# I'm surprised EVERYONE can't... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 24, 2019, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231 "2019-10-24T12:40:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/41 "2019-10-24T17:02:03Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Locating your self in a mental map is one that I find easy to do. If I’m driving somewhere new I’ll spend a little time checking the map and locating my NSEW and few key landmarks and roads and then I’m pretty much good to go and at least have the confidence to get somewhere near. … My wife and I used to drive our kids INSANE w/ this. We’d be driving someplace, and the kids would ask where the place was, and we’d say, “Over thataways a bit. We’ll find it.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/42 "2019-10-24T17:44:23Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Eventually, my parents gave up on the idea, and I never cared to pursue it further. That’s how I got to be in my twenties before I learned to drive. (Around here, not being a driver would be quite a handicap). Congratulations on your progress towards becoming a swimmer! ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/43 "2019-10-24T17:47:19Z")
> [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > Make basic change from a simple transaction. > > Last night, I hit a drive through for a quick cup o’ caffeine. The total comes to $1.07. I pull up to the window and wanting to offload some pennies (the tribbles of the coin world) hand the cashier a dollar bill, a dime and two pennies. With hope, I expect to get a nickel in return. That happened to me. The cashier said I gave her too much and gave back the two pennies. Then, she gave me 3 more pennies as change. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/44 "2019-10-24T17:49:16Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > :eek: Is there an anecdote behind this? I’m just wondering how one would discover that those around them are having difficulties with this task… I don’t want to speak for **monstro** but when I read her post I immediately assumed she was talking about those wretched commercials with the family of bears whose son can’t figure out how not to leave skid marks on his drawers. Every time I see it or the like, it amazes me that a whole advertising campaign has been built around the concept that there is a real ass wiping crisis in the nation :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/45 "2019-10-24T17:56:05Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I don’t want to speak for **monstro** but when I read her post I immediately assumed she was talking about those wretched commercials with the family of bears whose son can’t figure out how not to leave skid marks on his drawers. I’m quite confident that’s NOT what’s happening in those commercials. The ads are for Charmin, and they are touting the fact that it is soft but will not leave pieces of TP behind on your behind, a claim I’ve personally found to be completely false. Unless there’s some new spot I’ve not seen. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/46 "2019-10-24T18:01:39Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I don’t want to speak for **monstro** but when I read her post I immediately assumed she was talking about those wretched commercials with the family of bears whose son can’t figure out how not to leave skid marks on his drawers. Every time I see it or the like, it amazes me that a whole advertising campaign has been built around the concept that there is a real ass wiping crisis in the nation :smack: A quick googling of the term “[My husband leaves skid marks on…](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=my+husband+leaves+skid+marks+on&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8)” reveals that there are apparently a whole lot of men who are guilty of chronically leaving poo marks on their underwear, towels, bedsheets, etc… :smack::eek: ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/47 "2019-10-24T18:07:04Z")
The inability to do basic math. I can understand when someone can’t do a cube root in their head, but there are people who couldn’t tell you how many minutes are in three hours, or how old someone born in 1980 is. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/48 "2019-10-24T18:12:40Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > That’s…weird. That’s not even a matter of not being able to estimate durations; you don’t have to do that, because the ticket has that information printed on it. > > That’s more like “doesn’t know how to read the manual.” Given that it was a flight from Houston to Tokyo, maybe the printed arrival time WAS four hours later than the departure time, and the person was simply unaware of time zones? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/49 "2019-10-24T18:16:18Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Given that it was a flight from Houston to Tokyo, maybe the printed arrival time WAS four hours later than the departure time, and the person was simply unaware of time zones? That wasn’t the impression I got from him. He seemed to think that because every flight he’d been on was a short one, that this would also be a short one. He was also one of those the-world-revolves-around-America Americans, so maybe that was a factor in it. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/50 "2019-10-24T19:00:39Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I had a passenger sitting in the seat next to me when flying from Houston to Tokyo, a few years ago. He had apparently never flown cross-Pacific before and was stunned when I informed him that the flight would not take merely 4 hours, as he had thought, but 12+ hours. Believe it or not, I can kind of see his logic. Suppose he’s on a flight that leaves Houston on Thursday, Oct 24 at 2PM local time. The time in Tokyo at that same time is Friday, Oct 25 4AM. A direct flight from Houston to Tokyo is 14 hours and 5 minutes which means he’ll arrive in Tokyo at local time 6PM. So if he just gave a cursory look at his ticket he’d see a departure of 2PM and arrival 6PM - so 4 hours! Let’s just hope he’s not trying to make a Friday morning meeting in Tokyo because he’s going to be a bit late… ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/51 "2019-10-24T19:09:51Z")
