The 'Did You Know' Thread!

[Grampa]

re-sabi

[MuscovyDuc]

Speaking of poop - A human can have pure white poop. White poop means that the bile from the liver is not entering your gut 

[NeufUnSix]

The French inventor of the turbocharger was laughed at for trying to patent a fish (turbot).

Double overhead cams, four valves per cylinder... This "modern" engine design dates back to the 20s. It was used in small displacement racing cars by Aston Martin and large displacement street cars by Duesenberg, among others.

Triumph and other British marques justified oil seeping in their vehicles as a way of preventing corrosion. Once the Japanese dominated the market, Triumph began an ad campaign for its ancient Bonneville design that played off nostalgia and skill required to start the bike ("tickling the carburettors, setting up the kickstart..." and other macho bullshit that attempted to cover up the fact they were selling an outdated and unreliable product)

Ferrucio Lamborghini began his career converting war machines into farm equipment after the First World War. He became a wealthy tractor and air conditioning manufacturer by the 1960s, and was a rabid sports car fan. No cars completely satisfied him, he always found some major flaw that drove him nuts. He decided he'd build his own GT car to satisfy his desires. The 350GT was the closest to his original idea; after that the design department strayed from his mindset with the Miura and the following supercars (and dreams of racing). He never condoned racing, and he never intended his company to make bonkers supercars that were hard to drive on a daily basis. An apocryphal story claims he was so fed up with his Ferrari that he personally visited Enzo to complain and got blown off, but this is more legend than fact. It is possible that he fixed his Ferrari with tractor parts, however.

During the early 1990s when Chrysler owned Lamborghini, Lee Iacoca ran a ridiculous ad that compared the performance of the new Diablo with pedestrian cars like the Dodge Stealth, the Spirit R/T and the Eagle Laser. It was meant to show that Chrysler was a "performance car company", but claiming Lamborghini as a halo car for a series of ordinary Detroit iron was like claiming Fiat econoboxes were in the same league as a Ferrari F40 while Fiat owned Ferrari.

[DoubleEagle]

In a group of 23 or more people, chances are that at least 2 people have the same birthday.

I am suspect of this one...in 58 years , I have only met one other person whose birthday is the same as mine..... June 28.

[somegirl]

I am suspect of this one...in 58 years , I have only met one other person whose birthday is the same as mine..... June 28.

That's a totally different statistical problem to the one that I described.

Group of 23 people: chances are > 50% that ANY TWO people in the group have the same birthday.

1 person: chances are 1/365 that another person you meet has the same birthday as you.

BTW: Happy birthday!

[TiNi]

re-sabi

[MendoDave]

In the late 80's the 737-400 was introduced as a higher capacity Jet meant to replace the aging 727. The 400 model was a "stretch" over the previous 300 series, about 10 feet longer than before, with a max capacity of 188 seats. Because of the extra payload the more powerful CFM56 engines were employed. In addition Both engines on the newer 400 series would now run the air conditioning & pressurization duties rather that Just the #2 engine like on the older planes. The cockpit also made a change from analog to "Glass"

The latest 737 is the 900ER series that has more payload, up to 215 passengers,  Flies up to 3,200 nautical miles, Weighs 9,550 pounds less than the airbus A321, and has lower operating costs than the A321; about 6 percent lower per trip, and 4 percent lower per seat.

[TiNi]

the three color, RGB color gamut is larger than the four color, CMYK color gamut.

[Buckethead]

the three color, RGB color gamut is larger than the four color, CMYK color gamut.

Meaning capable of more individual, distinct colors?

[TiNi]

Meaning capable of more individual, distinct colors?

that is correct 
you may go home early

[DaniD]

The human head weighs 8 pounds

haha...i was waiting for that one

[Buckethead]

that is correct 
you may go home early

That does seem to be my trick, doesn't it? 

[DaniD]

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable"

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second

Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people

"Skepticisms" is the longest word that alternates hands when typing

[Pakhan]

If you microwave a marshmallow for a couple of seconds it will at least double in size and the inside crystallizes.

If you microwave a hardboiled egg for a minute or two in a glass of water and remove it, it will explode.  The egg pieces that come out are hot enough to put a 2nd degree burn on to your hand.

[Buckethead]

If you microwave a hardboiled egg for a minute or two in a glass of water and remove it, it will explode.  The egg pieces that come out are hot enough to put a 2nd degree burn on to your hand.

For some reason I feel like this should probably be followed with a DAMHIK.