Tell me/ us an inte...
 

[Closed] Tell me/ us an interesting fact we might not know. I'll start.

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Physicists do not care what engineers think

That's not true, more to do with ability on behalf of both parties.

 
Posted : 11/03/2022 6:24 pm
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That’s not true,

Of course, it was a joke

 
Posted : 11/03/2022 6:42 pm
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Stallone never said “Don’t push me!” in Rambo

First Blood is great and if memory serves the line is “Don’t push it. Don’t push it or I’ll give you a war you won’t believe”

 
Posted : 11/03/2022 6:53 pm
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I thought the scrolling wordy bit at the start always had ‘Episode IV – A New Hope’ as the title, but the film itself was just called “Star Wars”.

The title roller at the start of the film was a nod to the old serialised  sci-fi films like Flash Gordon that Lucas watched as a kid which would have a bit of text at the start to give the cinema audience a catch up on what happened in the previous episode. Whether he had plans to make further sequels or prequels or not it was simply a nod to that - the idea that (although at the time it was a stand alone movie) the story in the film was part of an on-going saga. If he'd actually intended to make an on-going saga he'd have started at episode one. He simply wanted to set the audience up for the film by imagining they were joining a story part way through.

 
Posted : 11/03/2022 7:09 pm
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A majority of the hands you shake on a daily basis have had at some point a penis in them.

Unless you're shaking hands with young girls a lot that seems remarkably likely. I'd expect a percentage of lesbians will have done so at some point or other, even.

 
Posted : 11/03/2022 7:24 pm
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Wm. Shakespeare was the first person to be banned from a pub (several, actually, in and around Stratford upon Avon)

“Get out, you’re bard”?

Busted. Fact!
Probably by most of you. Also fact 🙂

 
Posted : 11/03/2022 7:47 pm
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relapsed_mandalorian
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A majority of the hands you shake on a daily basis have had at some point a penis in them.

When was the last time you shook hands with anyone though?

The third largest island in the British Isles is Lewis and Harris.

 
Posted : 11/03/2022 7:50 pm
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Yep, I was trying to infer that physicists don't care die to. Alack of emotions and engineers don't think because that a higher developed skill than they have. Poor attempt at a big bang type repartee.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 8:47 am
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Nearly all people have more legs than average

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 1:47 pm
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No two snowflakes are exactly the same. Woops, maybe the wrong thread.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 1:54 pm
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(Some) Bees can't fly in the dark

I can't do the embedded video thing

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 2:07 pm
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I like stories from The Great Span, like those ones where US Civil War veterans married young women in their old age for the pension and the last child died in 2017.

https://www.military.com/off-duty/last-person-receive-civil-war-pension-dies-90.html

When I was a kid I knew a WWI veteran who presumably had met people who lived in pre-Victorian Britain.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 2:13 pm
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U.S President John Tyler born in 1790 , still has a living grandson.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 2:48 pm
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Boogie Nights by the (mostly) US funk group Heatwave was written by Rod Temperton from Cleethorpes, who played keyboard in the band. I saw this fact on a TOTP2 programme.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 2:54 pm
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Vinyl fans : a person born in 1933 was 45 in 1978.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 3:07 pm
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Boogie Nights by the (mostly) US funk group Heatwave was written by Rod Temperton from Cleethorpes, who played keyboard in the band. I saw this fact on a TOTP2 programme.

Rod Temperton wrote several of the songs on Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall and Thriller, including both title tracks. He probably had a comfortable retirement.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 4:46 pm
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The Vatican City has the highest pope-density of any country at 2 popes per square kilometre.
Italy has 0.0000033185 retired popes per square kilometre and all other countries have 0.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 5:01 pm
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My grandad was born before the Wright brothers flew for the first time, before motor cars were mass-produced and watched a man standing on the moon on his television. There were a few other developments as well, the jet engine, the Turing machine, the atom bomb, etc. Head-spinning I would think!

