I love those sort of facts that you can bring up with your other half/ a mate that bores them but you actually find fascinating/ interesting.
I'll start. Humans can't actually sense the lack of oxygen in our bodies when we hold our breath or dive under water etc. That horrible feeling of lacking oxygen is actually our bodies detecting the rise of carbon dioxide. Our bodies can sense that.
What you guys got?
There is only one muscle in the human body which is attached at one end only.
frankconway
Full Member
There is only one muscle in the human body which is attached at one end only.
I'll regret asking but which one?😀
I’ll regret asking but which one?😀
I'd have thought tongue. Get your mind out of the gutter you dirty boy.
Tongue, yes, that might be it?
One quarter of all your bones are in your feet. 26 bones per foot.
The air within the Eifel Tower weighs as much as the steel it's built with.
APF
Humans can’t actually sense the lack of oxygen in our bodies when we hold our breath or dive under water etc. That horrible feeling of lacking oxygen is actually our bodies detecting the rise of carbon dioxide. Our bodies can sense that.
Are we allowed to do fact checks? Partially true.
Most people sense rising CO2 as their stimulus to breathe so what you've said about diving is true. But we do have receptors for hypoxia (low oxygen). They're just not typically activated in normal physiology. However, some people with severe chronic airways disease (COPD) become desensitised to the (chronically high) CO2 and do rely on oxygen, at least partially, to sense the need to breathe.
My fact: If you take all the blood vessels in your body and laid them end-to-end
The collective noun for Bees is a bike.
A Bike Of Bees.
One quarter of all your bones are in your feet. 26 bones per foot.
Did you know that you are born with 270 bones, but they fuse during childhood leaving with you with between 206-213?
Fact checking is great mate and the info you added to what I said is just as interesting as what I said, cheers!👍
I feel like fact checking all of this is going to be exhausting.
This one felt unbelievable:
The air within the Eifel Tower weighs as much as the steel it’s built with.
But it too is sort of correct. Apparently to be properly accurate, the statement is the mass of air contained within a cylinder large enough to contain the Eifel tower but that's a bit wordy.
My googling also lead me to discover that all the metal in the Eifel tower, melted down, would fit into a sphere with radius only 6m. Which is incredible.
http://wordpress.mrreid.org/2011/02/11/an-interesting-fact-about-the-eiffel-tower/
I'm gonna stop this now.
My googling also lead me to discover that all the metal in the Eifel tower, melted down, would fit into a sphere with radius only 6m. Which is incredible.
Oh, that's a good one. I'm using that.
There are 5 to 10 times more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. On the other hand, there are a million times more atoms in your body than there are stars in the universe.
On the subject of big numbers: If you had a million quid in cash you'd probably consider yourself quite rich. But wealth of mega rich people is measured in billions. As an illustration of the difference consider that a million seconds is about 12 days, whereas a billion seconds is over thirty years. And when considering things like national budgets, consider that a trillion seconds is over thirty thousand years.
The Eiffel Tower was an incredible thing. It was the tallest building in the world by miles when it was built in 1889. That was before planes existed and only intrepid balloonists would ever have been that high. Normal people didn't go mountain climbing either so it would have been an utterly incredible sight for the people of Paris. I mean it's impressive now. It remained the tallest building in the world until 1930. Outside of the USA there weren't really any skyscrapers so it really was a tremendous thing in Europe.
There are 5 to 10 times more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches in the world.
That sounds like a difficult one to fact check - sand on beaches seems a difficult one to quantify seeing as its impossible to measure the coastline of Britain let alone the world - the more accurately to measure the coast the longer it gets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox
as a side bar..... the 'B' in 'Benoit B Mandelbrot' stands for 'Benoit B Mandelbrot' and the 'B' in 'Benoit B Mandelbrot' stands for 'Benoit B Mandelbrot and the 'B' in 'Benoit B Mandelbrot' stands for 'Benoit B Mandelbrot and the 'B' in 'Benoit B Mandelbrot' stands for 'Benoit B Mandelbrot....
In Old English, Moles used to be called 'Wands'. Gradually this morphed into 'Wants'.
At this time, a molehill was called a 'Wantitump'.
Dogs can't look up. There's a flap in their eyes that closes, a bit like a dolls eyelids when you tip it back. When they point their face upwards towards you, they're actually just relying on their (dominant) sense of smell to 'see' you.
In the past decade 467 species of animal have been declared extinct.
That sounds like a difficult one to fact check
Obviously it's an estimate.. but whilst coastline is allegedly infinitely variable, beaches are quite smooth and so fairly easy to measure at least in length.
There are more Barbie dolls in the world than there are Canadians.
beaches are quite smooth and so fairly easy to measure at least in length.
but if you're talking numbers of grains you're making assumptions about depth
sc-xc & poops - yes, tongue.
There are more Barbie dolls in the world than there are Canadians.
