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Authors: David Feldman

Tags: #Reference, #Curiosities & Wonders

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BOOK: When Do Fish Sleep?
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Why
Are There Cracks on Sidewalks at Regular Intervals? What Causes the Irregular Cracking on Sidewalks?

 

 

Why
Do We Have to Shake Deodorant and Other Aerosol Cans Before Using?

 

 

Why
Do Airlines Use Red Carbons on Their Tickets?

 

 

I
Have a Dollar Bill with an Asterisk After the Serial Number: Is It Counterfeit?

 

 

To
What Do the Numbers Assigned to Automotive Oil Refer?

 

 

When
I Put One Slice of Bread in My Toaster, the Heating Element in the Adjacent Slot Heats Up as Well. So Why Does My Toaster Specify Which Slot to Place the Bread in If I Am Toasting Only One Slice?

 

 

Why
Are Almost All Cameras Black?

 

 

Why
Is There a Permanent Press Setting on Irons?

 

 

What
Causes Double-Yolk Eggs? Why Do Egg Yolks Sometimes Have Red Spots on Them?

 

 

Why
Are Barns Red?

 

 

Why
Are Manhole Covers Round?

 

 

10 New Frustables

 

 

Frustables Update

 

 

Letters

 

 

Acknowledgments

 

 

Searchable Terms

 

 

Master Index of Imponderability

 

 

Help!

 

 

About the Author

 

 

Other Books by David Feldman

 

 

Credits

 

 

Cover

 

 

Copyright

 

 

About the Publisher

 

 

Preface

 

Imponderables are mysteries that can’t be answered by numbers, measurements, or a trip to the reference section of your library. If you worry about why the carbons on airplane tickets are red, or why tennis balls are fuzzy, or why yawning is contagious, you have been struck by the dread malady of Imponderability.

When we wrote the first volume of
Imponderables
, we weren’t sure that there were others like us, who were committed to cogitating about the everyday mysteries of life. We needn’t have worried. Most of the Imponderables in this book were submitted by readers of the first two volumes of Imponderables.

In
Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise?
, we introduced a new section, Frustables (short for “frustrating Imponderables”) and asked for your help in solving them. Your response was terrific, but we don’t want you to get complacent. We’ve got ten new Imponderables that we haven’t been able to solve.

And because so many readers offered corrections and caustically constructive comments, we’ve added a letter section—we couldn’t shut you up anymore even if we wanted to.

Would you like to win a free copy of the next volume of
Imponderables?
If you are the first to submit an Imponderable that we use in the next book, you will not only have the relief of finally having the answer to your mystery, but also a free, autographed copy of the book (along with, of course, an acknowledgment).

The last page of the book tells you how to get in touch with us. But for now, sit back and enjoy. You are about to enter the wonderful world of Imponderability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why
Do Roosters Crow in the Morning?

 

Because there are humans around to be awakened, of course. Does anyone really believe that roosters crow when they are by themselves? Nah! Actually, they speak perfectly good English.

Ornithologists don’t buy our common-sense answer. They insist that crowing “maps territory” (a euphemism for “Get the hell out of my way and don’t mess with my women—this is my coop”). In the spirit of fair play, we’ll give the last world to one of those nasty ornithologist types (but don’t believe a word she says), Janet Hinshaw, of the Wilson Ornithological Society:

 

Most of the crowing takes place in the morning, as does most singing, because that is when the birds are most active, and most of the territorial advertising takes place then. Many of the other vocalizations heard throughout the day are for other types of communication, including flocking calls, which serve to keep members of a flock together and in touch if they are out of sight from one another.

 

Submitted by Rowena Nocom of North Hollywood, California.

 

 

Why
Do Many Hotels and Motels Fold Over the Last Piece of Toilet Paper in the Bathroom?

 

This Imponderable was sent in by reader Jane W. Brown in a letter dated May 12, 1986. Jane was clearly a discerning seer of emergent popular culture trends:

 

Staying in less than deluxe lodgings has led me to wonder why, and how, the custom of folding under the two outside corners on a roll of bathroom paper was begun. This operation creates a V on the last exposed edge of the tissue. I first noticed this bizarre sight in a LaQuinta Motor Inn. Then I stayed in some Holiday Inns while on a business trip. There, too, the bathroom paper had been tediously tucked in on the outside edges, the large V standing out, begging for attention. Recently, I upgraded my accommodations and spent several nights in a Marriott and an Intercontinental. Right: the bathroom paper was also arranged in this contorted fashion. Why?

