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Hey let's have another thread about weird/funny/interesting facts
- Thread starter TomC25
- Start date
kranky
Elite Member
If you're being chased by a crocodile, run in a zigzag pattern. Crocodiles are fast only in a straight line and have trouble changing directions.
It takes about two days for milk to get from the cow to the store.
Some Chinese typewriters have 5700 characters.
The entire combined population of Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii, Delaware, and New Mexico doesn't equal the number of people in NYC.
It takes about two days for milk to get from the cow to the store.
Some Chinese typewriters have 5700 characters.
The entire combined population of Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii, Delaware, and New Mexico doesn't equal the number of people in NYC.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal
ads for dating are already married.
Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch
every year because when it was built, engineers failed to
take into account the weight of all the
books that would occupy the building.
A snail can sleep for three years.
No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH".
Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth,
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
All polar bears are left handed.
In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies,
including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the
letters only on one row of the keyboard.
"Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
language.
If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal
ads for dating are already married.
Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch
every year because when it was built, engineers failed to
take into account the weight of all the
books that would occupy the building.
A snail can sleep for three years.
No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH".
Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth,
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
All polar bears are left handed.
In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies,
including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the
letters only on one row of the keyboard.
"Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
language.
If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
ThaGrandCow
Diamond Member
The average human eats 5 spiders while sleeping during their life. When you sleep your mouth opens and spiders are attracted to the heat and moisture coming out of your mouth when you breathe.
Jfrag Teh Foul
Diamond Member
Oldie but goodie...
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4
feet 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in
England, and English expatriates built the US railroads.
Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail
lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad
tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the
tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building
wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would
break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because
that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads
in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their
legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? Roman
war chariots first made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to
match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels and wagons. Since
the chariots were made for, or by Imperial Rome, they were all alike
in the matter of wheel spacing.
Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States
standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the
original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So, the next time you
are handed a specification and wonder which horse's rear came up
with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman war
chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of
two war-horses.
And now, the twist to the story...
There's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges
and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its
launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides
of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.
Thiokol makes the SRBs at their factory at Utah. The engineers who
designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter,
but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the
launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a
tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.
The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the
railroad track is about as wide as two horses behinds.
So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined by the width of a
Horse's [rear]!
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4
feet 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in
England, and English expatriates built the US railroads.
Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail
lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad
tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the
tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building
wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would
break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because
that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads
in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their
legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? Roman
war chariots first made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to
match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels and wagons. Since
the chariots were made for, or by Imperial Rome, they were all alike
in the matter of wheel spacing.
Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States
standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the
original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So, the next time you
are handed a specification and wonder which horse's rear came up
with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman war
chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of
two war-horses.
And now, the twist to the story...
There's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges
and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its
launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides
of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.
Thiokol makes the SRBs at their factory at Utah. The engineers who
designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter,
but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the
launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a
tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.
The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the
railroad track is about as wide as two horses behinds.
So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined by the width of a
Horse's [rear]!
Jfrag Teh Foul
Diamond Member
Emperor Penguins can dive up to 800 feet.
Jfrag Teh Foul
Diamond Member
Joey Lauren Adams (the hottie from Chasing Amy) is from Little Rock, Arkansas.
Hayabusa Rider
Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Barnicles have the largest penis for their body size of any animal. Another sex trivia question answered 😛
911paramedic
Diamond Member
..................................................................................So,
the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined by the width of a
Horse's [rear]!
The sad thing is that I read that entire post, I feel like a horses @ss.
the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined by the width of a
Horse's [rear]!
The sad thing is that I read that entire post, I feel like a horses @ss.
<< The entire combined population of Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii, Delaware, and New Mexico doesn't equal the number of people in NYC. >>
I don't think this is true. As of 2000, the population of all the states combined is a little over 12 million. As of 2000, the population of NYC is only at about 8 million. I'm assuming that the population of NYC didn't happen to increase by 50% within the past year.
You can add it up yourself here. Maybe I didn't add it up correctly.
Hayabusa Rider
Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
<< The term 'cop' is the shortened form of 'copper' which was slang for policemen back when they wore copper badges. >>
And of course "Bobbies" were named after Sir Robert Peel- who founded Scotland Yard.
Jfrag Teh Foul
Diamond Member
Early air conditioners used Ammonia instead of Freon.
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