# Great science facts **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 1, 2013, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272 "2013-05-01T23:50:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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 2, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/21 "2013-05-02T03:21:16Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > then the person who wrote the factoid missed the point. That would be the OP. The part he tells should make figurative references, then make the point about the size of a molecule of water. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/22 "2013-05-02T03:33:10Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > You will often see arguments for Creationism or Intelligent Design saying that something with odds of only one in 10^50 is so unlikely to happen, that it’s fair to treat it as impossible. After all, the age of the universe is only about 4_10^15 seconds, so even if you had a trillion processes each producing a trillion results per second since the beginning of the universe, you would have only 4_10^39 results. > > But if you thoroughly shuffle a normal deck of 52 cards and then deal them out one by one, you just beat odds of one in 8\*10^67 that you would get that exact sequence. Oops, dropped a decimal somewhere. The exponents in the first paragraph should be two higher — 4_10^17 seconds for the age of the universe, and 4_10^41 results for a trillion processes putting out a trillion results per second. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/23 "2013-05-02T06:30:31Z")
I knew there’d be nitpicking! Perhaps I should have been more careful with my language but the maths remains. Not sure if the mixing of the oceans would be enough the spread the water about after several years but this sort of thing is designed to illicit wonder amongst children and people who would otherwise find the facts about the multitude of atoms difficult to imagine. Here’s another one. And of course this isn’t an exact piece of work but a general guide to the size of the atom which I heard a scientist state once. No cite so if its wrong please correct me: In order to make the atoms in a drop of water big enough to be visible to the naked eye, the drop would have to be expanded to occupy an area of over 600 square miles. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/24 "2013-05-02T07:11:30Z")
My astronomy professor once calculated how long it would take to reach lightspeed (relative to Earth) at a constant acceleration of 1 g. The answer was very close to one terrestrial year. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/25 "2013-05-02T07:15:57Z")
If you fire a cannon whose bore is level at a particular height above the ground and drop a cannonball from the same height at the same moment, the two projectiles will hit the ground at the same time. The force of gravity acts on them equally, regardless of their forward motion (or lack of it). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/26 "2013-05-02T07:29:12Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > If you fire a cannon whose bore is level at a particular height above the ground and drop a cannonball from the same height at the same moment, the two projectiles will hit the ground at the same time. The force of gravity acts on them equally, regardless of their forward motion (or lack of it). The fired cannonball actually lands a smidge later, because the Earth curves away from it as it flies. ---
**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 2, 2013, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/27 "2013-05-02T07:57:02Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > A duck’s quack doesn’t echo - and no one knows why This has been disproven. Ducks’ quacks do indeed echo. However, only female ducks quack. Ducks make a variety of sounds, but male ducks do not quack. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/28 "2013-05-02T08:08:52Z")
You do not need an airfoil to generate lift. There is something known as the [Coanda effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coand%C4%83_effect) which can be used to create a lifting surface w/o an airfoil [as seen here](https://www.google.com/search?q=coanda+effect+demonstration&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a). It can even be reproduce by mounting a fan on a bowl shaped surface with fan blowing down on the bowl. According to Bernoulli’s principle, a fluid generates less pressure the faster it moves. The Coanda effect says that a moving fluid will adhere to a neighboring surface. Put the 2 together and the fast moving air over the solid, curved surface produces less pressure than the static air beneath thus creating lift. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/29 "2013-05-02T08:14:52Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The fired cannonball actually lands a smidge later, because the Earth curves away from it as it flies. If this is so, and the Earth curves eight inches per mile, then it’s a very small smidge indeed, unless the cannon has one hell of a muzzle velocity. Like most hypothetical experiments, this one assumes perfect timing, a perfect vacuum, and a perfectly flat surface of the Earth. The dropped cannonball would also have to be released even with the muzzle at the moment the fired ball emerges from it, since the latter will remain level at that height as long as it’s traversing the barrel. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/30 "2013-05-02T10:38:11Z")
A gallon of gasoline contains more hydrogen than a gallon of liquid hydrogen. The U.S. state closest to Africa is Maine. The fax machine was invented before the telephone. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/31 "2013-05-02T10:39:29Z")
