Today I Learned

[WWGD]

Today I learned that the red fox habitat is expanding into the arctic fox habitat and the red fox will eat the smaller arctic fox... :S

Yes, I think I heard something about it...in Fox news.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned how to remove a chuck from a drill:



The information that the holding screw inside the chuck is left-handed was invaluable.

 

[gleem]

Today I learned that four rare Earth metals Yttrium (Y), Terbium (Tb), Erbium (Er) and Ytterbium (Yb) are all named after Ytterby a town in Sweden.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

I learned that snakes, worms and spiders are tailless.

 

[phinds]

Today I learned why we get goosebumps. I always took it literally and assumed it was because a goose's hair will fluff up when it's cold, but It's actually because we evolved from animals with fur and when you have fur getting cold is somewhat alleviated by causing your hair to fluff up. We make the same motion (goosebumps) we just don't have any fur to stand up. Same reason as geese really but not the right derivation.

Also fright seems to cause hair to stand up on some animals necks so we sometimes get them on our necks when we see something frightening.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned why we get goosebumps. I always took it literally and assumed it was because a goose's hair will fluff up when it's cold, but It's actually because we evolved from animals with fur and when you have fur getting cold is somewhat alienated by causing your hair to fluff up. We make the same motion (goosebumps) we just don't have any fur to stand up. Same reason as geese really but not the right derivation.

Also fright seems to cause hair to stand up on some animals necks so we sometimes get them on our necks when we see something frightening.

Yes, the technical term for "goosebumps" is piloerection:

Medical Definition of PILOERECTION. : involuntary erection or bristling of hairs due to a sympathetic reflex usually triggered by cold, shock, or fright or due to a sympathomimetic agent.

 

[phinds]

Yes, the technical term for "goosebumps" is piloerection:

Cool. Thanks.

 

[JorisL]

TIL it's hard to tune a lecture to the students needs when you have both students with dyslexia and dyscalculia.
The first benefit often from a schematic way of summarizing the contents using fewer words/full sentences.
While the latter not only have trouble with arithmetic but also with visual insights.
This means they can have trouble with a schematic way of representing the contents.

Quite the conundrum when trying to (fine-)tune a lesson.

 

[jim hardy]

The information that the holding screw inside the chuck is left-handed was invaluable.

i look for burnt out drills in junkpiles and pillage those left handed screws . They must be made from Unobtanium - can't get them anyplace else !

 

[zoobyshoe]

i look for burnt out drills in junkpiles and pillage those left handed screws . They must be made from Unobtanium - can't get them anyplace else !

You made me curious. The one I took out of a 3/8 black and decker drill seems to be a 3/16-32 screw, which is a size I have never heard of before. I get a diameter of .186 and 32 TPI.

I suppose you could call a drill manufacturer and tell them you change your chucks often and are always losing the screws. Maybe they'd send you a box?

 

[jim hardy]

The one I took out of a 3/8 black and decker drill seems to be a 3/16-32 screw, which is a size I have never heard of before. I get a diameter of .186 and 32 TPI.

That seems within tolerance for a 10-32. It an be as small as 0.184 and still meet class 3.
http://www.engineersedge.com/screw_threads_chart.htm

0.1861 would be smack in the middle of grade 2.

from http://www.engineersedge.com/thread_strength/thread_classes.htm

old jim

 

[zoobyshoe]

That seems within tolerance for a 10-32.

Of course. I don't know why I dismissed that. A left handed 10-32 screw might be easier to find than a left handed 3/16-32, heh heh.

 

[jim hardy]

Of course. I don't know why I dismissed that. A left handed 10-32 screw might be easier to find than a left handed 3/16-32, heh heh.

With my luck it'd be Whitworth threads - same pitch but 55 degrees...

 

[Bystander]

TIL that endarterectomies are not fun.

 

[Borg]

TIL that endarterectomies are not fun.

That certainly doesn't sound like fun. Hope you're doing better.

 

[jtbell]

Today I learned that "stressed" spelled backwards is "desserts." Our college's dining hall had a special dessert bar set up today for final exam week.

 

[wolram]

Today i learned that costalota means taking two women shopping.

 

[Borg]

Today i learned that costalota means taking two women shopping.

Is that something like Ménage à cash?

 

[OmCheeto]

Last week, I noticed that my fish made a baby.
Being egg layers, I assumed there were more babies. I've counted about a dozen so far.
But in my searches, I noticed some tiny little "Hydra" looking creatures.

​

No big deal.

But I googled "Hydra", and discovered that, they are immortal. [ref wiki]

I didn't know such creatures existed.

 

[Cruz Martinez]

Today i learned that a trivial topological space is pseudo-metrizable.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

Ewww, the white fish...

 

[Lisa!]

TIRT I'm mainly on my silent mode these days!

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that the Earth's axis precesses because the Earth is oblate.

 

[Evo]

Zooby's "how-to-tell-if-a-transistor-is-npn or pnp" has been moved to "https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/how-to-tell-if-a-transistor-is-npn-or-pnp.847755/ as it's own thread now.

 

[baudrunner]

Today I learned that a parsec is 3.262 light years long, and that the total number of possible 6 number combinations from the range of 1 to 39 inclusive are 3.262 million.

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that James Clerk Maxwell was the first to project a color image using the red-green-blue system.

I also learned that a few people can see a fourth color, so RGB is inadequate for them. One of these said the world of man was full of clashing colors, and that supermarkets were the worst.

 

[Lisa!]

TILT my problems with the boss might be side effects of the medication that I'm taking!
But that doesn't change the fact that she's really annoying and it's hard for everyone to stand her.

 

[jim hardy]

TIL how to re-attach the back of a violin using 'hide glue' .

 

[Ibix]

TIL how to make chicken jalfrezi in a slow cooker. A hint if you try it: don't be in the house smelling the lovely spicy cooking smell for six hours. I felt like one of Pavlov's dogs...

 

[Silicon Waffle]

TIL about drought tolerant plants (good GMO ) which help dry farmers to cope with water shortages.