# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![FrenchDunadan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frenchdunadan/32/5449_2.png) [@FrenchDunadan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrenchDunadan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/81 "2020-04-16T18:27:50Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Elvis never did a concert outside the US or Canada . The main reason was his manager Tom Parker (real name Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk from the Netherlands ) was an illegal immigrant and was afraid if he left the US he would be caught when he came back in and he did not want Elvis to do overseas concerts. In fact he did once. While Elvis was doing military service in the US Army in Germany, he took a permission to Paris and played and singed in a club, for one night. All for free, no publicity, only one night. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/82 "2020-04-16T18:38:55Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > This completely changes a joke they did on “The Office”. When Angela was trying to delay her marriage to Andy she gave him a list of impossible requirements for their wedding which included a 1000 year old church located in the continental United States. A 1000-year-old church would still be older than a 12th-century one. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/83 "2020-04-16T21:44:28Z")
The Algonquin Round Table was, in fact, rectangular. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/84 "2020-04-16T22:19:20Z")
The guy who invented the Pringles can was cremated and his ashes put in a Pringles can for burial. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/85 "2020-04-16T22:22:18Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/86 "2020-04-16T22:23:30Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > It’s that in the UK and other “Commonwealth” nations, they’re commonly called “custard slices” (which makes sense, due to the custard-like filling)… > > …And specifically in Australia, they’re also slangily referred to as “snot blocks”. Well, Wikipedia cites an Australian online dictionary which gives that as a contributor remembering one city in the 1950’s, and, at a guess, probably when they were in High School. So don’t expect anybody much to know what you mean if you use that term… The picture in Wikipedia shows what might be called, in melbourne.victoria.australia, a “French Custard Slice” or “French Vanilla Slice”. A “custard slice” wouldn’t be that fancy 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/87 "2020-04-16T22:28:29Z")
Oxford University is older than Aztec civilization. (We have to take some minor liberties with the terms “university” and “civilization”, but still). ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/88 "2020-04-16T22:36:33Z")
Abraham Lincoln was buried…and then, over the years, his body was moved 17 times and the coffin was opened 5 times. I couldn’t remember the exact number but the link gives those figures. I saw a very interesting documentary about it on TV once. [Abraham Lincoln's Body Exhumed](https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln13.html) ---
**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:** [April 17, 2020, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/89 "2020-04-17T07:41:29Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I like this one because you can ask people “In what century was the oldest building in the US built”. No one ever answers “12th”. Are you people all sure that there is not one single building left standing built by the original inhabitants of your country from before the 12th century? There are lots of piramids in Mexiko, no such things in the USA? Not even an adobe hut in some very dry part of New Mexiko? In the [Acoma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoma_Pueblo) Pueblo? Or in [Hopi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi) territory? :dubious: ---
**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:** [April 17, 2020, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/90 "2020-04-17T07:58:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In some third-world countries, where record-keeping is spotty, the way you know that a child is old enough to start school is if they can reach over the top of their head and touch the opposite ear. Below around age 5, kids’ arms are too short, relative to their head size, to do that. They still did that in Germany in the 60’s. ---
**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:** [April 17, 2020, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/91 "2020-04-17T08:04:51Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Are you people all sure that there is not one single building left standing built by the original inhabitants of your country from before the 12th century? […] I see **kitap** had the same doubts, count me ninja’d ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/92 "2020-04-17T13:04:12Z")
(1) Archimedes is famous for testing his King’s crown to see if it was made of solid gold. In the 1st century BC, Vitruvius told this story, and that Archimedes determined the volume (and thus the density) of the crown by measuring the amount of water it displaced. Recently I leaned that that is NOT the method Archimedes used. It was none other than Galileo Galilei who first determined the