# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674 "2020-04-13T03:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 387
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7731 "2023-10-11T17:53:33Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Just as horses can’t. There’s a German saying “Ich habe Pferde kotzen sehen”, “I’ve seen horses vomiting” I must need to brush up on my German. I thought _kotzen_ happened at the other end of the horse. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7732 "2023-10-11T17:56:57Z")
Maybe you had it mixed up with “Kot” or “koten”, respectively. “Kot” is the polite word for “shit”, and “koten” is the verb. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7733 "2023-10-11T18:04:30Z")
Undoubtedly. I’m sure many 2L speakers of German do this. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7734 "2023-10-11T18:05:19Z")
Can English “_coming out of both ends_” be rendered in German “_kotzen und koten_”? Or inverse the order if it’s pithier. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7735 "2023-10-11T18:12:30Z")
> [@billy-jack](#): > > Yeah. It was just a straightforward name change. > > I have often wonder what I would change my name to if I bothered to change it. I would have preferred the name John over my given name, despite how common it is. For some reason I’ve always liked the name, and it fits better with my last name. (No, it isn’t Smith). Another plus is that you can just be “John” at all times and you don’t need a different nickname (the Richard/Dick or Robert/Bob situation). But changing it’s just too much of a bother. ---
**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:** [October 11, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7736 "2023-10-11T18:12:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A similar argument can be used to show that, on an uneven surface, a table with four equal-length legs can always be rotated such that it’ll sit with all four legs on the ground, no wobbling. Although that doesn’t necessarily mean the four points of equal height would be stable; they might all be peaks which the legs would tend to slide off of. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7737 "2023-10-11T18:45:59Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > Can English “_coming out of both ends_” be rendered in German “_kotzen und koten_”? Or inverse the order if it’s pithier. No, that’s not a common saying in German, though everybody would understand it. We rather say “es kommt aus allen Löchern”, literally “it comes out of every hole”. ETA: to explain a little further, the expression “kotzen und koten” doesn’t really work because there’s a disconnect between the two verbs. “Kotzen” is the colloquial word for “to vomit” (“sich erbrechen” being the polite word), while “koten” rather is a clinical, neutral term. “Kotzen und scheißen” works better. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7738 "2023-10-11T19:24:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The case for one variable (let’s say temperature) on the equator is simple enough to prove. Pick any point you want on the equator, and compare it to its antipode. Maybe they’re the same already and you’re done, but more likely, they’re different. Let’s say, without loss of generality, that the point you’re at is warmer than the antipode. Now start moving your point around the equator. Either your point will always remain warmer, or there will come some point where the antipode overtakes it, and right at that point, the two will be equal for a moment. But your point can’t always remain warmer, because eventually you’ll travel 180º around the equator, so now your point is at the point we were originally calling the antipode, and the antipode is at your original point. Having found two antipodes on the equator with equal temperature, I suspect you could move north and south (although not due north and south) and find additional points of equal temperature. They wouldn’t be the same temperature as the first two points on the equator, but they would equal their antipodes. In that way, you could create a line around the earth that had the same temperature as their antipodes. It wouldn’t be a perfect circumference like the equator, but it would be an unbroken, symmetrical line around the earth. With that, the same process you used to prove the first two points of equal temperature could now find two antipodes of equal pressure. I suspect the proof of this theorem goes something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7739 "2023-10-11T20:00:45Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I suspect the proof of this theorem goes something like that. Here is a relatively [simple proof](https://www.ams.org/journals/proc/1979-073-01/S0002-9939-1979-0512075-9/S0002-9939-1979-0512075-9.pdf). > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > In that way, you could create a line around the earth that had the same temperature as their antipodes. It wouldn’t be a perfect circumference like the equator, but it would be an unbroken, symmetrical line around the earth. Your technique does not guaranty a continuous function. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7740 "2023-10-11T23:14:15Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > “Kotzen und scheißen” works better. that would prob. be “Speiben und scheissen” or truer yet, “g’spibm und g’schissn”, south of the Weisswurst-Equator. The mountain folks would not bei doing any _kotzen_. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7741 "2023-10-12T00:37:20Z")
It’s “speihen” south of the Main, not “speiben”, but otherwise you are correct. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7742 "2023-10-12T01:28:07Z")
