The baffling and shocking things you've learned.

[SoranMBane]

Probably the idea that the speed of light is constant, meaning that no matter how fast you were going, you could never catch up to a light beam because it would always be going the same speed relative to you. For example, if a light beam were traveling at 2mph, but you were traveling at 4mph, the light beam would still be pulling away from you at a relative speed of 2mph. I simply don't get how that works, but it's cool.

 

[Burningsok]

I learned that absolutely everything is composed of mostly empty space. (Due to the spacing of electrons from the nucleus of an atom.) And if you took all 6Billion of us, took away the empty space and compressed us down. We would be the size of A Single Sugar Cube

Yeah, this idea kind of took a while to wrap my head around. Because of this nothing really "touches" anything, atoms just repel each other like magnets. When you sit on a chair you're not actually really sitting on it, you're hovering over it because your atoms refuse to get any closer to the chair atoms. Yes, that's right, people can levitate!

Whaaaat?!That just blew my freakin mind!! 0.0

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

For example, if a light beam were traveling at 2mph, but you were traveling at 4mph, the light beam would still be pulling away from you at a relative speed of 2mph. I simply don't get how that works, but it's cool.

Wow, in that example you just changed the speed of light. Hm. Cool.

 

[SimuLord]

I learned that absolutely everything is composed of mostly empty space. (Due to the spacing of electrons from the nucleus of an atom.) And if you took all 6Billion of us, took away the empty space and compressed us down. We would be the size of A Single Sugar Cube

Yeah, this idea kind of took a while to wrap my head around. Because of this nothing really "touches" anything, atoms just repel each other like magnets. When you sit on a chair you're not actually really sitting on it, you're hovering over it because your atoms refuse to get any closer to the chair atoms. Yes, that's right, people can levitate!

If people can levitate, that makes us all weightless. This does not, however, change the fact that I need to lose 17 pounds, so what's the use in levitation?

 

[EeveeElectro]

My family liked to hide things from me. Like the fact my brother was really my half brother and I'm quarter Polish. And they wonder why I don't like them

 

[Layzor]

You're more likely to shake hands with a woman who has recently masturbated and not washed her hands than you are a man.

 

[Rachel317]

Er...if you hold your nose, you can't hum.

You guys just tried it, didn't you? *High fives all round*

 

[Rachel317]

You're more likely to shake hands with a woman who has recently masturbated and not washed her hands than you are a man.

Also, eww. Where did you find that out?

 

[rdaleric]

a few things really

1)Gravity is actually a very weak force (think how easy it is to defy it)
2)Humans have more than 5 senses (things such as ballence)
3)Humans are made from stars (so is everything else on earth)

 

[Spiner909]

That avocados grow on trees.
I always thought they grew from the ground.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

That the crane fly is dangerously venomous is actually a common misconception. There is no evidence for it, or for similar misconceptions like the daddy long legs spider being venomous

Aren't both those the same thing?

 

[Aurora219]

That I had watched all episodes of Stargate SG-1, and that there were no new ones coming; My favourite TV-show had ended.

That totally confused me too.

Though, to be fair, it was a bit of a relief after the last two seasons as well.

That the crane fly is dangerously venomous is actually a common misconception. There is no evidence for it, or for similar misconceptions like the daddy long legs spider being venomous

Aren't both those the same thing?

No. One's a spider, one's a fly. The crane fly, being an insect, has six legs and wings. And is about as dangerous as a dandelion spore.

For the record, all spiders are venomous. No exceptions. And on average (I'm talking the British Isles here) there are 10 millions spiders per hectare of land.

Go sit in a field now, I dare you.

 

[TheStickman]

If you combine brake fluid and chlorine you get fire. Not very baffling or shocking though.

 

[Powereaver]

more people die from vending machines falling on them each year then getting eaten by sharks or hit by lightning... a lot of clumsy people out there

 

[Dr. UBAR]

Because the universe is "flat" it can have net 0 energy if the energy in gravity (attractive) is considered negative. This allows for a multiverse of universes occurring literally out of nothing. Interestingly enough when these universes form they rapidly expand but from an outside view they appear to collapse into a *dramatic pause*.................*more dramatic pause*....Singularity.

 

[L33tsauce_Marty]

When a sperm whale ejaculates, it releases 300 gallons of sperm into the ocean.

 

[JoshGod]

that i am lying!

 

[blindthrall]

All hyenas have dicks. And most birds don't, for most of the year at least.

That due to constraints on the speed of light, there is a big chunk of the universe that it's impossible for us to ever see.

 

[Eerors]

The reason Hiroshima was so utterly destroyed was that most of the buildings there were made of wood. The wood was blown away in the blast. If the same thing happened in a modern city then the destruction wouldn't be quite so absolute (I think).

That depends which weapon you mean. If you mean an atomic bomb dropping on 21st century London, which I'd assume is certainly not primarily made of wood, then of course the damage wouldn't be as absolute as with Hiroshima. I'd also assume we use stronger materials now in building, or at least are better at creating stronger structures.

But remember we've now modernised nuclear weapons to be far more effective than the atomic bomb was. So, if you mean a modern city, do you mean a modern nuke, or the atomic bomb?

Forgive me if I made no sense there.

I meant the atomic bomb. I dunno about modern stuff though. I know there's the whole disintegration thing going from the hydrogen bombs etc but I still don't think one of those could flatten a whole city.