# Duck quacks don't echo? and other "facts" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2002, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584 "2002-04-09T01:06:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/21 "2002-04-09T10:31:32Z")
- - - It’s not that duck’s quacks don’t echo, it’s that cave ducks (the bald pale-white ones with no eyes) hardly ever quack. - DougC ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/22 "2002-04-09T11:23:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Badtz Maru \* > \*\*If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction. > > They would have to walk very slow or be spaced out. A person walks about 6 feet per second. About one person is born every second in the whole world, and China only accounts for less than 1/4 of the world’s population. > > \*\* Actually, it’s at least close to being plausible. According to the CIA World Factbook, the population of China is 1,273,111,290 and the birth rate is 15.95 births per 1000 population. That makes 20,306,125 new people in one year. If people walked past you at the rate of about 39 per minute, that’s all that would pass you in a year. You’ve also got the pool of 1.3 billion people to get past you. Plus the population is growing at 0.88% so the number of people born per year is also increasing (assuming a steady birth rate.) That might push the 39 per minute figure up a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/23 "2002-04-09T11:30:28Z")
## Quote: On average, a human being will have sex more than 3,000 times and spend two weeks kissing in their lifetime. ## I doubt this one. For a person who is sexually active for 60 years (I’m being quite generous here) they would have to have sex about once a week for the whole time. I don’t buy it. As for the kissing, with a 75 year lifespan that would require an average of 45 seconds kissing every day. Decide for yourself… I think that is quite easily achievable. I’m only 26 and have had sex over 1000 times easily. & the kissing is integral to that experience too. I think the average could well be higher than that stated. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/24 "2002-04-09T11:39:47Z")
> [@](#): > > ## \*Originally posted by Aro \* \*\*Quote: > > On average, a human being will have sex more than 3,000 times and spend two > weeks kissing in their lifetime. > > ## I doubt this one. For a person who is sexually active for 60 years (I’m being quite generous here) they would have to have sex about once a week for the whole time. I don’t buy it. As for the kissing, with a 75 year lifespan that would require an average of 45 seconds kissing every day. Decide for yourself… > > I think that is quite easily achievable. > I’m only 26 and have had sex over 1000 times easily. > & the kissing is integral to that experience too. > > I think the average could well be higher than that stated. \*\* I seriously doubt it. For one thing, I think you are having sex more than average. Secondly, the average person’s ‘sexual career’ isn’t going to go on for the 60 year figure I used as an extremely liberal scenario. Heck, I don’t even think the average lifespan for the world is 60 years, though I could be wrong. People die young, people become impotent, or people become unable to find sex partners for whatever reason. I doubt many women past childbearing age in third world countries are getting laid much anymore, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/25 "2002-04-09T12:48:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. > \*\* Do you notice a slight lean toward a “tongue” obsession in this glurge? > [@](#): > > \*\*A snail can sleep for three years. \*\* Anyone here have time to watch a snail sleep? Yes? Then maybe you can tickle **Scylla’s** fancy by answering all these questions. Word has it, he wants to know who has time on their hands and enjoys WASTING it. 🙂 \*\* > [@](#): > > Babies are born without kneecaps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age. \*\* Is that why their legs look like Plastic Man’s? \*\* > [@](#): > > Butterflies taste with their feet.\*\* Notice the subtle hint at “tongues” again here. \*\* > [@](#): > > Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.\*\* Scylla, I’d like to kindly remind you to stop chopping up household pets for experimental purposes. Yes, I know you said “someone else” sent you this glurge. But still. \*\* > [@](#): > > If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.\*\* Wow! The Chinese are pretty talented if they can walk single file while still…umm…procreating. \*\* > [@](#): > > In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.\*\* Sure they have. My dad personally brought a skunk in from the wild and domesticated it. Are you trying to say that everyone we know as 4,000 year old pets? \*\* > [@](#): > > Leonardo DiVinci invented the scissors.\*\* Yes! And Otto Titzling invented the bra! And John Crapper invented the toilet! \*\* > [@](#): > > No word in the English language rhymes with month.\*\* Sure it does. If you have a lisp: Onth, Dunth, etc. (once, dunce, get it?) \*\* > [@](#): > > Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.\*\* That explains why I’m having to staple my ears back more and more these days. \*\* > [@](#): > > Shakespeare invented the word ‘assassination’ and ‘bump’.