted by Donutz

Myth.



What the hell does that mean? If you take it at the literal meaning of the words, it's ludicrous.

Its fucking fact RIGHT!*


*may or may not be fact

[Bones]

Originally Posted by Donutz

Myth.

Actually true under certain conditions, it's called the Mpemba effect.

And I don't understand the fact about clouds. They don't move relative to what?

[Nivek]

Originally Posted by Donutz

Myth.

In regards to the hot water freezing faster:

In specific cases this is true. It depends on starting temperature, volume, initial motion... but it does require cooling by rapid evaporation.

The liquid in a straw is not "drawn" up. Your "sucking" creates a pressure zone in your mouth lower than 1atm. So the atmospheric pressure pushes the liquid up the straw. Now you know.

[Donutz]

Originally Posted by Bones

Actually true under certain conditions, it's called the Mpemba effect.

If you allow "Under certain conditions", then for instance: Hot water freezes faster than cold water if you put the hot water in a freezer and keep the cold water on the table. True but so what? If you make the statement with no conditions then it's assumed to be under default conditions.

The reason I'm arguing this is because "under certain conditions" gets dropped with repetition and pretty soon people think hot water freezes faster than cold water as a matter of course. It becomes one of those things that "everyone knows" that isn't true.

[Donutz]

Originally Posted by Richie67

Its fucking fact RIGHT!*


*may or may not be fact

Sorry. Still not getting it. I've looked at clouds and seen them move. I'm not 1000 years old. QED.

Is there a punch line? Is this one of those "no cat has 8 tails" aphorisms?

[Bones]

Originally Posted by Donutz

If you allow "Under certain conditions", then for instance: Hot water freezes faster than cold water if you put the hot water in a freezer and keep the cold water on the table. True but so what? If you make the statement with no conditions then it's assumed to be under default conditions.

The reason I'm arguing this is because "under certain conditions" gets dropped with repetition and pretty soon people think hot water freezes faster than cold water as a matter of course. It becomes one of those things that "everyone knows" that isn't true.

Mpemba effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's actually a common enough effect that no one really cares about except as an interesting science problem.

[Donutz]

Originally Posted by Bones

Mpemba effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's actually a common enough effect that no one really cares about except as an interesting science problem.

Yeah, I understand how to use the interwebz. MY point is that the statement "Hot water freezes faster than cold water under conditions compatible with the MPemba Effect" may be true, but "Hot water freezes faster than cold water" is not. And most people who make the statement "Hot water freezes faster than cold water" think it's the general case, will happily put hot water in one ice cube tray and cold water in the other to show me what's what, and will be highly perplexed when their proof fails by a wide margin.

[Bones]

Originally Posted by Donutz

Yeah, I understand how to use the interwebz. MY point is that the statement "Hot water freezes faster than cold water under conditions compatible with the MPemba Effect" may be true, but "Hot water freezes faster than cold water" is not. And most people who make the statement "Hot water freezes faster than cold water" think it's the general case, will happily put hot water in one ice cube tray and cold water in the other to show me what's what, and will be highly perplexed when their proof fails by a wide margin.

Try it! Identical trays, different water temps, same spot in the freezer. When I first heard it, I didn't believe it either. A couple of times it was a bit faster, most time it was hard to tell, but it was never slower. (I was judging by if I could see liquid water move inside the cube) It was more obvious in a bigger container than an ice cube tray.