Tell me/ us an interesting fact we might not know. I’ll start.

@Nickc

From your source

But while hunting night intruders, the Starfires were so fast that they closed too rapidly and often made repeated passes, unsuccessfully attempting to line up the propeller planes in their gunsights. The commander of the 319th perished when he fell below his Starfire’s stall speed of 110 miles per hour while attempting to slow down enough to fall in behind a Po-2—a circumstance some consider the only biplane-on-jet “maneuver kill” in history.

So is your source made up?

a pound of feathers is heavier than a pound of gold

You’re gonna have to elaborate on that…!

…whereas I’d just assumed it was practical versus theoretical legerdemain:

– we define the weight of a kilo (balls to imperial) of feathers as being just the weight of the beta keratin that the feathers are actually made of,
– the kilo of gold is just the weight of its atoms of gold.
– and then actually real world weigh them, the kilo of feathers will be heavier because it will contain a few grammes of air, depending on how fluffed up it is.

NASA almost killed Big Bird from Sesame Street.

They wanted to engage with the youth, wanted to send someone kids could relate to into space. So lined up the Big Bird character and actor to go through testing… which went ahead.. However they swapped to a school teacher towards the end of the process. The shuttle was “Challenger”… and it blew up killing all the crew.

Another maths one. If you add up all the integers 1+2+3+4……up to infinity.

The sum adds up to -1/12

no it bloody doesn’t.

IT can be made to approximate -1/12 if you do some simplification in a manner that allows everything to collapse down.

and then actually real world weigh them, the kilo of feathers will be heavier because it will contain a few grammes of air, depending on how fluffed up it is.

I’m struggling with this…if you have a kilo of feathers then it should be a kilo, not a kilo of feathers and then a bit more due to air…you’d remove feathers until the weight of what you were weighing was a kilo…Real world will be on a set of scales and you add/remove material until it reads 1 kilo, therefore what is on the scale at that time is the weight it claims.

and then actually real world weigh them, the kilo of feathers will be heavier because it will contain a few grammes of air, depending on how fluffed up it is.

I’m struggling with this…if you have a kilo of feathers then it should be a kilo, not a kilo of feathers and then a bit more due to air…you’d remove feathers until the weight of what you were weighing was a kilo…Real world will be on a set of scales and you add/remove material until it reads 1 kilo, therefore what is on the scale at that time is the weight it claims.

Well if you’re going to insist on kilos, then the joke’s over.  Point is that, as someone has explained, although troy ounces are heavier than yer typical ounce there are fewer (12?) in a troy pound, which is thereofre lighter

’m struggling with this…if you have a kilo of feathers then it should be a kilo, not a kilo of feathers and then a bit more due to air…you’d remove feathers until the weight of what you were weighing was a kilo…

Hence legerdemain over the defacto change in definition as to what constitutes the weight of a feather. This wasn’t my ‘fact’ anyway, it was my wrong assumption about a fact. But bugger it I’m up for a fight 🙂

That think about dogs facing a particular direction to 💩. This morning, Bella 💩 south west for the first and east forthe second.

Do I need to rub her with a magnet to reset her?

I think that just means she’s comfortable in her surroundings. Take her somewhere new and try it.

(or of course, Myth Busted!)

So is your source made up?

An airplane slowing down and falling out of the sky isn’t really being shot down by your enemy. P51s and F86s being bombed to destruction on a run way pretty much is being destroyed by your enemy.  Biplanes being involved in a war in the 1950’s is impressive, bombing an airfield  and getting away with it is more impressive still. You don’t need to make up stuff to make it sound even more impressive.

Wm. Shakespeare was the first person to be banned from a pub (several, actually, in and around Stratford upon Avon)

“Get out, you’re bard”?

Probably explains why Rambo 2 – xxxxx were such poor films compared to the original 🙂

There wasn’t a Rambo 2.

The “original” was First Blood. Rambo was the second film (fully “Rambo: First Blood Part II”) then it went straight to Rambo 3.

Ok – I was young and don’t remember the details.

