Interesting & Amazing Facts

sanket.no.1 · 11-21-2005, 12:28 AM

Compact Discs

Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.

Computers

* ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster.
* From the smallest microprocessor to the biggest mainframe, the average American depends on over 264 computers per day.

E-Mail

The first e-mail was sent over the Internet in 1972.

Mobile (Cellular) Phones

As much as 80% of microwaves from mobile phones are absorbed by your head.

Nuclear Power

Nuclear ships are basically steamships and driven by steam turbines. The reactor just develops heat to boil the water.

Oil

The amount of oil that is used worldwide in one year is doubling every ten years. If that rate of increase continues and if the world were nothing but oil, all the oil would be used up in 400 years.

Radio Waves

Radio waves travel so much faster than sound waves that a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 18,000 km away than in the back of the room in which it originated.

Ships & Boats

* The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
* The world's oldest surviving boat is a simple 10 feet long dugout dated to 7400 BC. It was discovered in Pesse Holland in the Netherlands.

Skyscraper

The term skyscraper was first used way back in 1888 to describe an 11-story building.

Sound
Sound travels 15 times faster through steel than through the air.

Telephones

There are more than 600 million telephone lines today, yet almost half the world's population has never made a phone call.

Television

Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television in 1926 in Soho, London. Ten years later there were only 100 TV sets in the world.

Transistors

More than a billion transistors are manufactured... every second.

VCR's
The first VCR, made in 1956, was the size of a piano.

World Trade Center
The World Trade Center towers were designed to collapse in a pancake-like fashion, instead of simply falling over on their sides. This design feature saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives on Sept. 11, 2001, when they were destroyed by terrorists.

kcmandava · 11-21-2005, 10:39 PM

Interesting facts.....thanks!

zima · 11-22-2005, 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanket.no.1

Compact Discs

Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.

What's interesting/amazing in that? They had to choose one way or the other. And this way is simply more practical, because it allows easily disks of different sizes. Besides, if it would be written from the outside, you'd marvell yourself how it is identical to vinyl.

Quote:

Computers

* ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster.
* From the smallest microprocessor to the biggest mainframe, the average American depends on over 264 computers per day.

- and was considered small back then.
- I'd like to hear more on how many people he depends, if any...(in more metaphorical sense)

Quote:

E-Mail

The first e-mail was sent over the Internet in 1972.

You know, there's always time for first "something"...

Quote:

Mobile (Cellular) Phones

As much as 80% of microwaves from mobile phones are absorbed by your head.

Which means nothing. The fluctuations in temperature are much smaller than normal fluctuations present in the brain. And as for "dangerous" electromagnetic field...sex is theoretically much more dangerous in this regard, due to "interference" from others person brain

Quote:

Nuclear Power

Nuclear ships are basically steamships and driven by steam turbines. The reactor just develops heat to boil the water.

Not the only way to do it (for example you could generate electrocity directly using gradient of temperatures). It's just most efficient given our technicall capabilities.
Besides...in many designs reactor is not colled by water. Resulting hot coolant from reactor is used for this.

Quote:

Oil

The amount of oil that is used worldwide in one year is doubling every ten years. If that rate of increase continues and if the world were nothing but oil, all the oil would be used up in 400 years.

Similar thing could be said about any form of energy that humans used in the wake of "next generation".

Quote:

Radio Waves

Radio waves travel so much faster than sound waves that a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 18,000 km away than in the back of the room in which it originated.

So? I don't think the concept of different speeds is interesting...

Quote:

Ships & Boats

* The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
* The world's oldest surviving boat is a simple 10 feet long dugout dated to 7400 BC. It was discovered in Pesse Holland in the Netherlands.

- You wouldn't want to know how much fuel Space Shuttle burns at startup...
- Wrong. There could be older ones (and probably are)

Quote:

Skyscraper

The term skyscraper was first used way back in 1888 to describe an 11-story building.

Laughing from those people is at least...unpolite. Unless of course you'll find OK for people 200 years from now to laugh at us.

Quote:

Sound
Sound travels 15 times faster through steel than through the air.

Somebody wasn't attending physics lessons?

Quote:

Telephones

There are more than 600 million telephone lines today, yet almost half the world's population has never made a phone call.

There's 10x more poeple than phone lines. I'd say half is not a bad score.

Quote:

Television

Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television in 1926 in Soho, London. Ten years later there were only 100 TV sets in the world.

At some point it had to happen...
And besides, this TV from 26 was very different than later things...

Quote:

Transistors

More than a billion transistors are manufactured... every second.

Well...people think often, wrongly, that they're big (metaphorically), and than marvell at things much bigger...which are in reality also small. If this is interesting/amazing I suspect you'd have a heart attack if I'd give some other numbers...

Quote:

VCR's
The first VCR, made in 1956, was the size of a piano.

