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Icarus
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So You Think You Know Everything
« on: Nov 23rd, 2004, 2:29pm » |
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The following list of "facts" was sent to me in an e-mail. While a few were familiar to me, at least one I know to be false. Now I am curious about the rest. Which of these are true, and which are false?
1. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
2. A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
3. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
4. A snail can sleep for three years.
5. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
6. All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
7. Almonds are a member of the peach family.
8. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
9. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
10. Butterflies taste with their feet.
11. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
12. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
13. February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
14. In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
15. If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
16. If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
17. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
18. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
19. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
20. On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
21. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
22. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
23. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
24. The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
25. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
26. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
27. There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous
28. There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
29. There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstone's Chewables Vitamins.
30. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
31. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
32. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
33. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.
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towr
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Re: So You Think You Know Everything
« Reply #1 on: Nov 23rd, 2004, 3:28pm » |
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on Nov 23rd, 2004, 2:29pm, Icarus wrote:| The following list of "facts" was sent to me in an e-mail. While a few were familiar to me, at least one I know to be false. Now I am curious about the rest. Which of these are true, and which are false? |
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Quite a list to comment on.
Quite a lot or false. But a lot I'm not sure about.
Here are a few I'm sure about that they're false:
Quote:| 19. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple. |
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In the QI thread there are some rhymes for a few of them.
Quote:| 21. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. |
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Our nose and ears do stop growing, and I'm not so sure our eyes stop growing at birth (at least the shape may change)
Quote:| 22. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. |
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It could be, but needn't be. Dynamite is nitroglycerin absorbed by a kind of stone I think. And nitroglycerin can be made from any fat (which you can extract glycerin from)
Quote:| 23. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated. |
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cold makes rubber brittle, so I very much doubt it.
Quote:| 27. There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous |
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aeluropodous and many others exist
Quote:| 28. There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious." |
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abstentious, acetarious etc
Note that I'm not sure about most of the opthers either, and not listing them here doesn't mean I think they're true. I'm always highly skeptical of these kinds of 'fact' lists (though this one is less urban-myth-y than most)
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Icarus
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Re: So You Think You Know Everything
« Reply #2 on: Nov 23rd, 2004, 3:49pm » |
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I suppose I should say that the particular one that caught my attention was 14. Many animals have been domesticated in the last 4000 years - bison and emus are two examples. But the first that came to my mind was the siberian fox. Sometime in the middle of the last century, an effort was made to domesticate the fox and farm it for fur. Not only were they sucessful in the domestication, but their domesticated foxes never lost their juvenile coloration. Since the breeding was only directed at domestication, this suggests that domestication essentially arrests some of the animal's development at a juvenile level. Juveniles are generally less agressive and more trusting of others than adults - exactly the traits that mark domestication.
Concerning rubber bands: refrigerators are not all that cold, so may not trigger the changes that cause rubber to become brittle. On the other hand, the cooler temperature will almost certainly slow down the reactions that result in their degradation. So this one may well be true.
Some that I am sure (or nearly sure) are true:
2. I have heard of the unit "jiffy" before. I don't remember the definition, but 1/100 of a second sounds right.
8. I think I have heard this before, too. It is actually true of many birds.
10. A common trait of many insects.
18. Easily checked.
26 is also easily checked, but I haven't bothered to yet.
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Sir Col
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Re: So You Think You Know Everything
« Reply #3 on: Nov 23rd, 2004, 3:58pm » |
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http://onelook.com is the utlimate resource for checking word problems. Apart from the fact that it is a useful look-up tool, in that is searches most popular online dictionaries, it allows you to use wildcards in your search.
For example, *mt will reveal that there is one other word: undreamt, and by entering *a*e*i*o*u* and selecting "common words only" will reveal a sizeable list of other words with the vowels in order. I believe that aerious, although only found in one online dictionary, is the shortest word with such a property. If you do not accept that, then caesious is the next best alternative.
If you look-up "jiffy", it will confirm the validity of #2.
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SWF
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Re: So You Think You Know Everything
« Reply #4 on: Nov 23rd, 2004, 6:42pm » |
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These fact lists are always fun to discredit. Even the true ones can often be debunked due to poor phrasing of the fact. I will just do one for now:
For 6. the Lincoln Memorial on the back of a 5 dollar bill shows the names of 26 states not 50. The real Lincoln Memorial has the names of only 48 states around the top, which ruins an alternative interpretation of the statement.
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John_Gaughan
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Re: So You Think You Know Everything
« Reply #5 on: Nov 23rd, 2004, 8:17pm » |
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Yeah, these lists can be fun. Most are made by people who heard something from a friend who heard it... and the person does not know enough to verify anything. That or they are doing it on purpose.
As for #6, the last time I checked the Lincoln Memorial in person, the states were listed all around the memorial. Since no single photograph can picture all four sides at once, this one is false by default.
Unless, of course, men in tinfoil hats riding in black helicopters changed the memorial since I visited it a couple years ago... 
Edit: I have one $5 bill in my possession at this moment and it is so worn as to look like its last owner used it to clean his oven with it. I see no state names on it at all. Also, the last time I visited the Lincoln Memorial I was with my sister and she came up with the bright idea to park in a handicapped spot since it was 2 a.m. and we did not see anyone in a wheel chair. Washington police are probably still looking for their $50... 
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| « Last Edit: Nov 23rd, 2004, 8:21pm by John_Gaughan » |
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towr
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Re: So You Think You Know Everything
« Reply #6 on: Nov 24th, 2004, 12:12am » |
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on Nov 23rd, 2004, 3:58pm, Sir Col wrote:| For example, *mt will reveal that there is one other word: undreamt |
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Not a very good tool then, as m-w.com also gives daydreamt, redreamt, and some other variations on dreamt.
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