# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2024, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785 "2024-07-25T15:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 170
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3381 "2025-10-16T23:51:49Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > That is what we get taught at school, but it does not work. I’m not sure what you got taught in school, but it’s a basic undergraduate physics experiment. All you need is a balance and a way to capture water overflow. 1. Use the balance to collect known pure gold equal in weight to the crown. 2. Fill a bowl with water, capture the runoff from immersing the crown. 3. Fill a bowl with water, capture the runoff from immersing the pure gold. 4. Test the balance of the two runoffs. If the crown is pure gold, then they balance. If the crown is adulterated, and thus less dense than pure gold, the crown’s runoff will be greater. No need for precise measurements of volume or mass or density, just simple comparisons on a balance. Reading the link, it looks Galileo is solving the more difficult question of the exact ratio of gold and silver used to make the crown. I think that can be solved by using pure gold and pure silver in differing amounts. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3382 "2025-10-17T00:42:53Z")
[This page](https://math.nyu.edu/Archimedes/Crown/CrownIntro.html), on the same site as the one Pardel-Lux linked to, explains the problems with that approach. The three reasons mentioned are, first, that it’s not very ingenious, second, that it doesn’t use Archimedes Law at all, and third, that it couldn’t be done with sufficient accuracy using the tools available. The first two arguments can be dismissed (a technique that works doesn’t need to be ingenious), but for the third point, they make this argument. The largest known gold wreath from that time weighs 714 grams and has a maximum diameter of 18.5 cm. They round up to 1000 grams and assume that a 20 cm diameter vessel is used to contain it. 1000 grams of gold has a volume of 51.8 cm3, while if 30% were replaced with silver, it would have a volume of 64.8 cm3. The difference in the rise of the level of water would then be only 0.41 mm. They say > This is much too small a difference to accurately observe directly or measure the overflow from considering the possible sources of error due to surface tension, water clinging to the gold upon removal, air bubbles being trapped in the lacy wreath, and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3383 "2025-10-17T01:02:20Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > The difference in the rise of the level of water would then be only 0.41 mm. A kettle with a narrow spout takes negligible pressure for water to flow. ---
**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:** [October 17, 2025, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3384 "2025-10-17T08:17:11Z")
But how do you get the crown through that narrow spout without damaging it? ---
**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:** [October 17, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3385 "2025-10-17T12:47:35Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > you could call and talk to him and make requests. Not a lot of people called. I did several times and the number was never busy. He’d take requests and answer questions about the songs that had been played. Once he had bleep something that I couldn’t figure out so I called and asked what it was and he told me. You talked to him live, over the phone? I remember calling the number to submit a song for the Funny Five. It was a recording, and I had to leave a message. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3386 "2025-10-17T13:28:05Z")
Live over the phone several times. The live show had Top 10 rather than Funny Five. When you called someone answered. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3387 "2025-10-17T13:48:35Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > The live show had Top 10 rather than Funny Five. When you called someone answered. I remember that. He had like a dozen sidekicks who manned the lines. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3388 "2025-10-17T14:05:56Z")
Memory unlocked. Captain Chaos, Jungle Judy, Laughing Linda… ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3389 "2025-10-17T16:07:21Z")
Today I learned that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had notoriously bad teeth. No way this would fly for a national politician in our era. [![](https://i.ibb.co/qYYHXb5k/IMG-2115.jpg) ](https://i.ibb.co/qYYHXb5k/IMG-2115.jpg) ---
**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 17, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3390 "2025-10-17T16:12:49Z")
I’ve wondered how Richard Nixon’s political career might have been different if in the late 1940s he had invested in a nose job and electrolysis on his facial hair. ---
**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 17, 2025, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3391 "2025-10-17T16:13:39Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Today I learned that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had notoriously bad teeth. Damn, that’s bad! Did he use to chew tobacco? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3392 "2025-10-17T16:14:06Z")
The oldest confirmed shark attack is about 3,000 years old. A hunter gatherer in Japan was buried; he was missing a hand, a leg, and the other leg was present but detached, upside down, and missing a foot. At first researchers thought it was some kind of war injury, but they were able to match the lacerations on his bones with a tiger or great white shark. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3393 "2025-10-17T19:58:22Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Did he [Woodrow Wilson] use to chew tobacco? Best as I can tell, he was just a cigar/cigarette smoker. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2025, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3394 "2025-10-18T07:43:20Z")
YIL there is a word for the rustling sound of fallen leaves disturbed or walked on: psithurism. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/D6S_TMd7Jkw/maxresdefault.jpg "60 Seconds of Stella Leaf Jumps") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6S_TMd7Jkw) ---
**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:** [October 18, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3395 "2025-10-18T15:26:52Z")
Be honest: You just posted that for an excuse to share that video. I approve. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3396 "2025-10-18T16:42:22Z")
After watching one of the better Hawaii Five-O episodes _The Finishing Touch,_ I learned that guest star George Voskovec (remembered as juror #11 in _12 Angry Men_) has a minor planet co-named after him and Jan Werich for their contributions to the Czech theatre. At a glance, Czech arts and letters are well-represented: with planetary bodies named after Karel Čapek, Josef Škvorecký, Karel Jaromír Erben, Ondřej Sekora, Božena Němcová, Milan Kundera, Jaroslav Seifert, Jaroslav Hašek, Alphonse Mucha, and of course Kafka. By comparison, the Irish didn’t do as well. Joyce got a planet, Yeats a crater on Mercury, Wilde an asteroid. But nothing for Lady Gregory, John Millington Synge, George Bernard Shaw(!), Micheál Mac Liammóir or Hilton Edwards. [The list is quite the rabbit hole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_planets_named_after_people#The_arts) ---
**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:** [October 18, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3397 "2025-10-18T17:17:12Z")
There are a very large number of asteroids, so it’s not hard to get one named after any given person. Even fictional people. ---
**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:** [October 18, 2025, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3398 "2025-10-18T17:29:49Z")
So it’s surprising, the prominent people who didn’t. (Insert Red Buttons “didn’t get a dinner!”) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3399 "2025-10-18T19:29:57Z")
How could I never have heard until today that in mammals the males have two different sex chromosomes (X and Y) but in birds it’s the females who have two (Y and W). Researchers now think that’s the reason why male mammals, on average, have shorter lives than females, but male birds, on average, have longer lives than females. ---
**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 18, 2025, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785/3400 "2025-10-18T19:49:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > in mammals the males have two different sex chromosomes Placental and marsupial mammals; the monotremes have a very complicated arrangement. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=169) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-2/1004785.md?page=171)