# Things you know that it never occurred to you others wouldn't know... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 5, 2015, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696 "2015-11-05T11:07:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/181 "2015-11-10T01:37:40Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > I’ve been amazed at the number of smart, well-educated people who believe that in the real world dropped balls of the same size will fall at the same rate, regardless of their weight. Imagine two balls the same size. e.g. 3 feet in diameter. One is an inflated beach ball weighing about 3 ounces. The other is made of granite and weights (WAG) 1500 lbs. When you drop them from the proverbial Leaning Tower, which one hits the ground first? Answer: granite. And not by a small margin either. The difference is huge. In other words, the variable being varied is density. Which critically affects falling in an atmosphere. What the classic real world experiment was about was two balls of the same material but of different size. So the same density but different weights. The contention of the non-scientific folks was that a 10 lb granite ball would fall twice as fast a 5 lb granite ball. The experiment demonstrated (within their margin of experimental error), that for a given density the size=weight didn’t matter. Heavier objects fell no faster than lighter ones. The “joke” is that \*\*Xema \*\*(perhaps inadvertently) told the story backwards where the usual conclusion is disproven rather than proven. So he’s asserting that lots of smart people believe something that actually truly really is false. And not just false in the 6th decimal place. But it sounds OK. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/182 "2015-11-10T03:34:51Z")
BTW, regarding Galileo and the Tower of Pisa. My wife explained to me once that he did NOT do that experiment in the tower, in agreement with main thrust of Wikipedia article. But she said that he DID do many experiments with balls rolling down ramps (to slow the fall to make the observations easier). ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/183 "2015-11-10T12:37:52Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > In casual conversation I would say “My house was robbed” because “burgled” sounds pretentious. And that the act might have been performed by a hobbit. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/184 "2015-11-10T13:03:54Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Einstein was born in the German Empire but his residency history is so complicated that I think I’d give most non-scientists a pass if they don’t know that. At various times he lived as a non-citizen in Italy and had citizenship in Germany, Switzerland, the U.S., and even (briefly) the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Yes, after I wrote the initial post in this thread I read up on their birthplaces; apparently countries’ borders were less defined and people would give their nationality based on the ‘tribal area’ they grew up in. That was more detailed than just a country of origin and so I don’t think it’s a thing you know that it never occurred to you others wouldn’t know. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/185 "2015-11-10T16:29:09Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > My sister in law prepared today’s Children’s Mass with the help of her 7yo daughter (the stuff that doesn’t come pre-packaged, such as picking songs). One of the things to prepare is find out which words may be good for the priest to ask for definitions. > > Today’s word was “widow”, selected because my niece had no idea what it meant. Out of a couple hundred children, only one boy happened to know it. I suspect that back in the day, being a widow was a bigger deal than today; there were all sorts of words used to describe women in various life states- maiden (i.e. virgin), widow, spinster, etc… none of which are really in use anymore. Widow is the only one that seems to really retain any utility, in that it describes a woman whose husband had died, although originally the connotations of having had your husband die were much more dire than they are in this day and age. So I’m not surprised that today’s children wouldn’t be aware of the word “widow”- it’s something that’s more in line with a vocabulary word from school than something in common social usage. When was the last time you heard about the old widow, or the Widow So and So, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/186 "2015-11-10T17:08:26Z")
> [@bump](#): > > So I’m not surprised that today’s children wouldn’t be aware of the word “widow”- it’s something that’s more in line with a vocabulary word from school than something in common social usage. When was the last time you heard about the old widow, or the Widow So and So, anyway. I’ve actually never heard those constructions, but it’s not uncommon to hear " So and So’s widow" or a reference to someone being widowed. Although I still wouldn’t expect grade schoolers to know until they happened upon a Bible reading that mentioned a widow. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/187 "2015-11-10T17:42:37Z")
People think that living in the same time zone means the sunrise and sunset happens at the same time for everyone in the time zone. No, people. At the eastern end of the time zone, the sunrise and sunset are just about an hour earlier than it is for people on the western end of a given time zone. The earth’s spin is essentially analogue. Time zones are somewhat digital in concept. . ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/188 "2015-11-10T18:40:44Z")
Having grown up in an area known for heavy snowfall, a lot of mine are about dealing with snow. I was in panic when I saw my neighbors, recently having emigrated from a tropical country, about to pour hot water over the steep stone steps leading up to their house in order to melt the snow. I’m sure they thought I was insane, running over from my house waving my arms shouting Hello! Wait! Don’t do that! Of course from their point of view, using hot water to melt ice probably seemed like a very reasonable idea (for anyone currently living in a tropical country … it will melt the snow, but will freeze again extremely quickly, replacing your snow-covered steps with a thin, often invisible, layer of slick ice). The hot water one, that makes sense to me that might not know if you were experiencing the joys of home ownership in a snowy area for the very first time. The other one makes me crazier – if you are from a city with a lot of snow, your mother probably yelled at you if you were sliding down the big piles of snow kicked up by the plow, especially sliding in the direction of the street. Usually the lesson learned was not to do that if your mother was watching, but it’s a fair point … a kid can slide faster and farther than anticipated … right into the path of an oncoming car, and if you are in an urban area where there are cars parked on the street, the view of the driver is blocked by the parked cars so they wouldn’t even realize kids were playing. So I was AMAZED when I was living in a city that usually didn’t see much snow but got hit with an unexpected storm – and parents were out there encouraging their kids to slide down the snow piles into the street. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/189 "2015-11-10T18:50:36Z")
