The thread of Useless Facts

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the 57 on a Heinz Ketchup bottle is in reference to the varieties of pickles Heinz use to sell. . .

You can't take a piece of paper that is in form of a square and fold it more then 7 times :D
 
Dr. Pepper bottles had 10,2,4 on them as a reminder when you should have a Dr. Pepper. 10:00AM, 2:00PM and 4:00PM.

The US airport with the highest altitude is the Lake County Airport in Leadville, CO. Elevation is 9927 feet.
 
Originally posted by miata13B
You can't take a piece of paper that is in form of a square and fold it more then 7 times :D

This, AND the duck quack non-echo - two of the most popular trivia "facts" - were disproved on a TV show called "Braniacs", screened on Sky One in October/November last year.

A very large, very thin piece of paper can be folded, with the use of a Transit van, NINE times. This piece was roughly 20m along each side. A smaller piece, 5mx5m, could only be folded 8 times.

The duck was taken into an Underground tunnel, where it's quack DID in fact echo.


Originally posted by koolsax
Nothing rymes with orange OR purple. Not even lozenge.

In fact lozenge DOES rhyme with orange. And depending on regional variations, there are several other words which do. The myth stems from the fact that almost all -ange words are pronounced -ainge, whereas orange is pronounce -inge. Now think of all the -inge words you can come up with (yeeees, even that one).

Purple has some rhyming words too. However silver doesn't have any English rhyme.


And I made a thread like this - only a little later (30th December last year). It's got LOTS of fun facts in it...

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36372
 
Originally posted by Famine
This, AND the duck quack non-echo - two of the most popular trivia "facts" - were disproved on a TV show called "Braniacs", screened on Sky One in October/November last year.

A very large, very thin piece of paper can be folded, with the use of a Transit van, NINE times. This piece was roughly 20m along each side. A smaller piece, 5mx5m, could only be folded 8 times.

The duck was taken into an Underground tunnel, where it's quack DID in fact echo.



The Braniacs should be shot. . . I can't take it anymore that is it. . . In your famous words, I hate everything. . .
 
If you shoot a gun totally parellel to the surface, and drop a stone at the same height, both the bullet and the stone will hit the ground at the same time! :odd:
 
Originally posted by miata13B
The Braniacs should be shot. . .

It was great. They blew up 70 caravans - once using 2 weather balloons filled with pure oxygen and pure propane - tested out whether it was better to be fat or thin in a variety of circumstances, tried to use fire extinguishers as a form of Eco Friendly propulsion, brought a new technique to the art of safe cracking (a 60lb round from a Challenger 2 tank) and walked across a swimming pool filled with custard.

Amongst other things.
 
Here in the states, we have a TV show called Mythbusters. They busted the myth of the ducks quack, also.

It's great show. I loved the episode when they proved a tree could be used as a cannon, and if a dead body rots in a Corvette for several weeks, it can't be cleaned and resold.
 
We've got a video in our science department which we show the kids. This boring old fart from the 1970s demonstrates that a soft, tallow candle fired from a flintlock rifle will go clean through a 4 inch thick oak barn door.
 
Originally posted by Famine
It was great. They blew up 70 caravans - once using 2 weather balloons filled with pure oxygen and pure propane - tested out whether it was better to be fat or thin in a variety of circumstances, tried to use fire extinguishers as a form of Eco Friendly propulsion, brought a new technique to the art of safe cracking (a 60lb round from a Challenger 2 tank) and walked across a swimming pool filled with custard.

Amongst other things.
I beleive you would enjoy this program on the Discovery Channel - Myth Busters . They blew up a toilet with gun powder trying to prove a myth about toilets blowing up with people dropping cigarettes into them :D


Originally posted by Solid Lifters
Here in the states, we have a TV show called Mythbusters. They busted the myth of the ducks quack, also.
more reasons for me hating everything. . .
 