Oops - see Fretful Porcupine and Velocity already addressed this… Well, he’ll be super surprised on the return trip! ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/52 "2019-10-24T19:20:12Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > Believe it or not, I can kind of see his logic. > > Suppose he’s on a flight that leaves Houston on Thursday, Oct 24 at 2PM local time. The time in Tokyo at that same time is Friday, Oct 25 4AM. > > A direct flight from Houston to Tokyo is 14 hours and 5 minutes which means he’ll arrive in Tokyo at local time 6PM. > > So if he just gave a cursory look at his ticket he’d see a departure of 2PM and arrival 6PM - so 4 hours! Let’s just hope he’s not trying to make a Friday morning meeting in Tokyo because he’s going to be a bit late… Sure, but even then I would expect someone to notice that Houston and Tokyo are a vast ways apart on the map and that you’d need a very long time to fly that distance, much more than from Houston to Seattle. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/53 "2019-10-24T19:24:43Z")
Another one for mental math. Calculating a 20% tip in your head should be trivial. Decimal slide and double. I’ve also experienced cashiers with a complete inability to cope with being handed odd amounts of change. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/54 "2019-10-24T19:33:48Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Sure, but even then I would expect someone to notice that Houston and Tokyo are a vast ways apart on the map and that you’d need a very long time to fly that distance, much more than from Houston to Seattle. You are of course correct, the first time I flew to Asia I knew I was in for a loooonnnggg flight, but I was still bemused by what the International Date Line did for my arrival times. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/55 "2019-10-24T19:38:25Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Sure, but even then I would expect someone to notice that Houston and Tokyo are a vast ways apart on the map and that you’d need a very long time to fly that distance, much more than from Houston to Seattle. Maybe there’s some ignorance of the distances involved, but I suspect it’s mixed in with some ignorance of how fast jets can fly. That is, he might have some sense that Tokyo is really far away, but he believes jets can fly really, really fast, and that they can cover that distance in four hours or so. In reality, of course, that would require supersonic speeds, and I’m fairly certain Concorde couldn’t even do it _that_ fast. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/56 "2019-10-24T19:41:56Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Even after 36 years, it amazes my husband that I can do this. GPS is nice, but before we go to a new place, I’ll pull up a map to get an idea of how long it’ll take to get there, and what landmarks or street names will indicate we’re getting close. We’ll be going on a cruise to Bermuda in the spring, and by the time we get there, I’ll have a pretty good idea of what sights are within walking distance of the ship > > We’ve lived in our county for 15 years now. I don’t know every highway and byway, but if I see stopped traffic ahead, I feel confident that if I turn off the main road, I can get us home without having to ask for directions. Spousal unit can’t wrap his head around that. Same with me and my wife but reversed. I don’t know how much of this was a childhood fascination with maps and an interest in being able to relate the 2d map to the 3d world. I suspect that it is something everyone could do, but it just isn’t something they practice. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/57 "2019-10-24T19:48:54Z")
Swimming again. Big thing here is some people in a group wont tell others they can swim or else try something like canoeing where if you cant swim it could be dangerous. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/58 "2019-10-24T19:55:28Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > Believe it or not, I can kind of see his logic. > > Suppose he’s on a flight that leaves Houston on Thursday, Oct 24 at 2PM local time. The time in Tokyo at that same time is Friday, Oct 25 4AM. > > A direct flight from Houston to Tokyo is 14 hours and 5 minutes which means he’ll arrive in Tokyo at local time 6PM. > > So if he just gave a cursory look at his ticket he’d see a departure of 2PM and arrival 6PM - so 4 hours! Let’s just hope he’s not trying to make a Friday morning meeting in Tokyo because he’s going to be a bit late… If he leaves from Tokyo at 8AM on the return trip he’ll get back to Houston before he leaves. An old joke talks about flying east over one time zone leaving at 9AM and arriving several hundred miles away at 9:10AM. “I sure want to see that plane take off!” ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/59 "2019-10-24T19:59:31Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Ummm? I’m a savant about dates. No, not historical dates. Dates of things that happened in my life. I asound my sibs, I can describe the weather, day of the week and what peoole were wearing. > IRL, right now, I’m not sure what day it is, go figure. > Also, I’m expert level closet cleaner. People invite me to their house for this. Running outta room? I’ll fix you right up. Just know in advance most of that junk is leaving here permanant like. Then I’m ying to your yang. I can’t remember what year things happened. Even important things like vacations, marriages and even deaths. I mean I’m BAD. Even for stuff that has happened fairly recently. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231/60 "2019-10-24T19:59:54Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Another one for mental math. Calculating a 20% tip in your head should be trivial. Decimal slide and double… Yes, and there are all kinds of tricks one can employ if one “gets” math. - To multiply by 5, take half and move the decimal to the right. - To calculate 15%, take 10% by moving the decimal, then half of that added back onto the 10%. - To multiply by 4, double the number and then double that number. - For pounds to kilograms it’s approximately a multiplication of 2.2. So, double the number, then move the decimal to the left and add that number back onto the X2 number. Etc, etc… And it’s so easy to estimate things using the decimal trick too. Like multiplying by say, 36 is a little more than a third (.33) with the decimal moved twice, etc. Easy peasy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-surprised-everyone-cant/842231.md?page=4)