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Things you've always wondered about but couldn't be bothered to find out


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4 hours ago, iantjambo said:

Why do we yawn when we’re tired?

I heard it was something to do with getting more oxygen to the brain. 

 

Why can seeing someone yawn make you yawn too? I've even yawned after seeing my dog yawn.

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Matthew Le Tissier
On 16/08/2018 at 17:59, Dawnrazor said:

Why do some people say "axe" instead of "ask"? 

Futurama is too Blame 

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John Gentleman
On 26/10/2018 at 02:18, Tynieman said:

 

Chickens feet is actually really nice, us westerners are strange, meat is really just meat!

On our first ever family trip to England (Coventry), I remember my mother recoiling in horror at 'pig's trotters' (feet) being on full display in butchers' shops down there. That was something you'd never, ever see in Scotland (we had our own 'vices' of course).

Edited by John Gentleman
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John Gentleman
20 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

Why don’t we run everywhere?

How much time is wasted by people walking? You’re going to the shops, to work, to the pub etc, you’ll typically walk. Picking up stuff from the supermarket you’ll walk around the aisles...but what if we ran everywhere? We’d get there quicker, almost certainly be fitter!

it just seems like we’re missing a trick here!

Because we haven't evolved to. We can sustain short bursts of running only, for

...trying to catch something you want to eat, or

...running away from something that wants to eat you!

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  • 4 weeks later...
I P Knightley

How come my dog can do a shite and then, minutes later, do a piss? Not just a dribble of a piss, a proper stream of it.

 

If I'm doing a shite, there's no way on earth that I could hold in a piss of that nature.

 

I realise that my dog is a different species but, by and large, we've got the same component parts in roughly the same proximity to each other.

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How come it has taken from November 11 until today for someone on kickback to wonder something but not be bothered to find out for themselves. 

 

I like this this thread and I’m worried that people are now researching things for themselves. 

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On 11/11/2018 at 04:35, Lemongrab said:

I heard it was something to do with getting more oxygen to the brain. 

 

Why can seeing someone yawn make you yawn too? I've even yawned after seeing my dog yawn.

 

I read something years ago that suggested it was your subconscious brain responding to a fear that all the air is getting stolen by that greedy ******* over there. Sounded like bollocks to me, but I'm no brain scientist to be fair. 

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1 hour ago, I P Knightley said:

How come my dog can do a shite and then, minutes later, do a piss? Not just a dribble of a piss, a proper stream of it.

 

If I'm doing a shite, there's no way on earth that I could hold in a piss of that nature.

 

I realise that my dog is a different species but, by and large, we've got the same component parts in roughly the same proximity to each other.

 

What an odd thing to wonder but I'm now intrigued! ?

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luckyBatistuta
1 hour ago, I P Knightley said:

 

I realise that my dog is a different species but, by and large, we've got the same component parts in roughly the same proximity to each other.

 

 

IP can lick his own a-hole, who’d have thought it.

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On 10/11/2018 at 14:55, A Boy Named Crow said:

I suspect we’d adapt. As fitness levels improved (due to all the running) we’d be able to handle the exertion without turning into a sweaty mess. Clearly there’d be an adjustment period, but a price worth paying  I reckon!

Your heart only has so many beats, why use them up so quick.

Edited by ri Alban
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On 30/10/2018 at 12:49, I P Knightley said:

I was in central China last week and was fed 'banquet' meals where you don't order specifically but they bring you dish after dish after dish to the table and put them on the lazy susan. I must have had about 25 dishes to choose from over three meals. I don't think there was one of them that would have been on the menu in my local Golden Dragon.

 

Noodles seems to be a breakfast thing. Rice was only served towards the end of the meal. Lots more fish than is on offer in restaurants here. Meat on the bone but in little chunks - very fiddly with the chopsticks; there wasn't much spitting out of the bones, instead picking them out gracefully (by everyone except me).

 

There was one dish that looked a bit familiar with squid and vegetables in a sort of oyster sauce. However, I've never had it in the UK with liver included in the recipe.

 

Chinese takeout is usually based on Cantonese cooking. If you go to China town in Birmingham for example the food you get will be more authentic but still recognisable in name  to what you may order from the takeout but when it arrives it will be a bit different and more challenging in the pallet. 

 

Mainland China and Sichuan in particular dishes are a whole other ball game and unlike to be anywhere in our takes (szechaun sauce aside)

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On 11/11/2018 at 09:53, John Gentleman said:

Because we haven't evolved to. We can sustain short bursts of running only, for

...trying to catch something you want to eat, or

...running away from something that wants to eat you!

