In my youth one of the lads had a degree in Mathematics but couldn’t operate a phone box.

It was the standing joke at the end of a night out to get him to book a taxi, and we would all give him 20p because he would invariably screw it up.

Most folk don’t know what the first man made object to break the sound barrier was.
Thick I tell ye, couldn’t even work it out FFS.

I’ve never even considered this before. Was it a whip?

I only recently realised that a sous chef wasn’t a special kind of chef who made “sous” whatever that was supposed to be..

pondo
Full Member

(It, err… It IS because they’re horizontally opposed fours, isn’t it…?)

Not exactly, it’s because of the exhaust header lengths basically- the left hand pipes are much longer than the right. If you fit an EJ with an equal length header or a twinscroll turbo like on mine, you lose the subaru wubwub.

(It’s kind of because it’s a boxer, because with the turbo on one side of the engine it’s way easier to make unequal length headers… But you can put unequal length headers on any engine and likewise you can equal length a boxer)

I read somewhere not so long ago that nobody can fully explain the physics of how a wheel stays stable when rolling. Probably bull but I certainly don’t got the maths.

Bicycles defy explanation a bit – I don’t think anyone has really got to the bottom of why a bike, even riderless, tends to stay upright when moving. Theories about gyroscopic effect, trail (and the exchange of atoms with their riders) and so on don’t hold up – you can make bikes with tiny wheels and negative trail and they still behave in the same way.

So even though nobody actually knows how bikes work we can all ride them – some people can ride them quite well.

I could be wrong, but I think the OP was hinting at this kind of intelligence:

sure… turns out it was the artic circle which he’d never heard of before!! mind blown.

Is that the turning circle of a lorry…

lol. yes must be

Is that the turning circle of a lorry…

Beat me to it. I wonder if his friend had heard of the arctic circle?

I used to wonder why something which was clearly quite private should be called public hair. In my defence I was quite young.

Is that the turning circle of a lorry…

No, it’s the outer sponge bit.

twinw4ll

Most folk don’t know what the first man made object to break the sound barrier was.
Thick I tell ye, couldn’t even work it out FFS.
I was that person once, then I became a self righteous arsehole.

Go on then….
I can think of an obvious one and a not so obvious one.

being pedantic a deerhound / greyhound cross isn’t a lurcher. A lurcher is, classically speaking, a sight hound of any breed crossed with a non-sight hound of any breed.

Both greyhounds and deerhound are sight breeds so fall at the first hurdle

Technically a lurcher is a sighthound crossed with a working dog, not just any dog….to be fair it’s a pretty broad term these days…

Technically a lurcher is a sighthound crossed with a working dog, not just any dog….to be fair it’s a pretty broad term these days…

This thread is quickly going from one place to another.

This thread is quickly going from one place to another.

Did you not know that’s how these things usually work?

I would rather spend time with people who are not interested in diesel engines that those that argue the toss about the technicalities of a Lurcher…

Did you not know that’s how these things usually work?

I’ve been lurking around these parts for as long as I can remember. Have you heard of r/whoosh? Perhaps it was too subtle.

I often have a greater understanding as to how things work than my ability to use those things.
About 30 years ago I could tell you exactly how a computer worked, but zero chance of doing anything useful with it.

About 30 years ago I could tell you exactly how a computer worked,

Analogue or digital?

I famously turned to my wife while watching Gogglebox one evening and said incredulously “Is there a stupid one in every couple?”

The short answer would appear to be “Yes”

This thread is quickly going from one place to another.

Very good.

only female cows have udders the other day.

Unless I’m very much mistaken, cows have one udder, with usually four teats on it.

Bulls have one, big, teat and it takes a lot longer to get a pint out of.

And I worked in a large farming insurer with a person who thought that cows and bulls were different species. Mind you, she also turned up for her first farm visit in 4″ stilettos.

Rifle bullet is supersonic, so i am guessing at 1850 ish not googled btw

Woman at work always turns the thermostat to 9, because the room warms up faster.. Yep the 2kw heater miraculously becomes a 28kw combi boiler system

I know two educated middle-aged men who have literally never cooked a meal.

My brother in law while living at home post university uses to say “I’d like a bath” so his mother would run it for him.

Could translate medieval latin manuscripts but couldn’t (or wouldn’t) run a bath.

My sister, who has been driving for around 15 years, was really impressed when I changed gear straight from 3rd to 5th.
.
My girlfriend’s colleague, in her mid twenties, had to ring her to ask how to warm a tin of soup.

