Interesting 'Facts' 2.0

[Mediocre]

the average pack of cigarettes costs $4.54 US. the average smoker smokes a pack and a half a day. so, $31.43 US per week is around the average money a smoker literally burns. in a year, a smoker spends $1634.36.
90% of all smokers that smoke for life say they started before 18.
the average smoker lives to be about 77.9 years old. The average age of a non smoker is 84 years old. what does this all mean?

The average smoker spends $98 061.6 US throughout their lifetime, and every cigarrete pack cuts your lifetime by 11 minutes.

I'm not going to dispute the majority of that post, but you can't really say that a cigarette cuts life expectancy by 11 minutes, even on average.

Why? Because people who tend to smoke also tend to be poorer than people who don't, and poorer people tend to have less healthy diets and other habits than more wealthy people. So, while I'm sure cigarettes are a factor in the lower life expectancy of smokers, the average social class of smokers has an effect too.

 

[Geist]

I'm not going to dispute the majority of that post, but you can't really say that a cigarette cuts life expectancy by 11 minutes, even on average.

Why? Because people who tend to smoke also tend to be poorer than people who don't, and poorer people tend to have less healthy diets and other habits than more wealthy people. So, while I'm sure cigarettes are a factor in the lower life expectancy of smokers, the average social class of smokers has an effect too.

you make a strong point, but i can argue with the american health association.=P
But I dont think smokers are that much more poor than non-smokers to have tha much of an impact to their life expectancy, but i could be wrong. either way you look at it, it is an unsettling thought.

more facts
-A shrimp's heart is in its head.
-More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.
-Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
-A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
-Ostriches do no bury their head in sand.
-The Air Force's F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.
-The Saleen S7 supercar can generate enough downforce at 100 mph to theoretically drive upside-down.

 

[Jammer]

-The Saleen S7 supercar can generate enough downforce at 100 mph to theoretically drive upside-down.

Did you know that all Formula 1 cars generate downforce 3-4 times their weight when they're at speed?

They could still run the race if the entire track was upside down (except for a short strip for getting up to speed). It would even be good for the drivers because it would get blood into there heads (going around turns repeatedly at 4 g's tends to screw with the blood pressure in your head).

 

[Sporkman]

guess we should wait for gold shadow

Because Eorlingas' reasons aren't worth as much as GoldShadow's? Goldshadow isn't the only person who can prove people wrong (or right) in this thread.

As for an interesting fact:

-After a night of boozing there is a much higher chance of you dreaming when the you sleep the night after.

This is because Alcohol supresses REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep of which dreams are a side effect. The next time you sleep your body will spend longer periods of time in REM sleep to make up for the time lost the previous night.

-Using Content Analysis Domhoff (or is it Donhoff? Inconsistency in the lecture notes!) discerned that in 2 out of 100 dreams there is a murder.

-Can't remember source but someone said American's have more aggressive dreams than Swiss or Dutch people. I have no idea of the validity of this one however, my lecturer certaintly didn't seem ok with saying it.

 

[Danbearking0]

Dr. Suess's Real name is: Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Chew on dem apples

 

[RizardoLawless]

As for an interesting fact:

-After a night of boozing there is a much higher chance of you dreaming when the you sleep the night after.

This is because Alcohol supresses REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep of which dreams are a side effect. The next time you sleep your body will spend longer periods of time in REM sleep to make up for the time lost the previous night.

Thats a pretty hard one to prove right or wrong, but I can relate to it

 

[Keku]

If a person playing basketball throws 75% of his throws in, and he tries 3 times, the probability to get 2/3 throws in is exactly the same to get all 3 in. A fact.

 

[Yoshi]

I just found this out if anyone cares, Ridley (from Metroid) was named after director ridley Scott, who directed Aliens.

 

[fluffy]

If a person playing basketball throws 75% of his throws in, and he tries 3 times, the probability to get 2/3 throws in is exactly the same to get all 3 in. A fact.

i don't really understand this.

is it just common sense to say that it's a 50/50 chance to get the last shot in?

