Learn Something New Every Day Contest. Day 1
My uncle always used to say to learn two new things every day. He passed away a few months ago and I have been wanting to do something on Steemit to honor his memory.
This is a photo of him. I did a post some time ago about wanting to take him to some kind of event dressed as Gandalf The Grey. Anyway, he believed that if you stop using your mind, or if you stop learning things, that what was the point in living? He spent a lot of time watching shows like "Through the Wormhole" (what made me think of the Morgan Freeman reference earlier) and "How It's Made" and things like that on The History Channel and Discovery Channel and such. So in honor of his memory, I am starting a new series here on Steemit, the "Learn Something New Every Day Contest"!
This series will likely evolve and change a bit as I go along. I have not worked out all of the details yet, but I know that I want to spread more rewards, and my favorite way to do that is through engagement. As this series evolves, I will probably add in or tack on themes, or specific topics and things like that. But for now, I am going to keep it fairly simple. Much like my Engagement Contest I ran a couple months ago, today I am really just going to be asking for you to "Tell me something I don't know". It doesn't have to be some obscure bit of information no one has ever heard of, just some interesting bit of knowledge. The tidbit that sparked the idea for that previous contest that I mentioned was "Koalas are the only other mammal that have fingerprints closely resembling that of a human".
It doesn't have to be the most fantastic bit of knowledge, it just has to be true. If you post something really hard to believe, I may ask you to cite your source or link me to something that backs up your bit of info. As I said, this idea is still really rough around the edges, but it will get better as I go along, much like anything else you work on in life. Don't be afraid to drop comments with suggestions below. I am always open to ways of improving.
So here it is, really simple.
Tell me Something I Don't Know.
Leave me a meaningful comment below with a random bit of trivia knowledge (if you don't know what a meaningful comment is, make sure you read the post by @ogochuckwu linked at the bottom of this post). All entrants will get a small Upvote for participating, (One Entry Per Person Per Day!!!) and my top three favorite will receive a 100% Upvote, a 75% Upvote and a 50% Upvote for teaching me something new that day. You have about twenty three hours to make submissions to this post, at which time I will give out rewards and post the new Day's contest.And here's the deal. One entry per person means one per person. If I catch people abusing me or my contests again, I am not going to get mad about it, I am just going to use the power that I would have used to Upvote that user to downvote them instead. I love this platform too much to let a couple scammers get the best of me, so I will use the tools I have and do what I have to do! On a more positive note, I highly encourage you all to Upvote each others entries as well. Help me spread more rewards by rewarding each other!
As always, thanks for taking the time to read my post!
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This is a fantastic idea @gogogadgetupvote! I'll be sure to participate as frequently as possible :)
I guess I'll start it off, even if this might be something you already know.
Did you know a bullwhip is probably the first human invention to break the sound barrier? When wielded properly, the loud "crack" made by a bullwhip, is actually a small sonic boom, caused by the tip of the whip breaking through the sound barrier.
First!
Thanks!
I actually didn't know that. That is a brilliant bit of knowledge, and EXACTLY the kind of trivia that I am looking for in this contest! Thank you so much for being the first person to participate and for having such a perfect example of what I am looking for!
Also, I want to give my condolences on the loss of your uncle. Losing family is always hard, especially around the holidays. I hope you and yours are doing well.
I'm glad I could oblige! This was one of those things I remember learning a long while back and thinking to myself, "that's impossible," only to later on look it up and find out it was true. I had always assumed it was just the whip hitting itself.
Wow! A great idea for a contest.
This is my submission for today.
Did you know that the most expensive substance on earth as of today is Antimatter. It costs about $60 trillions per gram. In theory antimatter has great applications in space travel.
Antimatter as the name implies is opposite of matter. They when come in contact with matter produces pure radiational energy through a big explosion.
How many bitcoins? JK
Lol 😂😂
Neat, I knew it was rare and valuable (afterall, you need a massive collider to even produce the stuff), but not quite that valuable. I think I once heard that an amount the size of a penny was enough (energy-wise) to fuel a trip to the moon and back.
Obtaining a penny size would need a lot of work.
Second!
Wow! Thanks
What a fun competition and a great way to learn new interesting facts!
DID YOU KNOW?
That the Eiffel Tower and the sun have an aversion to each other? The top can lean up to 7 inches away from the sun due to the metal heating up and expanding.
I wonder if that could increase with global warming?
Do you have a source on that? Like, does the direction it leans move as the sun moves across the sky? Has this been tested or measured?
http://visiteiffeltower.com/scientific-facts/ :-) Check out the movements at the top bit at the bottom of the article.
Third!
A win for fun facts, this is a fun game! How exciting! Thanks @gogogadgetupvote
I am really having a lot of fun with this contest! Thanks for participating!
Hey , Great Contest, The thing I love is that when I read other people's comments my day gets enriched.
So here's something I learnt recently and it changed my perspective about Capchtas
Those annoying CAPTCHAs are actually being used to help digitalise decades of old texts — books, magazines and newspapers — that scanning programs struggle to decipher.
The reason the words are blurry or warped isn’t to test your patience; these are taken from scanned texts, which are often mistranslated by auto-digitising programs — or optical character recognition (OCR) software if you wish to get technical.