One of my favourite is "Hollywood Science", fronted by Robert Llewellyn (Kryten in Red Dwarf, also fronts Scrapheap Challenge), where they test things that happened in films for actual, real-life likelihood.

As a result I know that Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman wouldn't have cleared the castle wall in "Robin Hood: Prince Of Theives", that lass in "Deep Blue Sea" wouldn't have been electrocuted in real-life either, the water-powered harpoon wouldn't have come close to the helicopter in the Last Castle and Keanu Reeves wouldn't have been able to shift the concrete block in Chain Reaction (oh, but let's not forget the impossibilty of a fusion reactor exploding first).

But Kevin Costner's wee-drinking in Waterworld is feasible. Amazingly.
 
If you put mustard on a cat's butt it will end up dying from a heart attack. . .
 
Originally posted by Famine
One of my favourite is "Hollywood Science", fronted by Robert Llewellyn (Kryten in Red Dwarf, also fronts Scrapheap Challenge), where they test things that happened in films for actual, real-life likelihood.

As a result I know that Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman wouldn't have cleared the castle wall in "Robin Hood: Prince Of Theives", that lass in "Deep Blue Sea" wouldn't have been electrocuted in real-life either, the water-powered harpoon wouldn't have come close to the helicopter in the Last Castle and Keanu Reeves wouldn't have been able to shift the concrete block in Chain Reaction (oh, but let's not forget the impossibilty of a fusion reactor exploding first).

But Kevin Costner's wee-drinking in Waterworld is feasible. Amazingly.

We had a show like that in the states a long time back. They proved that Godzilla could never be real. His legs can't support his weight.
 
Abie Goldberry, a Quebec junior hockey player from the 1930's was hit by a puck while playing hockey, which ignited a set of matches that he had in his pocket. His uniform caught on fire and he was burned quite badly before the fire was put out.
 
In proper hockey, all sticks must be able to pass through a steel ring with an internal diameter of 2 inches.
 
Originally posted by audiracing
In the NHL all composite sticks have to break as easily as a wooden stick.

What exactly does this mean,? If so, whats the point in the composite stick?
 
That means that the composite sticks must be only as strong as the wooden sticks are. So basically.. the have to be able to withstand the same amount of pressure, torque, and stress put into it. However.. composites tend to break much easier than wooden sticks. One of the players broke like.. 4 in a game.. so they don't really provide an advantage, other than the fact that they are lighter.
 
1. Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.

2. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

3. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

4. 40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

5. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

6. On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

8. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

9. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.

10. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

11. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

12. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

13. Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

14. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves.That's the opposite of the norm.

15. The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!

16. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.

17. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

18. Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

19. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

20. The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer.

21. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

22. Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

24. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

25. "Stewardesses" is the longest word that can be
typed with only the left hand.

26. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, prick
your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.

27. A mathematical wonder: 111,111,111multiplied by 111,111,111 gives the result 12, 345, 678, 987, 654, 321.

28. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

29. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

30. The "pound" (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.

31. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

32. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

33. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

34. "Dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in "mt".

35. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

36. In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your fingers off".

37. A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.

38. European women didn't wear underwear until the 1900's.

39. We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.

40. Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines.

42. Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.

43. Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.

44. Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.

45. When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying "yes" in Sri Lanka.

46. There are more chickens than people in the world.

48. The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.

49. The only word in the English Language with all
vowels in reverse order is "subcontinental".

50. There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C
 
GTRacer4
21. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

Yep thats the twisted world of today and sweat shops.
 
GTRacer4
3. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

Is not, and never has been, true.

Edit: And I got chuffin' treed.
 
GTRacer4
3. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.
Even Mythbusters tackled this one. Instead of trying to listen they went all out by recording the sound waves and showing that there were two distinct waves, the original quack and the echo.
 
I knew about most of them, some of those are very interesting.
 
They're a mixture of truth, outright falsehood, and something in between - but they're all stale.
 
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