 

[AltF4]

If a person playing basketball throws 75% of his throws in, and he tries 3 times, the probability to get 2/3 throws in is exactly the same to get all 3 in. A fact.

True: It seems counter intuitive because it lures you into the following scenario:

"I have made 2 shots already, and I'm about to shoot the last. The odds of me making 2/3 and 3/3 are the same, so doesn't that mean I will always make the shot?"

The problem is that you're only considering one possible ordering of the 2/3 shots. Note that it says "Making 2 out of the 3 shots", it doesn't specify that the missed shot has to come last.

The odds of making all three shots are 3/4 * 3/4 * 3/4 = 27/64

Odds of making 2/3 shots: 3/4 * 3/4 * 1/4 * 3 (3 different ways to make 2/3 shots) = 27/64

 

[fluffy]

A watermelon is a vegetable not a fruit.

George Washington grew marijuana in his backyard.

King Kong was Adolf Hitler's favorite movie.

The first toilet being flushed in a motion picture was in the movie Psycho.

Duracell, the battery-maker, built parts of its new international headquarters using materials from its own waste.

Infants spend more time dreaming than adults do.

It takes about 63,000 trees to make the newsprint for the average Sunday edition of The New York Times.

There are 365 steps on the front of the U.S. Capitol Building - one for every day of the year.

Women who read romance novels have sex twice as often as those who don't.

More than half of British adults have had sex in a public place.

Most dust particles in your house come from dead skin.

Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate every second.

Baskin Robbins once made ketchup ice cream.

Each year 96 billion pounds of food is wasted in the U.S.

Karate actually originated in India, but was developed further in China.

Soccer was originated from China.

The chances of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf are one in 67 million.

Car airbags kill 1 person for every 22 lives that they save.

One out of 20 people have an extra rib.

Children grow faster in the springtime than any other season during the year.

I could have made 20 posts from this 1 post.

 

[Konpaku]

Kethup flavored ice cream! o_0

 

[GoldShadow]

A watermelon is a vegetable not a fruit.

False. A watermelon is actually a fruit; it grows from the flower of a flowering plant and contains seeds.

Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate every second.

True. I was kind of surprised by this one, but it turns out it's actually more than that. According to a report by the USDA from the mid-1990s (a bit old but I doubt chocolate consumption has changed much), a person on average consumed 48 grams of chocolate per day. If you do the math out (multiply by 300,000,000 Americans, divide to get seconds, and convert to pounds) you find that it's actually a whopping 367 pounds of chocolate every second!!! Now that is a lot of chocolate.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12355000/pdf/Portion.pdf

Car airbags kill 1 person for every 22 lives that they save.

There are differing numbers, but it is not very close to this. According to a few studies, a rough estimate for number of lives saved by airbags between 1990 and about 2004 was 10,000. The number of people allegedly killed by airbags in about that same time period is 238. In other words, that's 1 in 42 people that were killed by airbags. However, a third study shows that people killed by airbags were most likely to not be wearing their seatbelt; in other words, the likelihood of being "killed by an airbag" are dramatically reduced if you wear your seatbelt.
How much are they reduced? Well, another study published in the Academic Emergency Medicine Journal revealed that, of 12 crashes involving airbags where people were seriously injured or killed, 8 of them involved people not wearing seatbelts (or about 66%). So in other words, the chance of you getting killed by an airbag while wearing your seatbelt are about 1 in 127. It's probably even less for all you guys, because I'm assuming most of you are healthy teens/adults and not elderly or toddlers or fragile. Lesson of the day: wear your seatbelt and let the airbag do its thing.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/25466.php
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-01/Esv/esv16/98S8P12.PDF
http://www.aemj.org/cgi/content/full/6/7/708

 

[Handorin]

When I was in my accident, I had my seatbelt but no airbag (car too old). It hurt =( Luckily the only damage to my face (and really at all) was a broken nose.

 

[Keku]

True: It seems counter intuitive because it lures you into the following scenario:

"I have made 2 shots already, and I'm about to shoot the last. The odds of me making 2/3 and 3/3 are the same, so doesn't that mean I will always make the shot?"

