Thread: Interesting, surprising facts

Originally Posted by Xei

...
All the gold ever mined could fit into a 20 metre cube.

Originally Posted by Zhaylin

My hubby has told me that fact about gold. I still find it incredibly hard to believe

Originally Posted by Aristaeus

Great video - at one point it states this fact about all mined gold, and adds to it, that if you used all gold that the planet contains to cover its surface - the thickness of that covering would be more than 50 cm - not that rare after all.

The video also states, that cows sleep with their eyes open and standing on their feet, but that they lie down in order to dream.
The guy illustrates this by lying down and air walking his legs.
Does that mean cows have no REM Atonia?
Somebody know about this?

From other sources:

Giraffes only sleep 1.9 hours per day - in 5 - 10 min. intervals.
Koalas sleep around 22 hours per day.
REM sleep is found in all species of mammals and birds that have been studied, but it probably does not occur in other classes of animals.


More sleep stuff from more sources:

The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes.
You’re more likely to die from sleep deprivation before starvation. It takes two weeks to starve, but 10 days without sleep can kill you.
Losing sleep reduces your pain tolerance. It may disrupt the body’s pain signalling system, heightening sensitivity to painful stimuli.
After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will have the same effect on your body as six would have if you had slept enough.


Having a newborn baby typically results in 400–750 hours of lost sleep for the baby’s parents in the first year.
On average, a newborn sleeps for 10 to 19 hours per day. Bottle-fed infants sleep for longer periods than breast-fed infants.


12% of people dream in black and white.
Before color television the number was 75%.


There are two periods of maximum sleepiness — the late afternoon (from around 3 to 5 PM) and the end of the night (from around 3 to 5 a.m.). There are also two periods of maximum alertness — around 1 a.m. in the morning and 1 p.m. in the afternoon.

Originally Posted by StephL

Great video - at one point it states this fact about all mined gold, and adds to it, that if you used all gold that the planet contains to cover its surface - the thickness of that covering would be more than 50 cm - not that rare after all.

This requires some perspective. The Earth's radius is more than 600,000,000cm. 50cm is therefore... a tiny tiny quantity. And only a tiny quantity of that is close enough to the surface to be mined.

Originally Posted by Xei

This requires some perspective. The Earth's radius is more than 600,000,000cm. 50cm is therefore... a tiny tiny quantity. And only a tiny quantity of that is close enough to the surface to be mined.

I know - so - it is not that much gold after all!
Could we agree on that?
wink.gif

If you look at it in terms of percentage of elements in the Earth´s crust - it´s negligible of course.

Oxygen 47 %

Silicon 28 %

Aluminium 8 %

Iron 5 %

Calcium 3.5 %

Sodium 3 %

Potassium 2.5 %

Magnesium 2 %

All other elements 1 %

What makes this sort of "visualization" attractive is the stuff it´s all about - we wouldn´t be as interested in say - painite .. uhm - wait a minute:

Originally Posted by Huffingtonpost - sic!

Thought to be the rarest mineral on the planet, painite remains priceless. One of the hardest minerals to locate, it can only be harvested in Mogok and Kachin States in Myanmar. Only 25 small crystals and only two faceted crystals have been discovered in the world. Painite costs around 60,000 dollars per carat.

You are correct - I was echoing the tone of the video without much reflection on what "I know"..