# What's the most advanced thing you understood at a young age? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 29, 2021, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839 "2021-12-29T06:05:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**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 31, 2021, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/61 "2021-12-31T12:27:32Z")
1950’s - age 8 or 9. I was fascinated with maps - gas station city (and larger region) maps, and the almost monthly ones that came with the National Geographic magazine. I was able to navigate (not drive!) the family 1953 Ford halfway across North America (after a short discussion with my father across a few maps the night before). Same age - I became interested in the stock market, and would follow the prices of the family-owned securities, and got to choose what I should buy a share or two of with the (Canadian) Family Allowance money that slowly accumulated in my bank account. (I think it was $6/month per child in the early days). I remember going to the bank and seeing my mother “clip (bond) coupons”, and being fascinated with the pictures on the stock/bond certificates… I am still very interested in the above two subjects. ---
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/62 "2021-12-31T15:38:10Z")
Preschool age, maybe 4 when I learned liquids conduct electricity. My parents had a large sweet corn patch that had 3 electric fence wires strung around it, 1 up high to keep the deer out and 2 down lower to keep the raccoons out. Had to pee real bad so the older neighbor kid suggested peeing in the sweet corn patch as the human smell would keep the deer out and if I peed on the electric fence wire the “electrified” pee would do even a better job. That is when I found out liquids conduct electricity. Although I did not think it was funny (at the time) the neighbor kid sure did. He also suggested I hold his hand while he grabbed the electric fence to show how tough he was. Again, I did not think it was funny but he did. I am sure out in SDMB land there will be someone who knows of some liquid that does not conduct electricity that will prove me wrong. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/63 "2021-12-31T15:42:04Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I was always very good with maps, and was official navigator on family holidays… Oh, I haven’t thought of this in decades, but this reminds me of a sneakbrag. It was in our first house, so I must have been in first or second grade. I have a clear memory of a bunch of much older kids in the neighborhood ringing our doorbell. They were holding a board game… and asked if I could explain the rulebook to them. . > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > When I was in sixth grade, I read the book _One Two Three… Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science_ by George Gamow. Me too! For me, his explanations of Topology were fascinating. I remember thinking “Wait, you mean math classes could be this interesting?” ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/64 "2021-12-31T16:18:09Z")
Oh, boy. I think by the time I was 6 I had a pretty good grasp of the following: I understood what death was long before Sesame Street dealt with the loss of Mr. Hooper. I understood that life wasn’t fair. I wasn’t happy about it but I understood it at least. I understood that the school administration’s policies and procedures were often designed to make their lives easier rather than to help me. In fact, their procedures might harm me. (See understanding life wasn’t fair.) ---
**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 31, 2021, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/65 "2021-12-31T16:58:18Z")
> [@a6ka97](#): > > I am sure out in SDMB land there will be someone who knows of some liquid that does not conduct electricity that will prove me wrong. Pure water, for one. Trouble is, it only takes a tiny amount of impurities to change that, so you won’t find water pure enough to insulate unless you go to extreme measures to get it. Oils, in general, are also pretty good insulators, even with a reasonable amount of impurity. Highly impure water like urine, though? Yeah, you already know about that one. ---
**Author:** ![Mortimus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Mortimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mortimus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/66 "2021-12-31T17:10:50Z")
> [@a6ka97](#): > > That is when I found out liquids conduct electricity. At a young age I could identify an electric fence by the insulators. Then I found out that just because a fence doesn’t have insulators doesn’t mean it’s safe to pee on. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/67 "2021-12-31T18:16:53Z")
My grandparents lived next door to Felt, and socialized with him some. My one uncle claims to have asked him if he was DT at the time. He denied it, of course. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/68 "2021-12-31T18:18:30Z")
My daughter came home from first grade and announced that Santa Claus wasn’t real. When we asked why she said that, she explained that the books about him were in the Fiction section. ---
**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:** [December 31, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/69 "2021-12-31T19:04:54Z")
That’s very clever and cute 😁. Sounds like your daughter is Doper material. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/70 "2022-01-02T16:46:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > When I was in Boy Scouts, we would often, on a camping trip, make foil-pouch meals: You take a hamburger patty, and a potato, and some veggies, and maybe a raisin-stuffed apple for dessert, and wrap them all up in foil and toss the foil into the coals of a campfire to cook. There was much debate about whether the shiny side of the foil should be facing in or out, but I insisted that it couldn’t possibly matter, that a substance couldn’t possibly reflect heat better in one direction than the other. Which prompted some of the guys to do the experiment, and conclude that I was right. Why does it have one shiny side and one dull side? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/71 "2022-01-02T18:54:46Z")
It’s an artifact of the manufacturing process. ETA cite: [Is There A Right And Wrong Side Of Aluminum Foil? | HuffPost Life](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aluminum-foil-sides_n_59b941cbe4b0edff971854d4) > Reynold’s [explained the difference](http://www.reynoldskitchens.com/aluminum-foil/heavy-duty-foil/) on their site: > The foil is ‘milled’ in layers during production. Milling is a process whereby heat and tension is applied to stretch the foil to the desired thickness. We mill two layers in contact with each other at the same time, because if we didn’t, the foil would break during the milling process. Where the foil is in contact with another layer, that’s the ‘dull’ side. The ‘shiny’ side is the side milled without being in contact with another sheet of metal. The performance of the foil is the same, whichever side you use. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/72 "2022-01-02T21:56:07Z")
For non-stick aluminum foil, the dull side is non-stick. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2022, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/73 "2022-01-05T20:52:52Z")
Maybe seven or eight when noticing how the sun’s position in the sky in the morning more or less indicates east, and moves along southward and then westward as the time of day accordingly advances. And then taking outsized pride, on a sunny day, to be able to guess the time of day to usually within an hour or so. 🕶 ---
**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:** [January 5, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/74 "2022-01-05T20:59:50Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > For non-stick aluminum foil, the dull side is non-stick The first time I ever heard of non-stick aluminum foil was just a few years ago. My gf saw me taking food out of the oven. I’d put aluminum foil on a baking sheet. She said, “you should have used the non-stick foil”. I chuckled; her thinking I’d fall for a silly idea like that. She got the roll out of the drawer and showed it to me. Kinda the opposite of this thread. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2022, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/76 "2022-01-06T17:54:23Z")
That made me curious, as I have never heard of such a thing eiher. Here is what I found: > A non-stick polymer coated aluminum foil and method of making it. The polymer coating composition comprises a silicone resin, a silicone release agent, a silicone curing agent, a hindered phenol antioxidant and a solvent. The method of making the non-stick polymer coated aluminum foil includes applying the polymer coating composition on at least a portion of one side of the aluminum foil and partially curing the coating composition to allow handling and future processing of the coated aluminum foil without blocking of the coating composition. The curing of the coating composition is completed by heating the coated aluminum foil in bulk. I was hoping we do not have such a thing in Europe. I was wrong, we do too. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/77 "2022-01-06T20:27:13Z")
A tween driving doesn’t strike me as nearly as unusual (or, sorry to be blunt, potentially problematic) as a tween laying gas lines to homes. 😲 💥 ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839/78 "2022-01-06T20:50:12Z")
Really not a big deal about the gas lines. That’s easy. Threading machine pipe fittings and pipe dope. Digging the trench deep enough was the hard part. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-advanced-thing-you-understood-at-a-young-age/956839.md?page=3)