# 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:** 412
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8231 "2023-12-01T11:01:14Z")
The first recorded victim of “cattle mutilations” was in fact a horse named Snippy. Poor Snippy’s skeleton is now an exhibit in a garage in Colorado. > **[UFO legend: Horse found dead and mutilated 55 years ago in Colorado gets new...](https://gazette.com/life/ufo-legend-horse-found-dead-and-mutilated-55-years-ago-in-colorado-gets-new-life/article_130b0e6c-ca4a-11ec-af09-ffeb7d7ab0f4.amp.html)** > > HOOPER • Judy Messoline steps into the garage and frowns at the horse skeleton. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2023, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8232 "2023-12-02T21:51:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > When I was in grad school, I mostly hung out with the international students. We’d all do Thanksgiving together. They all knew that Thanksgiving was basically a harvest festival; that, like most harvest festivals, it was traditionally celebrated with way too much food; and that the traditional main course was turkey. And that was all they knew This Thanksgiving we hosted a Congolese refugee family (parents and five children). They love Thanksgiving. It’s the easiest American holiday to understand. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8233 "2023-12-03T02:05:42Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > “wooster” idnit? Pronunciation varies by locale in England. Good luck. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2023, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8234 "2023-12-03T03:08:40Z")
Sorry if I already mentioned it, but the word for “fire” in most Romance languages is a cognate with “focus” which means the same thing in Latin and English. This is because in ancient times the fireplace or hearth was the center, or focus, of the home. Spanish: _fuego_ French: _feu_ Italian: _fuoco_ Romanian: _foc_ Logudorese Sardinian: _fogu_ The classical Latin word for “fire” is _ignis_, which AFAIK was not adopted into any Romance language. ---
**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 3, 2023, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8235 "2023-12-03T03:58:30Z")
Actually “focus” IS the Latin word for hearth; the geometric or physics meaning came from hearth rather than the other way around. Via the interchangeability of “f” and “p” as in pisces=fish, the Greek root word “pur” for fire gives us such derivatives as focus- a place where you put fire; furnace- ditto; pyro; pyre; fire. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2023, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8236 "2023-12-03T04:24:58Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > The classical Latin word for “fire” is _ignis_, which AFAIK was not adopted into any Romance language. Not in its entirety, but of course there are cognates like “ignite”. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2023, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8237 "2023-12-03T15:08:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Not in its entirety, but of course there are cognates like “ignite”. And igneous (said of rocks formed from lava). ---
**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 3, 2023, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8238 "2023-12-03T15:20:32Z")
“Flame” however is directly from flamma. Which leads me to wonder just when one uses the word for fire and when one uses the word for flame. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8239 "2023-12-03T19:45:44Z")
looks like the greek word for fire is fotia ---
**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:** [December 4, 2023, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8240 "2023-12-04T02:53:41Z")
Not “pyros”? ---
**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:** [December 4, 2023, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8241 "2023-12-04T05:51:35Z")
Ggl translate gives me “Φωτιά” for “fire”. It seems to be cognate with the word for “light”, not surprisingly. ---
**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:** [December 4, 2023, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8242 "2023-12-04T12:52:34Z")
One light year is approximately 10 terameters. (“tera” is 10\*\*12). The farthest known object/star/galaxy is about 260 yottameters from Earth. (“yotta” is 10\*\*24). ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8243 "2023-12-04T13:17:47Z")
You mean 0.26 ronnametres? (“ronna” is 1027) Just a bit over a quarter of something can’t be that much… ---
**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:** [December 4, 2023, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8244 "2023-12-04T13:32:47Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > One light year is approximately 10 terameters. (“tera” is 10\*\*12). > > The farthest known object/star/galaxy is about 260 yottameters from Earth. (“yotta” is 10\*\*24). I think you’re off a bit on those. > **[Light-year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-year)** > > A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, (ly) is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly 9,460,730,472,580.8 km, which is approximately 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days). Because it includes the word "year", the term is sometimes misinterpreted as a unit of time. > The light-year is most often used when expressing dis... Looks like a light-year is roughly 1016 meters, or 10 petameters. As for the most distant object… > **[List of the most distant astronomical objects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_distant_astronomical_objects)** > > This article documents the most distant astronomical objects discovered and verified so far, and the time periods in which they were so classified. > For comparisons with the light travel distance of the astronomical objects listed below, the age of the universe since the Big Bang is currently estimated as 13.787±0.020 Gyr. > Distances to remote objects, other than those in nearby galaxies, are nearly always inferred by measuring the cosmological redshift of their light. By their nature, very dist... Looks like that’s about 13 billion light-years. 13 x 109 light-years x 1016 meters per light-year = 13 x 1025 meters, or 130 yottameters. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8245 "2023-12-04T13:47:24Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Looks like that’s about 13 billion light-years. I don’t think so: Since the Big Bang space itself has grown between the objects, so they are now further away. See “proper distance” fourth paragraph in the article you linked to. So 33.6 Gly is about 0.6 ronnametres, borrowing your conversion method. ---
**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:** [December 4, 2023, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8246 "2023-12-04T13:53:24Z")
I had a prfessor in college who once mentioned that miles-per-gallon was approximately equal to light-years-per-cubic-mile. I just checked. 1 mile = 1.70108 x 10-13 light years 1 light year = 9.08169 x 10-13 cubic miles So they’re within an order of magnitude, which isn’t bad. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8247 "2023-12-04T17:22:24Z")
Here’s something that I know to be true (because I’ve done it); and something that I was told is true but which I have not yet been able to verify. Background: [Aldwych Station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldwych_tube_station) is a “ghost station” on the London Underground. It was closed in 1994 because the cost of replacing the elevators (lifts) could not be justified, as it was so little used (450 people per day used it). These days it is occasionally open to the public for tours. We went Saturday. **What I know to be true:** There are two elevators in Aldwych Station, located side by side. [Here is a picture of the inside of one of the elevators.](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2019/sep/09/london-abandoned-underground-tube-in-pictures#img-4). The surprising thing is that aside from the gated doors to enter and exit the elevator, there’s a door that goes straight out the side of the elevator, effectively into the lift shaft. I couldn’t find just an image to link to, but about half way down [this short article](https://funlondontours.com/aldwych-inside-the-disused-tube-station/) there’s a picture with that door open. A door opening into a lift shaft? Yep, it’s a safety feature. There are two elevators side by side, remember. If one got stuck, you just moved its partner elevator to the same position, opened the side doors and people could walk out of the disabled elevator into the working one - and I have indeed walked through those doors. **What I was told by the guide:** Aldwych Station was one of many designed by [Leslie Green](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Green) (true). All of Green’s stations featured paired lifts and used the same safety system (unverified). The guide also seemed to be suggesting that in (all of?) Green’s stations this safety system is still in place (also unverified, but you just know that I’m going to be using the lifts in those stations at every opportunity). j ---
**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:** [December 4, 2023, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8248 "2023-12-04T22:58:58Z")
Assuming that the Earth is the center of a spherical known Universe - roughly 10 \*\* 26 meters in radius - my calculations give a volume of the Universe of 4 x 10 \*\* 109 cubic Angstrom units. Interstellar space would average 1 atom per every 10\*\*8 cubic Angstrom units. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8249 "2023-12-05T03:37:35Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I don’t think so: Since the Big Bang space itself has grown between the objects, so they are now further away. See “proper distance” fourth paragraph in the article you linked to. I don’t know whether to believe you, you can’t even spell parallax. ---
**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 5, 2023, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/8250 "2023-12-05T05:37:51Z")
Given Relativity, I’m not sure the idea of where they are “now” even holds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=411) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=413)