Interesting Facts - Page 64

316

Political opponents of U.S. President Chester A. Arthur claimed that he was born in Canada and therefore ineligible to become President.

317

As part of the Apollo project, astronauts placed mirror-like "retroreflectors" on the moon. Using these reflectors, we can bounce lasers off the moon and accurately measure the distance from Earth to Moon by timing how long it takes the light to return.

318

Dr. Henry Heimlich, inventor of the "Heimlich maneuver", never used his own technique until very late in life. At age 96, he employed the maneuver to save a woman in his nursing home from choking.

319

Developed by Germany during WWII, the V-2 rocket was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. It was ruinously expensive and largely pointless. In fact, more people died building V-2 rockets than died when the bombs exploded over their targets in Allied countries.

320

During WWII, Allied soldiers built airplane runways on remote islands in Oceania. These runways were used to land valuable supplies for the war effort. Native people on these islands observed this correlation and built runways of their own, hoping that supply-laden planes would land there. This phenomenon is known as a "cargo cult".

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+11

Level 66

Jul 22, 2019

Some more interesting facts.

1. The One World Trade Center in New York is 1,776 feet tall. done so intentionally to remember the year of U.S Independence.

2. Bookkeeper is the only english word with three consecutive double letters.

3. The word Arena comes from the Latin word for sand because sand was often on the floor of Roman amphitheaters in order to absorb blood.

4. More words do not follow the I before E rule than do follow it

5. There are four elements named after the town of Ytterby Sweden (Ytterbium, Yttrium, Terbium, Erbium)

6. About 85% of Nevada is Federal Land.

7. The state vegetable of Oklahoma is the Watermelon

Level ∞

Jul 24, 2019

Thanks, I'll use a couple of these!

Level ∞

Jul 24, 2019

#2 is a little off. Bookkeepers and bookkeeping also qualify. The spirit of the fact is correct though.

Level ∞

Jul 24, 2019

#4 is not correct. I just did a search of the Scrabble dictionary. 11,210 words have an "IE" but only 1,958 words have an "EI".

Level 47

Sep 9, 2023

That is not the I before e rule

Level ∞

Jul 24, 2019

#6 is incorrect as well. The correct number is 79.6%. Still interesting though!

Level ∞

Jul 24, 2019

To quote George W. Bush misquoting John Adams. "Facts are stupid things".

Level 66

Jul 24, 2019

I did some research and the fact is actually that in "I before E except after C" the second part is incorrect. Apparently words with "cie" outnumber words with "cei" 3 to 1. There's a good Washington Post article about it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/28/the-i-before-e-except-after-c-rule-is-a-giant-lie/?utm_term=.052d9fe58f3e

Level ∞

Jul 24, 2019

That makes more sense.

Level 62

Jun 18, 2021

The FULL i before e rule continues; ..."or when sounded like 'ay' as in neighbor or weigh"

Level 37

Mar 25, 2023

Well that is a short full version. I have encountered many versions from the older generations and some are long and left me feeling it may be easier to learn the words than the phrase.

Level 71

Oct 11, 2021

Level 39

Aug 1, 2019

What about “subbookkeeper”? I thought one of the interesting facts here somewhere talked about that?

+11

Level ∞

Oct 2, 2019

I am guessing that word was made up for the purposes of having four pairs of double letters.

Level 72

Feb 12, 2020

A bookkeeper on a submarine?

Level 60

Feb 6, 2021

I think it means "not the main bookkeeper". But yeah that word was probably only made for having 4 consecutive double letters.

Level 51

Oct 23, 2019

Chester Arthur's political opponents also accused him of being addicted to poutine and maple syrup, politeness, watching too much hockey, drinking Molsons and ending every sentence with the word, eh.

+14

Level 89

Nov 12, 2019

Back then, I guess Kenya was too far away for credibility among the wingnut target audience.

Level 72

Feb 12, 2020

Seems his parents lived in Canada before moving to Vermont where he was born. According to Wikipedia his older sister was born in Canada, but he wasn't born until they moved to Vermont.

Level 67

Dec 31, 2021

See that seems like a reasonable complaint.

Level 79

Oct 24, 2019

For #318, I remember when I read this news following this incident. Wow.

Level 71

Apr 28, 2020

2754 people were killed in England by V2 rockets in WW2. This may not seem many to some but is devastating to many families. 160 were killed and 108 seriously injured in one explosion at 12:26 pm on 25 November 1944, at a Woolworth's department store in New Cross, south-east London.

Level ∞

Dec 15, 2020

Yes, but if Germany had spent the same amount of money on more useful things, it would have extended the war and resulted in the deaths of far more than 2754 additional Allied soldiers. While it's sad for the people who were killed by V2 bombs, it is overall a good thing that Germany wasted their resources building them.

Level 43

Jun 21, 2021

320 is a nice one!!

Level 24

Mar 30, 2022

They waited and waited for years but nothing came with cargo. The human mind is very curious of everything, and craves to know more

Level 85

Jan 20, 2022

The persons who died building the V-2 rocket were largely people Hitler wanted dead, so from his vantage point it was Win-Win, wasn't it?

Level 40

Dec 5, 2023

#317 I watched an interesting Veritasium video on this earlier today, about us not really knowing the true speed of light. We have only measured the two-way speed of light, never one-way. So the speed of light could be 299,792,458 m/s in one direction, but instantaneous in the other.