\*\* Yes, but **Scylla** invented the useless waste of business hours. Congratulations! \*\* > [@](#): > > “Stewardesses” is the longest word typed with only the left hand, “lollipop” with your right.\*\* Note: More tongue innuendo. \*\* > [@](#): > > The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.\*\* Who wouldn’t believe this? Everyone knows that the British are famous for gas-guzzling engineering mistakes. I’m sure the QE2 has Lucas electronics too. \*\* > [@](#): > > The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.\*\* Someone must have stayed up all night figuring that one out. \*\* > [@](#): > > The words ‘racecar’ and ‘kayak’ are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left. \*\* Yeah yeah. A Toyota. \ \*\* > [@](#): > > TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard. \*\* Yes, but a quick check shows us that we can also type POTTIER, which is a much funnier word. Oh look: PRETTIER, PITIER, WITTIER, WIPER…neat! \*\* > [@](#): > > Women blink nearly twice as much as men. \*\* Blink…blink. Why? \*\* > [@](#): > > If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at a red light.\*\* I’d better start making use of that time by reading or something. \*\* > [@](#): > > In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch face is 10:10.\*\* It’s a conspiracy! THEY are out to make us believe it’s always 10:10! Now if I could only figure out if that was AM or PM… \*\* > [@](#): > > There’s no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables.\*\* Maybe it’s because of the thought of eating rubble? \*\* > [@](#): > > The Bible does not say there were three wise men; it only says there were three gifts. \*\* Jeez, I hate to think there were five wise men and only three of them brought gifts. Unless, of course, a couple of them went in on one LARGER gift, then that would be cool. I’d hate to think of Jesus getting ripped off because his birthday is so close to Christmas. \*\* > [@](#): > > Did you know that crocodiles never outgrow the pool in which they live? That > means that if you put a baby croc in an aquarium, it would be little for the rest of its life. \*\* Remember my dad? The guy with the pet skunk? Well, he also had a pet croc. The thing was, indeed getting too big for its bathtub, and thus, it was quite a relief when he choked on a bit of hamburger and died. I’m sure my dad cried though. \*\* > [@](#): > > A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.\*\* It’s also a kind of peanut butter. Another conspiracy? \*\* > [@](#): > > Pinocchio is Italian for “pine eye”.\*\* Wood I!? Wood I? (See bad joke thread for details.) \*\* > [@](#): > > It’s impossible to lick your elbow.\*\* Still more tongue stuff! \*\* > [@](#): > > On average, a human being will have sex more than 3,000 times and spend two weeks kissing in their lifetime.\*\* Is this another tongue reference? Is this intended to make me feel bad about my shortage of kissing time? Maybe we can start kissing at red lights to make up the difference. \*\* > [@](#): > > More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call. \*\* These same people make up more than half of the population. The horror! \*\* > [@](#): > > The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language…try it! \*\* No thanks. I’m staying out of your “tongue thing” whatever it is. \*\* > [@](#): > > Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. \*\* Sure, if you let Typhoid Mary use them before you do. \*\* > [@](#): > > The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. \*\* Yes, but we had fire long before we had cigarettes. Why did we need cigarette lighters before cigarettes? Sheesh. People are a little backwards sometimes. \*\* > [@](#): > > A duck’s quack doesn’t echo anywhere, and no one knows why.\*\* Maybe it’s because they don’t have tongues? \*\* > [@](#): > > 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their buttocks.\*\* Who did this research? Xerox or Preparation H? \*\* > [@](#): > > Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.\*\* We can figure this out now. Everyone stick your tonue out and lick your monitor. Seriously, this licking thing has to stop. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/26 "2002-04-09T15:16:05Z")
But as for the most important one, the one involving Flintstone vitamins… That one WAS true for many years. Flintstone vitamins used to include Fred, Barney, Wilma, Bam-Bam, Pebbles, Dino, and… believe it or not, Fred’s car! But not Betty. However, Bayer finally added Betty Rubble a few years ago, along with the Great Gazoo! So, that one may have been true when the factoids list first started making its way around the Internet, but it’s NOT true now. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/27 "2002-04-09T16:36:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nishroch Order \* > \*\* > > black light? Might as well say it glows when placed under a light saber \*\* A blacklight Sabre yes. It will glow under any UV source but with a black light most of the visible spectrum is blocked out so it won’t overwhelm the fluorescence of the kitty pee. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/28 "2002-04-09T20:22:41Z")
\*\*TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard. \*\* one word: Potterytipper ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/29 "2002-04-09T21:13:43Z")