 

To catch our food we would have had to run a long distance ,at least rotating in a group to persistence hunt.

 

True, it likely wouldn't be marathon distances but probably a lot longer than a run to the shops.

 

Humans can sustain comparatively very long periods of running in comparison to most animals. Most of us just don't do it anymore.

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A Boy Named Crow
1 hour ago, ri Alban said:

Your heart only has so many beats, why use them up so quick.

I can’t argue with this. I used to use the same logic when, as a boy, I’d get pulled up for dropping a t - wa’er for water, bu’er for butter etc. I’d say I was saving them so as not to run out later in life...

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47 minutes ago, FWJ said:

Why is does frost develop on your windscreen before on other windows and is harder?

It's less of an angle so easier to settle?

 

Probably also to do with the dkrecrion the cars facing.

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I P Knightley
2 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

I can’t argue with this. I used to use the same logic when, as a boy, I’d get pulled up for dropping a t - wa’er for water, bu’er for butter etc. I’d say I was saving them so as not to run out later in life...

All you've done is redress the balance with Yorkshiremen using t' all the time. Similar to how Scots have frrreedom to use the letter R as much as we like since English people hardly touch it.

 

10 hours ago, Jambos_1874 said:

 

What an odd thing to wonder but I'm now intrigued! ?

I'm a fairly recent newcomer to dog ownership. What else am I supposed to do while he's curling one out? There's not enough time to do a Sudoku puzzle.

 

Now that the mornings have turned cold and frosty, though, I see a benefit in bagging up the poo?:poopile:. A low cost hand-warmer :D

 

 

10 hours ago, luckyBatistuta said:

 

IP can lick his own a-hole, who’d have thought it.

:biglaugh: I'm not sure what leap of logic you applied to get to that conclusion but I'm so old and stiff and sore that it's not going to be long before I can't even wipe the thing!

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4 hours ago, I P Knightley said:

All you've done is redress the balance with Yorkshiremen using t' all the time. Similar to how Scots have frrreedom to use the letter R as much as we like since English people hardly touch it.

 

I'm a fairly recent newcomer to dog ownership. What else am I supposed to do while he's curling one out? There's not enough time to do a Sudoku puzzle.

 

Now that the mornings have turned cold and frosty, though, I see a benefit in bagging up the poo?:poopile:. A low cost hand-warmer :D

 

 

:biglaugh: I'm not sure what leap of logic you applied to get to that conclusion but I'm so old and stiff and sore that it's not going to be long before I can't even wipe the thing!

Aye but the English  make amends for all those lost gs in Scotland.

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I'm hoping that one of the maths geniuses on JKB can complete this statement.

 

An atom is to a grain of salt, as a grain of salt is to .... what?

 

I know that atoms can be different sizes, so let's assume it's a hydrogen atom.  Let's also assume that it's a grain of ordinary table salt.

 

It's not that I can't be bothered to find out, it's that my maths (or chemistry) skills are not good enough.

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15 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

I'm hoping that one of the maths geniuses on JKB can complete this statement.

 

An atom is to a grain of salt, as a grain of salt is to .... what?

 

I know that atoms can be different sizes, so let's assume it's a hydrogen atom.  Let's also assume that it's a grain of ordinary table salt.

 

It's not that I can't be bothered to find out, it's that my maths (or chemistry) skills are not good enough.

 

A muckle shooge hing.

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I P Knightley
16 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

I'm hoping that one of the maths geniuses on JKB can complete this statement.

 

An atom is to a grain of salt, as a grain of salt is to .... what?

 

I know that atoms can be different sizes, so let's assume it's a hydrogen atom.  Let's also assume that it's a grain of ordinary table salt.

 

It's not that I can't be bothered to find out, it's that my maths (or chemistry) skills are not good enough.

It's not a maths bod you need, it's either physics or someone who'd good with general quiz-type knowledge.

 

I'm going to say "a planet" as I'm guessing it's one of these questions that's supposed to make your jaw drop when you hear the answer. A bit like, if a flea was the size of a human, it would be able to leap over the whole of Edinburgh. Or sump'n.

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16 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

I'm hoping that one of the maths geniuses on JKB can complete this statement.

 

An atom is to a grain of salt, as a grain of salt is to .... what?

 

I know that atoms can be different sizes, so let's assume it's a hydrogen atom.  Let's also assume that it's a grain of ordinary table salt.

 

It's not that I can't be bothered to find out, it's that my maths (or chemistry) skills are not good enough.

 

Edit: Nah, that's all wrong :lol:

 

Edited by Justin Z
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15 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

I'm hoping that one of the maths geniuses on JKB can complete this statement.