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 5:27 pm
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The opening credits to the film eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, don’t come on until the films been running for 20 minutes!!!
What’s that all about?
I only know cos I’m watching it on great movies channel right now!

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 10:25 pm
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The theme tune for Going For Gold was written by Hans Zimmer.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 10:54 pm
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Grange Hill and Give us a Clue had the same theme tune

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 11:05 pm
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The Vatican City has the highest pope-density of any country at 2 popes per square kilometre.

I don't think there are any popes in Vatican city. You might find one in Alexandria.

 
Posted : 12/03/2022 11:08 pm
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Grange Hill and Give us a Clue had the same theme tune

Holy crap.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 2:53 am
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When I was a kid I knew a WWI veteran who presumably had met people who lived in pre-Victorian Britain.

In 1986 I remember my Great Uncle Fred telling me about seeing the previous passing of Halley’s Comet in 1910.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 4:00 am
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What everyone with a car knows as a shock absorber actually doesn't absorb the bumps at all, that's the job of the spring. The spring is then controlled by the damper, on its own the car wil happily move and drive on springs but not on just the 'shock absober' as it collapses under the weight of the car.

My grandad was born before the Wright brothers flew for the first time, before motor cars were mass-produced and watched a man standing on the moon on his television. There were a few other developments as well, the jet engine, the Turing machine, the atom bomb, etc. Head-spinning I would think!

Same for my dad's dad who sadly died a year before I was born. Mental amount of change to happen in one lifetime.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 7:51 am
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I remember my mum making a phonecall in the village she was born in.
You stood at the telegraph post and wound the handle. The lady in the village shop went to the switch board to connect the call.
The pub opposite was called the Ronald Reagan.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 8:28 am
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i remember my parents phone number when I was tiny had 3 digits, and we used to answer it as [local exchange] 1-2-3

Then they added another digit at the start, then another 2 and now another 1. Now it has 7.

And to round it off, barely anyone uses a landline any more anyway!

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 8:58 am
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Manatees can control their buoyancy by farting.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 10:39 am
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The phrase 'an aye for an aye' (which most people incorrectly think is an eye for an eye) originated in the North East in 1914.

Because the FA cup final was cancelled due to the outbreak of WW1 the chairmen of the finalists, Newcastle Utd and Middlesbrough agreed that the match should be declared a draw, although more interestingly, couldn't agree who should declare that first!

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 10:41 am
 Drac
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😂

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 11:07 am
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i remember my parents phone number when I was tiny had 3 digits, and we used to answer it as [local exchange] 1-2-3

A mate's folks were the same, in Dunsop Bridge.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 12:54 pm
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Ducks can sleep with one eye open and half their brain fully awake while the other half sleeps. They can go from sleep to fully awake in a fraction of a second

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 1:31 pm
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I think my wife can go from sleep to fully awake in a fraction of a second...just when I stumble in from a particularly late one at the pub.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 1:57 pm
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What everyone with a car knows as a shock absorber actually doesn’t absorb the bumps at all, that’s the job of the spring. The spring is then controlled by the damper, on its own the car wil happily move and drive on springs but not on just the ‘shock absober’ as it collapses under the weight of the car.

I'm confused by this, as it seems to be a mixture of completely obvious stuff and ( if you'll forgive me for being so blunt) complete nonsense.

Not that I know anything about cars, so I could be wrong.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 2:08 pm
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My grandad was born before the Wright brothers flew for the first time, before motor cars were mass-produced and watched a man standing on the moon on his television.

I recall listening to a man on the radio tell the story of how he had watched the moon landing with his grandmother. He went on to say that she had been found alive in a ditch, the only survivor of an attack on the wagon train she was travelling in.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 2:09 pm
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I’m confused by this, as it seems to be a mixture of completely obvious stuff and ( if you’ll forgive me for being so blunt) complete nonsense.

That's why they're labelled wrong!

