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Original poster

To want to know the useless facts you store in your brain..

334 replies

IseeNarcPeople · 31/07/2023 20:25

The ones that never get an outting, the chance to use them has never arisen.
For instance, from the many useless facts in my brain:
The phrases "Not enough room to swing a cat" and "Don't let the cat out of the bag" are actually about a whip "Cat O' nine tails" which was kept as a warning and punishment on ships.
Oh and snails can sleep for three years.
Please release some of yours.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
livethislifetoday · 31/07/2023 22:44

WaitingForSunnyDays · 31/07/2023 21:50

I'm guessing the game show one is the Monty Hall problem? A well known statistical puzzle. From Wikipedia:

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

Yes it is, but my brain cannot fathom why, and despite knowing it to be fact, I still don't believe it :)

MavisMcMinty · 31/07/2023 22:44

devildeepbluesea · 31/07/2023 22:32

The average pet dog has a VO2 max around 3 times greater than the very best human athletes.

If you speak Breton you can make yourself understood to a native Welsh speaker / vice versa (I have done this, it’s wild)

Yes! Saw a programme on cani cross, where you run 5km with your dog, who not only runs the 5km but pulls you along as well, using a special harness - at the end the humans were all knackered and puffing, and all the dogs could have easily done another 5km.

Original poster
IseeNarcPeople · 31/07/2023 22:42

GettingStuffed · 31/07/2023 22:24

Jellyfish don't have brains but can make decisions

Considering they've been around for 650 million years (fact from Google not my brain) they seem to prove brains are overrated.

OP posts:
HeyMrScott · 31/07/2023 22:42

I've read the whole thread but the only fact I'm confident that I'll remember is that kangaroos have 3 vaginas.

Sadly, I can't see that one coming up on the pub quiz.

lovemycbf · 31/07/2023 22:40

Snails have 1400 teeth (saw a program saying it )
Also your foot is the length of your forearm- heel towards inner elbow and toes towards your wrist

Vebrithien · 31/07/2023 22:38

You are nocturnal if you are active at night.

You are diurnal if you are active in the day.

You are crepuscular if you are active at dawn and dusk.

Echio · 31/07/2023 22:36

Laiste · 31/07/2023 22:13

Is that 64 to the 64th power?

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It's 2 to the power 64 (because you start with 2 then you're just doubling it 64 times) - 18 quintillion if I recall...

Okay I googled it...
18,446,744,073,709,551,616

And you're right @HeyMrScott - it's more grains of rice than on earth.

MissJoGrant · 31/07/2023 22:34

ChelseaGem · 31/07/2023 22:15

Preston bypass is part of the M6.

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You're correct! The Preston bypass part is right. I misremembered the M61 bit.

Groutyonehereagain · 31/07/2023 22:32

The 11+ is based on work done by Cyril Burt but he was a fraud, who lied about his methods. His work was subsequently discredited but the 11+ still continued.

BitOutOfPractice · 31/07/2023 22:32

Phosphorus is a yellow non-metal that burns in air.

O-level chemistry. 1983.

devildeepbluesea · 31/07/2023 22:32

The average pet dog has a VO2 max around 3 times greater than the very best human athletes.

If you speak Breton you can make yourself understood to a native Welsh speaker / vice versa (I have done this, it’s wild)

MavisMcMinty · 31/07/2023 22:32

Signs of inflammation: redness, heat, swelling and pain. Practically the first lesson on the first day of my nurse training, and only Alzheimers will ever be able to erase it from my memory, and maybe not even that.

Horses drink between 40 and 70 litres of water per day, depending on the heat/weather and work/exertion. I learnt this in 2009 when the water pipe to the stables froze and had to cart all their water 300 metres up a steep hill on a sledge every day. And then I remembered this lesson the following winter when the same thing happened again.

Pinkbakerscap · 31/07/2023 22:30

That should be male kangaroo not make 🤦‍♀️

Pinkbakerscap · 31/07/2023 22:30

Soubriquet · 31/07/2023 21:40

Yep, and they have a joey nearly all the time in adult life.

One in the womb, one in the pouch and one hopping around.

When the joey is evicted from the pouch, the female will choose to give birth to the next one. They can actually choose it!! They young blind thing will then crawl from the vagina into the pouch where it will latch on to the nipple and stay there until it’s big enough to come out. Meanwhile, mum will be gestating a new baby

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Wow this one has blown my mind! So is a make kangaroo involved at some point to kick things off? Do they need a regular dose of sperm to make these babies? I'm off for a Google!

Pythonesque · 31/07/2023 22:30

I just had to check and discovered that I still correctly remember that the ionisation energy of a hydrogen atom is 13.6 eV (electron volts).

I learnt it in a quantum mechanics course (physics degree) some 30 years ago. The lecturer was big on getting us to estimate things and understand that there were very few things we needed to know to be able to derive a surprising amount of useful information. He practically drilled the above fact into us :) The exam was open book, too.

Judellie · 31/07/2023 22:28

St Bridget is the patron saint of milkmaids.
The man in the raincoat in the original Rupert Bear programme was called Drizzle (I told my friend that last week and she said, 'thanks for that completely USELESS piece of information', so I guess it qualifies!)

GettingStuffed · 31/07/2023 22:25

And Cardiff Central station has a platform 0

GettingStuffed · 31/07/2023 22:24

Jellyfish don't have brains but can make decisions

Daughtersandbristolian · 31/07/2023 22:19

An isobar is a line of equal atmostpheric pressure - learnt in Geography or science at age 13 or so - never forgot !

HairyMcHairyFace · 31/07/2023 22:18

barbarahunter · 31/07/2023 21:43

Daleks can go upstairs. I distinctly remember seeing a dalek kind of floating up the stairs when watching Dr Who in the 60s.

Daleks went upstairs in the 80s in The Remembrance of the Daleks. Cracking story and Sophie Aldred caused permanent hearing loss to a Dalek actor after being told she'd be beating an empty Dalek but in fact he was inside.

Original poster
IseeNarcPeople · 31/07/2023 22:16

barbarahunter · 31/07/2023 21:43

Daleks can go upstairs. I distinctly remember seeing a dalek kind of floating up the stairs when watching Dr Who in the 60s.

I'm so glad I didn't know this growing up in the seventies.

OP posts:
ChelseaGem · 31/07/2023 22:15

MissJoGrant · 31/07/2023 21:43

The M61 (Preston bypass) is the oldest motorway in the UK.

Preston bypass is part of the M6.

Newnamefor23 · 31/07/2023 22:13

Various family car number plates, melting point of lead.

can’t do it now but could tell quite a few cars at night by pattern/layout of lights.

All sorts of bits of data just under the surface all but bursting to come out.

Laiste · 31/07/2023 22:13

HeyMrScott · 31/07/2023 22:05

If you get a chess board and put one grain of rice in a corner square, two grains in the next square, 4 in the next square and keep doubling as you fill all the squares, there wouldn't be enough rice in the world to complete the last square.

Is that 64 to the 64th power?