 

An atom is to a grain of salt, as a grain of salt is to .... what?

 

I know that atoms can be different sizes, so let's assume it's a hydrogen atom.  Let's also assume that it's a grain of ordinary table salt.

 

It's not that I can't be bothered to find out, it's that my maths (or chemistry) skills are not good enough.

It's been a fair while since I studied chemistry. Best get that in first.

 

To calculate the number of atoms in a grain of salt, you'd need to know the size of the grain. Knowing that, and using Avogadro's constant, you'd be able to work out the number of atoms in the grain. As grayo says, it will be a 'muckle shooge hing';  probably over 100 billion, so the answer to the statement could be something like comparing a grain of salt to a star in the Milky Way.

 

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A hydrogen atom is about 1x10 to the minus 10 and a grain of table salt is about 0.5mm so 5 x 10 to the minus 4.

So a grain of table salt is about 5 million times as large as an atom.

5 million x 0.5mm is about 2.5 kilometres.

 

(it’s about 40 years since I did maths so this might all be bolloughs)

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13 minutes ago, FWJ said:

A hydrogen atom is about 1x10 to the minus 10 and a grain of table salt is about 0.5mm so 5 x 10 to the minus 4.

So a grain of table salt is about 5 million times as large as an atom.

5 million x 0.5mm is about 2.5 kilometres.

 

(it’s about 40 years since I did maths so this might all be bolloughs)

 

That's kind of the route I took. Came up with a slightly larger number.

 

But then was like "crap, volumes are cubed" and just gave up.

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32 minutes ago, FWJ said:

A hydrogen atom is about 1x10 to the minus 10 and a grain of table salt is about 0.5mm so 5 x 10 to the minus 4.

So a grain of table salt is about 5 million times as large as an atom.

5 million x 0.5mm is about 2.5 kilometres.

 

(it’s about 40 years since I did maths so this might all be bolloughs)

 

Excellent.  I know that there isn't a precise answer to the question so that looks good enough to me.

 

When you say 2.5 km, I'm assuming that's a cube with each side 2.5 km.  Thanks.

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1 minute ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

Excellent.  I know that there isn't a precise answer to the question so that looks good enough to me.

 

When you say 2.5 km, I'm assuming that's a cube with each side 2.5 km.  Thanks.

Erm ... erm .... yeah. 

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11 hours ago, FWJ said:

A hydrogen atom is about 1x10 to the minus 10 and a grain of table salt is about 0.5mm so 5 x 10 to the minus 4.

So a grain of table salt is about 5 million times as large as an atom.

5 million x 0.5mm is about 2.5 kilometres.

 

(it’s about 40 years since I did maths so this might all be bolloughs)

 

I think sodium and chlorine atoms average at roughly twice the size of a hydrogen atom, so that might half your answer. Maybe. Who knows. :olly:

 

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Салатные палочки

This is quite a recent one I've wondered about. When travelling to work and back on the train in the middle carriage there is a loud bang followed a couple of seconds later by another similar bang. Does anyone know what this is? I know they use detonators on lines at times but this happens quite often. 

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13 minutes ago, Salad Fingers said:

This is quite a recent one I've wondered about. When travelling to work and back on the train in the middle carriage there is a loud bang followed a couple of seconds later by another similar bang. Does anyone know what this is? I know they use detonators on lines at times but this happens quite often. 

The fat controller has had enough of Thomas's nonsense

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  • 2 weeks later...
9 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

If we describe a hilly road as undulating, why do we not describe a flat road as dulating?

 

I was wondering why my aunties aren't called 'cles'?

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10 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

If we describe a hilly road as undulating, why do we not describe a flat road as dulating?

 

Because dulate isn’t a word.

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A Boy Named Crow
1 hour ago, jambo89 said:

 

Because dulate isn’t a word.

But why isn’t it a word? “Un” at the start implies the opposite of the word without “Un”, but there is word without “Un” at the start.

 

It seems somebody screwed up!

Edited by A Boy Named Crow
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38 minutes ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

But why isn’t it a word? “Un” at the start implies the opposite of the word without “Un”, but there is word without “Un” at the start.

 

It seems somebody screwed up!

 

You seem to “derstand” that the routes of words are often different. 

 

The word undulate late is thought to stem from the Latin word unda, meaning wave. 

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Why is it often so much cheaper to fly from Edinburgh to London compared to the train? Surely fuel costs alone should make flight costs much higher? I know the rail infrastructure must be expensive to maintain but airlines must pay for airport, radar etc infrastructure via landing fees etc? Purely from an environmental perspective something should be done to ensure trains are cheaper to use?