The problem is that you're only considering one possible ordering of the 2/3 shots. Note that it says "Making 2 out of the 3 shots", it doesn't specify that the missed shot has to come last.

The odds of making all three shots are 3/4 * 3/4 * 3/4 = 27/64

Odds of making 2/3 shots: 3/4 * 3/4 * 1/4 * 3 (3 different ways to make 2/3 shots) = 27/64

Exactly. To think "if I get 2 first in, is it 50/50 to get the last one in?" is false, because you aren't considering that in probability mathematics and reality you have to take all orderings in consideration. Thus, if you score 2 first ones in, the probability to get the last shot in aswell, remains 75%.

It's funny to try to think about it at first though.

 

[Jammer]

[...Someone saying that watermelons are vegetables...]

False. A watermelon is actually a fruit; it grows from the flower of a flowering plant and contains seeds.

What would you guess a pumpkin is?

It's a fruit. Crazy huh?

It's the state fruit of New Hampshire.

To make things complicated, some pumpkins are a hybrid between squash and fruit. Those ones were bred by farmers to get really big pumpkins.

 

[Yoshi]

Your eye balls are the same size when your born, to when you die; they do not grow.

 

[Mediocre]

The chances of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf are one in 67 million.

Doesn't that depend on the skill level of the individual golfer? I'm pretty sure that Tiger Woods would have a better chance of making two wholes in one than I would.

Even if that's supposed to be an average, I have trouble believing it. Who do they measure to come up with this statistic? A random sample group of amateur golfers? Professionals? Or just totally random people, whether they're golfers or not?

Who would take the time to carry out the study that would be needed to derive that figure? I really doubt anyone would care to spend time or money getting an accurate number for this.

 

[Jammer]

Who would take the time to carry out the study that would be needed to derive that figure? I really doubt anyone would care to spend time or money getting an accurate number for this.

You don't need to do a study. You only need to look at statistics that are already there.

I assume there are records kept of every shot made in every professional tournament. You just divide the number of holes-in-one by the total number of shots to get the chance of making a hole-in-one on an average hole. Then you do fancy (well, pretty simple, actually) probability analysis to come up with the 1 in 67 million number.

Pretty, simple, actually.

 

[fluffy]

Well here's a batch of 5 for you hardcore kids.

18% of an American's income is spent on transportation.

Antarctica is a desert.

Currently, 70% of U.S. businesses do NOT have a website.

The first patented condom was meant to be reused!

You can't create a folder called 'con' in Microsoft Windows!

 

[Peeze]

Infants spend more time dreaming than adults do.

I'm sure that since everyone dreams, this would only be true in the case of an infant that sleeps more than an adult.

 

[Yoshi]

On average, a dream for an adult can last 4 seconds. So I wouldn't be suprised if an infant dreams more since they sleep a LOT more.

 

[Jammer]

I'm getting too lazy to actually look these up, so I'll only do the ones I know off the top of my head.

Antarctica is a desert.

The first patented condom was meant to be reused!

You can't create a folder called 'con' in Microsoft Windows!

True. I dunno, but I have an interesting observation to make. True.

Deserts are defined as regions having average annual rainfall of less than 25 cm (10 inches). The South Pole gets about 10 cm (about 4 inches) of rain each year. Antarctica contains the largest desert in the world.

People used to use sheep's intestine or other similar materials as condoms. Some people still do. They were often reused, considering that it took more than a little while to make them.

I had to reboot into Windows, but when I tried to create a folder called "con", it just renamed it back to "New Folder". Very weird. I don't know enough to know why that happens.

 

[Mediocre]

You don't need to do a study. You only need to look at statistics that are already there.

I assume there are records kept of every shot made in every professional tournament. You just divide the number of holes-in-one by the total number of shots to get the chance of making a hole-in-one on an average hole. Then you do fancy (well, pretty simple, actually) probability analysis to come up with the 1 in 67 million number.

Pretty, simple, actually.

Okay, that sounds totally reasonable.

However, the original poster didn't mention anything about it being limited to professionals, or about it being an average. That's probably what he meant, because that's the only thing that makes sense, but the "fact" itself is quite wrong.