There are more Lego Minifigures than humans - including one combination of minifig bits my brother happened across that looks exactly like my dad so theres probably one that looks exactly like you
Most people sense rising CO2 as their stimulus to breathe so what you’ve said about diving is true.
It applies to playing the oboe too. Because you actually use very little air playing the oboe it is usually necessary to breath out to expel the CO2 remaining in the lungs before breathing in.
Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women.
Lego is the largest tyre manufacturer in the world
Dogs poop facing North
Teeth are the only part of your skeletal system that you clean
Mineral water companies make plastic waste, nothing else
New Mexico was named New Mexico before Mexico was named Mexico.
Lego is the largest tyre manufacturer in the world
Britain's best selling make / model of car for the bast 40 years is the Cosy Coupe
On average, a great white shark will have around 24,000 teeth during it's life.
the ‘B’ in ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot’ stands for ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot’
This is contentious. Mandelbrot didn't have a middle name, he added the B to make himself more rangy and interesting. Of course, it could stand for "Benoit B Mandelbrot" and I really want it to, but I rather suspect this is just folklore.
Dogs can’t look up
Similarly, this is surely nonsense. It's the first time I've heard the 'doll's eyes' explanation but it's been doing the rounds for years alongside other "facts" like a duck's quack not echoing.
On average, a great white shark will have around 24,000 teeth during it’s life.
How many are its own? (-:
The street Pall Mall derives its name from the sport of croquet, the early name for which was pall-mall, from the Italian pallamaglio. It's also where we get the word mall as in shopping mall.
I had no idea until I joined our local croquet club.
There are 5 to 10 times more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches in the world.
I 'did the math' on this on a thread a little while ago. There's a lot of wild estimations involved here of course, but it's about right as best we can tell.
IIRC though, this was just in the known / visible universe? That's a tiny tiny fraction of the universe as a whole. I'd have to look it up, I'll see if I can find the old post.
Gary Oldman is younger than Gary Newman.
The average number of legs on a human is less than two.
DrP
Related factoid from that post: the number of grains of sand on Earth and the number of molecules in a drop of water is about the same.
IIRC though, this was just in the known / visible universe? That’s a tiny tiny fraction of the universe as a whole.
How would we know?
[i]the ‘B’ in ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot’ stands for ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot’ and the ‘B’ in ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot’ stands for ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot and the ‘B’ in ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot’ stands for ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot and the ‘B’ in ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot’ stands for ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot….[/i]
We should call this something.
Perhaps the Maccruiskeen Set as he spotted it?
Shaft drive motorbikes can't wheelie ...
Dogs can’t look up.
My Patterdale terrier must have a pretty miserable experience if that is true
Shaun called bullshit on that one which is good enough for me
DrP
Full Member
The average number of legs on a human is less than two.DrP
That one got me thinking, good one.👍
Your bones are wet.
How would we know?
Extrapolation? If you fire a gun, you might not be able to see the bullet but you could work out how far it went.
If I jumped off the hill behind my farm on a hang glider and flew due east without changing altitude, I would eventually crash into the Ural Mountains
the ‘B’ in ‘Benoit B Mandelbrot’
...is for BYOBB.
But that's a great concept, even if it's not actually a 'fact'.
The average number of legs on a human is less than two.
I often use this fact when talking about design, but also political arguments. People are always talking about 'the average this or that' when frequently the average doesn't make sense. We can't just decide to design things for people with 1.99 legs (or whatever it is) because that won't work for anyone.
The average person has one fallopian tube.
It's my birthday today
If I jumped off the hill behind my farm on a hang glider and flew due east without changing altitude, I would eventually crash into the Ural Mountains
Google Earth flight sim is good for testing that. It's possible (although tricky) to get it to maintain a level straight course and you can leave it running for as long as you want and it'll eventually crash into the next piece of land at that bearing and altitude. Yesterday I took off from Aberdeen airport, climbed to 10,000ft ish and headed NE in the direction of Norway. I eventually crashed into the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming some time in the small hours of the morning.
The average person has one fallopian tube.
Slightly less than one I'd say. But even then it's actually inaccurate, that should say 'on average a person has one fallopian tube'.
on average a person has one fallopian tube
On average a person in the UK has more than one fallopian tube.
On average a person in the world has less than one fallopian tube.
Roman doctors would often put a puppy on the painful part of your body to draw out the pain. Hence man's best friend.
The last part may not be true ☺️
Because there are always pregnant women, the average number of people wholly in people is never below zero.
Slightly less than one I’d say. But even then it’s actually inaccurate, that should say ‘on average a person has one fallopian tube’.
That's probably true, because a) there are more women than men worldwide and b) congenital malformations c) because some women have them removed. Presumably that outweighs the number of accessory (extra) fallopian tubes which is itself surprisingly high (4% ish).
The actual quote is from a comedian (Bo Burnham) who may have been more interested in the dynamics of delivery than factual accuracy. Perhaps he meant the arithmetic mean but he shamefully leaves ambiguity.
mrmoofo
Full Member
Shaft drive motorbikes can’t wheelie …
Incorrect, see below.
