Random Everyday Dumb Questions You Need Answered

[grhqofb5]

Thought this might be a useful place for people to come with their dumb questions that they're too embarassed to ask anyone they know (personally, not over the internet). I have a couple:

(1) Why do FM and AM radio stations all go on commercial at the same time? I have 6 presets and when one goes to commercial, all of the others always seem to be on commercial at the same time.

(2) Why are there so many chicken wings out there? Have you ever wondered where they all come from? Think of it this way-- you order 50 chicken wings with your buddies for the game. That should equate to 25 chickens. Are we really supposed to believe that 25 chickens were used to produce these wings? Doesn't make sense. What happened to all the extra thighs?

(3) If you look at a globe (or a map), the equator wraps around the entire earth in a horizontal fashion, passing through Central America, Africa, and Asia. However, the Prime Meridian, which interects with the equator just south of Ghana, does not wrap around the earth in a vertical fashion. Why is this? Should there be an effort made to extend it?

Thank you for your cordial responses to these gnawing questions.

[Predicto]

Thought this might be a useful place for people to come with their dumb questions that they're too embarassed to ask anyone they know (personally, not over the internet). I have a couple:

(1) Why do FM and AM radio stations all go on commercial at the same time? I have 6 presets and when one goes to commercial, all of the others always seem to be on commercial at the same time.

Because they all have the same goal - to get you to listen to the commercials. If they staggered their commercial breaks, everyone would jump from station to station, no commercials would get heard, and the advertisers would stop buying ad time on local radio and would switch to those annoying newspaper inserts and flyers stuck on telephone poles.

(2) Why are there so many chicken wings out there? Have you ever wondered where they all come from? Think of it this way-- you order 50 chicken wings with your buddies for the game. That should equate to 25 chickens. Are we really supposed to believe that 25 chickens were used to produce these wings? Doesn't make sense. What happened to all the extra thighs?

That is where chicken soup, chicken-based dog food and Chicken-Inna-Biskit crackers come from.

(3) If you look at a globe (or a map), the equator wraps around the entire earth in a horizontal fashion, passing through Central America, Africa, and Asia. However, the Prime Meridian, which interects with the equator just south of Ghana, does not wrap around the earth in a vertical fashion. Why is this? Should there be an effort made to extend it?

It does wrap around the earth. You just have a eurocentric map.

Thank you for your cordial responses to these gnawing questions.

You are welcome.

[grhqofb5]

Because they all have the same goal - to get you to listen to the commercials. If they staggered their commercial breaks, everyone would jump from station to station, no commercials would get heard, and the advertisers would stop buying ad time on local radio and would switch to those annoying newspaper inserts and flyers stuck on telephone poles.

That is where chicken soup, chicken-based dog food and Chicken-Inna-Biskit crackers come from.

It does wrap around the earth. You just have a eurocentric map.

You are welcome.

So this begs three additional questions:

(1) Are the radio stations in cahoots, even though they appear to be competitiors?

(2) So the real question is what happened to all of the breasts and thighs? Apparantly there are more chickens on this earth than I was aware of.

(3) No, no, no. It doesn't. What map are you looking at, the Chinocentric one?

[Riggo-toni]

Ratings for radio stations are taken at specific times,so radio stations typically go to commercials AFTER those times,since if they went to commercial when ratings were being calculated, you'd turn to another station and cost them points.

White meat is much more popular in the US because before the advent of coups, Chickens were free to run more and developed muscles in the legs and thighs that made the meat tough. White meat (breasts and wings) are sold domestically, while the majority of dark meat is exported to Russia, where dark meat is actually preferred.

[gchwood]

Thought this might be a useful place for people to come with their dumb questions that they're too embarassed to ask anyone they know (personally, not over the internet). I have a couple:

(1) Why do FM and AM radio stations all go on commercial at the same time? I have 6 presets and when one goes to commercial, all of the others always seem to be on commercial at the same time.

(2) Why are there so many chicken wings out there? Have you ever wondered where they all come from? Think of it this way-- you order 50 chicken wings with your buddies for the game. That should equate to 25 chickens. Are we really supposed to believe that 25 chickens were used to produce these wings? Doesn't make sense. What happened to all the extra thighs?

