You learn something new every day

[Ginger Yellow]

You learn something new every day

It's the phenomenon whereby dissolved gas (eg CO2 in champagne) needs a nucleation site (eg dust on a glass) to form bubbles, or it just remains dissolved. The more nucleation sites, the more fizz.

[Wyatt Earp]

You learn something new every day

We can debate whether or not people should learn about the irrationality of pi (I'm in the yes camp, unsurprisingly), but I'm rather more surprised and dismayed when incredibly brainy people claim they genuinely can't understand what it means to say that pi isn't a fraction. I mean, how does that come about? It must be an indictment of... something.

I was being mischievous earlier, GY, as I'm sure you spotted. I reckon you could follow the two "elementary" proofs of irrationality on wikipedia though, man of your calibre. Though in both cases, God knows, once read never remembered.

[Wyatt Earp]

You learn something new every day

Wee Hughie wrote:

I learned that it's a long way to walk to the Post Office to pick up a parcel...

... but that's just peanuts to space.

[Guest]

You learn something new every day

I knew there was something else I meant to say. There's a video on the net of a coke/mintos display team, which, being the King of Procrastination, I shall avoid working and now go and look for.

And here it is.

[Guest]

You learn something new every day

Fascinating stuff indeed, but I have to confess I could only sit through a quarter of the clip before giving in to the intriguing "Condom Rocket Gone Wrong" clip on the right.

[Wyatt Earp]

You learn something new every day

I've just learnt that the cancer risks in women associated with moderate alcohol consumption appear to have been hugely exaggerated in recent media reports.

[Stumpy Pepys]

You learn something new every day

According to something I read, as a result of this thread, not true. The head was 'designed' for maximum heat dissipation. 'Similar to an elephant's ears', was the comparison made. Apparently it's rife with heat-losing blood vessels that are close to the surface, compared to the rest of the body.

Well, if that were true we'd all be bald. And we'd have something like a ridged head to maximize surface area.

Anyway, I'm don't feel the need to defend scientists who've done proper studies with thermal imaging cameras.

[Bored Of Education]

You learn something new every day

I've learnt Powerpoint in an hour today. Hurrah!

[Bored Of Education]

You learn something new every day

We can debate whether or not people should learn about the irrationality of pi (I'm in the yes camp, unsurprisingly),

I don't think anyone questioned being taught, it was just a case of whether it was worth remembering if you are going to use 3.14 or 22/7 all the time.

Personally, I thought that 22/7 as a decimal was irrational which is where I went wrong

but I'm rather more surprised and dismayed when incredibly brainy people claim they genuinely can't understand what it means to say that pi isn't a fraction. I mean, how does that come about? It must be an indictment of... something.

A-ha, you didn't care when us thick ones didn't understand...Ah, I see now. As you were

[Toby Gymshorts]

You learn something new every day

Wa ayat al Urbi wrote:

ad hoc wrote:

I have just learned than when you drop mint flavoured mentos in a bottle of diet coke you get some kind of chemical reaction which causes the coke to explode out of the top of the bottle in a kind of chemical-sweet geyser.

I think it's just bubble nucleation, which would make it a physical rather than a chemical process. But I could be wrong.

This, of course, is why you get those pretty patterns on the bottom of pint glasses. It's also the reason why the landlord in my old local got really annoyed with me for laughing at the job-lot of *ahem* off-the-back-of-a-lorry glasses he bought; with the pattern on the outside.

[matt j]

You learn something new every day

I've learned recently (not today though), that one of the fastest growing incorporated places in the US (both in terms of geographic area and percent population) is Gilbert, Arizona.

and that census estimated a 50% decrease in the population of New Orleans in 2007 from the 2000 counts. But you already knew that, didn't you Bobby Jindal.