Random Facts - Page 2

[Reverend Jim]

I hope not for the same reason.

[ddanbe]

The greatest lake outside of our world is on Titan, a moon of Saturn.
It does not contain water, but liquid methane and other hydrocarbons. link

[Agilemind]

Some liquids can flow uphill
Link 1
Link 2

[ddanbe]

Today, the word "OK" exists 175 year.
It appeared for the first time in a Boston newspaper of 23 march 1839.

[Ancient Dragon]

According to this artcle origins of the word OK is unknown, but speculation suggests it came from the 1840 American presidential election.

The oldest written references result from its use as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840. Their candidate, President Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed 'Old Kinderhook' (after his birthplace in New York State), and his supporters formed the 'OK Club'.

[Ancient Dragon]

Mother Hubbard from Mother Goose was originally written in about 1590 and Mother Goose's Melody was first published sometime in the 1760s.

e^i*pi = -1

"Like a Shakespearean sonnet that captures the very essence of love, or a painting that brings out the beauty of the human form that is far more than just skin deep, Euler's Equation reaches down into the very depths of existence."

Stanford mathematician Keith Devlin (author of the Golden Age of mathematics - my favourite maths proof book) wrote these words about the equation to the left in a 2002 essay called "The Most Beautiful Equation." But why is Euler's formula so breath-taking? And what does it even mean?

First, the letter "e" represents an irrational number (with unending digits) that begins 2.71828... Discovered in the context of continuously compounded interest, it governs the rate of exponential growth, from that of insect populations to the accumulation of interest to radioactive decay. In math, the number exhibits some very surprising properties, such as — to use math terminology — being equal to the sum of the inverse of all factorials from 0 to infinity. Indeed, the constant "e" pervades math, appearing seemingly from nowhere in a vast number of important equations.

Next, "i" represents the so-called "imaginary number": the square root of negative 1. It is thus called because, in reality, there is no number which can be multiplied by itself to produce a negative number (and so negative numbers have no real square roots). But in math, there are many situations where one is forced to take the square root of a negative. The letter "i" is therefore used as a sort of stand-in to mark places where this was done.

Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, is one of the best-loved and most interesting numbers in math. Like "e," it seems to suddenly arise in a huge number of math and physics formulas. What Makes Pi So Special?]

Putting it all together, the constant "e" raised to the power of the imaginary "i" multiplied by pi equals -1. And, as seen in Euler's equation, adding 1 to that gives 0. It seems almost unbelievable that all these strange numbers — and even one that isn't real — would combine so simply. But it's a proven fact.

Original article appears here

[Reverend Jim]

Tic Tacs are labeled as sugar free even though they are mostly sugar because a single serving (one Tic Tac) contains less than 0.5 grams of sugar.

The same logic allows Pam (basically aerosolized fat) to be marketed as fat free.

[ddanbe]

Antonio Meucci was the inventor of the telephone, not Graham Bell, except in Canada. link

Polar bear skin is black

Cats only have 239. Ones in their body

[Ancient Dragon]

Cats only have 239. Ones in their body

You need to explain that one. I have no idea what that means.

Stupid autocorrect cats have 230 bones I their body and that is from Facebook

[ddanbe]

The smallest of the 206 adult human bones is the stapes

[Reverend Jim]

The hyoid bone is the only bone in the human body that is not connected to any other bone.

[Agilemind]

Walruses have the largest penis bone in the world (2 feet long) and it was used as a club (amongst other uses) by the Arctic peoples.

Why just why I could have lived a million years without knowing what people did with them

[ddanbe]

The Belgian Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone. link

[ddanbe]

Close to 90% of spreadsheet documents contain errors. link

[ddanbe]

1 - 2 + 3 - 4 + ... is equal to 1/4. link

[Reverend Jim]

The outdoor set for the Star Trek episode, "Miri", is the same set used for Main Street, Mayberry in "The Andy Griffith Show" but with garbage and debris added.

[Mya:)]

Australia is the only country that is also a continent :) - source : did an IT educational program

[interservML]

Interesting topic ^_^
Lets make it more exciting with these facts listed below.

-Grapes EXPLODE when you put them in the microwave!
-The total weight of all the ants on Earth is about the same as the weight of all the humans on earth.
-You're more likely to die on your way to buy a lottery ticket than you are to actually win the lottery.
-Jellyfish evaporate in the sun. They're 98% water!
-When you laugh while being tickled, what you are experiencing is actually a form of panic.
-As a punishment for misbehavior, Thai cops have to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands.
-Blue eyes are a genetic mutation.Having blue eyes is actually a mutation. Before the mutation occurred, all humans had brown eyes
-Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.

Click here for more ^^

[Mya:)]

China has the world’s longest continuously used written language.

The shape of ancient Egyptian pyramids is thought to have been inspired by the spreading rays of the sun.

[Agilemind]

-When you laugh while being tickled, what you are experiencing is actually a form of panic.

In a similar vein, you can only be tickled by someone you like.

[Reverend Jim]

I'm assuming you've never been bullied.

[Agilemind]

I have but never via tickling.

[Reverend Jim]

In 1930, four men were arrested for appearing topless on Coney Island. In 1935, forty-two men were arrested in Atlantic City for doing the same thing in a flash mob.

[ddanbe]

The probability of something happening, is inversely propotional to its desireability.

The probability of something happening, is inversely propotional to its desireability.

The election of politicans is inversely proportional to their ability / deservedness.