thegreatbeyond

Okay, thanks. I've never heard that term before...

Potassium and sodium are very similar elements (they exist in the same elemental family) so they serve very close functions in the body. They both serve to maintain the balance of water in the body, so too much of either causes excess water to be held while a deficiency in either causes a lack of water in the body. Potassium isn't as cheap or plentiful as sodium, though, so people generally don't worry about too much potassium intake. Source: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09355.html

According to Dictionary.com, only high noon is a valid term of the three, meaning "exactly noon". Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=high%20noon

While the sky sometimes turns green before a tornado hits, it's not the rule that a green sky means tornados. Tornados often turn the sky dark blue, red, or even black. This effect is caused by the debris kicked up by the tornado which refracts light. If a tornado comes with a hail storm (which is often) the ice refracts green light more than anything else, causing a green colored sky. Large debris or dirt blocks light entirely, causing a dark blue or black sky.

The effect of a split moon would depend on how the moon was split. If you don't like math, skip this section. If a plane, perpendicular to the line connecting the centers of the earth and moon, splits the moon in half, there might be a good chance that half of the moon would head towards the earth. If the plane splitting the moon in half was parallel to the line connecting the centers of the earth and moon, there's a good chance that the two halves float in orbit just as if the moon weren't split.

Colored pencils are made in much the same way that ordinary graphite pencils are made. (By the way, lead hasn't been used as a pencil core for quite some time, due to how poisonous it can be, so it was replaced with graphite) Instead of firing a graphite core in a kiln, however, a core of wax and pigment is extruded and encased in a wooden shaft. Crayons are made from similar materials, though they aren't encased in wooden shafts but in paper wrappers along with different ingredients. Source: http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/waac/wn/ ... 9-308.html

have you ever seen russian pencil crayons. They are huge.

Plurkix and I were baby sitting for some people tonight.. and we couldnt figure out the difference between grape jelly and grape jam. So.. Whats the difference betwen Jelly and Jam?

In both jellies and jams, a fruit is mixed with sugar and pectin to make a spread. In a jelly, the fruit comes in the form of fruit juice while in a jam, the fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp, which is just mashed fruit. The pectin is what makes a jelly or jam solid enough to spread. Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/question84.htm

Where does the phrase 'pass with flying colours' come from?

The phrase comes from the days of naval warfare when a victorious fleet sailed into harbor with their banners (known as colors at the time) flying in the wind. Since then, it has come to mean any sort of accomplishment done exceedingly well. Source: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_boar ... s/572.html

what exactly is marmalade? is it like jelly or jam or preservatives?

According to Dictionary.com:
mar·ma·lade (n) A clear, jellylike preserve made from the pulp and rind of fruits, especially citrus fruits.

I heard that ritalin can cause liver cancer in mice..
Can it cause it in humans?

Is there a word for the fear of hobos/the homeless?

Are elephants really afraid of mice?

What do you call a group of cats? As in.. a group of deer is a herd.

What are the requirements for a "hill" of land to be considered a mountain?

How much recorded gold has been discovered worldwide, ever?

The mice thing... well elephants can be scared of mice but it's more of the movement of something they can't see very well that scares them more than the mouse itself. (or so I've heard)

Though there was a study conducted in 1995 that linked Ritalin with liver cancer in mice, the FDA has concluded that there is no risk for developing liver cancer in humans who take Ritalin. You'll notice that, if you search for Ritalin and liver cancer on Google, you'll come up with a lot of scare pages about Ritalin causing cancer, but no actual evidence. Since mice and humans are so different, it's possible that Ritalin has a unique chemical Source: http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=AN00132

Actually, the word meaning "having a fear of the homeless" (also bums and beggars) is hobophobia. Source: http://www.phobiafinder.com/i/222/Hobophobia.html

Elephants are some of the more fearless creatures that exist. Since they're so large and have somewhat poor eyesight, they may not even notice mice running around. However, elephants sometimes get anxious when they can't identify what's running around or what's making sounds, which can be caused not just by mice but by small dogs and other small animals. Source: http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/elephant.htm

A group of cats is known as a clowder or a pounce. Source: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/help/faq/animals/names.htm

The difference between a mountain and a hill isn't a very specific one. Most of the time, it depends on the person looking at the mound of Earth. However, in the United Kingdom, a mountain must be over 600 meters or over 300 meters if it is an abrupt change. Source: http://geography.about.com/library/faq/ ... height.htm

According to estimates, all the gold in the world ever refined would fit within a single cube 20 m on a side. That's 8,000 cubic meters, or 154,400,000 kg of gold. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold and http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2004/Ruw ... gala.shtml

why is this thread so popular? So far, it's about third on the post count after the 2 games. ^_^;

People like asking questions!

Why do bouncy balls work?

Pez-Man wrote:People like asking questions!

Why do bouncy balls work?

Dont you mean How? I see this turning into "Why is sky?".