Really TRUE odd factoids

[Chris S]

A typical microwave oven uses more electricity keeping its digital clock on standby than it does heating food.

If left on standby and never used to heat food our typical ( panasonic ) microwave would consume 24 Watts a day/ 8.76kWh in a year. It's a 800 watt microwave, even reheating our coffee during the day would easily exceed 24 Watts, let alone the usual defrosting of frozen foods / steaming veg etc.

It popped-up on the Octopus site when I payed my bill this morning. They quoted QI as a source.

 

[ExBrit]

Looks like the Pound isn't doing very well today. From the bbc.com website. Amazing the difference an "m" can make.

Last week, the French government offered a £600m (750 Euro) bid to buy the company's most sensitive businesses and Atos accepted an eleventh-hour financial restructuring plan led by French investor David Layani.

 

[Tenkaykev]

It popped-up on the Octopus site when I payed my bill this morning. They quoted QI as a source.

I've noticed several incorrect " Facts " on the Octopus site. I'm going to drop them an email and challenge them ( and ask why I've only ever got 8 points when spinning the wheel of fortune four times a month for over a year) ( and I thought ERNIE was bad ) 😁

 

[Punkawallah]

Think yourself lucky - I’ve yet to win anything ;-(

 

[Seevio]

A typical microwave oven uses more electricity keeping its digital clock on standby than it does heating food.

We've done this subject before but for it to be correct, you would need to use an 800W microwave at full power on average less than 54-81 seconds per day. Or between 6.3 and 9.45 minutes per week. This is plausible but will vary from household to household.

Spoiler: Boring maths workings

Google tells me that 1W is reasonable standby power for a microwave.
Microwaves appear to be 50-75% efficient so a model with 800W output will consume 1066-1600W on full power or 1066 to 1600 times more power than on standby.
To find the time taken for a full power microwave to use the same power as a standby microwave does in one day we just divide the length of a day by 1066 to 1600.
75% efficiency Time (In seconds) = 60x60x24/1066 = 81s
50% efficiency Time (In seconds) = 60x60x24/1600 = 54s

If left on standby and never used to heat food our typical ( panasonic ) microwave would consume 24 Watts a day/ 8.76kWh in a year. It's a 800 watt microwave, even reheating our coffee during the day would easily exceed 24 Watts, let alone the usual defrosting of frozen foods / steaming veg etc.

Despite appearing to be somewhat confused as to the units and how they work, the total figure is, astoundingly, correct

 

[markemark]

Microwaves are efficient at heating food. Who knew….

 

[classic33]

We've done this subject before but for it to be correct, you would need to use an 800W microwave at full power on average less than 54-81 seconds per day. Or between 6.3 and 9.45 minutes per week. This is plausible but will vary from household to household.

Spoiler: Boring maths workings

Google tells me that 1W is reasonable standby power for a microwave.
Microwaves appear to be 50-75% efficient so a model with 800W output will consume 1066-1600W on full power or 1066 to 1600 times more power than on standby.
To find the time taken for a full power microwave to use the same power as a standby microwave does in one day we just divide the length of a day by 1066 to 1600.
75% efficiency Time (In seconds) = 60x60x24/1066 = 81s
50% efficiency Time (In seconds) = 60x60x24/1600 = 54s

Despite appearing to be somewhat confused as to the units and how they work, the total figure is, astoundingly, correct

Back in 2022, https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/really-true-odd-factoids.257630/post-6868504

 

[Dave7]

I may be the last person to find out this fact.
JELLY BABIES
The white powder on them is .....starch and is purely to stop your babies sticking together.

 

[Drago]

I may be the last person to find out this fact.
JELLY BABIES
The white powder on them is .....starch and is purely to stop your babies sticking together.

That's what Mick Jagger tells the police when they find his stash of Colombian marching powder.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

The colour purple doesn't exist in reality.


View: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGegryuFp/


https://grantsonnex.com/why-purple-doesnt-exist/

 

[Andy in Germany]

The colour purple doesn't exist in reality.


View: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGegryuFp/


https://grantsonnex.com/why-purple-doesnt-exist/

So purple is a sort of neurological "Error 404"?

 

[matticus]

Microwaves are efficient at heating food. Who knew….

And very inefficient at showing us the time?

 

[Electric_Andy]

We have a NEFF microwave which was there when we moved in. There are a few things that I do not understand about it:
1) It has a metal lined interior - why does this not spark when it's on?
2) There is no turntable. Any food in there just sits in the same spot but seems to heat up evenly.
3) Why did they mount it so high? I'm 5'7" and the door level is above my head

 

[glasgowcyclist]

The people of Finland 🇫🇮 consume more coffee per annum than the people of Italy do🇮🇹.
12kg v 4.9kg per capita!

Italy comes in just 14th on the world league table.

 

[Profpointy]

A sad statistic i learned last week.

More French civilians were killed by allied bombing during the liberation of France than British civilians were killed by the Germans during the blitz.

They didn’t say why, but I guess it was the lack of proper warnings and air raid shelters?

There's an even more ghastly statistic that more slave-labour workers died from their poor conditions and ill treatment building the V2 rockets, than were killed on the receiving end in London and elsewhere