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44 minutes ago, Jambos_1874 said:

Why is it often so much cheaper to fly from Edinburgh to London compared to the train? Surely fuel costs alone should make flight costs much higher? I know the rail infrastructure must be expensive to maintain but airlines must pay for airport, radar etc infrastructure via landing fees etc? Purely from an environmental perspective something should be done to ensure trains are cheaper to use?

 

Ive never understood why it’s so expensive for the train either.

 

It must be a time thing!? You can have 3 flights to London and back in the time it takes you to get from Edinburgh to London!? 

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1 minute ago, jambo89 said:

 

Ive never understood why it’s so expensive for the train either.

 

It must be a time thing!? You can have 3 flights to London and back in the time it takes you to get from Edinburgh to London!? 

 

Possibly a factor but you can get a lot more people on a train compared to a couple of small shuttle flights so the cost per passenget should be lower. I prefer to fly but it just seems wrong that it's cheaper. Similarly, how can it be cheaper to fly to Gran Canaria than to train it to London!!?

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7 minutes ago, Jambos_1874 said:

 

Possibly a factor but you can get a lot more people on a train compared to a couple of small shuttle flights so the cost per passenget should be lower. I prefer to fly but it just seems wrong that it's cheaper. Similarly, how can it be cheaper to fly to Gran Canaria than to train it to London!!?

 

It will not be one single thing making it cheaper, but a combination of several things.

Journeys take less time by plane so staff aren’t required for as long.

Turnarounds are far quicker for a plane. 

I think air travel is zero rated and probably don’t need to pay fuel duty. 

 

Probably not an exhaustive list. 

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4 minutes ago, gjcc said:

 

It will not be one single thing making it cheaper, but a combination of several things.

Journeys take less time by plane so staff aren’t required for as long.

Turnarounds are far quicker for a plane. 

I think air travel is zero rated and probably don’t need to pay fuel duty. 

 

Probably not an exhaustive list. 

 

I should habe just googled it; see below - an interesting read.

 

https://1010uk.org/articles/why-flying-cheaper-getting-train

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A Boy Named Crow
2 hours ago, gjcc said:

 

You seem to “derstand” that the routes of words are often different. 

 

The word undulate late is thought to stem from the Latin word unda, meaning wave. 

See I didn’t know that, now I do. This thread works!

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Is Scotland the same size as England?

 

I seem to recall being told that it was at some point!? It either used to be the same size when the border was lower down (near York?) it is still the same size when you account for the land mass of the islands!? 

Edited by jambo89
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34 minutes ago, jambo89 said:

Is Scotland the same size as England?

 

I seem to recall being told that it was at some point!? It either used to be the same size when the border was lower down (near York?) it is still the same size when you account for the land mass of the islands!? 

I think Scotland is roughly 2/3 the size of England. I don't know if that includes the islands. 

 

Mainland Scotland has a longer coastline than England. 

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4 hours ago, Lemongrab said:

Why do flammable and inflammable mean the same thing, but combustible and incombustible mean the opposite? 

 

Mental floss did something on this a while back. 

From what I remember: it stems back to “in” having two different roots in Latin (possibly before Latin though?)

“En” , meaning into, in, onto etc. 

And “Ne”, meaning not/without etc. 

 

There are other words that can draw up the same double meaning. Impregnable is an antonym if itself. 

Ive heard folk using nonplussed to mean both bothered and unbothered. 

 

“Off” can also convey two opposite meanings depending on its context. “The Alarm went off”

 

 

 

Stupid English (language)

Seasons  Greetings. :santa2:

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48 minutes ago, Lemongrab said:

 

Mainland Scotland has a longer coastline than England. 

 

Wales' coastline is 1 mile longer than Shetland's coastline.

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3 minutes ago, Boof said:

 

Wales' coastline is 1 mile longer than Shetland's coastline.

 

Is there a standardised method of measuring a coastline? I assumed that the closer and more detailed you went then the longer the coastline would become. 

Might google that. :lol:

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On 30/10/2018 at 18:08, Dawnrazor said:

As I get older I find women my own age attractive, I find early 20 somethings less so the older I get, will I eventually only be attracted to OAP's???

It’s a bit of a b@stard when you actually see a woman older than you and yid still ‘bob It’.

 

There’s this wee ...

 

 

Och, forget it..  :lol: 

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54 minutes ago, gjcc said:

 

Is there a standardised method of measuring a coastline? I assumed that the closer and more detailed you went then the longer the coastline would become. 

Might google that. :lol:

 

I suppose fractal theory would suggest every coastline is infinitely long ?

 

There must be a standardised method - I mean length would depend if the tide was in or oot. 

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