I know that the original “Star Wars” got renamed “Star Wars (Part 4)” about 5 years after it was originally launched

I’m struggling with this…if you have a kilo of feathers then it should be a kilo, not a kilo of feathers and then a bit more due to air…you’d remove feathers until the weight of what you were weighing was a kilo…Real world will be on a set of scales and you add/remove material until it reads 1 kilo, therefore what is on the scale at that time is the weight it claims.

You’re getting mass and weight confused. A kilogramme is a measure of mass. So the feathers that weigh what a kilogramme of gold would weigh actually contains more than a kilogramme of mass due to the encapsulated air – the air has mass but is neutrally bouyant so doesn’t affect the scales.

That think about dogs facing a particular direction to 💩. This morning, Bella 💩 south west for the first and east forthe second.

Do I need to rub her with a magnet to reset her?

I don’t know why people are surprised, every morning I sit in exactly the same orientation!!

^^^I was never confused 🤔 I said I thought it was a trick. But the kilo with air in will be heavier. Check this short, fun experiment:

Mass vs weight distinction isn’t relevant here. The kilo with air in will have more of both, just like the balloon that has air in.

I know that the original “Star Wars” got renamed “Star Wars (Part 4)” about 5 years after it was originally launched

Pretty much. It was renamed Episode IV – A New Hope when it was rereleased in cinemas after the success of The Empire Strikes Back.

Apocryphally, it was always intended to be episode 4 but it wasn’t included in the original release because Lucas wasn’t sure whether it was going to be successful.

Patrick Moore believed that he was the only person to have met with Orville Wright, Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong – the first aviator, the first into space and the first on the moon.

Apocryphally, it was always intended to be episode 4 but it wasn’t included in the original release because Lucas wasn’t sure whether it was going to be successful.

I don’t remember any mention of this when Star Wars was first released – and there was tons of stuff everywhere about that first film. It only got talked about later on after it had become successful. Maybe Lucas had it in the back of his mind that he could make sequels, but, as I remember it, when Star Wars was being made most people thought it would disappear into obscurity including the actors themselves. (I might be wrong though..)

Apocryphally, it was always intended to be episode 4 but it wasn’t included in the original release because Lucas wasn’t sure whether it was going to be successful.

I thought the scrolling wordy bit at the start always had ‘Episode IV – A New Hope’ as the title, but the film itself was just called “Star Wars”.

most people thought it would disappear into obscurity including the actors themselves

I believe Sir Alec Guiness was the only one of the main cast to sign up for a %age of the royalties rather than a flat fee.

But the kilo with air in will be heavier. Check this short, fun experiment:

No it won’t. In that balloon experiment, there is more tension in the balloon that has been inflated more, so the pressure is higher and the air is more dense. If you do the same thing with two identical cylinders with plungers where one plunger is pulled out more to enclose more air at the same pressure, it would balance even if there’s more volume of air in it.

Air is neutrally buoyant at the same pressure as other air, because of course it is, it’s identical. So the air in the feathers affects the mass but not the weight.

Lucas was talking about three trilogies pretty early, like before Empire early. How much farther back that notion went in his mind I guess only The Beard knows for sure.

No it won’t.

I’m glad you said that, cos I wrote a whole reply and then second-guessed myself and deleted it. I wasn’t quite on the same page as you but I knew it didn’t feel right. I was thinking about surface area and atmospheric pressure but it’s not is it – it’s the fact that the balloon contains compressed air which is denser than regular air.

I bet if you did the experiment with water balloons underwater the balance would not tip, because water won’t compress (much).

Lucas was talking about three trilogies pretty early, like before Empire early. How much farther back that notion went in his mind I guess only The Beard knows for sure.

It was my understanding that he wrote the whole story arc in nine brief outlines, and selected the middle three as the most interesting. I don’t know how brief those outlines were though. It might explain why ANH starts right in the middle of things and apparently has a well developed story up to that point. Then again maybe not, given it’s partly inspired by war films and they obviously start in the middle of the war.

I thought the scrolling wordy bit at the start always had ‘Episode IV – A New Hope’ as the title, but the film itself was just called “Star Wars”

No, it was added later – 1981 is suggested by Google. I would have remembered this, because my friends and I would have been unbearably excited about the fact that it wasn’t just one film!

