Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 3]
Discussion
p1stonhead said:
SpeckledJim said:
p1stonhead said:
My favourite mind blowing fact is that there is over 10x the amount of trees on earth than stars in the galaxy. (3-4 trillion vs 200-300billion).
Mental.
Hmm, when is a tree a tree? Is a sapling a tree?Mental.
Google reckons 510 trillion square metres of Earth.
two thirds of that is water, so 168 trillion square metres of land.
So that's a tree for every 42 square metres? That's one tree for every footprint of a terraced house, across all jungle, forests, mountains, fields, deserts, towns, and ice caps?
Colour me sceptical.
400 billion are estimated to be in the Amazon alone, 300 billion estimated in Canada, 600 billion in Russia and 600 billion estimated in the USA.
Only one trillion left for the rest of the world if the estimates are close. Sounds fairly easy considering Scandinavia and other jungles etc.
Given the huge swathes of the earth that are desert.
ambuletz said:
Why is it for any sort of event a 1-2minutes silence is always done at 11:00am? why that time and not some other time? they just said on the news they'll hold a minutes silence tomorrow for the manchester attack at 11am.
Probably broadly in line with Armistice Day commemoration, most people awake and avoids lunchtime.SpeckledJim said:
Lotus Elan +2 said:
But........how do you get a picture of our galaxy when our earliest "spaceship" Voyager has barely left our own Solar system ??
You can't get a proper photograph, just an image constructed artificially using the data we can measure of what is where.NASA put a photoshop thread up in the lounge.
Jader1973 said:
I was pondering this today.
Why are surgeons "Mr" but doctors and other specialists are "Dr"?
In most other parts of the world all medical practitioners, physicians and surgeons alike, are referred to as Dr while in the UK surgeons are usually referred to as Mr/Miss/Ms/Mrs. This is because, from the Middle Ages physicians had to embark on formal university training to gain possession of a degree in medicine before they could enter practice. The possession of this degree, a doctorate, entitled them to the title of ‘Doctor of Medicine’ or Doctor.Why are surgeons "Mr" but doctors and other specialists are "Dr"?
The training of surgeons until the mid-19th century was different. They did not have to go to university to gain a degree; instead they usually served as an apprentice to a surgeon. Afterwards they took an examination. In London, after 1745, this was conducted by the Surgeons' Company and after 1800 by The Royal College of Surgeons. If successful they were awarded a diploma, not a degree, therefore they were unable to call themselves 'Doctor', and stayed instead with the title 'Mr'.
Outside London and in the largest cities, the surgeon served as an apprentice like many other tradesmen, but did not necessarily take any examination. Today all medical practitioners, whether physicians or surgeons have to undertake training at medical school to obtain a qualifying degree. Thereafter a further period of postgraduate study and training through junior posts is required before full consultant surgeon status is achieved. Thus the tradition of a surgeon being referred to as Mr/Miss/Ms/Mrs has continued, meaning that in effect a person starts as Mr/Miss/Ms/Mrs, becomes a Dr and then goes back to being a Mr/Miss/Ms/Mrs again!
SpeckledJim said:
p1stonhead said:
Yes but nearly all of them are presumably in dense forests or jungles. It doesn't say they are spread evenly or even close to evenly across the earth.
400 billion are estimated to be in the Amazon alone, 300 billion estimated in Canada, 600 billion in Russia and 600 billion estimated in the USA.
Only one trillion left for the rest of the world if the estimates are close. Sounds fairly easy considering Scandinavia and other jungles etc.
Granted, I understand they aren't evenly distributed. Just seems a lot.400 billion are estimated to be in the Amazon alone, 300 billion estimated in Canada, 600 billion in Russia and 600 billion estimated in the USA.
Only one trillion left for the rest of the world if the estimates are close. Sounds fairly easy considering Scandinavia and other jungles etc.
Given the huge swathes of the earth that are desert.
It does seem a lot, but presumably these guys did a bit of work to ensure that they got it at least vaguely right. I haven't checked their methodology, but in the absence of any reason not to I'll take their findings at face value. Having said that...
article said:
And Dr Martin Lukac from the University of Reading was still not sure we were near an accurate count.