I had to reboot into Windows, but when I tried to create a folder called "con", it just renamed it back to "New Folder". Very weird. I don't know enough to know why that happens.

Apparently, "con" was (and still is) a DOS command, and using it to make a folder would screw up the execution of that command. Therefore, Windows does not allow you to make a folder with the name "con".

 

[Keku]

That pumpkin-thing reminded me that strawberry is not a berry nor a fruit. In Finnish it's called "unfruit", and what Wikipedia gave me, I think it's called a false berry in English. Anyhow, it's one of the accessory fruits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_fruit

 

[fluffy]

That pumpkin-thing reminded me that strawberry is not a berry nor a fruit.

a strawberry is a fruit.

 

[CodeBlack]

"FACT" BASHING TIME!
Real heroin tests aren't fooled by poppy seeds. They aren't even fooled by most opiates. They test for specific heroin compounds.

I believe he was talking about job screening heroin tests, which have famously had many false positives when it comes to prospective employees who have had poppy seed bagels.

And now, my facts:

Placing water in the microwave can lead it to superheat past boiling point without becoming a gas, causing instant steam when jostled.

The Mayans invented an arch that could stand without a keystone.

Cells have a "suicide" protein which, upon orders, kills the cell to allow for something else.

Popeye originated from a preexisting comic strip, and, upon arriving, he stole the show, and, eventually the comic, from the characters (Castor Oyl, his sister Olive, however, gained prominence).

 

[Jammer]

Placing water in the microwave can lead it to superheat past boiling point without becoming a gas, causing instant steam when jostled.

You can do this yourself! Find a perfectly smooth glass container and clean it until there is absolutely no residue or any dirt on it anywhere. Fill it with pure, distilled water, put it in the microwave, and let it heat up for 15 minutes.

Okay, you did that? Now, wearing oven mitts so that you don't burn your fingers, pick up the container and drop from a centimeter in height.

When you touch it, or jostle it, it will explode and probably send glass shards into your eyes. Also, boiling hot water will give you burns. If you actually did this, sorry. I really am.

When there are no imperfections in the container, the water doesn't have any places that it can attach bubbles to. It won't boil like when you're making spaghetti; it can only evaporate to lose heat. When you bring in the imperfections, the 200 degree Celsius water will pretty much explode on you.

The Mayans invented an arch that could stand without a keystone.

Yeah, I don't know what this fact means. The keystone is the stone at the top that the two sides of the arch lean into. I don't see how it's possible to make an arch without one. Would you mind clarifying, CodeBlack?

Cells have a "suicide" protein which, upon orders, kills the cell to allow for something else.

Every time a cell divides, the telomeres--

Nevermind. I don't feel like explaining. There are two reasons this protein, the name of which I don't remember, gets activated: The cell is old and should kill itself so that it doesn't start bringing the rest of the body down (and to limit the lifespan of lifeforms so that they breed and don't get older forever). Also, it sometimes does it when the cell is attacked by a virus, so it kills itself before the virus can take over the "machinery".

And the protein doesn't actually do much by itself. It just tells some organelles to start breaking down the cell instead of just getting rid of waste.

Popeye originated from a preexisting comic strip, and, upon arriving, he stole the show, and, eventually the comic, from the characters (Castor Oyl, his sister Olive, however, gained prominence).

I don't know about this one. And I don't really care. Sounds reasonable, though.

 

[Geist]

Popeye originated from a preexisting comic strip, and, upon arriving, he stole the show, and, eventually the comic, from the characters (Castor Oyl, his sister Olive, however, gained prominence).

that was the same way how the simpsons got started. not with a comic, but a half-bit tv show that aired it as a small short after commercials. soon people only watched the show for the simpsons, and matt groening eventually started his own show for them.

-also: in a recent study, researchers found 1/5 americans couldnt name the president on the $1 bill.
-opposite sides of dice always add up to 7
-snails have teeth
-babies are born without kneecaps

 

[Handorin]

You can do this yourself! Find a perfectly smooth glass container and clean it until there is absolutely no residue or any dirt on it anywhere. Fill it with pure, distilled water, put it in the microwave, and let it heat up for 15 minutes.