Although it is true to say that I can't wheelie a shaft drive motorbike. Or any motorbike really 🙂
On average a person in the UK has more than one fallopian tube.
Just did a back of the envelope calculation on the basis that not all women have fallopian tubes and I don't think this is true.
Rainbows are actually a circle, you just can't see the other half because of... well leprechauns or something.
On the subject of rainbows.
When you look at a rainbow you're seeing a different rainbow to everybody else.
Really?
I don't know if this counts as interesting but...
You know that roof like accent over the letter 'o' in French ( l'accent circonflexe) in words like “hôpital” and "Hôtel" ? Well it indicates words that used to have a letter 's' next to them. Which kind of makes sense - “hôpital” = hospital, Hôtel = hostel.
But then there is the word “tôt” (early). So it would have been 'tost' which sounds like 'toast'. What has that got to do with early?
Well, it is possibly from Latin tot (“very”) + cito (“fast”), but more likely from Vulgar Latin *tostum, from the neuter of Latin tostus (“toasted”), later meaning "hotly, promptly" and so becoming 'early'.
&ehk=NWkm%2bXLnv%2f5gty8plhN8LByvJ2oPKc6GXSq7n4gTU4U%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0
https://www.howitworksdaily.com/can-dogs-look-up/

Dammit - 'dog's can look up' gif fail.
When referring to someone as a 'Berk', it derives from the Rhyming slang 'Berkshire Hunt'
The interrobang
There is a punctuation mark that combines the question mark and exclamation point. It is called the interrobang, and it looks like this: ‽
Also, Dolphin Friendly Tuna is a myth. Ive never seen a dolphin open a can, even the small tins with ring pulls. In fact I heard a dolphin say that these cans were actually flipper unfriendly. Or, I think thats what the dolphin said.
IPA was named after iso-propyl alcohol, which was used instead of ethyl alcohol because of its lower vapour pressure, which meant it retained its strength on the long sea voyage to India.
Dogs poop facing North
Mine must be faulty.
When referring to someone as a ‘Berk’, it derives from the Rhyming slang ‘Berkshire Hunt’
IPA was named after iso-propyl alcohol, which was used instead of ethyl alcohol because of its lower vapour pressure, which meant it retained its strength on the long sea voyage to India.
I'm going to say........bollocks
Mine must be faulty.
Perhaps he's a Christian.
See also château = castle.
Tost in Welsh means 'ill'. So no link there despite Welsh being latin-influenced.
This one felt unbelievable:
The air within the Eifel Tower weighs as much as the steel it’s built with.
But it too is sort of correct. Apparently to be properly accurate, the statement is the mass of air contained within a cylinder large enough to contain the Eifel tower but that’s a bit wordy.
OK, so basically the original statement is complete bollox.
In music, a song nearly always ends on the root note of the key it's in (e.g. a song in C major ends on a C). If it doesn't, it sounds really odd. You can demonstrate this by singing a well known tune or nursery rhyme and replacing the last note with something else. I think this has been the case for hundreds of years across Western genres.
There are still a few songs that don't do this though - The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite by R.E.M. is one example, also Man on the Moon.
Just did a back of the envelope calculation on the basis that not all women have fallopian tubes and I don’t think this is true.
Show your working!
You're probably right actually, that hadn't occurred to me. The numbers are already close so there's likely little in it either way.
I’m going to say……..bollocks
It is bollocks, though the reasoning is sound. IPA is India Pale Ale, a beer characterised by an higher than normal amount of hops which act as a preservative for the journey.
I'd have to look it up, but I think "berk" is true.
Once, as I exited a bakers, I was asked by some big tough looking lads to hand over all my pocket money,as I had spent it on treats for my family I was skint. When they discovered that there was no cash,they let me Continue with Recommended Cookies 🤣🤣🙃
The only part of your body you can tickle yourself, is the roof of your mouth...
and... You could fit the entire human race in the volume of a sugar cube, this is because atoms are 99.9999999999999% empty space. If you could squeeze all the empty space out of all the atoms in all the 7 billion people in the world, you could indeed fit them in the volume of a sugar cube.
or.. You are 95% alien, 95% of the cells in your body do not belong to you. They are microorganisms hitching a ride. Many are essential like the gut bacteria that help you digest your food. You get all the alien microorganism only after you are born – from your mother’s milk and the environment. You are born 100% human but die 95% alien!
... I did look it up, it's Berkley not Berkshire.
The only part of your body you can tickle yourself, is the roof of your mouth…
Based on a sample case of "one" - ie, me - that's demonstrably untrue.
I’m going to say……..bollocks
Dogs poop facing North
Yes and no. A dog in unfamiliar territory will face north when having a crap. When in familiar territory they aren't as fussy. The explanation as I understand it is that the North facing thing is to orientate the dog to its surroundings.
I find the fact dogs have a poop compass absolutely intriguing, but I now need to know if this is true for cats. Anyone?
