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Groucho's Fact Hunt

ToffeeDoug said:
I knew that bookkeeper was 3, adding sub to the front looks a little contrived to me. Is it a real word in use?
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absolutely

Dictionary.com Word FAQs
Dictionary.com » Word FAQs » Trivia

What word has three consecutive sets of double letters?
"Bookkeeper" and "bookkeeping" and "sweet-toothed" have three consecutive sets of double letters. Others are "deer-reeve," "feed-door," "heel-loop," "hoof-footed," "hoot-toot," "keek-keek," "Soonnee," "toot-toot," "veneer-room," and "wood-deer." "Subbookkeeper" is the only word found in an English language dictionary with four pairs of double letters in a row
 
A Princeton student attempted some japery with the great Von Neumann by posing him the following:

Two cyclists, 20 miles apart, begin cycling towards one another at 10 mph along a straight line. At the same time, a fly on the front wheel of cyclist A begins flying towards cyclist B, at 15 mph. When it reaches the other cyclist, it turns round and flies back to the first one, then turns round again etc etc. How far does the fly fly before getting smushed between the cyclists wheels as they meet?

Von Neumann instantly answers '15 miles.' To which the crestfallen student says 'you've heard it before then?' No, says a confused von Neumann, I just summed the infinite series....

[Think I read that in the 'Beautiful mind' book so maybe not completely factual]
 
Immediately prior to the 1995 FA Cup Final, a team of Everton legends faced a team of Man United legends on the pitch at Wembley.

Everton won 1-0 whilst Dave Hickson partnered Bob Latchford up front!
 

deipnosophist said:
A rivers sinuous length (source to mouth) divided by its 'as the crow flies' length very closely describes pi.
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The Cowboy said:
Figures. Each twist and turn being bisected by a straight line creates a series of semi circles, the river becoming the circumference and the straight line becomes the diameter.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, have doubts about this. Rivers hardly flow in perfect semi-circular curves...
 

Black Belt Jones said:
A Princeton student attempted some japery with the great Von Neumann by posing him the following:

Two cyclists, 20 miles apart, begin cycling towards one another at 10 mph along a straight line. At the same time, a fly on the front wheel of cyclist A begins flying towards cyclist B, at 15 mph. When it reaches the other cyclist, it turns round and flies back to the first one, then turns round again etc etc. How far does the fly fly before getting smushed between the cyclists wheels as they meet?

Von Neumann instantly answers '15 miles.' To which the crestfallen student says 'you've heard it before then?' No, says a confused von Neumann, I just summed the infinite series....

[Think I read that in the 'Beautiful mind' book so maybe not completely factual]
Click to expand...
well, the bikes will crash in 1hr and the fly's travelling at 15m/hr...so 15 miles is a sound answer.
 

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