TIL: Today I Learned

[Arakhor]

Well, one 50,000th of your outstretched arm is probably going to be very tiny indeed.

 

[Takhisis]

What if he has big hands?

 

[Arakhor]

It'll be a a very slightly larger "quantum of arm", so to speak.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Well, one 50,000th of your outstretched arm is probably going to be very tiny indeed.

I mean I'm just trying to put it in plain numbers instead of all those comparisons you see all over the place
like comparing the history of earth with a 24 hour clock and whatnot

 

[Arakhor]

I don't have a problem with that, but people in general are very bad at understanding abstract numbers, particularly extremely large or small ones.

 

[The_J]

Even in science. Some data in my field is regularly shown as "per million" instead of percent, because else people wouldn't understand the small numbers (or not take them seriously). I even agree with that. If I see 0.00002 and 0.00007 I'll multiply all that stuff just to be able to easier see the differences.

 

[Lohrenswald]

per cent 0/0
pro mille 0/00
per million 0/00000

you can thank me later

 

[The_J]

Häh?

 

[Lohrenswald]

you make me cry J

 

[timtofly]

Is that the anatomically correct earth, or the actual atoms that make up the earth, history?

 

[Arakhor]

Lacrosse on horseback is a thing, apparently.

 

[Birdjaguar]

TIL that pure water doesn't freeze until -55 degrees F.

Chemists have discovered just how cold water can get before it must freeze.

For water, the answer is -55 degrees Fahrenheit (-48 degrees C; 225 Kelvin). University of Utah researchers found that is the lowest temperature liquid water can reach before it becomes ice.

Back in grade school, we all learned that water under normal atmospheric pressure freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 C), but that rule only holds for water with tiny impurities.

"If you have liquid water and you want to form ice, then you have to first form a small nucleus or seed of ice from the liquid. The liquid has to give birth to ice," said chemist and co-author of the study Valeria Molinero in a press release.

Impurities in water serve as those seeds.

But in very pure water, "the only way you can form a nucleus is by spontaneously changing the structure of the liquid," Molinero explains. She and co-author Emily Moore published their study today in the journal Nature.

 

[Lohrenswald]

So Mikheil Saakashvili who was president of Georgia 2004-2013 (including when Russia attacked in 2008) was in 2015 appointed governor of Odessa and this is just stupid

 

[Valka D'Ur]

TIL: If you're buried in Venice, it will only be for about 10 years. The city's only cemetery is crowded, so bodies are routinely disinterested; the bones are cleaned ith wine, and placed into an ossuary.

Yeah, I'd find death a bit boring after 10 years, too.

I think the word you're looking for is "disinterred."

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

TIL the Spanish have the oldest marine corps in existence.

 

[Commodore]

TIL: It is illegal to watch TV without a license in the UK.

 

[Arakhor]

Indeed. It's how the publicly-funded BBC can survive (and not show adverts).

 

[Snerk]

Though not illegal to watch, more like illegal to own a TV without paying the annual license, no?

 

[Arakhor]

That's effectively what it comes down to, yes. Without sending out TV wave-detection vans (or whatever it is they do to check for non-compliance), I believe they just check to see if you have a TV and are capable of picking up signals, whether or not you actually watch the TV.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Though not illegal to watch, more like illegal to own a TV without paying the annual license, no?

Not any more. You need a licence to watch catch-up and streaming TV and on any device.