> [@](#): > > **A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.** I believe this is true. A crocodile’s tongue is attached along most of its length to the floor of its mouth. > [@](#): > > **A snail can sleep for three years.** Probably true, if you put "sleep’ in quotes. I would guess that some species of snails can become dormant, estivating for that long if their pond dries up. > [@](#): > > **Babies are born without kneecaps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.** Probably true (sort of). I believe at birth the kneecaps are composed of cartilage, and don’t become bone until later in childhood. > [@](#): > > **Butterflies taste with their feet.** True. At least some butterflies, like some other insects, have taste receptors in their feet. > [@](#): > > **In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.** Depends a lot on how you define “domesticated.” What about the lab rat, lab mouse, etc.? > [@](#): > > **The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.** Not in 1932, and not the whole falls. The American Falls has sometimes frozen over, and in 1848 an ice dam temporarily blocked the flow over the falls (but they did not freeze). From [this site](http://www.iaw.com/~falls/faq.html#what) > [@](#): > > The American Falls water flow was reduced to such an extent in 1909, 1936, 1938 and 1949 that it froze over. > > On February 7th 1936, as a result of an ice jam at the eastern end of Goat Island the American Falls froze completely. The flow started to freeze on January 27th. The American Falls remained frozen for a period of 15 days before the ice dam upriver broke apart and returned the flow of water of the Falls to normal. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/30 "2002-04-09T23:01:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by interface2x \* > Useless Fact for the day: Shakespeare coined the word “bedroom”, but when he made it up, it referred to the actual space within a bed, not a room in which a bed is placed. > > I’d give you a cite, but I learned it when I wrote a paper for my Shakespeare class in Spring 1999. Thus saith the OED: > [@](#): > > SHAKES \* Mids. N. \* II. ii. 51 Then by your side, no bedroome me deny. Fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/31 "2002-04-09T23:35:12Z")
> [@](#): > > February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. This one bugs me, since in the year I first saw this list (1998?) February didn’t have a full moon, either. To cover a few others, “jiffy” is occasionally used as a unit of time, but nobody seems to agree on the meaning. I’ve also heard it used to refer to the time it takes light to travel one meter, the time it takes light to cross the diameter of a hydrogen atom, and the Planck time. I don’t know how they’re counting cat sounds, but all the dogs I’ve ever had have had far more than ten sounds. At the least, there’s barking, yipping, whimpering, howling, purring, baying, growling, slurping, snorting, and panting, and several of those have quite distinct variants. And I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t lick their own elbow. The “fact” doesn’t specify the outside of the elbow, and the inside is easy. Are there any we’ve missed? ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/32 "2002-04-10T00:17:41Z")
> [@](#): > > If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction. The inclusion of this one has convinced me : These lists were developed by C.M. Kornbluth, who actually escaped to the future and then came back to see how far along we’ve come. Every couple of years he distributes another one to see how many people believe it. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/33 "2002-04-10T00:37:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RM Mentock \* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by dtilque \* > > In my book, the Y is also a vowel, making this statement false. > > Y is a vowel there, but it’s not always a vowel. That’s what I meant, but I guess I phrased it badly. Should have said “that Y”. > [@](#): > > I don’t think it is a vowel in yo’ mama. You leave my mama out of this. She never done nothin’ to you. **Chronos** , you must have missed my link to a previous [discussion on months without full moons](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?&threadid=85344). ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/34 "2002-04-10T00:55:00Z")
> [@](#): > > The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start > with. While North and South America are really stretching it, I’d say we have a solid debunk with **Oceania**. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/35 "2002-04-10T01:56:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LaurAnge \* > \*\*While North and South America are really stretching it, I’d say we have a solid debunk with **Oceania**. \*\* Assuming you’re geeky enough to want to deny Asia all of those islands and create a continent with no large, central mass. When did people dream up Oceania, anyway? I usually see the islands as being at least understood as being Asian, which keeps us with the ritual number of seven continents. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2002, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584/36 "2002-04-10T02:01:58Z")
Oceania includes Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and the other islands arund there, from what I know. It’s just the official name, rather than “Australia”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-quacks-dont-echo-and-other-facts/102584.md?page=1)