› added 3 years ago

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TIL that the "gas pedal" (accelerator) on modern car engines actually first controls the amount of airflow, and then the ECU decides how much gas/petrol is injected.

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GA9nQ TIL of Beer's law, which describes how light attenuates when traveling through a liquid. Named after a German physicist, the property was actually originally observed by a Frenchman looking at wine.
XEo1D TIL the names of the states Kansas and Arkansas have the same root, the name of the Kansa tribe, thought to mean "people of the south wind". However the 'kansas' in the states' names are pronounced differently due to Kansas being an English derivation, and Arkansas being a French.
R7ND8 TIL nuclear tests carried out roughly every 3 weeks through the '50s at the proving grounds just 65 miles out of Vegas were celebrated & touted as a tourist attraction by city authorities. The mushroom clouds from detonations were visible from the city.
wLBy1 TIL the famous image of musician Johnny Cash flipping the bird came about as a result of his frustration that a TV crew from the UK filming his performance in San Quentin prison were between him and the audience and wouldn't “clear the stage” upon him asking them to do so...
v1Zwx TIL China was one of the only places in the world that did not release Elvis Presley's music at the time of its initial release. The few Elvis fans who managed to get their hands on his records often saw the material set ablaze by Red Guards and the government denounced his music as pornography