Okay, you did that? Now, wearing oven mitts so that you don't burn your fingers, pick up the container and drop from a centimeter in height.

When you touch it, or jostle it, it will explode and probably send glass shards into your eyes. Also, boiling hot water will give you burns. If you actually did this, sorry. I really am.

When there are no imperfections in the container, the water doesn't have any places that it can attach bubbles to. It won't boil like when you're making spaghetti; it can only evaporate to lose heat. When you bring in the imperfections, the 200 degree Celsius water will pretty much explode on you.

Really? I wanted to try it until I got to the last paragraph. >_>

 

[CodeBlack]

Yeah, I don't know what this fact means. The keystone is the stone at the top that the two sides of the arch lean into. I don't see how it's possible to make an arch without one. Would you mind clarifying, CodeBlack?

Certainly.

On a trip to Mexico, I visited several Mayan ruins. On one particular trip (either Chichenitza or Tulum, can't remember which, probably Tulum), the tour guide drew our attention (as in showed to us) to a type of arch the Mayans used that didn't require a keystone, which they used as entranceways to many of their temples (as many of their temples where buildings inside buildings).

That's pretty much all I know about. I don't know much about it besides the fact that it exists. It could be constructed in such a way that it's not really the same subject, but it is still somewhat likely that it was relatively ignored by the rest of the world.

 

[Jammer]

Yeah, I've never heard of making an arch without a keystone. I guess you could do it by having a big slab of wood or something to keep the two sides from falling into each other, but then you would probably call that piece of wood the keystone.

The Greeks (or was it the Romans?) made domes with a hole in the top for smoke from the burning incense to go through or something. Is that kind of like what you're talking about?

 

[Xanthyr]

Singing Spoon

Press a warm spoon firmly against a chunk of dry ice. The spoon will scream loudly as the heat of the spoon causes the dry ice to instantly turn to gas where the two make contact. The pressure of this gas pushes the spoon away from the dry ice, and without contact, the dry ice stops sublimating. The spoon falls back into contact again, and the cycle repeats. This all happens so quickly that the spoon vibrates, causing the singing sound you hear.

 

[Keku]

a strawberry is a fruit.

Well you certainly made your point with your myriad of arguments for your statement.

 

[CodeBlack]

Yeah, I've never heard of making an arch without a keystone. I guess you could do it by having a big slab of wood or something to keep the two sides from falling into each other, but then you would probably call that piece of wood the keystone.

The Greeks (or was it the Romans?) made domes with a hole in the top for smoke from the burning incense to go through or something. Is that kind of like what you're talking about?

Read my post: I specifically say Mayans, and a trip to Mexico.

 

[Jammer]

Read my post: I specifically say Mayans, and a trip to Mexico.

Okay.... I don't understand your point.

I was just wondering if the Greek thing was sort of similar to the Mayan thing you were talking about. I was trying to get you to remember something useful in order to make me understand what you were talking about with the "keystoneless arches".

 

[Wazoo21]

On Wikipedia.org, searching for the term "Space dynamics" redirects you to the "Star Fox (series)" article. O_O

 

[CodeBlack]

Okay.... I don't understand your point.

I was just wondering if the Greek thing was sort of similar to the Mayan thing you were talking about. I was trying to get you to remember something useful in order to make me understand what you were talking about with the "keystoneless arches".

Oops, sorry about chewing your head off. I've never seen what you're talking about, so I wouldn't know if they're connected.

Here's a link to what I'm talking about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbeled_arch


Odd fact:
The first "computer bug" was a moth trapped in a computer relay which, as such, screwed up a program. As such, glitches in programs were called bugs from that day forth.

 

[Best101]

Did you know that a pig is a grafted animal made up of three animals. A cat, a rat, and a dog

 

[Jammer]

Best101, that's probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

CodeBlack: okay, now I know what you're talking about. So, the Mayans invented walls with holes in the shape of an arch? Cool, I guess.