 

Jane, enterprisingly, included an audiovisual aid along with her letter, as if to prove she wasn’t crazy: a specimen of the mysterious V toilet paper. Since Jane wrote her letter, the folded toilet paper trick has run rampant in the lodging industry.

We contacted most of the largest chains of innkeepers in the country and received the same answer from all. Perhaps James P. McCauley, executive director of the International Association of Holiday Inns, stated it best:

 

Hotels want to give their guests the confidence that the bathroom has been cleaned since the last guest has used the room. To accomplish this, the maid will fold over the last piece of toilet paper to assure that no one has used the toilet paper since the room was cleaned. It is subtle but effective.

 

Maybe too subtle for us. Call us sentimental old fools, but we still like the old “Sanitized for Your Protection” strips across the toilet seat.

 

Submitted by Jane W. Brown of Giddings, Texas.

 

 

Why
Do Gas Gauges in Automobiles Take and Eternity to Go from Registering Full to Half-full, and Then Drop to Empty in the Speed of Light?

 

On a long trek down our illustrious interstate highway system, we will do anything to alleviate boredom. The roadway equivalent of reading cereal boxes at breakfast is obsessing about odometers and fuel gauges.

Nothing is more dispiriting after a fill-up at the service station than traveling sixty miles and watching the gas gauge stand still. Although part of us longs to believe that our car is registering phenomenal mileage records, the other part of us wants the gauge to move to prove to ourselves that we are actually making decent time and have not, through some kind of
Twilight Zone
alternate reality, actually been riding on a treadmill for the last hour. Our gas gauge becomes the arbiter of our progress. Even when the needle starts to move, and the gauge registers three-quarters’ full, we sometimes feel as if we have been traveling for days.

How nice it would be to have a gauge move steadily down toward empty. Just as we are about to give in to despair, though, after the gauge hits half-full, the needle starts darting toward empty as if it had just discovered the principle of gravity. Whereas it seemed that we had to pass time zones before the needle would move to the left at all, suddenly we are afraid that we are going to run out of gas. Where is that next rest station?

There must be a better way. Why don’t fuel gauges actually register what proportion of the tank is filled with gasoline? The automakers and gauge manufacturers are well aware that a “half-full” reading on a gas gauge is really closer to “one-third” full, and they have reasons for preserving this inaccuracy.

The gauge relies upon a sensor in the tank to relay the fuel level. The sensor consists of a float and linkage connected to a variable resistor. The resistance value fluctuates as the float moves up and down.

If a gas tank is filled to capacity,
the liquid is filled higher than the float has the physical ability to rise
. When the float is at the top of its stroke, the gauge will always register as full,
even though the tank can hold more gasoline
. The gauge will register full until this “extra” gasoline is consumed and the float starts its descent in the tank. At the other end of the float’s stroke,
the gauge will register as empty when the float can no longer move further downward, even though liquid is present below the float
.

We asked Anthony H. Siegel, of Ametek’s U.S. Gauge Division, why sensors aren’t developed that can measure the actual status of gasoline more accurately. We learned, much as we expected, that more precise measurements easily could be produced, but the automakers are using the current technology
for our own good:

 

Vehicle makers are very concerned that their customers do not run out of fuel before the gauge reads empty. That could lead to stranded, unhappy motorists, so they compensate in the design of the float/gauge system. Their choice of tolerances and calibration procedures guarantees that slight variations during the manufacturing of these components will always produce a combination of parts which falls on the safe side. The gauge is thus designed to read empty when there is still fuel left.

 

Tens of millions of motorists have suspected there is fuel left even when the gauge says empty, but few have been brave enough to test the hypothesis. Perhaps there are gallons and gallons of fuel left when the gauge registers empty, and this is all a plot by Stuckey’s and Howard Johnson’s to make us take unnecessary pit stops on interstates.

 

BOOK: When Do Fish Sleep?
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