I thought the scrolling wordy bit at the start always had ‘Episode IV – A New Hope’ as the title, but the film itself was just called “Star Wars”.

Honestly, I always thought the same but it was a long long time ago so who knows.

I clearly remember going to see Empire at the cinema (with my gran) but the original Star Wars I’ve no idea. I’m pretty sure I’d seen Star Wars first by then but I don’t recall how.

@Nickc

I said

“The version the story that I know is that F86 stalled whilst slowing down behind it!

You said

“The story you know is made up, the event is pretty well recorded”

But your source agreed with what I said

“The commander of the 319th perished when he fell below his Starfire’s stall speed of 110 miles per hour while attempting to slow down enough to fall in behind a Po-2—a circumstance some consider the only biplane-on-jet “maneuver kill” in history.”

You then said

“An airplane slowing down and falling out of the sky isn’t really being shot down by your enemy. P51s and F86s being bombed to destruction on a run way pretty much is being destroyed by your enemy. Biplanes being involved in a war in the 1950’s is impressive, bombing an airfield and getting away with it is more impressive still. You don’t need to make up stuff to make it sound even more impressive”

You have now twice accused me of making things up.

Where did I say “Shot down”?

Why did you say they story about the stall is made up when you clearly accept it as true?

The term “junkie” originated from the 1920’s when heroin addicts would sell scrap metal and other junk to pay for their habit.

Sorry if it’s been done (I am not going to trawl through every page to check) but…

The world’s largest manufacturer of tyres is Lego.

But the kilo with air in will be heavier. Check this short, fun experiment:

No it won’t. In that balloon experiment, there is more tension in the balloon that has been inflated more, so the pressure is higher and the air is more dense. If you do the same thing with two identical cylinders with plungers where one plunger is pulled out more to enclose more air at the same pressure, it would balance even if there’s more volume of air in it.

Air is neutrally buoyant at the same pressure as other air, because of course it is, it’s identical. So the air in the feathers affects the mass but not the weight.

Right then 🙂 the point of the fun experiment is to show that air has weight. Regardless of pressure/buoyancy or whatever the kilo of feathers has more air in it than does the kilo of gold, and so will weigh more (and have more mass fwiw).

If all the economists in the world were laid end-to-end they wouldn’t reach a conclusion.

Definitely a fact, honestly…

the point of the fun experiment is to show that air has weight

Air at the same pressure and temperature as its surroundings does NOT have weight. But it does have mass.

Actually I’ve confused myself. It has no net weight, because the downward force from gravity is cancelled out by the pressure around it. But does that mean there is no weight, or just that it is cancelled out?

EDIT definitions suggest that weight is simply gravity, so yes it would have weight, however then the question is one of semantics because it might have weight (as a noun) but not weigh anything (as a verb). We say that astronauts in orbit are weightless even though they are still being acted on by gravity.

EDIT2 I think I am going to say that ‘weight’ is not a scientific term, because in all my physics education we simply said ‘downward force due to gravity’ instead.

Weight is gravity-dependent, mass is not.

People walking on the moon have less weight, their mass hasn’t changed.

EDIT2 I think I am going to say that ‘weight’ is not a scientific term

There’s going to be a lot of upset engineers. A good thing, obv 🙂

Sorry if it’s been done (I am not going to trawl through every page to check) but…

The world’s largest manufacturer of tyres is Lego.

The third or fourth time it’s been posted, I think.

Does this make it THE most commonly known ‘interesting fact’?

There’s going to be a lot of upset engineers.

Physicists do not care what engineers think 🙂

Patrick Moore believed that he was the only person to have met with Orville Wright, Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong – the first aviator, the first into space and the first on the moon.

That’s fantastic. 😀

Wm. Shakespeare was the first person to be banned from a pub (several, actually, in and around Stratford upon Avon)

You’ve been misled by a joke.
He wasn’t banned, he was bard.

I refer the honourable gentleman to my post halfway up this page.

A majority of the hands you shake on a daily basis have had at some point a penis in them.

There are at least two sizes of infinity. The number of fractions (rational numbers) is provably smaller than the number of irrational numbers (decimals that can’t be expressed as a fraction), but both are infinite.