Useless Knowledge

[Rob]

34% of interesting facts on the internet were made up by someone smarter than the person who forwarded them to you.

 

[Becky]

Earwigs have two penises.

I have many more.

What?! How many have you got? :lmao:

 

['Daniel']

chocolate spelled backwards is etalocohc which is a chemical used to kill rats. This is because chocolate does the reverse and increases rat fertility.

 

[hobbes28]

Heh. Hate to be a party pooper, but a few of those are urban legends.

Ducks, bats, Marilyn...
Donkeys/planes is unlikey. Unjured maybe.

Terminal velocity for a skydiver normally is 50m/s (125mph) and the record is something like 321mph trying in atmosphere. Mach 1 is 761mph.
g, acceleration due to gravity, is just under 10m/s/s instead of 50.

Impact theory is widely accepted now for the moon, but I haven't heard the 1/3 original size thing before. It's all still conjecture.

Everyone hates me now, right? I can't resist, though. Of course I got my info from sources and not direct measurement, so some element of trust has to be involved.

Spoil sport...

Actually, the record speed for a skydive was by USAF captain Joe Kittinger when he jumped from a balloon at 100,000 feet (almost in space, through 90% of the earth's atmosphere) and reached a speed of 619mph. Not the speed of sound but pretty close.

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Spoil sport...

Actually, the record speed for a skydive was by USAF captain Joe Kittinger when he jumped from a balloon at 100,000 feet (almost in space, through 90% of the earth's atmosphere) and reached a speed of 619mph. Not the speed of sound but pretty close.

Mach 1 is 670 mph at sea level!

 

['Daniel']

they did say 50feet/sec not metres, still not 10m/s but not ridiculous.

and it's 9.80665m/s^2 not 10!! :mrgreen:

Also did you know that a dog in the antarctic can smell half as far as one in the desert. Due to the Langsenheimer hypothesis being proved we now nknow that this is true also for cats.

 

[markc]

Spoil sport...

Actually, the record speed for a skydive was by USAF captain Joe Kittinger when he jumped from a balloon at 100,000 feet (almost in space, through 90% of the earth's atmosphere) and reached a speed of 619mph. Not the speed of sound but pretty close.

Well, I did say through atmosphere. That 10% allowed him to pick up a heck of a lot of speed.

 

[hobbes28]

98% of statistics are made up on the spot.

In size ratio, a fly flies at the speed of 600mph.

The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth.

It takes 8 seconds for light from the sun to reach the earth.

A slug has 4 noses.

I could go for days

 

[markc]

Mach 1 is 670 mph at sea level!

Multiple sources tell me 761 mph

 

[hobbes28]

Well, I did say through atmosphere. That 10% allowed him to pick up a heck of a lot of speed.

Enough for him to have to use a stabilizing chute . I read that story years ago and have always been amazed at reading him describe all of the stages of ascent and the freefall. [/nerd]

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Multiple sources tell me 761 mph

I think that's at 10,000 feet? (or possibly higher. Must check later! )

 

[markc]

they did say 50feet/sec not metres, still not 10m/s but not ridiculous.

and it's 9.80665m/s^2 not 10!! :mrgreen:

Okay, it was late. Damn metric vs. English. 50f/s/s is about 15m/s/s.

But I did say "almost" 10, not 10.

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Enough for him to have to use a stabilizing chute . I read that story years ago and have always been amazed at reading him describe all of the stages of ascent and the freefall. [/nerd]

I liked the video footage of him stepping off the platform..................! :thumbup:

 

[markc]

I think that's at 10,000 feet? (or possibly higher. Must check later! )

It drops the higher you go.
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/sound.html

 

[hobbes28]

Okay, I had to look it up but Mach 1 is 761mph at sea level whereas the speed of sound is variable based on temperature and resistance. @-30F, (about average for 30,000 ft) it is around 690mph.