Facts

datalol-jack · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:21

HankScorpio said:
Humans, chimps and koala bears all have almost identical finger prints.

Corn flakes were originally invented by a fanatically religious doctor as a way to stop people from masturbating.

Didn't he also endow a business school?

joeyjojo · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:22

I_M_Weasel said:
A little more than 370km I think.

Mynight said:
Well the maths certainly backs it up.

Could make for a cheap space elevator column .

Thanks, duh, fixed my post.

Raymond Lin · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:23

joeyjojo said:
Nice facts.

It's a cool one isn't it?. Shows the power of powers (no pun intended).

The thickness doubles every fold. As Ekim says typical paper thickness is 0.1 mm, so the thickness of the folded piece is 0.1 mm * 2^n where n is the number of folds:

0 folds = 0.1 mm
1 fold = 0.2 mm
2 folds = 0.4 mm
3 folds = 0.8mm
5 folds = 3.2 mm
10 folds = 102 mm = 10 cm
15 folds = 3.3 m
20 folds = 105 m
25 folds = 3.4 km
30 folds = 107 km
42 folds = 440,000 km, more than the distance to the moon.

Of course it would be a very, very thin column by then edit: it's almost the same equation but with a minus sign. If we started with an A4 piece of paper (297 mm) and folded it lengthways every time, its length is 297 mm * 2^-n where n is the number of folds. After 32 folds that's 0.07 nm, similar to the atomic radius of hydrogen. It would be a column of single atoms. I.e. you'd need a bigger sheet of paper to reach the moon than A4.

You will also need a piece of paper the size of the solar system to do those folds! (and no, I've not done the maths

)

Dave M · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:26

howiepoohs said:
It takes a photon, on average, 170,000 years to travel from the core of the sun to the surface.

If you map the path taken, it's remarkably similar to a private hire cab getting out of london, although maybe a little quicker

Feek · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:31

I find it slightly ironic that in a thread titled "Facts" that it's been stated that the moon is only 370km away!

datalol-jack · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:33

Feek said:
I find it slightly ironic that in a thread titled "Facts" that it's been stated that the moon is only 370km away!

Lol, which is why I advised lots of slack -- you cannot trust these people to measure, fold or cut anything. Might as well go all out!

Glaucus · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:34

First fact well isn't a fact at all.
The 10 to 1 cell ratio was an extrapolation and total guess work.
New and better extrapolation have it human and bacteria cells are about even, with human cells clearly winning, after having a dump.

Also I belive Marilyn Monroe one is fake, although she was very clever.

Caged · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:37

JBuk said:
Precisely why its a crap fact

It's not a crap fact, it makes people think about powers.

GravyMonster · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:42

[citation needed]

SexyGreyFox · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:44

Caged said:
It's not a crap fact, it makes people think about powers.

And that's why we were first given it in school back in t'70s

h4rm0ny · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:52

howiepoohs said:
There are more cells of bacteria in your body than human cells

Hmmf! Maybe in yours.

JBuk · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:52

Caged said:
It's not a crap fact, it makes people think about powers.

You could use any medium, any thickness, any multiplication and fit an end result to suit

Ie

If I took some 3mm cardboard and folded it 25 times it would be 100km long

Wow facts!

D3K · 9 Apr 2016 at 14:55

Caged said:
It's not a crap fact, it makes people think about powers.

Exactly. Due to the amount of discussion that single fact has generated (most of this thread), then it can be argued it's the best of the lot.

Narj · 9 Apr 2016 at 16:00

Love this kind of stuff. Great post/thread!

almoststew1990 · 9 Apr 2016 at 16:07

To be honest my favourite was that shark fact thread. Sharks are frickin' sweet. And Stingrays.

Caged · 9 Apr 2016 at 16:09

JBuk said:
You could use any medium, any thickness, any multiplication and fit an end result to suit

Ie

If I took some 3mm cardboard and folded it 25 times it would be 100km long

Wow facts!

Do you get annoyed when people present measurements of things in lengths of football pitches and insist they just tell you the numbers instead? It's clearly a distance that has been chosen to get you thinking "nah that can't be true" and to then go off and do the maths and come to the same conclusion.

datalol-jack · 9 Apr 2016 at 16:15

Caged said:
Do you get annoyed when people present measurements of things in lengths of football pitches and insist they just tell you the numbers instead? It's clearly a distance that has been chosen to get you thinking "nah that can't be true" and to then go off and do the maths and come to the same conclusion.

I personally like this one better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_and_chessboard_problem.

If a chessboard were to have wheat placed upon each square such that one grain were placed on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, and so on (doubling the number of grains on each subsequent square), how many grains of wheat would be on the chessboard at the finish?

sigma · 9 Apr 2016 at 16:20

almoststew1990 said:
To be honest my favourite was that shark fact thread. Sharks are frickin' sweet. And Stingrays.

Dolphin facts are cool. And scary.

Haggisman · 9 Apr 2016 at 16:45

Glaucus said:
First fact well isn't a fact at all.
The 10 to 1 cell ratio was an extrapolation and total guess work.
New and better extrapolation have it human and bacteria cells are about even, with human cells clearly winning, after having a dump.
.

Does that depend on whether you share a towel?

something daft already!! · 9 Apr 2016 at 16:49

Leonard Nimoy was so associated with his character that he was once invited to the California Institute of Technology to review work on several projects. He later admitted not knowing a single word of what they were saying.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

Dreamt is the only word in the english language the ends in "mt".

Thinking of word which end in "gry", "Angry" and "Hungry" are two examples. There are three words in the English language. What is the third?

For the average person, 56% of typing is done with the left hand.

Chickens outnumber humans, vastly.

Masturbating more than 21 times a month can actually decrease your chance of getting prostate cancer. This was discovered after testing to see if masturbation was linked to an increase in prostate cancer.

There is a Japanese inn that opened in 718, that has been managed by 46 generations of the Houshi family. The inn has been operating for 1,300 years!

Gene Roddenberry was once in a plane crash in a desert in Syria. With two broken ribs, he repeatedly went back into the burning plane to evacuate passengers and then organised a search for civilisation.

Fats Waller was kidnapped to be the surprise guest at Al Capone's birthday party at gunpoint. He left 3 days later intoxicated with thousands of dollars in tips.

Google hired a Camel to map a desert for StreetView.

George Foreman has five sons called George: George Jr., George III, George IV, George V and George VI. Plus a daughter called Georgetta.

20% of the planet's total trees are in Russia

The Bible mentions unicorns 9 times.

In 1994, a 75 pound bag of cocaine fell out of a plane and landed in the middle of a Florida crime watch meeting.

A mammal over 3KG, regardless of it's size, will take approximately 21 seconds to empty it's bladder.