Fruit fly semen contains mind-controlling proteins that enter the female’s body and reprogram her. After mating, the female’s sex drive goes way down. She’s far less likely to mate again with another male, thus increasing the chance that the first male will be the father of her offspring. Sex in general sucks for the female fruit fly. Females that remain virgins their entire life live for about twice as long as females that mate and reproduce. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/32 "2013-05-02T11:01:09Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The fired cannonball actually lands a smidge later, because the Earth curves away from it as it flies. Not necessarily: the hypothetical didn’t posit a perfectly level surface, but it also didn’t posit a perfect curve of the earth, either. Since it said “level at a particular height above the ground,” one plausible reading is that, if you drew a straight line from the bore of the cannon forward to a length equal to the distance of the shot cannonball, the line would be parallel to the ground. This would require a very slight rise in elevation along the line to compensate for the curvature of the earth. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/33 "2013-05-02T11:14:00Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Sex in general sucks for the female fruit fly. Females that remain virgins their entire life live for about twice as long as females that mate and reproduce. Yeah, but that is longer life _as a fruit fly_, as a fruit fly that _isn’t getting any_! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/34 "2013-05-02T11:23:51Z")
hmm… sex or longevity? ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/35 "2013-05-02T12:05:28Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > My astronomy professor once calculated how long it would take to reach lightspeed (relative to Earth) at a constant acceleration of 1 g. The answer was very close to one terrestrial year. Let’s check, in case the 8 spiders I swallowed last night don’t echo. The speed of light is 3 \* 10^8 meters per second (300 million meters/second). 1 g is roughly 10 meters/second change in speed per second, or 10 meters/(second)^2. A year has about 3 \* 10^7 seconds (30 million seconds). I’m using the asterisk \* for multiplication, and the caret (^) for exponentiation - x\*x = x^2 The speed of an object under constant is the acceleration multiplied by the time it’s accelrated, or v = a \* t. Therefore the time to reach a certain speed v is t = v/a. Plugging into that last equation, (3 \* 10^8)/10 = 3 \* 10^7 so the number is right size for number of seconds in a year. Checking the units: (meters/second)/(meters/second^2) = seconds. Yes indeedy, to reach light speed at 1 g from a standing start will take about a year. Pretty close to a year, since g = 9.8 meters/second^2 instead of 10, and a year is 3.1 \* 10^7 seconds instead of 3.0 \*10^7. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/36 "2013-05-02T12:48:24Z")
Marine fossils have been found on the top of Mt. Everest. I think that’s kinda neat, what with plate tectonics and all. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/37 "2013-05-02T13:11:27Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Not necessarily: the hypothetical didn’t posit a perfectly level surface, but it also didn’t posit a perfect curve of the earth, either. Since it said “level at a particular height above the ground,” one plausible reading is that, if you drew a straight line from the bore of the cannon forward to a length equal to the distance of the shot cannonball, the line would be parallel to the ground. This would require a very slight rise in elevation along the line to compensate for the curvature of the earth. Indeed, however, in the absence of specific qualifiers or further details, it’s reasonable to assume that the experiment is talking about a cannon levelled locally, and that the surface described as ‘ground’ is that of the Earth, ‘flat’ being normal curvature with no bumps and dips. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/38 "2013-05-02T13:12:31Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > This has been disproven. Ducks’ quacks do indeed echo. However, only female ducks quack. Ducks make a variety of sounds, but male ducks do not quack. OK, but does _anyone_ know why? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/39 "2013-05-02T16:37:32Z")
The ducks do, but they’re not talking, either. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272/40 "2013-05-02T16:50:59Z")
Coincidentally, I just happened across [this](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009286741300398X) great article in Cell from last month, where they revisit the science of Jurassic Park and evaluate it in terms of what we know about genetics now. I don’t know if you need a subscription to see it or not. Some highlights: > [@](#): > > It is here that we assume that, because neither Xenopus laevis nor Xenopus tropicalis was used as the source of the filler DNA, as neither exhibit female-to-male sex reversal, either that or Dr. Grant’s hypothesis rests on a shaky foundation. But after a late night eluding an angry T-Rex, it seems only fair to cut a fellow scientist some slack and give the idea a full hearing. > [@](#): > > And if dinosaurs were more like reptiles than birds in this one regard, then the reason for male dinosaurs on the loose might well have been a rotation student who set the egg incubator to the wrong temperature rather than the use of frog DNA. > [@](#): > > Lysine is an essential amino acid in vertebrates (dinosaurs included), meaning that it is always acquired from dietary sources and isn’t synthesized in the body. Although it is likely that InGen’s head scientist Dr. Henry Wu engineered the dinosaurs with some kind of genetically encoded kill switch, we are left to assume that Arnold, a nonbiologist, got confused about the details and conflated this mystery failsafe with a separate project in the Wu lab on auxotrophic yeast strains. Hee hee. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-science-facts/657272.md?page=3)