Trivia Thread!

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

You reminded me of the old rhyme:

Little Willie was a chemist,
Little Willie is no more;
What he thought was  H2O,
Was really H2SO4.

More trivial information: this appeared repeatedly on the humor page of Boys' Life magazine, when I was a lad.

Still more trivia: the jokes were submitted by readers, and they paid $5 for each one printed. I sent one in, but though it wasn't printed, they kept printing -- and paying for -- jokes that had appeared only months before. Grr! 😡

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I had bots life when I was in Boy Scouts.

What was your joke that you submitted?

You expect me to remember a joke I thought of when I was 9 years old?! 🤯

I doubt it was very memorable. 😄

The Bloodhound Gang once released a song called, “The Ten Coolest Things About New Jersey.” It’s ten seconds of silence.

Mark Lenard, American actor, is the only one to have played three separate roles, a Romulan, a Klingon, and a Vulcan. He had roles as an unnamed Klingon in Star Trek The Motion Picture 1979; as a Romulan Commandant (Balance of Terror, episode 14, season 1 of Star Trek, 1966), and as Spock's father Sarek in Journey to Babel 1967, Star Trek the Motion Picture 1979, Star Trek III 1981, Star Trek IV The Voyage Nome 1986, and Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country 1991.

In the animated voiceover world, James Doohan ("Scotty", Canadian actor) is the only one to have voiced a Romulan, Vulcan and Klingon. (He actually voiced nearly 40 Star Trek characters.)

Though equally inspired by fairy tales, westerns, and 1930s sci-fi serials, George Lucas based the framework of the story for the original Star Wars (1977) around the theories of Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The book tracked common mythological motifs and argued that myths from around the world that have been passed down through generations—like Beowulf or King Arthur—share a basic structure. According to Campbell, “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” Lucas simply grafted these ideas onto his story, with Luke as the main hero.

While the surface of the earth's sun is said to be 5500°C , (9,932°F), its corona (atmosphere) is said to range from 0.5M°C to 2.5M°C (0.9M°F to 4.5M°F.) It is generally averaged at 1M°C (1.8M°F). Now THAT's quite a temperature.

What causes this massive difference in temperature remains a bit of a mystery to Science, though they believe they're closing in on one potential explanation - the answer lying in 'solaf flares', and particularly many small 'solar flares' occurring much more frequently than they had known, prior to 2020 and some observations of about 95 events they'd been able to capture.

In addition, the sun is said to have grown in mass by 20% over the last 4.5 billion years. However, it is said a significant change will be seen by about 5-6 billion more years from now, the mass decreasing and the earth's orbit slipping farther away. (I've been unable to isolate the reason for this suspected change as of yet.)

Naturally, though the Sun requires Co2 to 'burn', it does not 'burn' in the same way our brains think of 'burning'. Rather, it 'generates heat' due to fusion reaction due to the extreme pressure of its mass. (Obviously, if its mass has grown by 20% over the last 4.5 billion years, then the earth's rotation distance from it would also be expected to have decreased over the same period of time, thus the earth's general temperature being somewhat higher today than it was 'yesterday.' This also, I have not yet found discussion of.)

A fascinating subject altogether. Given the requirement for Co2 for its 'burn', I can't help but still wonder why all the available Co2 isn't consumed instantly, at a constant average 1.8 million °F. I'll keep researching.

In 1999, Oliver Reed died while filming GLADIATOR. Reed had consumed 8 pints of beer, 12 shots of rum, half a bottle of whisky, and shots of cognac after challenging sailors from HMS Cumberland to a drinking contest in a pub. He was armwrestling sailors when he collapsed.

Ent said:

Naturally, though the Sun requires Co2 to 'burn', ...

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With Co2 do you mean carbon dioxide? The astrophysical term "burn" refers to hydrogen fusion in the core, later to helium fusion in a shell, the to fusion of ever more massive elements until it hits the iron barrier. I've never read of any molecule consisting of two distinct elements being involved in any of the succeeding fusion reactions following that of helium.