procedure Archimedes really did use more than 1800 years before Galileo’s time. This procedure was cleverer, more accurate, much easier to perform, and more based on interesting science than the procedure Vitruvius described! If you Google to find out how Archimedes determined the crown’s density, about 99% of the hits will refer you to the incorrect tale by Vitruvius. (2) Frightened by Hitler, German physicists Max von Laue and James Franck illegally sent their Nobel Prizes to Copenhagen for safe-keeping. When the Germans invaded Denmark, George de Hevesy of the Niels Bohr Institute immediately dissolved those gold medals in aqua regia and left the resultant dark liquid in jars on his laboratory shelf. They weren’t disturbed during the War and The Nobel Society eventually re-cast the Nobel Prize gold medals, using the original gold. ```auto [quote="Gatopescado, post:3, topic:851674"] There are no bodies in the concrete of the Hoover Dam. [/QUOTE] Are you calling [Waylon Jennings a liar?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFkcAH-m9W0&t=98) ;) I suppose you don't think Willie Nelson was hung in the Spring of '25 either. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/93 "2020-04-18T00:42:55Z")
US men’s field hockey team has never won a game at the Olympics. They got a bronze medal in 1932 because there were only 3 teams. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/94 "2020-04-18T05:14:22Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > (1) Archimedes is famous for testing his King’s crown to see if it was made of solid gold. In the 1st century BC, Vitruvius told this story, and that Archimedes determined the volume (and thus the density) of the crown by measuring the amount of water it displaced. > > Recently I leaned that that is NOT the method Archimedes used. It was none other than Galileo Galilei who first determined the procedure Archimedes really did use more than 1800 years before Galileo’s time. This procedure was cleverer, more accurate, much easier to perform, and more based on interesting science than the procedure Vitruvius described! > > If you Google to find out how Archimedes determined the crown’s density, about 99% of the hits will refer you to the incorrect tale by Vitruvius. Add Galileo to the search, and it comes right up. [The Golden Crown (Sources)](https://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Crown/bilancetta.html) ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/95 "2020-04-18T13:47:37Z")
0! = 1. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/96 "2020-04-18T14:05:52Z")
British Sign Language and American Sign Language are two of the least mutually understandable languages in the world. They are like English and Mandarin. ASL is somewhat mutually intelligible with French Sign Language, and Spanish Sign Language, and is very much mutually intelligible with many central and South American signed languages, as well as a few Asian signed languages. BSL is somewhat mutually intelligible with Australian Sign Language, but with few others. It’s almost the Basque of signed languages. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/97 "2020-04-18T14:13:12Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I’ve mentioned this many times on the Dope, but one of the most interesting facts I’ve ever come across is this: a gallon of gasoline contains more hydrogen than a gallon of liquid hydrogen. Why is that? I am not doubting you, but is it that the volume of liquid hydrogen is so much less? Regards, Shodan ---
**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:** [April 18, 2020, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/98 "2020-04-18T14:15:39Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Are you people all sure that there is not one single building left standing built by the original inhabitants of your country from before the 12th century? There are lots of piramids in Mexiko, no such things in the USA? Not even an adobe hut in some very dry part of New Mexiko? In the [Acoma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoma_Pueblo) Pueblo? Or in [Hopi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi) territory? :dubious: We can’t be sure. There’s uncertainty in many of the ‘biggest’, ‘oldest’, and other superlatives. In this case it’s the oldest one we know of, and the fact that it was transported from Europe centuries after it was originally built is unusual too. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/99 "2020-04-18T14:35:03Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Why is that? I am not doubting you, but is it that the volume of liquid hydrogen is so much less? > > Regards, > Shodan Gasoline consists of hydrocarbons with 5 to 12 carbon atoms in each molecule. There are hydrogen atoms connected to the carbons (hydrocarbon). Butane (C4H10), Octane (C8H18) and its isomer 2,2,4-Trimethylpentane are three of the primary components- - the precise makeup will vary depending on the refining methods and the type of crude oil feedstock used in the distillation process. Meanwhile, liquid hydrogen is just very chill H2. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/100 "2020-04-18T14:44:29Z")
Dolly Parton has been married to her husband since 1966. He’s only seen her perform live once. She recorded Stairway to Heaven because it’s one of his favorite songs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=6)