(3) If you look at a globe (or a map), the equator wraps around the entire earth in a horizontal fashion, passing through Central America, Africa, and Asia. However, the Prime Meridian, which interects with the equator just south of Ghana, does not wrap around the earth in a vertical fashion. Why is this? Should there be an effort made to extend it?

Thank you for your cordial responses to these gnawing questions.

1) They don't all go to commercial at once. In fact they never go to commercial. It is a global conspiracy against you personally.

2) Chicken regenerate their wings within a matter of days, so 1 chicken can produce ~200 wings a year.

3) The prime meridian is only a couple of miles long and is represented by a physical 20ft high wall.

[grhqofb5]

Ratings for radio stations are taken at specific times,so radio stations typically go to commercials AFTER those times,since if they went to commercial when ratings were being calculated, you'd turn to another station and cost them points.

White meat is much more popular in the US because before the advent of coups, Chickens were free to run more and developed muscles in the legs and thighs that made the meat tough. White meat (breasts and wings) are sold domestically, while the majority of dark meat is exported to Russia, where dark meat is actually preferred.

So this response begs two more questions:

(1) How are the ratings compiled? Its not as if you can put a Neilson box on your car radio. Or can you?

(2) Now that chickens are in coups, shouldn't their legs be juicier?

(3) I'm still looking for a good answer on the Prime Meridian question. Think about it-- how would you represent a "circular" prime meridian on a map? Can't just use one straight line like with the equator, right?

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

This is a bit of a random question, but the answer ha sbeen bugging me for a long time. Ok so...

On a microwave, if you push 60, then it will cook for 60 seconds or one minute. (Following me?)

AND if you also press 1:00 it will cook for one minute, or 60 seconds. (Right, right?)

OK! Well, my question is....

If you add 1:00 + 1:00 it is = 2:00 right? So your food will cook for a total of two minutes.

BUT if you add 60 seconds + 60 seconds it will only cook for one minute and twenty seconds. Even though 60 seconds is one minute?

(I know, confusing question.)

I guess to put it into simpliest terms, How come 1 minute + 1 minute = 2 minutes, but 60 seconds + 60 seconds = only one minute and twenty seconds?

[Riggo-toni]

Their legs are more tender, but Americans have already developed a conditioned preference for white meat. Americans started drinking beer instead of wine in the 18th century because of the Little Ice Age, and that reversal remains in place more than 2 centuries later.

---------- Post added November-18th-2011 at 12:36 PM ----------

Gacolb - blame the Sumerians and their counting systems.

The French tried to introduce a decimal based time system - 10 hours a day, 100mins in an hour, 100 seconds per minute. Unlike the rest of the metric system they instituted, this reform died out along with the 10 day week because of protests from clock makers.

[PokerPacker]

This is a bit of a random question, but the answer ha sbeen bugging me for a long time. Ok so...

On a microwave, if you push 60, then it will cook for 60 seconds or one minute. (Following me?)

AND if you also press 1:00 it will cook for one minute, or 60 seconds. (Right, right?)

OK! Well, my question is....

If you add 1:00 + 1:00 it is = 2:00 right? So your food will cook for a total of two minutes.

BUT if you add 60 seconds + 60 seconds it will only cook for one minute and twenty seconds. Even though 60 seconds is one minute?

(I know, confusing question.)

I guess to put it into simpliest terms, How come 1 minute + 1 minute = 2 minutes, but 60 seconds + 60 seconds = only one minute and twenty seconds?

when you say 60 seconds + 60 seconds, is this a function built into your microwave, or are you simply adding 60 + 60 to get 120?

[Predicto]

(3) I'm still looking for a good answer on the Prime Meridian question. Think about it-- how would you represent a "circular" prime meridian on a map? Can't just use one straight line like with the equator, right?

I'd show you, but you said I couldn't use the internet - and I'm terrible at drawing.

[rictus58]

So this response begs two more questions:

(1) How are the ratings compiled? Its not as if you can put a Neilson box on your car radio. Or can you?

I have an arbitron ratings meter. I wear it like a pager. It picks up the signal from the radio and sends it to arbitron via modem.

[grhqofb5]

I'd show you, but you said I couldn't use the internet - and I'm terrible at drawing.