And was considered then to be small.

Quote:

World Trade Center
The World Trade Center towers were designed to collapse in a pancake-like fashion, instead of simply falling over on their sides. This design feature saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives on Sept. 11, 2001, when they were destroyed by terrorists.

As every other skyscraper

Why I waste time replying? So some could understand that above things are not worth marvelling at, there are more interesting/amazing/important things. But you can't describe them with numbers.

kcmandava · 11-23-2005, 02:17 AM

Zima, instead of wasting time on criticising somebody's posts, why don't you try and post something useful? I haven't had the good opportunity to see any post of yours that could be seen constructive.

zima · 11-23-2005, 03:15 AM

kcmandava · 11-23-2005, 03:58 AM

The way you reacted really surprises me. You were talking about being able to handle criticism and here is your post that doesn't demonstrate it. As a moderator, its my duty to see that the posts are meaningful, if not for everyone, and create an atmosphere for discussion. If there is criticism at the very outset, anybody would have second thoughts about posting.

P.S There is nothing personal about my reaction to your posts. I did notice some good posts of yours after my original post.

Scorpion · 11-23-2005, 11:04 AM

any way good facts

zima · 11-23-2005, 11:17 AM

chaitanyamandava, look, I wouldn't care if any other guy posted "criticism" of me (not critisim - the one in "" and without are two different things). But you did. And this doesn't mean I would be upset about it. But you are a moderator of this forum and you've posted opinion on one of the members based solely on your bad memory or lack of knowledge (about poster). How is that creating atmosphere for discusion? You're suppose to be objective voice in such cases, basing actions/words on facts.
Also, you confuse "handling critisism" with "ignoring criticism". Handling doesn't mean I can't response.
Secondly, if I would brag about it for half of the page, that would perhaps demostrate what you're hinting at. But I just posted few sentences and attached links to my previous posts, searching for them took something like 3 minutes...3 minutes of homework you didn't want to do, so apparently I had to do it for you...

Aírmanareiks Þiudareiks · 11-23-2005, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zima

chaitanyamandava, look, I wouldn't care if any other guy posted "criticism" of me (not critisim - the one in "" and without are two different things). But you did. And this doesn't mean I would be upset about it. But you are a moderator of this forum and you've posted opinion on one of the members based solely on your bad memory or lack of knowledge (about poster). How is that creating atmosphere for discusion? You're suppose to be objective voice in such cases, basing actions/words on facts.
Also, you confuse "handling critisism" with "ignoring criticism". Handling doesn't mean I can't response.
Secondly, if I would brag about it for half of the page, that would perhaps demostrate what you're hinting at. But I just posted few sentences and attached links to my previous posts, searching for them took something like 3 minutes...3 minutes of homework you didn't want to do, so apparently I had to do it for you...

Well you're right, but you didn't have to prove yourself by posting a catalogue of your "useful posts".

But anyway, though these "interesting facts" may be informative to some people, I find them incomplete. Take this for example:

Quote:

Sound
Sound travels 15 times faster through steel than through the air.

Sound travels through steel 15 times faster than in air? Great. But still, what is the speed of sound in air? How can we realize how much of a difference that is without knowing the speed of propulsion of sound waves in the air? Again, temperature plays a big role in the speed, it may not always be 15 times faster. At a temperature of 273K(I'm using Kelvin scale because I can't be bothered copy-pasting the degree symbol for Celsius and Fahrenheit scales), it moves at 350 metres/sec through the air.

zima · 11-23-2005, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eiríkr Rauði

Well you're right, but you didn't have to prove yourself by posting a catalogue of your "useful posts".

It was best argument I could get, and having it required only 3 minutes of copying links from my profile summary...not much.

Quote:

But anyway, though these "interesting facts" may be informative to some people, I find them incomplete. Take this for example:

Quote:

Sound
Sound travels 15 times faster through steel than through the air.

Sound travels through steel 15 times faster than in air? Great. But still, what is the speed of sound in air? How can we realize how much of a difference that is without knowing the speed of propulsion of sound waves in the air? Again, temperature plays a big role in the speed, it may not always be 15 times faster. At a temperature of 273K(I'm using Kelvin scale because I can't be bothered copy-pasting the degree symbol for Celsius and Fahrenheit scales), it moves at 350 metres/sec through the air.

Even worse, I wouldn't be surprised if some number of people wouldn't know what the sound actually, preciselly, is. Knowing that for sure would mean they wouldn't marvell at speed increase...
Of course the same applies to how CD, computer, email, nuclear reactor, radio, microwaves, TVs, transistors and so on really work...

