The 'Did You Know' Thread!

[Monsterlover]

Bookkeeping

  You live up to your name once again.

to you

I, apparently, am a retard.   

[tonyj311]

All of the US's garbage for the next 1000 years could be contained in a single landfill, if someone was willing to build one about 12 miles square (need to check that sizing, can't remember the exact number).

Isnt that Staten Island? 

[Scottish]

Not fact-checked, but I've heard it somewhere.

The sun is 400 times larger than the moon. It is also 400 times more distant. Making the sun and moon appear almost exactly the same size in the sky...

Sun
Distance from Earth:  149,597,900 km
 
  Equatorial Radius:  695,500 km
 
  Volume:  1,412,200,000,000,000,000 km3
 
  Mass:  1,989,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg

Moon
Distance from Earth:  384,400 km
 
  Equatorial Radius:  1737.4 km
 
  Volume:  21,970,000,000 km3
 
  Mass:  73,483,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg


The Sun is WAY bigger. Even when compared to Jupiter which dwarves us
Jupiter
Distance from the Sun:  778,412,020 km
 
  Equatorial Radius:  71,492 km
 
  Volume:  1,425,500,000,000,000 km3
 
  Mass:  1,898,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg


and for comparisons sake
Earth

Distance from the Sun:  149,597,890 km
 
Equatorial Radius:  6,378.14 km
 
Volume:  1,083,200,000,000 km3
 
Mass:  5,973,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg



 

[Buckethead]

But according to your numbers, his statement is correct.

Distance to the sun / distance to the moon = 149.6 x 10^6 km / 384.4 x 10^3 km = 429 and change.

Frontal area of the sun facing the earth / frontal area of the moon facing the earth = (2 x Pi x 695,500) / (2 x Pi x 1737.4) = 400.31

So as he said: because the ratio of distance:radius is roughly the same, both appear to be roughly the same size.

If Jupiter were 15,800,000 km away, it would appear roughly the same size as the moon. However, since its about 628,800,000 km away, it looks very wee indeed.

And having busted out the 'ol adding machine to do all that makes me a huge dork. 

[BWClark]

But according to your numbers, his statement is correct.

Distance to the sun / distance to the moon = 149.6 x 10^6 km / 384.4 x 10^3 km = 429 and change.

Frontal area of the sun facing the earth / frontal area of the moon facing the earth = (2 x Pi x 695,500) / (2 x Pi x 1737.4) = 400.31

So as he said: because the ratio of distance:radius is roughly the same, both appear to be roughly the same size.

If Jupiter were 15,800,000 km away, it would appear roughly the same size as the moon. However, since its about 628,800,000 km away, it looks very wee indeed.

And having busted out the 'ol adding machine to do all that makes me a huge dork. 

Thumbs up for dorks! 

I kinda had a feeling "400 times" would not be nearly enough, but that's the number that was in my head. Looks like it was based on something!

[Scottish]

Hmmpf......  Math is hard, and you got some fancy figurin'. Don't reckon I'd know how to repeat that frontal area eeequation anyhow so I'll take ur wurd for it. 

[Popeye the Sailor]

Ants don't sleep.

[Manny]

US Naval Commander Henry Honychurch Gorringe, the captain of the USS Gettysburg, had a name that rhymes with orange.

Quote of the week? 

Ants don't sleep.

Neither do children, dammit. 

[Super T.I.B]

Did you know that I have a photographic memory.

[NAKID]

Did you know that I have a photographic memory.

N, that's pornographic memory...

[Super T.I.B]

N, that's pornographic memory...

That too.

I know that Jemma has a mole.

[NAKID]

Is that what they're calling it these days?

[Super T.I.B]

Is that what they're calling it these days?

Yep, as we Aussies would call it, she is a MOLE!

[trenner]

Bookkeeping

That's the one!   Aye, trick question.