ETA: Ref \*\*Philster \*\*… Neither are the times consistent between the north and south end of a given longitude in a large country. The difference may not be huge, but it’s plenty real and in some cases is enough to make a real difference. And as to east/west, it’s a bit worse than that. If all time zones were the same size they’d all be an hour wide. For historical reasons the US Eastern time zone is about 50% wider than it ought to be. So all the DST-related whining is extra huge in that time zone. Which happens to contain about 40% of the US population. Which is why the whining here on SDMB can be deafening. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/190 "2015-11-10T20:20:19Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > People think that living in the same time zone means the sunrise and sunset happens at the same time for everyone in the time zone. > > No, people. At the eastern end of the time zone, the sunrise and sunset are just about an hour earlier than it is for people on the western end of a given time zone. > > The earth’s spin is essentially analogue. Time zones are somewhat digital in concept. > > . The earth needs to get with the times and switch to digital like the rest of us! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/191 "2015-11-10T20:23:48Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > The other one makes me crazier – if you are from a city with a lot of snow, your mother probably yelled at you if you were sliding down the big piles of snow kicked up by the plow, especially sliding in the direction of the street. I’ve never slid down plowed piles of snow, but was told not to play in the piles of snow in case another plow comes in and buries me or a car plows through the pile and hits me. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/192 "2015-11-10T20:36:58Z")
I remember sledding in Schenley Park with a friend when I was maybe 8. I went flying down the hill way too fast and rolled off at the bottom, watching my sled get crunched by a passing car. I’m sure the driver shat his pants, but I was running away so fast I missed seeing his expression when he got out of the car. ---
**Author:** ![Nefario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/59ef9b/32.png) [@Nefario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nefario)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/193 "2015-11-10T21:03:25Z")
> [@LegsAkimbo](#): > > When I was in high school many many decades ago the rooms were designated as being in the north, south, east, or west wing. I had no notion at all, if standing in an office in the center of the school, which way any of those wings were. Not picking on Legs but surprisingly few people consider that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In worse case this can help you stay on track hiking out of the wilderness; they’re not just arbitray directions on a map. (or your cellphone GPS :rolleyes:) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/194 "2015-11-10T21:53:41Z")
But the Sun doesn’t rise in the East nor set in the West. It rises someplace generally more easterly than it is any of the other 3 cardinal directions. Likewise it sets more in the West than it does in the S or N or E. A naive person trying to hike out of a wood using the Sun angle for reference will walk in more or less a half-circle. Yes, people can use the Sun for orientation. I certainly do. But people can’t us the Sun for orientation if the only thing they know is some a simplified notion like “sunrise is east.” ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/195 "2015-11-11T07:35:17Z")
I feel like I am kind of pooing on my father’s memory by telling this, but…he believed that when the weather report predicted , say, twenty percent rain probability it meant it would definitely rain…on twenty percent of the area. I knew he was wrong, but after all, he was my father, and who the hell was I to correct him? Plus there was a tiny chance that he was right. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/196 "2015-11-11T10:44:38Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > As for Bob Seger – perhaps the poster had heard that PETE Seeger died (about two years ago), and things got confused. Now I’ve got a sing-along banjo version of “Night Moves” playing in my head… Seems most likely that they’re referring to the post on the first page where someone complained about people who hadn’t heard of Pete Seeger when he died (because ‘he was an icon’), and the reply thereto that said they would confuse him with Bob Seger (which was a facepalm moment for me, because…heh…I did). I’m another person who has right/left issues, though not in the context of my dominant hand (I’m a righty)…which is good, because I have to think about my hands to get it right in other contexts. I also have a problem with East/West due to it. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/197 "2015-11-11T15:52:24Z")
Returning to pineapples; in many languages the word for pineapple is _ananas_ or similar. Twice I’ve been in French speaking areas and have seen Americans order Ananas Flambe` after dinner, then complain when their pineapple was served to them. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/198 "2015-11-11T16:40:14Z")
False almost-cognates are a never ending source of both consternation and fun the world over. Never having seen pineapple flambé on offer in a native English-speaking area I almost think this dish was created as a way to play a trick on the English-speaking tourists. Hee, hee, such fun; Stoopid Greeengos!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/199 "2015-11-11T17:15:41Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Twice I’ve been in French speaking areas and have seen Americans order Ananas Flambe` after dinner, then complain when their pineapple was served to them. I don’t get it. What did they think they were ordering? ---
**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:** [November 11, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696/200 "2015-11-11T17:16:41Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > I don’t get it. What did they think they were ordering? Bananas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-know-that-it-never-occurred-to-you-others-wouldnt-know/736696.md?page=11)