The spring holds the weight of the car. When a car hits a bump the spring compresses, absorbing the shock. This energy will then cause the spring to decompress and try to return to its original length. Without a damper fitted this still happens but the car will bounce up and down as there's nothing to stop it doing so. Take the spring out and the damper just sinks to its lowest and does nothing. The damper's sole job is to control the oscillation of the spring during and after you hit a bump. They work together as a team to give a smooth ride and decent grip.

For a bike comparison it's like a coil shock. The spring absorbs the hits while the damper takes care of the control. Run a coil with all the damping fully open and it's just the spring absorbing the hits but with no control.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 2:41 pm
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I dunno. Without shock absorbers, the shock goes into the spring but it isn't absorbed, it's just spat back out again at the wheel. The damper does actually absorb some of it.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 2:50 pm
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i remember my parents phone number when I was tiny had 3 digits, and we used to answer it as [local exchange] 1-2-3

+1 (Airton). There were also local dialing codes, so neighbouring exchanges were e.g. 9 or 99.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 6:10 pm
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Yes, I remember my friends family always answered the phone East Langton XXX. Confused me, when I was young. They didn't live in East Langton, they lived in Foxton.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 6:18 pm
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999 was settled on for emergencies in 1937; the powers that be decided against 111 because it could be triggered by a faulty line, and 222 was the number for the Abbey exchange. 000 couldn't be used because it went through to the operator

Pop quiz: From 1934 who would you ring on Whitehall 1212 (and the number still ends in 1212 today)?

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 8:34 pm
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In US films and TV shows someone always shouts 'Somebody call 911!' instead of just pulling out their phone and doing it themselves. This done deliberately so that everyone knows the number and it presses home the first thing to do in an emergency. Of course everyone knows it now but it was more important when the number was first created.

911 has become a by-word for emergency services so that in some of the Korean TV shows my wife watches they sometimes translate the emergency number as 911 when it's actually 112 in Korea. And 112 works all over the world on GSM networks, which is good to know.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 8:44 pm
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999 was settled on for emergencies in 1937; the powers that be decided against 111 because it could be triggered by a faulty line, and 222 was the number for the Abbey exchange. 000 couldn’t be used because it went through to the operator

Yeah. They wanted something that could easily be dialled blindly on a rotary phone (ie, if the room was full of smoke). 0 is the easiest number to find (next to the finger stop) and 9 was next to it. There used to be PSAs on TV telling you how to find it.

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 9:19 pm
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But 999 took so looooooong on a rotary phone!

 
Posted : 13/03/2022 11:06 pm
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What everyone with a car knows as a shock absorber actually doesn’t absorb the bumps at all, that’s the job of the spring. The spring is then controlled by the damper

The spring and the damper together are known as the shock absorbers.
I'm not sure anyone is talking about just the damper and ignoring the spring that surrounds it. They're describing the elements as a whole.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 5:41 am
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A combined unit is known as a coilover which is a spring and damper unit. The spring and damper can be totally separate or combined. This was all explained to me by a person who worked for one of the eminent suspension companies in Motorsport when I was studying engineering (note I am not an engineer!) saying if you went into a Motorsport or even an OEM design setting and used the term Shock Absorber to mean the damper you'd be quickly corrected. It took me a while to 'get' it, even arguing with them about it for a while. But they were right.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 5:54 am
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Yeah but talking about Joe Public which was hinted at in the original 'fact' ('what everyone with a car knows as a shock absorber....'), that's what they mean.
I've never heard anyone except people who are really into cars say coilover.
A lot of general public terms break down when you approach the geeky level.

If you're a layperson, it's a term used to describe the collection of parts that stop the car falling to bits over rough roads.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 5:57 am
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Definitely a common language thing rather than technically correct, even the MOT Inspection manual refers to springs separately to "shock absorbers", "A shock absorber must be rejected if negligible damping effect..."
The common language extends to "MOT", we haven't had a Ministry Of Transport for 50+ years
@kayak23 Did you get your fog lamp sorted?