11-21-2005, 12:28 AM	#1 (permalink)
sanket.no.1 Googler Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 67 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Interesting & Amazing Facts Compact Discs Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works. Computers * ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster. * From the smallest microprocessor to the biggest mainframe, the average American depends on over 264 computers per day. E-Mail The first e-mail was sent over the Internet in 1972. Mobile (Cellular) Phones As much as 80% of microwaves from mobile phones are absorbed by your head. Nuclear Power Nuclear ships are basically steamships and driven by steam turbines. The reactor just develops heat to boil the water. Oil The amount of oil that is used worldwide in one year is doubling every ten years. If that rate of increase continues and if the world were nothing but oil, all the oil would be used up in 400 years. Radio Waves Radio waves travel so much faster than sound waves that a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 18,000 km away than in the back of the room in which it originated. Ships & Boats * The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. * The world's oldest surviving boat is a simple 10 feet long dugout dated to 7400 BC. It was discovered in Pesse Holland in the Netherlands. Skyscraper The term skyscraper was first used way back in 1888 to describe an 11-story building. Sound Sound travels 15 times faster through steel than through the air. Telephones There are more than 600 million telephone lines today, yet almost half the world's population has never made a phone call. Television Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of television in 1926 in Soho, London. Ten years later there were only 100 TV sets in the world. Transistors More than a billion transistors are manufactured... every second. VCR's The first VCR, made in 1956, was the size of a piano. World Trade Center The World Trade Center towers were designed to collapse in a pancake-like fashion, instead of simply falling over on their sides. This design feature saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives on Sept. 11, 2001, when they were destroyed by terrorists.

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11-21-2005, 10:39 PM	#2 (permalink)
kcmandava Master Googler Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: U.S Posts: 859 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Interesting facts.....thanks!

11-23-2005, 02:17 AM	#4 (permalink)
kcmandava Master Googler Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: U.S Posts: 859 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Zima, instead of wasting time on criticising somebody's posts, why don't you try and post something useful? I haven't had the good opportunity to see any post of yours that could be seen constructive.

11-23-2005, 03:15 AM	#5 (permalink)
zima Google Freak Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 420 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	You don't have the concept of contructive criticism? Especially if I say that there are much more interesting & amazing things to do with your life that marvelling at facts which are either dubiously true or have place in encyclopedia at most. And you either have bad memory or didnt bother to spend 5 minutes to search. Which of posts below are not contructive? http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#59672 http://www.googlecommunity.com/about...tml&highlight= (who would expect...I'm the only one who give the guy a hand - yes, superstuntguy tried, but didn't - he did something akin to giving a drowning man leaking lifebelt) http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#67875 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#67874 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#67879 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#67400 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#67622 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#67149 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#67835 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68125 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#67059 http://www.googlecommunity.com/about...tml&highlight= http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68762 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68784 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68869 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68926 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68973 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68980 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68990 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#69370 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#69371 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68130 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68133 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68153 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68525 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68665 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68673 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#68713 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#69619 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#69591 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#69476 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#69474 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#69426 http://www.googlecommunity.com/post-...ghlight=#69420 But note that for me "contructive" is something valuable to the discussion, not simply something unrelated, or some flashy/fashionable new opinion. Furthermore, I don't have a concept of avoiding criticism, it doesn't make any good in long run. As a sidenote, I would say that personally I EXPECT from my closest friends to critise me. If I would ever want someone who tries to be nice at all times, I could always go to some brothel. Just too bad that at least one individual on these forums interprets such posts as direct attacks on her/his...oh well.

11-23-2005, 03:58 AM	#6 (permalink)
kcmandava Master Googler Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: U.S Posts: 859 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	The way you reacted really surprises me. You were talking about being able to handle criticism and here is your post that doesn't demonstrate it. As a moderator, its my duty to see that the posts are meaningful, if not for everyone, and create an atmosphere for discussion. If there is criticism at the very outset, anybody would have second thoughts about posting. P.S There is nothing personal about my reaction to your posts. I did notice some good posts of yours after my original post.

11-23-2005, 11:04 AM	#7 (permalink)
Scorpion Noogle Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 4 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	any way good facts

11-23-2005, 11:17 AM	#8 (permalink)
zima Google Freak Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 420 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	chaitanyamandava, look, I wouldn't care if any other guy posted "criticism" of me (not critisim - the one in "" and without are two different things). But you did. And this doesn't mean I would be upset about it. But you are a moderator of this forum and you've posted opinion on one of the members based solely on your bad memory or lack of knowledge (about poster). How is that creating atmosphere for discusion? You're suppose to be objective voice in such cases, basing actions/words on facts. Also, you confuse "handling critisism" with "ignoring criticism". Handling doesn't mean I can't response. Secondly, if I would brag about it for half of the page, that would perhaps demostrate what you're hinting at. But I just posted few sentences and attached links to my previous posts, searching for them took something like 3 minutes...3 minutes of homework you didn't want to do, so apparently I had to do it for you...

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