# Did you know? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 12, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117 "2013-05-12T01:25:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/1 "2013-05-12T01:25:45Z")
[ul] [li]Radon is the only radioactive noble gas[/li][li]Gene Roddenberry used to be a cop[/li][li]Steve Wozniak also invented the first universal remote control[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2013, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/2 "2013-05-12T01:36:48Z")
[ul]Dogs can’t look up. [/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2013, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/3 "2013-05-12T07:41:01Z")
[ul]Women fake orgasms because they think men care.[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2013, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/4 "2013-05-12T07:45:06Z")
\*Polar bears are predominantly left-handed. (Well, left-pawed.) ---
**Author:** ![bbman4000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/34f0e0/32.png) [@bbman4000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbman4000)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2013, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/5 "2013-05-12T07:46:03Z")
_Everyone has the ability to be indecisive about things in life not just females in my opinion_ ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/6 "2013-05-12T13:28:29Z")
[ul] [li]A duck’s quack will echo?[/li][/ul] mmm ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/7 "2013-05-12T18:58:01Z")
[ul] [li]Brian May, lead guitarist for the rock group Queen, holds a Ph.D in astrophysics from Imperial College and was 4th Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008-2013. [/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/8 "2013-05-13T16:17:40Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > [ul] > [li]A duck’s quack will echo?[/li][/ul] > mmm Ducks don’t quack. There are 166 species of them, which make a bewildering variety of typical vocalizations, ranging from squeaks to whistles to honks to muttering sounds, and a few are mute. A small few of them make a characteristic sound that could, with imagination, be represented in human alphabet as quack. The extent to which they echo would be variable, depending on the pitch of the duck’s vocalization and the physical characteristics of the echoing surfaces. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/9 "2013-05-13T16:42:33Z")
[ul] [li] Most light poles have a 110 AC outlet wired into the base for emergencies? If you have a pry-bar and can get past that face-plate at the base, you’ll have power.[/li] …and probably a ticket from any passing cop. [/ul] ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/10 "2013-05-13T16:58:08Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > \*Polar bears are predominantly left-handed. (Well, left-pawed.) Lobsters are neither left nor right clawed at birth. As they develop, they start to pick a preference for one or the other, then the claws develop accordingly. (One for cutting, the other for crushing.) ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/11 "2013-05-13T17:56:19Z")
> [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](#): > > [ul]Dogs can’t look up. > [/ul] My dog looks up all the time. Geese, airplanes, squirrels in trees… ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/12 "2013-05-13T18:05:22Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > My dog looks up all the time. Geese, airplanes, squirrels in trees… Maybe he meant that dogs can’t look up stuff in the dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/13 "2013-05-13T18:13:17Z")
Francium is the only radioactive alkali metal, and there is about one ounce of it in the whole of the Earth’s crust at any given time. _i[sup]i[/sup]_, where _i_ is the imaginary square root of -1, is a real number. In all three volumes of C. S. Lewis’s “Space Trilogy” (\*Out of the Silent Planet \* etc.), the proper name “Neruval” is mentioned exactly once. (It is probably the planet Uranus.) ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/14 "2013-05-13T18:24:04Z")
John Tyler (born 1790), 10th President of the U.S. (1841 - 1845), still has two living grandsons. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/15 "2013-05-13T18:25:09Z")
Did you know that Chicago is named after an Indian word that means “Place where the ramps grow?” Do you know that ramps are an onion-like vegetable which are presently coming into season and whole towns have festivals to celebrate the noisome delicacy? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/16 "2013-05-13T18:32:54Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > … > _i[sup]i[/sup]_, where _i_ is the imaginary square root of -1, is a real number. Can you explain this? Also, dogs look up all the time – my dog catches frisbees in the air. Do you mean that their eyes cannot move that way? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/17 "2013-05-13T19:12:22Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Can you explain this? > Also, dogs look up all the time – my dog catches frisbees in the air. Do you mean that their eyes cannot move that way? i^i is approximately equal 0.20787957635. [Cite.](http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/ffiles/20013.3.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/18 "2013-05-13T19:20:46Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > _i[sup]i[/sup]_, where _i_ is the imaginary square root of -1, is a real number. It actually can be multiple real numbers depending on how you branch your ln. [QUOTE=RitterSport] Can you explain this? [/QUOTE] Note that by definition, _i[sup]i[/sup]_ = exp(i\*ln(i)). Writing in polar coordinates, i = exp(pi/2 \* i), so picking that branch of the ln function gives ln(i) = pi/2 \* i -\> i\*ln(i) = -pi/2. So _i[sup]i[/sup]_ = exp(i\*ln(i)) = exp(-pi/2) (but if you pick another branch of ln, the result differs by a factor of exp(2k\*pi) for some integer k). ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/19 "2013-05-13T19:26:11Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Ducks don’t quack. There are 166 species of them, which make a bewildering variety of typical vocalizations, ranging from squeaks to whistles to honks to muttering sounds, and a few are mute. A small few of them make a characteristic sound that could, with imagination, be represented in human alphabet as quack. The extent to which they echo would be variable, depending on the pitch of the duck’s vocalization and the physical characteristics of the echoing surfaces. Oh, balls. That’s completely ridiculous. When we say ducks quack, we’re saying that they make a particular sort of vocalization which we have given that name, not that they make the sound represented in IPA by /kwæk/. Nobody thinks that a dog’s bark sounds like the word _bark_ either. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117/20 "2013-05-13T19:33:35Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Nobody thinks that a dog’s bark sounds like the word _bark_ either. Well they do if you pronounce it right. Most English words that originated in Dog are mispronounced. Getting the tail wag right is very difficult. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know/658117.md?page=2)