Random facts you have only recently discovered

[fandabbyfannyflutters]

I found out only yesterday you are not allowed to take photos of the Eiffel Tower at night...mind totally blown

Thank you for the planets mnemonics! I’ve never known the order so I’ve copied and pasted them!

Did you know that the Earth is closest to the Sun in winter (Northern Hemisphere): perihelion occurs around 4 January.

www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/perihelion-aphelion-solstice.html

So actually, earth is closest to the sun in summer. #antipodean

Makes perfect sense.

Due to its angle of axis the northern hemisphere leans closer to the sun in the summer and further away in the winter.

Mrs Brown, Brendan O'Carroll, was once Mrs Thatcher's butler

Before Brendan O’Carroll started playing Mrs Brown, she was played by Angelica Huston in the film Agnes Browne - spelled slightly differently and giving a slightly different performance.

Due to its angle of axis the northern hemisphere leans closer to the sun in the summer and further away in the winter.

But it's not closeness that explains seasons (even with tilt, UK is closer to Sun in January than in July). When a hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun it means more daylight and also that the solar energy falling on a given area is higher. Hotter and longer days = summer.

The thing about the earth being closer to the sun in January is because the orbit of the earth isn't a circle but an ellipse, which is like a squashed circle. So if you put a dot in the centre of the earth, in January it is at the closest bit of the ellipse/oval to the sun.

FrancesFryer - well i never knew THATeveryday's a schoolday on MN

When my dog was a pup, he managed to get a bunch of bananas off the side, they were trodden on the end we normally peel and opened at the bottom. All eaten too. Greedy git.

I only recently found out that our sun is called Sol. Hence the solar system. Dh told DD and I was like "ohhhh! Of course!"

I found out today that the difference between monkeys and apes is that monkeys have tails and apes don't! M
Obvious once I'd been told, but I'd never made the connection myself.

I saw this fact on mumsnet before. This is what time of the planet on clock looks like. Modern humans arrive very late in the day.

Mother Very Thoughtfully Made Jam Sandwiches Under No Protest (from my Dad; T is for Tellus, an old name for Earth)

That pine nuts come from pine cones. I had no idea!

Crisps always go out of date on a Saturday.

Is our sun called sol or is it just that sun in Latin is solis hence solar system?

Cue Jez from Peep Show:

'Oh god not the Hootenanny. ANYTHING BUT THE HOOTENANNY'

My random fact is that John Thaw was 43 when he started playing Morse. Yikes!

Is our sun called sol or is it just that sun in Latin is solis hence solar system?

Yeah, I don't think the sun has a name, charming as the idea is.

Sol is Latin for for sun, the Roman God of sun, etc.

Is our sun called sol or is it just that sun in Latin is solis hence solar system?

In Star Trek our solar system is called the Sol system. Those aliens must think we have no imagination.

Come to think of it, my mum used to tell us off for saying 'I'm starving!'.

You're not starving, you're just a bit hungry, be thankful you aren't really starving etc etc

"My random fact is that John Thaw was 43 when he started playing Morse. Yikes!" Really?! I'm 47 and he definitely looked older than that to me.

Just checked he was actually 44/45 as they started in 1987 and he was born in '42. Allowing for filming/production time usually not more than a year.

The sun is called sol in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.

Brendan Grace gave Brendan O Carroll his first gig.

When I used to watch Home & Away and Neighbours religiously they used to take about utes a lot. I have just learned today that stands for utility vehicle. I just thought it was a model of car