Myth: The reason there is no Nobel Price for Mathematics is because Alfred Nobel’s fiancée wife had an affair with a mathematician. You’d be hard pressed to take any upper level university level mathematics course and not hear some variation of this story at least once per term from your mathematics professor (I personally have heard it from three different […]
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Today I found out why milk is white. Milk is made up of about 87% water and 13% solids, such as fat and various proteins. Chief among these proteins is something called casein, four types of which make up about 80% of the proteins in milk. The casein protein molecules are typically suspended somewhat uniformly throughout the milk and are […]
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Today I found out the Snickers candy bar was named after one of Frank Mars’ favorite horses. Frank Mars was the creator of the Snickers candy bar and founder of Mars, Inc, originally called Mar-O-Bar Co., which is currently the 6th largest privately held company in the world with annual sales of around 21 billion dollars. The company is still […]
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Today I found out the United States once planned on shooting a nuclear bomb at the moon. If you presumed that the reasoning behind such an act was “because we can”, you are absolutely correct. That is exactly why the U.S. wanted to do it, in order to one-up the Soviet Union, who were perceived as leading the space race […]
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Today I found out why you used to have to use #2 pencils when using scantron forms. Now, you might be saying, “Used to? Don’t you still have to?” It turns out, despite what pretty much all teachers will tell you, not really. Modern scantron systems are quite high-tech, using image sensors and sophisticated image processing algorithms. These algorithms can […]
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Myth: Listening to Mozart will make you smarter. This myth was popularized by an experiment published in Nature in 1993 by the University of California at Irvine. In this study, they had 36 students listen to 10 minutes of Mozart before taking a spatial IQ test. Their claim was that this increased the spatial IQ score of the students by […]
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Today I found out where the term “rock and roll” came from. The word “roll” has been used since the Middle Ages to refer to, among other things, having sex: “Let’s go for a roll in the hay”; “Rolling under the sheets”; etc. The word “rock”, again among other things, has been used since at least the 17th century as […]
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Myth: Alcohol kills brain cells. Now, to qualify that title, pure alcohol will absolutely kill brain cells and many other types of cells, which is why it is used as a disinfectant. However, recent research has shown that the quantity of alcohol you could possibly take in, without killing yourself, does not introduce enough alcohol into your bloodstream to kill […]
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Today I found out why crackers have holes. Surprisingly, it turns out the holes are there for a reason, not just for decoration or for convenience in some manufacturing process, as one might expect. In actuality, without these holes, crackers wouldn’t bake correctly. These holes allow steam to escape during cooking. This keeps the crackers flat, instead of rising a […]
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Today I found out where the words “geek” and “nerd” came from. The first documented case of “geek” dates all the way back to 1916. At the time, the term was used to describe sideshow freaks in circuses. Specifically, it was typically attributed to those circus performers who were known for doing crazy things like biting the heads of various […]
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Today I found out why men’s bikes have a horizontal crossbar and women’s bikes typically don’t. It would seem that having a slanted crossbar like on women’s bikes would make much more sense for men’s bikes, decreasing the chance of racking the guy if he slips off the pedals or the like. However, there is actually a really good reason […]
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Today I found out what causes ice cream headaches. While many theories on what exactly causes ice cream headaches or “brain freezes” have existed for some time, it has only been very recently that it was discovered exactly what is going on here. It turns out, ice cream headaches are a result of a rapid change in the size of […]
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Myth: It is possible to swallow your tongue. Contrary to popular belief, it is not possible to swallow your tongue. Well, unless of course if you cut it off and then swallowed it… In any event, the tongue is rooted to the floor of the mouth by the lingual frenulum. This makes getting the tongue far enough back in the […]
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Note: This is a guest article contributed by Suparna Kadam, co-founder of GreenRay, Inc. (bio at the bottom) If you’re interested in contributing to TIFO click here to read our article submission guidelines. Today I found out what a watt is. The evolving discussion over renewable energy technologies has a tendency to get a bit technical. Most of us who work in […]
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Today I found out about the history of French fries. Exactly who introduced these golden strips of goodness to the world isn’t entirely known. Among the various theories, it’s generally accepted that the French fry was invented by either the Belgians or the French. Potatoes were first introduced to Europe not through the French or Belgians, but through the Spanish. […]
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Note: This is a guest article contributed by plastics engineer and owner of Polymeric Life, Noah. Today I found out where the word plastic came from. The word plastic existed long before the first plastic, Parkesine. As early as the 1600’s, plastic was used as a term to relate to something that could be easily molded or shaped. Plastic is […]
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Today I found out Tim Allen was a convicted drug dealer before becoming famous. On October 2, 1978, shortly after beginning his stand up comedian career while working at an advertising firm, Allen was caught by drug sniffing dogs at Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport transporting about 650 grams (1.4 pounds) of cocaine. In exchange for not having to go to […]
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