OT: - Interesting Facts (history, geography, science, etc.) | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT: Interesting Facts (history, geography, science, etc.)

ClifSpliffy said:
'Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way...'

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I love this. Makes me wonder why the hell we like building on the coastlines. Climate changes are unavoidable.
 
The Inn where Martin Van Buren was married is now a pirate bar and I got really drunk there a couple of times.

1361D88F-13A0-4B11-875C-3574C21FB244.jpeg
 
The last pension check from the US government related to Civil War veterans was paid in December 2020, 155 years after the war ended. It was a check to a widow who married her husband (the veteran) when he was 93 and she was 17. She lived until she was 101.
 
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The total equatorial diameter of the planets in our solar system(including Pluto and excepting Earth) is less than the distance between Earth and the moon at apogee. Therefore all the planets in the solar system could fit between the Earth and our moon.

Also not sure if this counts because we are getting into theoreticals here, but the different kinds of infinity always intrigued me. When you take every whole number in an infinite number set and multiply by two, you have an infinite amount of even numbers. So now we have as many even whole numbers as total whole numbers. And countable infinity vs uncountable infinity is fun too. Cantor’s Diagonal proof is a good place to start but is a pretty deep rabbit hole.
 
JakeTheDog said:
The total equatorial diameter of the planets in our solar system(including Pluto and excepting Earth) is less than the distance between Earth and the moon at apogee. Therefore all the planets in the solar system could fit between the Earth and our moon.

Also not sure if this counts because we are getting into theoreticals here, but the different kinds of infinity always intrigued me. When you take every whole number in an infinite number set and multiply by two, you have an infinite amount of even numbers. So now we have as many even whole numbers as total whole numbers. And countable infinity vs uncountable infinity is fun too. Cantor’s Diagonal proof is a good place to start but is a pretty deep rabbit hole.
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'The fact Uranus is a gas giant cracks me up every time I think about it.
 
As a kid (in the US) I listened to relatively local radio stations that broadcasted from a timezone that was 30 minutes different from ours. (Newfoundland)
 
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Pawsox said:
Not one to rest on his families laurels, Harrison Tyler founded Chemtreat in 1968. It is now one of the largest industrial water treatment firms in the world.

He also owns Sherwood Forest, his home in Virginia, which counts two presidents as owners. William Henry Harrison originally owned it and then sold it to John Tyler. It is 301 feet long and for a long time was the longest wood framed house in the US. You can still tour the house which is relatively close to Williamsburg.
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We did the presidential trail in VA a few years ago. The private tour of Sherwood Forest was terrific.
 
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Cleopatra was not Egyptian. Egypts last queen wasn't born in Egypt. As far as historians can tell she was Greek and a descendant of Alexander the Great's Macedonian general Ptolemy. Am i the only one that had no idea of this until about a month ago?
 
Huskygrad88 said:
George Washington never knew there was such a thing as a dinosaur.
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Well considering they were identified as dinosaurs till 1842 thats not really surprising so the same can be said for anyone that lived and died before that year or even several years after.
 
RichZ said:
Only if you're limited to travelling by land. No borders need be crossed to reach it by boat. Or by truck if you're visiting in January or February.
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They do actually drive across the ice for several months.
 
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I spent a couple weeks some years back at a truly luxurious resort on one of the nearby Islands one summer, and the owner said that all the construction equipment and supplies are trucked in on 18 wheelers in Jan. & Feb.
 
temery said:
They do actually drive across the ice for several months.
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This is true in Canada. However, in the case of the NW Angle in Minnesota, they never needed to and didn't have one as it's a long distance and few people live up there to build one. So they didn't have ice road access in 2020, but pooled together enough resources to build one in 2021.

lakeofthewoodsmn.com

30 Miles to Paradise: Ice Road Opens - Lake of the Woods

The NW Angle has some of the best ice fishing in North America. Without a way for guests to drive up to the Angle due to the border closure, area businesses,
lakeofthewoodsmn.com lakeofthewoodsmn.com
 
The Iowa class Battleships (Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, and Wisconsin) were not the largest class of battleship designed and ordered built by the US Navy. The Montana class approved by Congress and ordered built in 1939 was significantly larger, was much more heavily armored, and had significantly more throw weight from its main gun battery. Five named ships (BB-67 through BB-71) were authorized, the Montana, the Maine, the Ohio, the Louisiana, and the New Hampshire. Concurrently Congress also authorized the widening of the Panama Canal to accommodate the Montana’s. The construction of the Montana and her sister ships were delayed by the attack on Pearl Harbor and were ultimately cancelled after the sinking of the aircraft carriers Wasp, Hornet, Lexington, and the Yorktown in the Pacific war in favor of the much needed new Essex class aircraft carriers. The Montana’s would have been more than a match for the Yamato class battleships the Japanese were building as well as the German battleships the Bismarck and the Tirpitz.


en.m.wikipedia.org

Montana-class battleship - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
CONN78SEJ said:
The Iowa class Battleships (Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, and Wisconsin) were not the largest class of battleship designed and ordered built by the US Navy. The Montana class approved by Congress and ordered built in 1939 was significantly larger, was much more heavily armored, and had significantly more throw weight from its main gun battery. Five named ships (BB-67 through BB-71) were authorized, the Montana, the Maine, the Ohio, the Louisiana, and the New Hampshire. Concurrently Congress also authorized the widening of the Panama Canal to accommodate the Montana’s. The construction of the Montana and her sister ships were delayed by the attack on Pearl Harbor and were ultimately cancelled after the sinking of the aircraft carriers Wasp, Hornet, Lexington, and the Yorktown in the Pacific war in favor of the much needed new Essex class aircraft carriers. The Montana’s would have been more than a match for the Yamato class battleships the Japanese were building as well as the German battleships the Bismarck and the Tirpitz.


en.m.wikipedia.org

Montana-class battleship - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
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Who needs battleships when you've got torpedoes coming from above and below.

Hitler really screwed up in not utilizing Tirpitz. That saga has many twists and turns.
 
storrsroars said:
Who needs battleships when you've got torpedoes coming from above and below.

Hitler really screwed up in not utilizing Tirpitz. That saga has many twists and turns.
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It took 11 or 12 torpedoes and scores of 500lb bombs to sink the undefended Yamato. The Montana’s were designed to be better armored than any existing battleship (16.1 inches inclined at 19 degrees). The inclination is important in deflecting water line explosions from torpedoes. The Yamato did not have an inclined hull near the water line for torpedo protection, yet it still took 11 or 12 hits (and 25 500lb bombs) to sink it. As far as needing battleships, why were the Iowa’s reactivated years after the end of WW2? It’s an interesting debate with many active naval personnel and some in the government feeling the United States should not have retired the Iowa’s in 2011.

en.m.wikipedia.org

United States battleship retirement debate - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
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