The Book of General Ignorance
Despite the uninspiring title(and let me say right now before I am assaulted with bad jokes, it does not imply me), it is a fascinating book. It falsifies a lot of things that I thought were true and says a lot of stuff that I was, interestingly, not wrong about. This was usually because I had never heard of it. Anyone want examples?
Despite what anyone told you, glass is not a supercooled liquid. The liquid theory comes from misunderstanding some work by someone who compared it to a liquid because its molecular structure is irregular. It is actually a solid, though an amorphous solid. No, I don't know what that is.
There are not 3 states of matter, not even 5, Sakshi. There are actually something like 15(the more complicated of which are strongly and weakly symmetric matter, and Bose-Einstein condensate) which I am not going to waste my time typing. However, if someone wants to know, comment and I'll write.
And contrary to our NTSE assignments, oxygen is not the most common material in the earth. It happens to be something called perovskite, a mixture of magnesium, silicon and oxygen. Apparently what the earth's mantle is made of.
Gosh, what do I go to school for?
BTW, I am still in the middle. If something more interesting comes up, it will be duly reported.
Despite what anyone told you, glass is not a supercooled liquid. The liquid theory comes from misunderstanding some work by someone who compared it to a liquid because its molecular structure is irregular. It is actually a solid, though an amorphous solid. No, I don't know what that is.
There are not 3 states of matter, not even 5, Sakshi. There are actually something like 15(the more complicated of which are strongly and weakly symmetric matter, and Bose-Einstein condensate) which I am not going to waste my time typing. However, if someone wants to know, comment and I'll write.
And contrary to our NTSE assignments, oxygen is not the most common material in the earth. It happens to be something called perovskite, a mixture of magnesium, silicon and oxygen. Apparently what the earth's mantle is made of.
Gosh, what do I go to school for?
BTW, I am still in the middle. If something more interesting comes up, it will be duly reported.
posted by Namya at
6:00 AM
12 Comments:
hey.. sounds like a cool book.. :)
well, i'd like to know about the 15 states of matter. :)
P.S. nice title. "-"
By
Sakshi, at 9:09 AM
ok, sakshi, but u asked for it.
they are: solid, amorphous solid, gas, plasma, superfluid, supersolid, degenerate matter, neutronium, strongly symmetric matter, weakly symmetric matter, quark-gluon plasma, fermionic condensate, Bose-Einstein condensate and strange matter.
I would have thought that the last would take care of the entire thing.
By
Namya, at 4:11 AM
um.. i think i get that..(HUH?)
By
Sakshi, at 6:46 AM
weirder things(though knowing sakshi's abysmal gk, u mightn't have heard of them):
-america was not named after vespucci.
-marie antoinette did not say 'let them eat cake'.
-chameleons do not change colour according to their surroundings(ok, this sakshi would have heard of)
By
Namya, at 10:28 PM
america was named after some amerigos thing. i remember reading about it.
u were the one who told me that marie antoinette said the cake stuff.
chameleons change colour according to the temperature and stuff.
i like the word stuff. its like etc, makes others feel that u know more than what u actually do. lol.
By
Sakshi, at 8:45 AM
sounds like a cool book.
Is it compiled randomly or got an author?
By
Sobhagya Jose, at 5:54 AM
i knew Marie Antoinette didn't say that thing about the cake, just like the apple never fell on Newton's head.
but i always did think america was named after amerigo vespucci. Apparently it's this Richard Ameryk guy. Seeing as it isn't Ameriga.
and the rest of this stuff is pretty interesting, too.
Oxygen, i believe, is the most common element. Wonder what they'll tell us in NTSE.
By
Monkey With Keyboard, at 6:46 AM
it is apparently a compilation of some tv trivia game questions, from what i could glean from wikipedia. this to betty.
according to the book, prachi, if it had been named after vespucci, it would probably be called 'vespuccia' becoz places are normally named after surnames. can u imagine it? (vespuccia, the superpower, etc.)
By
Namya, at 9:17 PM
Wikipedia says something like 21 states of matter... though depending on how you count your result may be different. One of them's liquid crystal, as in LCD.
By
Monkey With Keyboard, at 8:35 AM
they said that it was a conservative estimate, and liable to change. i guess there could be more than 21 too.
By
Namya, at 11:47 PM
Wow. Strange Matte ought to have summed it all up though.
And I knew about all the rest except that the apple never fell on Newton. It didn't!?!?!?!!?!??!?!
And the Amerigo Vespucci thing. The logic makes sense. The name sounds strange. Vespuccia...
I'd always wondered how "amerigo" came to be "america". vast difference, ain't there?
By
Espèra, at 6:21 AM
*Matter
By
Espèra, at 6:21 AM
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