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What's your favorite unbelievable fact? (reddthat.com)

submitted 1 day ago by POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 68 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Lots of people know a broken clock is right twice per day, but many are unaware that a clock running backwards is right 4 times per day.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

And one that loses only 1 second per year is right only once every 43,200 years.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 2 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

a clock running backwards is moving away from the current time at twice the rate, so isn't your example the same as saying that a clock that runs twice as fast is right 4 times a day?

[–] dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee 2 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Ah, shit, a clock that runs infinitely fast is always right.

[–] Dragonborn3810@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Love your username

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

It's also always wrong. Infinities are like that.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

No, if you go twice as fast, it would only align with one at 12 and one at 24. It's not about speed, it's about the intersections of forward and backward laps.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Can you give me some examples, for some reason I'm finding it hard to picture

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

You can picture a clock or a track. If you have one going forward and one backwards, they meet at the halfway point (6), and again at the full lap (12). This happens twice in a day.

If you have one going twice as fast, they only meet when the faster one laps the slower one. The two clocks would be at 3&6, 6&12, 9&6(18), 12&12(24)

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 3 points 15 hours ago

Ah yeah, there it is - thanks for that example