useless facts

[Texas Red]

It is currently 67 and sunny where I live.

[Jimbuna]

WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific armed their airplanes while stationed with .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measuring 27 feet before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, he went through "the whole 9 yards", hence the term.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific armed their airplanes while stationed with .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measuring 27 feet before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, he went through "the whole 9 yards", hence the term.

That's pretty interesting considering that this phrase's first idiomatic use was in 1907.



The whole nine yards is an example of idiomatic phrase that add odd or funny words to the end of the phrase "the whole..."


The whole ball of wax
The whole enchilada
The whole shooting match

The whole shebang
The whole hog
...


Are all examples.



In some parts of the country the expression was, in the early 20th century, "The whole six yards" so go figure.


As for aircraft ammo belts.....



While there may have been a belt of .50 cal that was "nine yards" it was hardly standardized. Different aircraft had different belts and sometimes each gun position had a different ammo belt. Depending on the mission different lengths of belts could be loaded on the same model of aircraft.



A common mistake in etymology is assuming that language, especially idioms, have to make sense. They don't.

[Platapus]

At just 135 words, George Washington’s second inaugural address remains the shortest ever delivered.

Fellow Citizens:
I am again called upon by the voice of my country to execute the functions of its Chief Magistrate. When the occasion proper for it shall arrive, I shall endeavor to express the high sense I entertain of this distinguished honor, and of the confidence which has been reposed in me by the people of united America.

Previous to the execution of any official act of the President, the constitution requires an oath of office. This oath I am now about to take, and in your presence: That if it shall be found during my administration of the Government I have in any instance violated willingly or knowingly the injunctions thereof, I may (besides incurring constitutional punishment) be subject to the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony.

I guess sore gums makes for a short speech.

[Sean C]

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

This is not the joke thread Sean

It's true. Google it.

[Aktungbby]

Oi ve! those poor people in Brooklyn ,Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx! I actually knew this but I'm long gone from 'the
Big Apple" https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...religious-home

....drives the 20-mile length of a nearly invisible series of wires that surrounds most of the borough. He starts at 126th Street in Harlem and drives down, hugging the Hudson River most of the way, to Battery Park and back up along the East River, marking in a small notebook where he notices breaks in the line. Known as an eruv, the wire is a symbolic boundary that allows observant Jews to carry out a range of ordinary activities otherwise forbidden on the Shabbat. see eruv map below:

[Jimbuna]

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

[Rockstar]

The Kola super deep bore hole is the deepest hole, eva'

[Jimbuna]

Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.

[Rockstar]

When the The James Webb telescope is sent into space. It will orbit around the sun at what's known as the 2nd Lagrange Point

[Moonlight]

Well, now you've told us that old boy you could at least tell us what the 1st Lagrange Point is, it would be another great useless fact to know, over to you Rockstar.

[Mr Quatro]

Originally Posted by Sean C

It's true. Google it.

Sorry it seemed so out of place, but Aktung knew it too so I guess it's true.

My bad

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Moonlight

Well, now you've told us that old boy you could at least tell us what the 1st Lagrange Point is, it would be another great useless fact to know, over to you Rockstar.

And here I thought everyone knew what L2 was.


L2 is short-hand for the second Lagrange Point, a wonderful accident of gravity and orbital mechanics, and the perfect place to park the Webb telescope in space. There are five so-called "Lagrange Points" - areas where gravity from the sun and Earth balance the orbital motion of a satellite. Putting a spacecraft at any of these points allows it to stay in a fixed position relative to the Earth and sun with a minimal amount of energy needed for course correction.

The term L2 may sound futuristic and mysterious, but the name actually honors a Mathematician born in 1736. The Lagrange points were named after the Italian-born mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who made important contributions to classical and celestial mechanics. Lagrange studied the "three-body problem" (so-called because three bodies are orbiting each other) for the Earth, sun, and moon in 1764, and by 1772 he had found the solution; there are five stable points at which you could put an object and have it stay fixed in place relative to the other two.

In the case of L2, this happens about 930,000 miles away from the Earth in the exact opposite direction from the sun. The Earth, as we know, orbits the sun once every year. Normally, an object almost a million miles farther out from the sun should move more slowly, taking more than a year to complete its orbit around the sun. However, at L2, exactly lined up with both the sun and Earth, the added gravity of the two large bodies pulling in the same direction gives a spacecraft an extra boost of energy, locking it into perfect unison with the Earth's yearly orbit. The Webb telescope will be placed slightly off the true balance point, in a gentle orbit around L2.

[Jimbuna]

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

[Moonlight]

That's an excellent summary of the second Lagrange Point Rockstar, it deserves an A+.