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 6:51 am
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Try driving a car without just one ‘shock absorber’
It is genuinely shocking

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 7:06 am
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@kayak23 Did you get your fog lamp sorted?

I've got a wiring kit with a switch and an led bulb that's supposed to go in a reverse light holder.
Not summoned up the gumption to tackle it yet 😂

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 7:16 am
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The wings of the space shuttle are so small and stumpy that it can't technically fly due to the lack of lift they provide. On re-entry and landing it's more of a controlled fall/crash landing then a flight.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 7:49 am
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The average of all the numbers is zero.
Ergo, there are as many numbers below zero as there are above.
Theoretically...

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 11:18 am
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I’ve never heard anyone except people who are really into cars say coilover.

I asked someone who is really into cars what he'd call a spring and damper collectively and he said "a coilover."

I then explained the context of the question. He replied, "If someone said to me they were replacing the shocks, I’d assume just the shock, not shock and spring. 'Dampener' sounds like a regional / personal preference thing. I mean, that is what it does, but wouldn’t be my first choice of term. Might be more prevalent in the US? Boot / trunk… bonnet / hood, etc etc"

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 11:30 am
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I then explained the context of the question. He replied, “If someone said to me they were replacing the shocks, I’d assume just the shock, not shock and spring

That's where having more knowledge can sometimes cause a little misunderstanding.

I am forever getting people ask me if I could cut them a 'piece of wood'.
Usually what they mean is ply or mdf, usually worked out from the dimensions they give (in inches 😂)

This, to most people is a shock.

Both of these are generally just called 'shocks', though usually with the added 'coil' or 'air' to differentiate amongst people that would know the difference.

On a car, 'shocks' are generally a catch-all term for folks that don't know or care that they can be separate components in a system or different variations of something that does the same thing essentially.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 11:40 am
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https://www.sachsperformance.com/en/blog/zf-motorsport-f1-sachs-shock-absorber

The MOT reads: "... suspension (including springs, shock absorbers, and suspension arms and joints)..."

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 12:04 pm
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Coilover is a type of shock absorber assembly, it's a collective term for the spring and damper assembly, i.e. the coil(spring) sits OVER the damper.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 12:15 pm
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Everything we've ever built doesn't exist.

S

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 12:22 pm
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There is a vast amount of empty space in an atom, the distance between the nucleus and the protons/electrons/neutrons is reletivley vast, it looks more like the solar system with planets orbiting the sun, rather than the compressed diagrams we see in textbooks.

Therefore there is no such thing as a solid object, for example the coffee table you put your coffee on is mostly empty space.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 12:28 pm
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Therefore there is no such thing as a solid object, for example the coffee table you put your coffee on is mostly empty space.

Theres a nice illustration of this with liquid helium. As it approaches absolute zero the liquid suddenly just falls straight through the solid vessel its in its in as if it isn't there.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 1:41 pm
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[i]There are at least two sizes of infinity. The number of fractions (rational numbers) is provably smaller than the number of irrational numbers (decimals that can’t be expressed as a fraction), but both are infinite.[/i]

3rd Infinity - The number of ways I can be wrong according to MrsWCA

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 1:59 pm
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I’d assume just the shock, not shock and spring. ‘Dampener’

Suspension uses a damper, not a dampener. There's no requirement to make suspension slightly wet.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 2:06 pm
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Different kind of spring 🙂

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 2:08 pm
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That was likely a typo on my part.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 2:48 pm
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According to a Bill Bryson book I read years back, when you sit on a chair you're not actually touching it, rather the atoms of your backside are slightly repelled by the atoms of the chair, so you are hovering just above it. I assume it's the same with everything else that we think we're in contact with.

 
Posted : 14/03/2022 6:43 pm
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Posted : 14/03/2022 7:19 pm
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