For example, traffic light sensors. Just noticed on my evening drive a lady waiting for a left turn arrow, but she had pulled past the thick white line and thus her car’s magnetic field no longer would trigger the light to change. She missed it while I cruised on through going the other way; for all I know she is still waiting there for the arrow.
What seemingly simple and ostensibly well-known facts have you noticed people not being aware of?
That jello is rendered animal collagen. Surprisingly many people have no idea what it is, it’s just “jello”.
There is always the obvious one that pineapples do not grow on trees.You can ruin otherwise rational adults’ day with that factoid. A surprising number of people not only do not know it, they think you are trying to play a joke on them when you break the cold, hard reality to them.
Another is the idea that there is no gravity in space. Of course there is. That is why the Earth orbits the Sun and the Moon orbits the Earth. Gravity gets weaker the further away you go but it is still very much there. The reason people float in spacecraft is because they are constantly falling like a roller coaster that never ends, not because gravity isn’t there. Slowing down orbiting spacecraft allows them to fall at an angle that lets them actually hit something below. Stable orbits are just about falling so quickly that you always miss the surface.
This may not be what you had in mind but, correlation does not imply causation.
A lot of people seem to be ignorant of the difference between sleet and freezing rain. Sleet is frozen raindrops that bounce when they land on a hard surface. Freezing rain falls as liquid raindrops that spread out and freeze into a solid coating of ice when they hit a surface that is below the freezing point.
A lot of people seem to think that percentage changes add in some intuitive way. For example, if a stock originally at $100 falls 30% on the first day and rises 20% on the next, they will expect the stock to be at $90 (because, they figure, -30%+20%=-10% and $90 is 10% less than $100). It will actually be at $84 (because 100*(1-.30)*(1+.20)=84).
4 way stop 4 stop signs. Two cars arrive at same time, car on right has “Right of Way”!
And when calling someone at a land line, SAY WHAT YOUR NAME IS! (Hi this is Sam calling.)
Then ASK to speak with the person you want to talk to! (Can I speak with John?)
(I’ve had idiots call up and start talking about something. I have no idea who they are and the call is for someone else in the house. Duh, Duh, Duh!)
Good god, this.
Pressing the arrow button on the elevator multiple times will not make it arrive at your floor any faster.
If you look at the gas gauge on your dashboard, you’ll see a little arrow pointing left or right. That’s the side of the car the gas tank cap is on.
That it is actually electrical motors that power and move forward a diesel locomotive and train. The diesel engine powers a generator that, in turn, powers the electrical motors at each wheel’s drive unit.
I did not know this, so I hope I remember. Very cool.
I just learned this on here within the last year. You have no idea how grateful I am.
As for mine, it’s how many cell phone users I meet who don’t realize that you should turn off your mobile data while on your wifi. No need to pay to double dip, says I, and it saves on your battery too.
The same side of the moon (pretty much) faces the earth all the time. Until satellites and manned spacecraft orbited the moon, no human had ever seen the “Dark Side” of the moon. I once pointed this out to an otherwise very intelligent person and he just laughed and didn’t believe it. WTF?
And you can see the moon during the day, as well as at night. It’s amazing how many people don’t know this.
Timing is Everything.
I have Project Fi and mobile data is turned off automatically with wi-fi. I didn’t even know this was an issue until I switched from Verizon and my cell phone bill got a hell of a lot cheaper.
[QUOTE=Common Tater]
The same side of the moon (pretty much) faces the earth all the time. Until satellites and manned spacecraft orbited the moon, no human had ever seen the “Dark Side” of the moon. I once pointed this out to an otherwise very intelligent person and he just laughed and didn’t believe it. WTF?
[/QUOTE]
This is called synchronous rotation, and when I learned about it in college astronomy class it blew my fucking mind. I don’t understand how it works. My poor professor stayed with me after class and used actual physical models and everything and I nodded and pretended to understand but I still for the life of me do not grasp the physics involved.
I’ve got a lot of cars, and am pretty sure none of them have this “feature”.
How old are your cars? It seems to be a standard feature on newer cars, or at least I’ve seen it on every car I’ve been in since I learned this.
Ditto for crosswalk buttons. The light’s not going to change any sooner no matter how many times you hit the button.
You know the spice you buy in small jars at the store? The spice likely contains sand. Because they put sand in it.
And people who do not get this will argue their point until, somehow, a light clicks on.