"The previous estimate of trees in the world was 400 billion. The new estimate is three trillion large trees. There are so many margins of error in this study that the real number could be anything between the two - or even 10 times higher," he said.
so although it's probably a good guess, it's still just a guess."The previous estimate of trees in the world was 400 billion. The new estimate is three trillion large trees. There are so many margins of error in this study that the real number could be anything between the two - or even 10 times higher," he said.
Riley Blue said:
'Bog standard'.... I know what it means; probably we all do, but why?
It's derived from 'box standard'. Meccano (sp?) did box standard and box deluxe versions of their stuff when it first came out and the words have morphed over the years to become bog standard. Learned that on James Mays Toy Stories show
Jonboy_t said:
It's derived from 'box standard'. Meccano (sp?) did box standard and box deluxe versions of their stuff when it first came out and the words have morphed over the years to become bog standard.
Learned that on James Mays Toy Stories show
That's interesting, I know it used to mean just 'normal', 'plain vanilla', common or garden' until a politician referred to 'bog standard comprehensives and was accused of meaning very low standard. So the meaning has now become 'low standard'. But I never new why it had the original meaning.Learned that on James Mays Toy Stories show
Dr Jekyll said:
Jonboy_t said:
It's derived from 'box standard'. Meccano (sp?) did box standard and box deluxe versions of their stuff when it first came out and the words have morphed over the years to become bog standard.
Learned that on James Mays Toy Stories show
That's interesting, I know it used to mean just 'normal', 'plain vanilla', common or garden' until a politician referred to 'bog standard comprehensives and was accused of meaning very low standard. So the meaning has now become 'low standard'. But I never new why it had the original meaning.Learned that on James Mays Toy Stories show
I've never known it to mean 'low standard', just .... well... 'bog standard'.
Thanks for the origin, I never knew that even though I used to play with Meccano.
Jonboy_t said:
Riley Blue said:
'Bog standard'.... I know what it means; probably we all do, but why?
It's derived from 'box standard'. Meccano (sp?) did box standard and box deluxe versions of their stuff when it first came out and the words have morphed over the years to become bog standard. Learned that on James Mays Toy Stories show
ks'Hugo a Gogo said:
Jonboy_t said:
Riley Blue said:
'Bog standard'.... I know what it means; probably we all do, but why?
It's derived from 'box standard'. Meccano (sp?) did box standard and box deluxe versions of their stuff when it first came out and the words have morphed over the years to become bog standard. Learned that on James Mays Toy Stories show
ks'It's still not known for definite where the phrase came from. although it is a reasonably modern addition to our vernacular.
xjay1337 said:
ambuletz said:
Why do chemists take to long with your prescription? Had to stand around for 15min just for them to give me fluoride toothpaste that the dentist prescribed me
Can't you buy Aquafresh for a few quid?Mines never taken more than 10 minutes. I'm sure there's a process.
xjay1337 said:
ambuletz said:
Why do chemists take to long with your prescription? Had to stand around for 15min just for them to give me fluoride toothpaste that the dentist prescribed me
Can't you buy Aquafresh for a few quid?Mines never taken more than 10 minutes. I'm sure there's a process.
Anyway, some people get prescribed higher-than-normal-fluoride toothpaste by dentists, i.e. stuff with a higher fluoride content than is commercially available. If you need it, Aquafresh won't do. My children get it, and being children it's free on the NHS as an official prescription. We get about 10 tubes a time.
skilly1 said:
How do they get the cable through the purple pipe alongside the motorway you often see when motorway being repaired/upgraded. They are miles long, they can't just hand thread them?
The purple pipe is in sections, about 3-4m long.Given the typical duration of motorway roadworks, I'd say they have plenty of time to mess about with cable and ducting...
skilly1 said:
How do they get the cable through the purple pipe alongside the motorway you often see when motorway being repaired/upgraded. They are miles long, they can't just hand thread them?
Leave a draw cord in the duct to pull a cable through. Or a draw cord can be blown through with a compressor.Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff