The Interesting Facts Thread

Share some random facts/statistics you find interesting and discuss them with your fellow NBRers!

Sources are optional but appreciated

I'll start...

- The QWERTY keyboard layout was invented to confuse people. Back when typewriters first came out in the early 1800s, the letters were arranged alphabetically. However, due to the easy logic behind the placement, secretaries would often type too fast, which would jam the mechanisms of keys often used. The QWERTY system was proposed to remedy this issue by placing the letters most often used far away from each other as well as diminish typing speed so as to avoid jamming them together.

Source: Typewriters - History of Typing and Qwerty Keyboards

- Quebec, Canada is one of the few places in the world where Pepsi is more popular than Coke by a large margin. This is due to Pepsi's massive advertising campaign from the 70's where they played on the whole "nationality" aspect (aka "we are different" and "over here we drink Pepsi"), using local [French] celebrities as well as emphasizing how being different is good. This prompted other companies to follow suit, making Quebec specific advertisements (with local people instead of Hollywood stars) to try and expand their market share.

Source: http://ift.tt/1rhHPap

- A "jiffy"(as in "be back in a jiffy") was actually a unit of time at one point. It was proposed to denote the time it takes light to travel one centimeter (approximately 33.3564 picoseconds)

Source: Jiffy (time) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Let's increase our random and slightly pointless knowledge for fun!

Let's block ads! (Why?)

The Interesting Facts Thread