> [@Someone's going to drive a race car on the ceiling. REALLY!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someones-going-to-drive-a-race-car-on-the-ceiling-really/991412/10): > > It’s more like dropping the hammer and the feather on the moon. We know the result in advance but it’s still remarkable to see because it’s viscerally counterintuitive. It took me slightly longer than I’d like to admit to get it… but this seems like a very worthwhile random fact to share … ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7743 "2023-10-12T04:43:08Z")
In general - wouldn’t one of your equatorial antipodes be in daylight, and the other in the dark - tending to yield different temperatures? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7744 "2023-10-12T09:06:26Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Angel’s Flight in downtown Los Angeles is a funicular. The two cars are called Olivet and Sinai. My hometown of Haifa, Israel has an underground funicular, the Carmelit, whichgoes up and down the Carmel mountain. It is simultaneously one of the longest funicular systems in the world, _and_ possibly the smallest metropolitan subway system. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7745 "2023-10-12T11:42:20Z")
and given the dynamics of a funicular it makes for quite efficient track-laying … (there is only a short space of overlap b/ween the 2 cars - for the remainder of the distance you just need 1 track) Here the funicular from Santiago: [![](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdYXPv-iyUtAac3qaArJdcwdx9lRy9NhAUsA&usqp=CAU) ](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdYXPv-iyUtAac3qaArJdcwdx9lRy9NhAUsA&usqp=CAU) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7746 "2023-10-12T12:15:49Z")
The population density of Gaza has been in the news lately. But **[this CNN article](https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/11/middleeast/maps-population-density-gaza-israel-dg/index.html)** pointed out that Gaza City, with a density of 21,000 people per square mile, is only 1/4 as dense as Dhaka, Bangladesh. A bit of googling showed that Manila, Philippines, is the most densely populated city in the world, with about 110,000 people per square mile. That’s one 16-foot-square patch of land per person. Multi-story buildings mean there’s more floor space than this implies, but roads, rails, parks, and parking lots also take away from that. If everybody goes outside at once, it’s gonna be crowded. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7747 "2023-10-12T12:25:18Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > with a density of 21,000 people per square mile, is only 1/4 as dense as Dhaka, Bangladesh. Heck, NYC is 29,000, but it absolutely requires building upwards in order to give people the space they need. ---
**Author:** ![Kzbre5m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kzbre5m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kzbre5m)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7748 "2023-10-12T17:00:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’s a good thing Mount Washington doesn’t erupt. Not Mount Washington, but Great Blue Hill south of Boston erupted one day on an April first news broadcast in 1980. Even with the news reporter holding up a sign at the end of the story saying “April Fools!” there was panic because people around the hill didn’t watch the whole segment, instead running out into the streets. Executive producer got fired. Okay, so Mount St. Helens did erupt a week earlier. [“[H]is failure to exercise good news judgment.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Hill_eruption_prank) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7749 "2023-10-12T17:38:47Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > In general - wouldn’t one of your equatorial antipodes be in daylight, and the other in the dark - tending to yield different temperatures? If both points are near the terminator they would both be in twilight, though more likely one point would be in mid-morning, having had enough time to absorb some heat from the sun, while the other point would be shedding the heat from the day. The coldest time of day is right about sunrise while the warmest time of day is a few hours before sunset, so it makes sense that there would be matching temperatures at some opposition – not always antipodal, but somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7750 "2023-10-12T21:51:28Z")
> [@Kzbre5m](#): > > Not Mount Washington, but Great Blue Hill south of Boston… As the tallest hill near Boston, it was a good location for a TV and radio broadcast antenna. Hence the Boston PBS station became WGBH. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=386) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=388)