So we're helping them translate text for free which is another matter since a case was filed for free labour.
That is awesome I'm much happier about the whole captcha process knowing that
It is an interesting concept
I hate captchas... And now I hate them just a little bit more. Don't even get me started on why we shouldn't be trying to make Artificial Intelligence smarter.....
I hate them too, but I admire the balls it took to get free labour
Definitely takes a huge set to pull that kind of scam on such a huge level!
I'm loving this, education = money, how to keep people growing the best they can be, I think you found the solution, without 9 to 5.
Did you know bananas are are curved because they grow against gravity? They start downwards and then because bananas are trying to get more sun, they are trying to grow against gravity (upwards) and then they end up curved.
Sounds perfectly logical. Never really thought about it, I just accepted at a young age bananas were curved and never thought about it. But your fact does make perfect sense. Did you know that in places where they grow bananas like Hawaii, they let them ripen still on the tree until they are a brown to black color before they even pick them? The yellow bananas that we get in the mainland of the United States are actually picked green and considered very immature, and they ripen during the travel to wherever it is they are going.
I didn't know for Hawaii and their banana process but in general. I found out when I had my banans yellow-black but more black, and I was like ewww, and my mom said, the black is the delicious spot on banana and since then I can't eat green-yellow or pure yellow bananas, I have to let them ripe to blackish, atleast yellow with many black spots :)
I haven't had the pleasure of having a fresh banana in Hawaii myself, but I have heard from more than one person that ripening on the tree thing to be the case. I would love to visit those islands one of these days!
i remember this contest, as a newbie this is my first kind of contest i participated in and it was awesome with some great reward. thanks @gogogadgetupvote for bringing it back.
what you dont know;
Do you know that charcoal powder is the best mirror wiper ever?
take a few solid charcoal, grind it to turn to powder charcoal, take a dry small towel then wipe your dirty mirror firmly with it and see magic.
i learn't this method when i was an apprentice in the local barber shop in my hood.
I am glad that you stuck around. I am trying to make this a daily thing now. Keep an eye out!
Did You Know? A Peanut is Not Actually a Nut ... it's a Legume! Peanut Institute Source
What is a Legume?
Great Contest Idea! Keep Up the Great Work and Steem On My Friend!
I always liked that fact but did you know @castleberry that a banana is not a fruit but is in fact a herb.
@gogogadget thats not a double entry it just a free food based fact.
Free fact or not, I would love to know the source on that.
@gogogadget & @shai-hulud According to ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA The banana is the fruit of an herb..... and so are Pineapples!....(MINDBLOWN)
Weird, I thought herbs were typically bushes, and I thought bananas and pineapples both grew on trees.
I learnt something new today too... I would never have thought a banana was classed as a herb. Crazy!
The Pineapple looks like a pine cone growing on the top of a tropical plant that is pretty low to the ground. The banana is the fruit of what seems more like bamboo stalks than a tree. This has been fun looking into... and I think this has been a great Idea for regular thing!
Thanks for the support, bud!
Freaking love it @gogogadgetupvote did you know that the oldest writen story we know is the epic of Gilgamesh found Sumeria other wise known as modern day Iraq this also makes it the oldest story known to man that is true to its source free from embellishments dating all the way back to 2700 BC
That one I actually did know. But it is still a great piece of trivia!
Love the concept!
My condolences to your great uncle.
My learn something new:
Did you know that a watermelon is a vegetable?
I need a source for that. I thought they were a fruit.
IT has seeds, I thought that was the pivotal thing needed for something to be classed as a fruit?
Well, doing research now. Seems like it's both:
It’s a fruit AND a vegetable
Talk about an overachiever. Like most fruits, watermelon is the product of a seed-producing plant and has a signature sweet taste. But it can be traced back to the squash, pumpkin, and cucumber family known as Cucurbitaceae. Remember how you can eat the rind? The dual nature of watermelon makes it all edible, so there’s no excuse to leave any part behind.
(Source: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/07/10/5-things-didnt-know-about-watermelon.html, not everybody's favorite source, but just a quick google search)
Another source:
https://www.whataboutwatermelon.com/index.php/2009/10/watermelon-a-fruit-or-a-vegetable/
While doing research, found out that tomatoes are getting much more discussion, even a court case:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_v._Hedden
@gogogadgetupvoted Did you know what is NEWS, NEWS is just the four direction North, East, West & South. you started a nice post. it will definitely help us to learn with fun. keep sharing.
Nope. Sure doesn't. It doesn't stand for "Notable Events, Weather and Sports", either. you can check out my source on that HERE! Comes from Latin, like most English does.
haha, that would have been a cool fact through and something I never noticed about the acronym NEWS lol...
It isn't an acronym. That those words match up to those letters is just coincidence. Hence my source.
True it doesn't even go in order of NESW.
hmmmm....rightly said i second your opinion as i am not the guy who always stick with his own opinion. i read it some where news is all about the four direction. may be i am seeing with other view which is not right. It's all about perception of things how we perceive things so thanks for the correction @insideoutlet thanks for chipping in this discuession. As far as order is concerned it's doesn't matter. what's about PHD Docotr of philosophy why not DPH, nice sharing @gogogadgetupvote