I didn't say you couldn't use the internet. I just felt that it would be easier to ask these types of questions in this internet forum, because I'm not quite sure that any of you actually exist, thereby avoiding the embarassment of asking someone who actually respects me.

BTW: I think the way you would actually do it would be to draw two vertical lines (top to bottom), each about 1/3 of the way from the edge of each side of the map. But that's not how the prime meridian is represented. It's just one line. Freaking me the **** out, man.

[Predicto]

I didn't say you couldn't use the internet. I just felt that it would be easier to ask these types of questions in this internet forum, because I'm not quite sure that any of you actually exist, thereby avoiding the embarassment of asking someone who actually respects me.

Welp, no danger of that here. None of us respect you.

genuine answer - the prime meridian is an arbitrary line of demarcation that that goes entirely around the world from North to South and back up the other side.

http://images.yourdictionary.com/prime-meridian

[thebluefood]

[The Evil Genius]

How do satellites get powered? Long lasting batteries? Really long electical cords?

[Jumbo]

The prime meridian is only a couple of miles long and is represented by a physical 20ft high wall.

I got a plaster mini-representation of it at the gift store. It glows in the dark.

[Destructis]

(2) Why are there so many chicken wings out there? Have you ever wondered where they all come from? Think of it this way-- you order 50 chicken wings with your buddies for the game. That should equate to 25 chickens. Are we really supposed to believe that 25 chickens were used to produce these wings? Doesn't make sense. What happened to all the extra thighs?

McNuggets - enough said

[gchwood]

McNuggets - enough said

ever noticed that they don't call them Chicken McNuggets?

[Bubble Screen]

ever noticed that they don't call them Chicken McNuggets?

Pretty sure McDonald's does.

[gchwood]

Pretty sure McDonald's does.

They didn't use to. Dunno I don't eat them.

[grhqofb5]

Welp, no danger of that here. None of us respect you.

genuine answer - the prime meridian is an arbitrary line of demarcation that that goes entirely around the world from North to South and back up the other side.

http://images.yourdictionary.com/prime-meridian

But only show it going from the north pole to the south pole. What about the other side? Looks like it should come down somewhere in the Pacific, but I'm only theorizing.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Gacolb - blame the Sumerians and their counting systems.

The French tried to introduce a decimal based time system - 10 hours a day, 100mins in an hour, 100 seconds per minute. Unlike the rest of the metric system they instituted, this reform died out along with the 10 day week because of protests from clock makers.

when you say 60 seconds + 60 seconds, is this a function built into your microwave, or are you simply adding 60 + 60 to get 120?

I'm trolling. It's a Yahoo Answers classic.

[renaissance]

But only show it going from the north pole to the south pole. What about the other side? Looks like it should come down somewhere in the Pacific, but I'm only theorizing.

Is the center of the flat map where the prime meridian and the equator meet? If that's the case, then the "other half" of the prime meridian would basically be the outer right and left edges of the map, wouldn't it??

[Predicto]

But only show it going from the north pole to the south pole. What about the other side? Looks like it should come down somewhere in the Pacific, but I'm only theorizing.

Is the center of the flat map where the prime meridian and the equator meet? If that's the case, then the "other half" of the prime meridian would basically be the outer right and left edges of the map, wouldn't it??

No. There is no prime meridian on the other side of the world. The whole point of the prime meridian is to have a line so that you can state exactly where you are on an east-west axis. You need longitude (east-west) to go with your latitude (north-south) in order to have a standard system of mapping.

So as you go around the world from east to west (or west to east), you are getting further and further around from the prime meridian - until you run back into it from the other side. Something has to be the zero point for east to west measurements, so a bunch of scientists got together and decided what it would be.

(the line on the other side of the world is called the international dateline, another arbitrary line so that we could all agree on when one day ended and the next day started)

[grhqofb5]

Is the center of the flat map where the prime meridian and the equator meet? If that's the case, then the "other half" of the prime meridian would basically be the outer right and left edges of the map, wouldn't it??

Yes, or if you shifted the land masses over you could represent it with two vertical lines. But..... that's NOT how its represented on a globe. It's just one stupid line. Makes no sense. Why don't they just complete the damn circle and be done with it?