A friend borrowed my van this week as his car is dying. He didn’t know you should wait for the curly orange symbol to go off on the dashboard or that diesel engines don’t have spark plugs.

Reminds me of when I was down at Southampton boat show. A promotor/owner of an fully electric sailing boat was singing its praises about how little maintenance is needed and saying something alongs the lungs of you wouldn’t ever have to get your hands dirty changing the spark plugs on an engine… don’t think Diesel engines have spark plugs to change in the first place

Oh gods, thermostat wars in an open-plan office. They boxed off the controller in a locked Perspex box in the end.

It’s a bit warm, I’ll knock the aircon thermostat down to 16’C.
It’s really cold for some odd reason, I’ll whack the heating on and ram the aircon up to 30.
It’s hot in here, let’s open all the windows and drop the aircon back down to 16 whilst leaving the heating on at full chat.
Hello, maintenance? Yeah, it’s all iced up again. No, us neither, we were only trying to refrigerate the planet.

She’s got a first class law degree so clearly isn’t daft but I do wonder how some people see the world.
Is it just me or…?

I think it’s partly down to focus – there are very smart people who just have a specific focus on a certain thing, and there are others, like me, who just don’t have the brain ‘shape’ to have that sort of focus, I know a bit about all sorts of stuff, or at least what I can remember, because I’m interested in lots of different things, I’m not interested in specifics enough to spend time learning about it.
Like cars, over the last five years, I’ve driven hundreds of different cars and vans, and they continue to change all the time, but that doesn’t mean I know specific stuff about how they work, I can’t even figure out how to open the bonnet on some cars, but the manufacturers don’t make it easy if you haven’t read the user manual! And jump-starting vehicles is tricky when the battery is hidden in the boot, or under a floor panel.
As far as buying a car because of the colour is concerned, I’ve never done that, I’ve only ever made a point of never buying a car painted brown, or with a brown interior.
Or a cream interior, because I’ve seen first hand just how quickly they get very grubby!

Most folk don’t know what the first man made object to break the sound barrier was.

Not sure, but as someone said, was it a whip? On a similar subject, anyone know what the fastest man-made object was?

Oh gods, thermostat wars in an open-plan office. They boxed off the controller in a locked Perspex box in the end.

One of my jobs as an apprentice working on BMS, was to fit thermostats in offices. Not connected to anything, but stops complaints about temperature from the office drones

On a similar subject, anyone know what the fastest man-made object was?

Was it the manhole cover from one of the US nuclear tests?

On a similar subject, anyone know what the fastest man-made object was?

I’d suspect its one of the Voyager craft

On a similar subject, anyone know what the fastest man-made object was?

Laser beam?

On a similar subject, anyone know what the fastest man-made object was?

The first ever hire car?

#driveitlikeyoustoleit

Not sure a laser beam counts as an object.
I’d go with some sort of spacecraft, voyager/space shuttle/iss.

Not sure a laser beam counts as an object.

It is sometimes. Sometimes it’s a wave though

reminiscences about purple anodising

Where have you been for the last 10 years? Gunmetal is the new purple.

matt_outandabout
Full Member
I could be wrong, but I think the OP was hinting at this kind of intelligence:

That video is both hilarious and terrifying at the same time.

I ride a bike on the road with people potentially like that.

IMO, it just boils down to curiosity

Some people have absolutely no interests/compulsion to understand how the things around them (often things they use every single day) work. Personally, I think curiosity comes to you from your parents/teachers etc, asking and being asked questions, showing you how things work when you are young.

These days this is laid particularly bare by the fact like mundane knowledge of this sort is literally at your fingertips – all you need is to wonder something like “how does a microwave work? Seems to be magic” and you can have the answer in seconds.

I know a bit about all sorts of stuff, or at least what I can remember, because I’m interested in lots of different things, I’m not interested in specifics enough to spend time learning about it.

And yet, I’d consider you an authority on things that light up and things that cut stuff. Hence our previous interchange.

I pride myself on knowing a bit about a lot of things, but I perhaps sell myself short when it comes to things I am actually good at. You’re doing the same here I fear.

One of my jobs as an apprentice working on BMS, was to fit thermostats in offices. Not connected to anything, but stops complaints about temperature from the office drones

Brilliant.

One of my daughters university house mates was filling out an application for a part time job in Manchester, this girl comes from Crewe. She had to check if her English language proficiency was best described as basic, intermediate or fluent, because she didn’t know what fluent was. Alice suggested in that case she should tick intermediate. 🤣

On a similar subject, anyone know what the fastest man-made object was?

Fire as it emits light.