› added 11 months ago

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TIL that a touchstone originally was a piece of slate used to test the purity of precious metal alloys

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via reddit.com

NZXE TIL that trains have conical wheels because there is no differential; when the train turns one wheel will travel a greater distance than the other
D1bLr TIL there was nearly a Chernobyl size nuclear accident near Denver caused by a plutonium fire at a nuclear weapons production facility
WkVAY TIL That Queen Elizabeth II is a trained mechanic, serving as a junior commander in WW2
ob9R TIL as of 2011, there are still ~170 trees in Hiroshima that survived the atomic bomb; they are called the ‘Hibakujumoku’
XaWQ TIL that when a phrase or word is slowly deteriorated over time due to pronunciation, and ends up being said or spelled incorrectly in a widely accepted way (such as, “all intensive purposes” vs “all intents and purposes”) it is called an “eggcorn”