# I didn't know that! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 29, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633 "2007-12-29T21:23:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/1 "2007-12-29T21:23:37Z")
The things you discover after decades of life. Most recently, I was amazed to read that [mercury corrodes aluminum](http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/3c2c0b4511b84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html). What amazes you that you’d never heard it before? ---
**Author:** ![Osip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4491bb/32.png) [@Osip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osip)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/2 "2007-12-30T01:42:38Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] The things you discover after decades of life. Most recently, I was amazed to read that [mercury corrodes aluminum](http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/3c2c0b4511b84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html). What amazes you that you’d never heard it before? [/QUOTE] Just now learning about it? Man you have missed out. Also check out Potassium chlorate and Gummy worms.(and stand back, oh and wear shades) You can catch up on the fun destructive and entertaining world of chemistry. ---
**Author:** ![wonder9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c57346/32.png) [@wonder9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonder9)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/3 "2007-12-30T02:13:28Z")
Sorry, I just have to do this… [Man has visted the deepest part of the worlds oceans, Challenger Deep in the Mariana’s Trench, just once. In 1960. For 20 minutes.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=283407&highlight=marianas+trench+minutes) ---
**Author:** ![CosmoGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@CosmoGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CosmoGirl)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/4 "2007-12-30T02:18:46Z")
Okay Professor Osip - talk to me like I’m an idiot. What does it do? Whatever it is, it sounds like fun! ---
**Author:** ![Montgomery0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@Montgomery0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montgomery0)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/5 "2007-12-30T02:23:03Z")
[QUOTE=CosmoGirl] Okay Professor Osip - talk to me like I’m an idiot. What does it do? Whatever it is, it sounds like fun! [/QUOTE] A quick google brings up this interesting [Youtube video.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUensqImzXM) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/6 "2007-12-30T02:46:19Z")
[QUOTE=Montgomery0] A quick google brings up this interesting [Youtube video.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUensqImzXM) [/QUOTE] First: What a cool sound! Second: I appreciate the anthropomorphic ghoulishness of doing this to a Gummi Bear. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/7 "2007-12-30T02:56:56Z")
Gummi Bears! Bouncing here and there and everywhere… ---
**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/8 "2007-12-31T01:44:46Z")
Not only that, mercury is one of the few metals which will destroy gold. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/9 "2007-12-31T01:53:49Z")
Until recently, it had never occurred to me that “throng” could be a verb. Many times have I read about throngs doing this or that, but never did I know that you could also throng. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/10 "2007-12-31T04:15:50Z")
Reindeer enjoy bananas. And bananas is a fun word. bananaannanananananaanana. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/11 "2007-12-31T04:55:46Z")
I learned recently that in Elizabethan times, there were rules about what sorts of clothes you could wear, depending on your social status. This class could not wear silk; this class could wear lots of silk, not no velvet; this class could wear some velvet, but not of the color of the Order of the Garter, and so on and so forth. There were also rules about how many courses you could have at your meals. Rules upon rules beyond counting. I don’t understand how a pre-industriial society could have even started to enforce all that shit, but apparently they tried. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/12 "2007-12-31T05:08:18Z")
Oh sure, [sumptuary laws.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumptuary_laws) They started trying that in the Middle Ages. It never quite worked, really, but they sure put effort into it. Love the Gummi Bear video! Wow! ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/13 "2007-12-31T05:16:30Z")
Plural for ox: oxen Plural for box: not boxen ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/14 "2007-12-31T05:18:30Z")
I only very recently, in the last 45 seconds or so, learned that mercury corrodes aluminum. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/15 "2007-12-31T07:36:42Z")
I’ve just learned that my life won’t be complete until I go buy a Bunsen burner, a test tube, some potassium chlorate, and a bag of gummi bears. ---
**Author:** ![SomeUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@SomeUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeUserName)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/16 "2007-12-31T10:27:36Z")
I did not know until about a year or so ago that in the song Winter Wonderland that Parson Brown was not the name of a person but reference to a priest. “Parson Brown” is the term used to talk about a typical angelican priest of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I thought that was just the name of a person they ran into while walking in the winter wonderland. I am 39 years old :o ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/17 "2007-12-31T13:12:12Z")
[QUOTE=bbs2k] Plural for box: not boxen [/QUOTE] Of course it is! [boxen](http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/B/boxen.html) ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/18 "2007-12-31T15:03:38Z")
From a short bio of Jonathan Swift that the word “mob” is a clip of the Latin _mobile vulgus,_ “The easily-moved common people.” That after he retired from silent comedy, Harold Lloyd made use of his fortune and free time to indulge his interest in nudie photography. Betty Page was an amature model whom he encouraged to go on to her particular destiny. ---
**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:** [December 31, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/19 "2007-12-31T18:14:22Z")
I used to manage a temperature metrology lab. So here are a couple for ya. 99.99% of people believe water freezes at _ **exactly** _ 32° F (0 °C). This is not true. The freezing point temperature of water is no longer a defining point on the temperature scale. The latest measurements would suggest pure water freezes at around 0.000089 °C. This is so close to 0 °C that, for virtually all applications, the freezing point temperature of pure water may be assumed to be 0 °C. But it is not exactly 0 °C. Very few people know this. FYI, there are only two _defined_ temperatures: absolute zero (0 K) and the triple point of VSMOW water (0.01 °C). All other temperatures - including freezing points of pure substances - are simply _known_ to a greater or lesser degree of accuracy. All have uncertainty. Except for absolute zero and the triple point of VSMOW water; as mentioned, they are _defined_ temperatures, and hence have no uncertainty. (Making and using a _practical_ water triple point cell, however, _does_ have uncertainty. But I won’t get into that.) ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633/20 "2007-12-31T18:23:21Z")
[QUOTE=Crafter\_Man] I used to manage a temperature metrology lab. So here are a couple for ya… [/QUOTE] Holy crap. You win. I speak for the nerdy. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-that/431633.md?page=2)