Amazing facts you're pretty sure are true

[campy]

I read today that in a national study 1/4 of all British women over 35 never have sex.

I was shocked by this fact and it got me wondering...what other things don't I know...
Whatcha got?

[hellbent]

45.6% of all facts are made up on the spot, yo - B.Franklin

[DWarrior]

You don't get catch a cold from being cold, and there's no evidence suggesting vitamin C helps get over it any faster.

You actually catch more flies with Vinegar than with honey.

The reason Diet Coke and Mentos creates such a fountain is because the surface of Mentos is filled with microscopic cracks, thereby providing a lot of surface area for bubbles to form, and also because the sweetener in Diet Coke reduces the drink's surface tension.

One coordinate is sufficient to precisely define your position anywhere on earth (using 2 just makes it easier)

There are over 9000 facts being made up in the world at any given moment.

[flerchin]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

One coordinate is sufficient to precisely define your position anywhere on earth (using 2 just makes it easier)

Is this one of the 9000 made up facts? I don't see how it is mathematically possible to derive your location on a sphere without 2 angles.

[The Quintessential Loser]

18% of Americans still believe the Sun revolves around the Earth.

[Space Indaver]

Originally Posted by The Quintessential Loser

18% of Americans still believe the Sun revolves around the Earth.

Dude, look at the sky. It goes from one side to the other, of course it's moving. Jeez.

[DWarrior]

Originally Posted by flerchin

Is this one of the 9000 made up facts? I don't see how it is mathematically possible to derive your location on a sphere without 2 angles.

Nope, not made up, it's a result of R and R^n having the same cardinalities.

For one example of a method that produces a unique single-coordinate identifier given two coordinates is this: imagine your X coordinate is .abcde... and your Y coordinate is .ABCDE... You can form a single real number that'll be unique to these coordinates: .aAbBcCdDeE... you thus have one coordinate that completely defines your position.

The pre-requisite for the above method is that each coordinate is some real number x so that 1>x>=0, but you can see that any real number can be uniquely identified by such coordinate using the same trick. For example, say X is a number ...EDCBA.abcde... and that it's either positive or negative, then your unique coordinate may be defined as .1aAbBcCdD... if X is positive, or .0aAbBcCdD... if X is negative or zero.

You can even extend it to all of space: X given by .abcde..., Y given by .ABCDE..., Z given by .klmno... your single coordinate is .aAkbBlcCm...

and so on. You can find other ways to uniquely represent stuff by one coordinate, and they'll all be fine as long as you use one method. As I said, it's not necessarily any more useful, but it's possible. It demonstrates that no dimension is "bigger" than another, they're all the same (as far as the number of points is concerned).

[fluxquanta]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

It demonstrates that no dimension is "bigger" than another, they're all the same (as far as the number of points is concerned).

Well, all real sets are uncountable infinite. Whether that's a "demonstration", I don't know.

[Positive Control]

Originally Posted by DWarrior

Nope, not made up, it's a result of R and R^n having the same cardinalities.

For one example of a method that produces a unique single-coordinate identifier given two coordinates is this: imagine your X coordinate is .abcde... and your Y coordinate is .ABCDE... You can form a single real number that'll be unique to these coordinates: .aAbBcCdDeE... you thus have one coordinate that completely defines your position.

The pre-requisite for the above method is that each coordinate is some real number x so that 1>x>=0, but you can see that any real number can be uniquely identified by such coordinate using the same trick. For example, say X is a number ...EDCBA.abcde... and that it's either positive or negative, then your unique coordinate may be defined as .1aAbBcCdD... if X is positive, or .0aAbBcCdD... if X is negative or zero.

You can even extend it to all of space: X given by .abcde..., Y given by .ABCDE..., Z given by .klmno... your single coordinate is .aAkbBlcCm...

and so on. You can find other ways to uniquely represent stuff by one coordinate, and they'll all be fine as long as you use one method. As I said, it's not necessarily any more useful, but it's possible. It demonstrates that no dimension is "bigger" than another, they're all the same (as far as the number of points is concerned).

We use this all the time now in air travel. (Thought it is used for a two dimensional point on a map, not a three dimensional position of an aircraft with altitude.)

[doctorsleep]

Obama is a muslim