On 3/7/2011 4:15 AM, Invisible wrote:
> Why do the majority of cartoon characters only have 8 digits instead of 10?
>

I've heard its easier to draw 3 fingers than 4. But, really, I dunno.

> The unit square contains an infinite number of points. But is it
> countably or uncountably infinite?

I suppose you could say that it's an infinite set of all complex numbers 
in the range of [0,1+1i)?

> Every Sudoku problem is a graph colouring problem. But is every graph
> colouring problem a Sudoku problem? (For suitable size and shape of
> Sudoku grid.)

I don't necessarily think so. Sudoku has a very specific layout.

>
> A black hole forms when you have such an insanely vast amount of mass
> collected together in one place that it actually collapses under the
> sheer force of its own gravitational field, crushing itself into a space
> having zero volume and infinite density. So... how *the hell* do you
> make a /small/ black hole? Surely a small object wouldn't generate
> anywhere near enough gravity to form a black hole.
>

Take any mass and collapse it down small enough and it'll become a black 
hole. Once it reaches a critical ration of mass/volume, then you'll have 
a black hole. It may not last too long, or it may; and if it does, it 
would be rather irresponsible to create one so close to our own planet.

> If the speed of light is constant, how the hell does light undergo
> Doppler shift?
>

Same way sound Doppler shifts. the packets of light are either closer or 
further from each other depending on the relative velocity of the 
emitter and the observer.

> Why do almost all species of birds bob their heads when they walk?

Good question. I thought it was mostly just birds from the columbidae 
family that did that.

>
> What is the purpose of receipts? I mean, seriously, if you're anything
> like me, you have hundreds of the damned things. What do you *do* with


> actually sit down and *check* these things? For every damned purchase
> they make?! [Obviously, for high-value items that you might need to
> return, or for goods that your employer is paying for, the usefulness is
> more obvious.]

Right, you'd need to (at least in the United States) keep certain 
receipts for tax purposes. If you purchase items on a debit card, it's 
nice to have the slip of paper to take home and enter into your account 
register. And, as you said, expense tracking is also another good 
reason. Also, you may want to keep receipts to compare against your 
account statement to make sure someone didn't pad the bill when they 
cleared the credit card transaction.

>
> Do spiders have a sense of smell?
>

I'm sure they do, but not as we do. I imagine their palps have some sort 
of chemical sense that can pick molecules out of the air. Especially the 
free roaming varieties that don't set up a web. They also might need a 
sense of smell to find a suitable mate.

> Why is it called a "square root"? Surely "square route" would make far
> more sense...

Wouldn't the square route be the perimeter of the square? Square root 
because it is the root of exponentiation operation. The big number on 
the bottom is the root, the little number on the top is the exponent. So 
square root makes sense, as does cube root, 4th root, nth root, etc... :)

> Why do only large feathers fall out? I mean, you often find a single
> long black tail feather. But birds must have lots of smaller feathers
> also. How come you never see any of those laying around?

They're rather light and tend to drift around. I've seen lots of smaller 
feathers. Go find a place where birds roost. You'll see all variety of 
feathers, especially when they're molting.

> Who put the dip in the dip, di-dip, di-dip?
>

The 1950's?

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