PDA

View Full Version : Well... I never knew that!


TempusFugit
02-02-2009, 10:44 PM
A revival of an old thread created by our AJ (CLICK HERE (http://www.isketchforum.net/did-you-know-t2033.html?t=2033&highlight=facts))

Post here any useful/useless bits of trivia/facts that you come across :biggrin:


Valentine's Day



In Wales, wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant "You unlock my heart!"



In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. "To wear your heart on your sleeve" now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.



Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.


Hmm... I saw duck. I wonder what that means :razz: lol

db1986
02-02-2009, 11:48 PM
Haha, this thread has the potential to be quite humerous :biggrin:

OK, here's mine.. apparently golf was banned in England in 1457 because it was considered a distraction from the "serious pursuit" of archery.

storm
03-02-2009, 01:19 AM
...
Hmm... I saw duck. I wonder what that means :razz: lol

You'll spend the rest of your married life ducking from your husband? :twisted:

db1986
03-02-2009, 01:31 AM
You'll spend the rest of your married life ducking from your husband? :twisted:

Lol xD

* db1986 hands TF a hard hat
Also, I'm not which state in America this is for, but in a state in America, a person cannot eat cornflakes for breakfast on a Sunday o.0

Capt_Sparrow
03-02-2009, 03:08 PM
Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine's Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.

Hmm... I saw duck. I wonder what that means :razz: lol
That doesn't bode too well for my wealth though :rolleyes:

Buffers
03-02-2009, 03:18 PM
LOL, Capt...

Apparently it's still against the law in England to beat your carpets on a Sunday.

Fox
03-02-2009, 04:35 PM
Fun facts page, yay. Umm, a few animal facts... albatrosses can go six days without flapping their wings whilst in flight, and in all they fly for up to ten years without landing... just sometimes diving in to the sea to catch some food, but normally they would pluck it off of the surface. They sleep in the air, too... but only one half of the brain sleeps at a time.

TempusFugit
03-02-2009, 04:48 PM
lol Sparrow :razz:

Ooo.... Buffers - that's interesting! I prefer beating my carpets up on Friday though...

Useless Facts:



A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out
The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles
In an average lifetime, a human will shed over 40lbs of skin :eek:
All polar bears are left handed

MrsNerdinator
03-02-2009, 05:05 PM
Useless fact:

I never knew db and jenjen could be such wedgies when placed together as a team -_- No, that's not spam! It's a fact. Just a useless fact :) Heh!

db1986
03-02-2009, 05:13 PM
db1986 slaps Nerdy with an oversized spam can!

Tigeress
03-02-2009, 05:23 PM
In the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb"!


Also...

Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

Mato
03-02-2009, 07:17 PM
Not entirely confirmed but according to BBC 3CR, Will Young is a direct descendant of the first and only English Pope.

Quite how you can be a direct descendant of someone who was celibate I'm not entirely sure...

Capt_Sparrow
04-02-2009, 05:00 PM
Did you know...
That the reason why buses in London are red is because, in the days of high pollution and smog, people needed to be able to see the bastion of public transport, thus they were coloured red...?
Nope, nor did I!

Fox
04-02-2009, 05:10 PM
Quite how you can be a direct descendant of someone who was celibate I'm not entirely sure... Haha. "These men have taken a supreme vow of celibacy, like their fathers, and their fathers before them."

Umm... did you know that there's more hydrogen in a bowl of Nesquik cereal than there is in a wolf?

Vik
04-02-2009, 05:24 PM
What about if the wolf just had his breakfast? Huh?

Sorry. I'm spamming. I have no hearts to find!!

830
04-02-2009, 08:39 PM
A googol is 1 with 100 zeroes after it (1^100).
A googolplex (not that cinema in The Simpsons) is 1 with a googol zeroes after it (or 1^100^100). The universe is estimated to have about 10^86 atoms in total, so it would be impossible to even write this number down in its proper number form, even if you wrote really really small.
There are still much larger numbers out there however.

storm
04-02-2009, 09:28 PM
A googol is 1 with 100 zeroes after it (1^100).
A googolplex (not that cinema in The Simpsons) is 1 with a googol zeroes after it (or 1^100^100). ...

1 with 100 zeros after it isn't the same as 1^100 (1^x will always be 1)?

Alessadri
05-02-2009, 12:20 AM
He meant 10^100 for googol and 10^(10^100) for googolplex

tgfcoder
05-02-2009, 01:50 AM
Graham's number STILL intrigues me
About it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham%27s_number
How to imagine how big it is (to some degree): http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/cyc/g/graham.htm

I prefer the number 2 better myself though..


Edit: While googling for it, I saw a blurb from a forum post: "So apparently Graham's number is bigger than a googolplex..." I lol'd.

I don't think it wouldn't even be possible write exactly how much smaller it is, because it is just that small in comparison.

830
06-02-2009, 07:57 PM
1 with 100 zeros after it isn't the same as 1^100 (1^x will always be 1)?

I knew that :embarrassed:.

He meant 10^100 for googol and 10^(10^100) for googolplex

Thanks.

The longest word (if it counts as a proper word?) has 200,000+ letters (a science related word that luckily doesn't appear in Science or Medicine rooms on here).

jenni939706
07-02-2009, 07:15 PM
:0 something my brother showed mee.....i had no idea duck sauce was made from peachessss