Why Is It That... Coopers make barrels instead of chicken coops?
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Why Is It That... Coopers make barrels instead of chicken coops?
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Why Is It That... Lord Voldemort didn't just hire a muggle hitman to shoot down young Harry Potter in the street.
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Why Is It That... In American football, tackle is an offensive position even though most tackling is done by the defense?
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Why is it That... Superman doesn't get a gun? He swore never to use his super powers to kill, but if he had a gun then his next encounter with Lex Luthor would be his last.
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Why is it That... States are divided into counties when we have no counts to run them?
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Is it because we are all countees? I never thought about that before but i do get counted from time to time, but does that count? Does a count count? I shall worry about that all day until something more pressing comes along. You can count on that.Originally Posted by Chuck
sicut vis videre esto
When we realize that patterns don't exist in the universe, they are a template that we hold to the universe to make sense of it, it all makes a lot more sense.
Originally Posted by Ken G
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Why is it That... When the motor of a vehicle is applying the drive that moves it, the person just steering it is called the driver?
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Why is it That... I never see some metric system prefixes being used? Decimeter, Decameter, and Hectometer seem to be ignored. A 4 Decameter tall building is always described as being 40 meters tall.
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Well, "40 meters" is shorter than "4 decameters", whether you're writing it or saying it out loud.
Plus, relatively few people know what the prefixes "deci", "deca", and "hecto" mean, which makes their non-usage somewhat self-reinforcing.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn
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Depends on the context. Some are used regularly, others rarely. For example, automotive torques are/were often stated in daNm instead of Nm. Which would be fine by me, if there weren't also quite some low values and then you get a rather ridiculous "0.9 daNm" which simply is 9 Nm.
Hectoliter is used a lot for big quantities of beer or wine.
For distances, a lot of use is made of kilo, centi, milli, micro. And for some SI area units, hecto is used: hectare = 100 are. Careful: an are is not the same as an acre.
Deci is used a lot in cooking: deciliter.
Other prefixes are indeed rarely used. Mathematically correct as they may be, people also like to use a measurement which they have a feeling for. And then you get a snowball effect: if "decameter" is rarely used, people don't have a feel for it and so it will get used even less.
Last edited by Nicolas; 2019-Mar-15 at 07:45 PM.
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Why do both 'flammable' and 'inflammable' mean the same thing?
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Why do some people say "irregardless" REGARDLESS of the correct usage?
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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Why is it acceptable to say "Sally only has ten cents" when what is meant is ”Sally has only ten cents"?
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or is it meant that Sally has ten cents only? I guess "Sally has ten cents" is less judgemental and is only preferred in particular only socially prejudiced situations.?
"
sicut vis videre esto
When we realize that patterns don't exist in the universe, they are a template that we hold to the universe to make sense of it, it all makes a lot more sense.
Originally Posted by Ken G
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Why is it that no matter how much damage a Star Trek universe starship takes, its antimatter containment field never fails?
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It makes engineering sense that the most dangerous part of the engine is the most heavily and redundantly shielded.
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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Yes, but even if another starship is dead in space, the containment field never fails. No one is even concerned about it. They should use that technology for their defensive shields.It makes engineering sense that the most dangerous part of the engine is the most heavily and redundantly shielded.
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It's established canon that if a warp core is compromised, it gets ejected.
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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That makes sense, but they never seem to think that the warp core is compromised no matter what they're being attacked by.
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I think "flammable" has become the preferred form because "inflammable" can be misconstrued as fireproof. There are words in which a prefix "in" or im" means "not", as in incapable or impossible. "Inflammable" literally means "can be inflamed". I can remember seeing the word "noninflammable", but I think "nonflammable" is preferred now. These are just more reasons that our mongrel English language is difficult for many foreigners to learn.
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Why is it that...the diseased vermin are the good guys in Mighty Mouse cartoons?
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Mickey envy.
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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Why do they call it Rush Hour when nobody can move?
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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That's the band they listen to when actually parked on the parkway.
Newbie
Why do so many people try to argue against factual evidence, and or, a scientifically proven fact? :/
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Why couldn't the founders of The United States come up with a more interesting name for their country?
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Dunning/Kruger syndrome
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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Why is it that... The War of 1812 didn't get a more descriptive name like all the other wars?
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