[Misc] The official “Well I never knew that” thread

[Bodian]

generally speaking house numbers start with the lower numbers closer to the town centre in all towns and cities , its one of the ways to avoid getting lost in a strange city, you can orientate yourself by looking at the street numbers

I genuinely didn't know that - and it's the sort of thing I'm amazed I didn't know, because it's the sort of thing I usually do know!

 

[nickbrighton]

What?

Cleopatra died in 30 BC- 2055 years ago. The pyramids were built around 2600BC, so Clepatra is about 500 years closer to us, than she was to the building of the pyramids (2550 years approx)

 

[clapham_gull]

We are closer to Cleopatra in time, than Cleopatra was to the building of the Great Pyramids

Reminds of that one that was better a few years ago when somebody pointed out >

The time elapsed from when Back To The Future came out is actually a longer period than Marty went back to.

He went back 30 years, the film was set in 1985 which was 40 years ago.

 

[Bakero]

Apparently this is correct, but I have no idea how.

Because Cleopatra was born a little over 2000 years ago and the Great Pyramid was build about 2500 years before that

 

[drew]

That Tyrannosaurus Rex’s existed on earth for 20 million years and most had already been fossils for millions of years before the Triceratops even existed, despite the art of my childhood often showing them fighting each other.

For comparison the first homo sapien was at most 350,000 years ago, 66 million years after the last triceratops. The idea of even a million years is beyond my capacity to imagine.

In the same category of thinking, we’re closer in time to Boudicca than she was to the construction of Stonehenge.

Aside from the fact this has been challenged, the person to blame for any misconception about T-Rex fighting a Stegasaurus is probably down to Ray Harryhausen!

 

[Eeyore]

Apparently a lot of old folk (including in my family) believe that the reason why the Royal Pavilion wasn't bombed during the war was because Hitler had designated it his English residence once the AXIS triumphed.

Of course, there is absolutely no evidence to support this claim.

 

[maffew]

The average legs a human has is less than 2

 

[maffew]

Courtesy of the Chase today, I didn't know that Everton played at Anfield before Liverpool!

 

[AZ Gull]

I found out today that tennis now has a ten-point tie-break if the last set game score reaches 6-6. It was introduced almost three years ago, apparently.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I only found out recently that @swindonseagull used to be a steward in the RAF.
Cavorting up and down the aisles of the Tristar, a regular pin up for the ladies.

I used to service the said Tristar not @swindonseagull

 

[anygivensunday]

Whenever you see a film with scary giant insects such as Ants or Wasps the size of cattle, don't be afraid. Insects do not have lungs and breathe using osmosis/concentration gradient via tubes that run through their bodies. The laws of Physics mean that no insect with a body larger than about a cricket ball can physically exist.

To be fair, a wasp the size of a cricket ball would scare the shit out of me.

 

[Skuller]

If you wrap a piece of string around an orange, and then add a yard to that length, then the resultant piece of string will be about 6 inches away from the orange all the way round. If you do the same for a piece of string around the earth (add a yard to its length), then the resultant piece of string will also be six inches away from the earth all the way around.

It’s all to do with “circumference=2(pi)r” where an incremental increase in circumference always has the same effect (about a sixth of that increase) on the radius.

 

[Justice]

I was 53 years old when I learned that a pony isn't a baby horse. I mentioned it to a friend who responded 'Well, I’m 61 - now I have found out that a pony is not a baby horse too'

You old foal

 

[Happy Exile]

If you:

Add your year of birth
Any year of your life that something special happened
Your age at end of this year
And the number of years since the special year

The result is always double the current year.

Eg for me
1975+2008+50+17=4050

For mini-Exile
2008+2023+17+2=4050

Etc

This can be a fun trick to convince young nephews and nieces that you went to Hogwarts. Get them to write all the numbers and do the sums secretly and with magic and mind reading you know exactly what it’ll all add up to

 

[Wrong-Direction]

That Tyrannosaurus Rex’s existed on earth for 20 million years and most had already been fossils for millions of years before the Triceratops even existed, despite the art of my childhood often showing them fighting each other.

For comparison the first homo sapien was at most 350,000 years ago, 66 million years after the last triceratops. The idea of even a million years is beyond my capacity to imagine.

In the same category of thinking, we’re closer in time to Boudicca than she was to the construction of Stonehenge.

We've been around 350 thousand years but the dinosaurs lived for 165 million years.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Unfortunately, Steyning Grammar School were never wise to this. I remember once facing a spinner there and them bowling deliberately up into the early evening sun. Which I regard as cheating, whether allowed or not.

There was a match at Canterbury, I think, where sun stopped play. The T20s going late clearly to factoring sun issues.

Lancing Manor was east / west IIRC. Luckily the sun was obscured by the whacking, great tree….

 

[AmexRuislip]

Sorry to be a pedant but…

I believe the Triceratops lived at the same time as the T-Rex.

You there were I guess

 

[Comrade Sam]

To be fair, a wasp the size of a cricket ball would scare the shit out of me.

Around 300 million years ago (between the Carboniferous and Permian eras) insects were comparatively massive - this was due to a higher concentration of Oxygen in the air.

 

[Hugo Rune]

You there were I guess

Know I wasn’t was I. How old you think I am?

 

[AmexRuislip]

Know I wasn’t was I. How old you think I am?

You know HWT