The Cat’s Eye Nebula is also called NGC 6543 and is a planetary nebula in the Draco constellation. William Herschel first discovered it in 1786, and in 1864 it became the first planetary nebula to be detected with a spectroscope, giving astronomers insight into what makes up the planetary nebulae.

In its structure, the Cat’s Eye Nebula is very complex, possessing knots, loops, bubbles, circles, concentric rings, and a very wide (over three light-years) yet faint halo extending far from its center.

Element #2 on the periodic table, helium, was named after the Greek word for the Sun, helios. This is because it was first observed at the Sun during a solar eclipse in 1868. Helium was not found on Earth until 1881.

The sand crawler from Star Wars: A New Hope almost started an actual war. Libya thought it was an actual tank and told Tunisia to move it from close to the border.

It's Derby Day! (First Saturday in May)
That is *ahem* Kentucky Derby Day for all you non equine racing forumites.

A bit of Derby trivia:

Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. started the Kentucky Derby in 1875. His grandfather was William Clark of the famed exploring duo Lewis and Clark.

Horses with a name starting with the letter S have won the Kentucky Derby 19 times, more than any other letter. The only first letters that haven't won the Derby, you ask? Q and X.

The drink of choice at the Kentucky Derby is the Mint Juleps and an estimated 120,000 are served at Churchill Downs on a traditional Derby weekend.

The blanket of roses placed up on the Kentucky Derby winner weighs roughly 40 pounds.

Erestor Arcamen said:

The Cat’s Eye Nebula is also called NGC 6543 and is a planetary nebula in the Draco constellation. William Herschel first discovered it in 1786, and in 1864 it became the first planetary nebula to be detected with a spectroscope, giving astronomers insight into what makes up the planetary nebulae.

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William Herschel (1738-1822) also discovered the planet Uranus.
However he wasn't always an astronomer.
His first occupation was musician. He played the oboe, violin and harpsichord and later the organ.
He composed numerous musical works, including 24 symphonies and many concertos, as well as some church music.
It wasn't until the 1770s (he would be in his 30s) that his intellectual curiosity and interest in music eventually led him to astronomy.

From Wikipedia: After reading Robert Smith's Harmonics, or the Philosophy of Musical Sounds (1749), he took up Smith's A Compleat System of Opticks (1738), which described techniques of telescope construction.[23] He also read James Ferguson's Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's principles and made easy to those who have not studied mathematics (1756) and William Emerson's The elements of trigonometry (1749), The elements of optics (1768) and The principles of mechanics (1754).

I'm glad for scientific reasons that he became an astronomer, but I like his music, especially his symphonies. 🙂

Olorgando said:

With Co2 do you mean carbon dioxide?

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Dunno. Simply quoting a scientific report.
Frankly, I think they're pretty much clueless about how the whole thing really works.

Ent said:

Dunno. Simply quoting a scientific report.
Frankly, I think they're pretty much clueless about how the whole thing really works.

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In what publication? 🤨

Olorgando said:

In what publication? 🤨

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Science News Magazine (and its frequent email article inputs.)

Ent said:

Science News Magazine (and its frequent email article inputs.)

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Right, thanks.
I think I've found the online article for the first two paragraphs of your post, but nothing about "the Sun requires Co2 to 'burn'".

A proto star only requires Hydrogen (H) and pressure (due to gravity) to "ignite" and begin shining and become a "sun" (any sun).
Some will use other elements as well but at least hydrogen for the primary "fuel"

Olorgando said:

the Sun requires Co2 to 'burn

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As I recall, this was in one of the 'other articles' made available along the side. A click to another article about the same subject but under a different title.

Stars, especially first generation stars, are basically ginormous fusion reactors.
Four Hydrogen nuclei (4 protons) eventually are fused into a Helium nucleus (2p, 2n) that weighs slightly less than the 4 protons.
The missing mass has been converted to energy, i.e it has become the heat and light of a star (sun).
This is constantly going on with a huge amount of hydrogen (the most abundant element in the [known] universe) available in the mass of a star.
So you get this big shining orb of heat and light that makes life possible on some its planets (if it has any).
It takes a few step to effect the conversion from hydrogen to helium ... go HERE to read the details.