Single greatest 'fact' in the world.

[Vonhelmet]

I don't buy this one. Source?

More possible configurations, I'm betting. How many of them are positions that can actually be reached in a legal game of chess, I don't know.

EDIT: It's number of game-trees i.e. sequences of moves:

Allis also estimated the game-tree complexity to be at least 10^123, "based on an average branching factor of 35 and an average game length of 80". As a comparison, the number of atoms in the observable universe, to which it is often compared, is estimated to be between 4×10^79 and 10^81.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

There are possibly 80 billion galaxies in the Universe, so that means that there are about 4×1068 × 8×1010 = 3×1079 hydrogen atoms in the observable universe.

Not sure there are quite that many chess moves...... lol Not that i have any idea what the numbers mean but it seems quite a few to me...

 

[Vonhelmet]

Not sure there are quite that many chess moves...... lol Not that i have any idea what the numbers mean but it seems quite a few to me...

3x10^79 is less than 4x10^81...

 

[SiriusB]

The socks a priest wears are blacker than any other type of socks. Sometimes you'll see laypeople wearing what look like black socks, but if you look closely, you'll see that they're very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

3x10^79 is less than 4x10^81...

Wow..

 

[SiriusB]

3x10^79 is less than 4x10^81...

That calculation is a lower limit, counts only hydrogen atoms and does not take into account things like stellar gas.

 

[Vonhelmet]

That calculation is a lower limit, counts only hydrogen atoms and does not take into account things like stellar gas.

Considering his post started "There are possibly" and ended with "Not that I have any idea what the numbers mean", I'll take my chances with this particular game of Wikipedia quoting.

 

[platinum87]

A 30cm ruler is infinitely long.

Essential, it would be as long as you want it to be, and many answers would be correct at the same time, the more closely you measure it the larger the ruler will be.

I prefer the coastline of the UK, wiki will say it is 17,820 km, however if we measure around each individual grain of sand, its longer.

The more you "zoom in" the longer something becomes.

There was a horizon episode about this i think "how long is a piece of string"

 

[Vonhelmet]

Essential, it would be as long as you want it to be, and many answers would be correct at the same time, the more closely you measure it the larger the ruler will be.

I prefer the coastline of the UK, wiki will say it is 17,820 km, however if we measure around each individual grain of sand, its longer.

The more you "zoom in" the longer something becomes.

There was a horizon episode about this i think "how long is a piece of string"

Similarly, the surface area of your lungs is the same as a tennis court, and the surface area of your intestines would be mind boggling.

 

[soundb0y]

Your dad works for my dad.

 

[Metatron]

But surely if you can see the entire ruler and see the space around it, it is also finite as well as infinite?

 

[Vonhelmet]

But surely if you can see the entire ruler and see the space around it, it is also finite as well as infinite?

Quite possibly.

 

[Bleek]

That the energy in the sunlight we see today started out in the core of the Sun 30,000 years ago - it spent most of this time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and just 8 minutes to reach us once it had left the Sun!

Someone's been watching Discovery.

 

[freak2002]

You're wrong, it's 2.

OK, thats another new fact for me!

 

[SiriusB]

Considering his post started "There are possibly" and ended with "Not that I have any idea what the numbers mean", I'll take my chances with this particular game of Wikipedia quoting.

I was merely clarifying the out of context quote. I probably should have quoted him and not you!

 

[Bennie-Mac]

The milk produced by a female donkey is the closest to human milk. Save £££'s on those wetnurses folks.

 

[Vonhelmet]

The milk produced by a female donkey is the closest to human milk. Save £££'s on those wetnurses folks.

Ass milk.

Wait, what?

 

[Castiel]

"how long is a piece of string"

About this long.


Women's hearts beat faster than men's.

Which explains why they are a little strange. Too much oxygen to the brain.

 

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

The Earth weighs around 6,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons (5,940 billion billion metric tons)

It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them!

Squirrels don't forget where they bury their nuts. Studies have been done on it. In times of plenty they bury more than they need, however period of shortage they planned for doesn't always come, so they don't always need to dig everything up again.

 

[w11tho]

Essential, it would be as long as you want it to be, and many answers would be correct at the same time, the more closely you measure it the larger the ruler will be.

I prefer the coastline of the UK, wiki will say it is 17,820 km, however if we measure around each individual grain of sand, its longer.

The more you "zoom in" the longer something becomes.

There was a horizon episode about this i think "how long is a piece of string"

I still don't get it. Even if we were to be ridiculous and define the length of a ruler as something to do with its circumference, this number (the circumference) could only be measured to be some finite multiple of Planck length, which would be very much finite!

A more factual amazing fact: 0.9999... = 1.