Share an interesting random fact

[owen20011993]

somewhere in space, there is a massive cloud of alcohol the size of our solar system. you could make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer with it.

\
somebody watches manswers

 

[mikeybuthge]

When auditioning for KISS, Ace Frehley would play his guitar whilst other auditions were going on

 

[4RM3D]

that's light, he means colors as in paint and stuff

...I'll stop nitpicking now

Nitpicking? Nah, bring on the challenge!

I still have to disagree. If you throw all colors together and get black, it is because the colors are tainted. This is pretty common because it is difficult to mix all pure colors and get a pure color as result.

There is an experiment which prove the above. Take a wooden disk (circle) and divide it into slices. Paint every slice a different color. Now attach the disk onto a spinning object (like a car wheel). When the disk is rotating, which color do you see?

Spoiler

White

Your move.

 

[newdarkcloud]

You have a better chance of dying on your way to buy a lottery ticket than you do of actually wining the lottery.

 

[Hennofletch]

For there to be a 100% chance two people share the same birthday there must be 366 people.
A 99% chance is reached by 57 people and a 50% chance by just 23.

This is not true. First of all, there can't be a 100% chance. If you pick 366 random people, you can still be statistically unlucky to not have the same birthday. Heck, even if you pick 3000 random people you still have no guarantee. Even though it is statically unlikely, you never get a 100% chance.

Not sure about the following, but if you say you have a 99% chance you share the same birthday with 57 random people, then you are saying the other 308 days fall within the 1% margin, meaning about 80% off all people have a birthday within the same 57 days of the year. That is just... weird.

All right ya had to get nit picky. Its something like a 99.999999% statistically that two people in a sample of 366 share the same birthday. Its about the statistical probability not the likelihood. Never confuse the two.

As for the rest if your sample is 57 the probability is 99%, and 50% probability if your sample size is 23 people.

 

[GirDraconis]

The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.

That's called a palindrome. Other examples of palindromes are "lion oil", "Dammit, I'm mad!", and "Degas, are we not drawn onward, we freer few, drawn onward to new eras aged?"

 

[Alssadar]

The fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis can take over an insect's brain, and kill the insect when it's in a favorable spot to spread the fungus's spores.
'Tis essentially a zombie plant.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110303-zombie-ants-fungus-new-species-fungi-bugs-science-brazil/

 

[GirDraconis]

For there to be a 100% chance two people share the same birthday there must be 366 people.
A 99% chance is reached by 57 people and a 50% chance by just 23.

Okay, I get the 100% statistic and agree it makes perfect sense (except for the February 29th babies, then it's 367). I'm not getting the other two. 365 x 0.99 = 361.35. My brain says you'd need 362 (rounding up) people. Same for the 50% statistic. How do these last two statistics work?

 

[4RM3D]

The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.

That's called a palindrome. Other examples of palindromes are "lion oil", "Dammit, I'm mad!", and "Degas, are we not drawn onward, we freer few, drawn onward to new eras aged?"

And my personal favorite, which I mentioned earlier in this thread:

"A Santa lived as a devil at NASA"

What I still don't know is what the big fuss is about with palindrome words. They are 'cute', but how are they special?

 

[GirDraconis]

What I still don't know is what the big fuss is about with palindrome words. They are 'cute', but how are they special?

They're incredibly difficult to create in sentence form. That's all I can come up with.

 

[Hennofletch]

For there to be a 100% chance two people share the same birthday there must be 366 people.
A 99% chance is reached by 57 people and a 50% chance by just 23.

Okay, I get the 100% statistic and agree it makes perfect sense (except for the February 29th babies, then it's 367). I'm not getting the other two. 365 x 0.99 = 361.35. My brain says you'd need 362 (rounding up) people. Same for the 50% statistic. How do these last two statistics work?

Just to make life easier I'll link the wiki page = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem

I apologise if i explained poorly, I'm just an interested ignoramus.

I first learnt about this at the royal institution Christmas lectures in the nineties. Some damn good stuff on them.

 

[BlackStar42]

The parasite cymothoa exigua kills the the tongue of its host and then replaces the organ by attaching itself to the stump. It's the only parasite that will replace an organ.

It looks like a headcrab crossed facehugger formed inside a fish

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in the English dictionary, it's a lung disease caused by the inhalation of fine silica dust (like from volcanoes, makes sense as 'volcano' is part of the condition).

When i looked at that i didnt even try to read the word... i kinda just skipped to "longest word in english dictionary"....

OT: A goldfish is the only animal that can see ultra violet and infra red lighting.

Also wasn't the longest word some place in NZ? A mountain or hill or something.

I dunno about that, but Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the longest place name in the UK, and I'd say it's definitely a contender for the longest, and easily the most difficult to pronounce.

 

[GameChanger]

somewhere in space, there is a massive cloud of alcohol the size of our solar system. you could make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer with it.

Heaven exists and scientists found it! :O

 

[Blind0bserver]

The stories for Mirror's Edge, Heavenly Sword and the entire Overlord series was written by a woman named Rhianna Pratchett, who is Terry Pratchett's daughter.

Yes, that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett] Terry Pratchett.

 

[Aeshi]

Note: The following assumes the theory that a Minecraft Block is 1 meter in every direction is true.

A player carrying 64 Golden Apples in each slot in Minecraft would be carrying approximately 355,737.6 Tons of Weight, making them denser than the Sun. This does not even account for the weight of armour they may be weighing or weight variance with the Apples.

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

Did you know Snapple lies to you?

Seriously though:
Did you know dolphins have sex up to 5 times a day!?
Jack-O-Lanterns were originally made from turnips.
Your heart-rate can rise up to 30% during a yawn.
There is nearly a billion miles of DNA in a single human body!
All swans in England are property of the Queen...huh?
Lightening bolts can generate temperatures about 5 times hotter than the suns surface!

The more you know :3

 

[rednose1]

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in the English dictionary, it's a lung disease caused by the inhalation of fine silica dust (like from volcanoes, makes sense as 'volcano' is part of the condition).

Should look up the full chemicla name for tintin sometime.

I would post it here but 2 things.

1) It's too large for the forums
2) Even typing 1 letter a sec, it would take me over 2 days to finish.

Just know if you ever get in in a spelling bee, it is proof the whole world is against you.

 

[[The]Rock]

appartheid is the most well-known dutch word in the world, albeit rarely identified as such.

It's called 'apartheid'. And it is well known because of South-Africa.

dutch grammar dictates it to be spelled with two "p"s because of the short "a" sound, besides, can you guess who was boss around there when the associated, racist laws were implemented?

that was us, the dutch.

It's actually Afrikaans which is based on Dutch, as the Dutch were, as you say, in control of south africa for a long time, the natural progression of language changed the original Dutch into the language now known as Afrikaans.

My facts:

People are more likely to forget an instruction if you say "Don't forget" as "forget" is the key word that the person's mind will focus on, instead, say "Remember to" as the key word is "remember".

It is impossible to go cross-eyed whilst holding your left foot in your right hand and your tongue in your left hand.

Three out of five idiots who just read the above have just tried it and are now laughing because they have realized that they have been tricked into looking like complete berks.

 

[Warped_Ghost]

There are only 2 known species known to conduct the art of war. Humans and ants.