Sanitary pads and factoids go so well together!

(TMI)So I'm pregnant - therefore I use pads because even though I do pelvic floor exercises, when he actually KICKS my bladder - I'm sorry, things happen. ...and that one time I sneezed. Anyway... (/TMI)

Now that we've got that explanation out of the way - the brand I use has little odd factoids on the back of each pad. ...okay, why? ...that's just a little...bizarre.

Anyway, they're mostly completely accurate - excepting the ones that would be accurate given context. For example:

"Koalas are one of the few land animals which do not require water to survive."

Well, no...they do require water to survive - they just get all the water they need from their food source. True, with context - but misleadingly inaccurate.

"Acorns are poisonous to humans. If eaten they will cause kidney damage."

This one's so misleadingly inaccurate it almost counts as a complete lie. Acorns, the fruit of the oak tree, contain large amounts of tannins. Tannins are, very simply put, a plant polyphenol. Know that bitter taste when you drink coffee or tea? How a fruit tastes a little bitter if you eat it underripe? Tannins. What happens when you eat huge amounts of tannins? Ulcerations, kidney damage - death. Acorns have huge amounts of tannins and therefore must be processed before eating. Once they are, though - they're totally edible. In fact, they're quite frequently turned into flours and are a relatively common foodsource in places like South Korea and Japan.

But this isn't my favourite...my favourite...

"On a clear, dark night - a human can see a candle burning from 50km away."

Firstly, that's about 30 miles. ....now...let me just get it out of the way that I don't know if someone could actually, physically SEE a candle burning from 30 miles away. In fact...no one really does. All we can do is speculate.

This is one of my favourite things to think about - call me a nerd. It's SCIENCE TIME.

Now.. say we're on the ocean in a boat. The sea is totally calm - no wind, totally flat water. There's another boat 30 miles away. You can't see it. I don't care how clear it is or how flat that water is - you can't see that boat. Why? Because the earth is round. In fact, you can see about a grand total of 2.9 miles. Don't get me wrong...this changes the higher up you are. Distance of the horizon is equal to the square root of 13 times your height. If a human is standing at sea level and is 5'7" tall - they can see for 2.9 miles before the surface of the earth curves too much for them to see anything else. That's not to say that there are no circumstances in which you can see something 30 miles away. If we use the equation:

We can change that around to:

then:

then:

then:

We know that you must be at a height of 192.31 metres to see 50km away. 192.31 metres is 630.94 feet. Not that high - but there must be no hills, trees, buildings - in fact, nothing but a fairly flat slope between you and the object for you to be able to see it.

The second part of the problem is whether or not a human can perceive the light of a candle from that distance. This is the part that I can't actually find an answer for. Certainly in a vacuum (or in space) you could see a candle 50km away because you'd have no wind/air/dust/pollen blocking your view in the vacuum of space.

So I suppose what that quote should really be saying is, "If the earth were completely flat and were in a vacuum, a human can see a candle burning 50km away."

Call me nitpicky - maybe I just did it for the science!