Just one?!
June 28, 2023 4:35 AM Subscribe
What’s something that people would intuitively think there’s a lot of, or at least a few of, but really, there’s only one? E.g., Beethoven operas; time zones in China; US presidents who never married (thanks, Mchelly!).
I'm hoping this prompt might spark more ideas that I can work into answers to my previous version.
Please note: I do hope to work one reply into an element of something that’s intended for publication.
I'm hoping this prompt might spark more ideas that I can work into answers to my previous version.
Please note: I do hope to work one reply into an element of something that’s intended for publication.
Best answer: Since orcas have been in the news, people might be surprised there’s only one “fairly well-documented instance of a wild orca biting a human.”
posted by ejs at 5:08 AM on June 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by ejs at 5:08 AM on June 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
There is only one monument in Washington DC (the Washington Monument). All the rest are Memorials.
posted by atlantica at 6:19 AM on June 28, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by atlantica at 6:19 AM on June 28, 2023 [11 favorites]
Best answer: Back to Beethoven, he wrote only one violin concerto.
posted by Dolley at 6:25 AM on June 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Dolley at 6:25 AM on June 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
A-List Actors With Only One Oscar Nomination has a lot of "Okay, fine, they're comedy actors..." but also Harrison Ford and Toni Collette.
posted by Etrigan at 6:46 AM on June 28, 2023
posted by Etrigan at 6:46 AM on June 28, 2023
Best answer: Well, there’s vice presidents who never married… William Rufus King was the only one, and he had a “special relationship” with Buchanan.
posted by madcaptenor at 6:50 AM on June 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by madcaptenor at 6:50 AM on June 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
Banana plants.
Also Navel Orange trees. Naval Oranges are naturally seedless so every single one of them derives from a cutting of an original tree.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:33 AM on June 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
Also Navel Orange trees. Naval Oranges are naturally seedless so every single one of them derives from a cutting of an original tree.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:33 AM on June 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
There is only one mainstream film (non-documentary) that uses the Credence Clearwater Revival song Fortunate Son in a scene set during the Vietnam War. (Forest Gump)
posted by bondcliff at 7:46 AM on June 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by bondcliff at 7:46 AM on June 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
Best answer: There's only one species of apple. Growing an apple tree from a seed will not result in the same varietal, it will produce a new kind of apple, so every tree that produces a given varietal (Jonathan, Honeycrisp, Cripps Pink, etc) is grafted from the first tree to produce it, or its successor grafts.
Only one US president elected to non-consecutive terms (Grover Cleveland). Only one president elected to four terms (FDR).
posted by adamrice at 7:47 AM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Only one US president elected to non-consecutive terms (Grover Cleveland). Only one president elected to four terms (FDR).
posted by adamrice at 7:47 AM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Mod note: Several comments removed. Keep in mind that the OP is asking for examples that people think there are multiple versions of, but there's actually only one.
OP, avoid asking ChatGPT this question for "amusement" and including the answer here. We'd like AskMe answers to those supplied by actual humans.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:15 AM on June 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
OP, avoid asking ChatGPT this question for "amusement" and including the answer here. We'd like AskMe answers to those supplied by actual humans.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:15 AM on June 28, 2023 [7 favorites]
There's only one Boston Common.
Anyone who refers to our country's oldest city park in plural (Boston Commons) is committing the sort of high misdemeanor usually reserved for misidentifying a certain West Coast city.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:16 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Anyone who refers to our country's oldest city park in plural (Boston Commons) is committing the sort of high misdemeanor usually reserved for misidentifying a certain West Coast city.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:16 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Serena Williams is the only tennis player to win two Career Golden Slams (all 4 major tournaments plus Olympic gold) for both singles and doubles
posted by Mchelly at 8:57 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 8:57 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Peter Ostrum, the actor who appeared as Charlie in the original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," appeared in no other film.
posted by Melismata at 9:03 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 9:03 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: New Jersey is the only state in the US where you can’t pump your own gas.
posted by Mchelly at 9:16 AM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 9:16 AM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Despite having many albums that reached #1 on the Billboard charts, Bruce Springsteen only has one single that has charted higher than #4, "Dancing in the Dark" which peaked at #2.
posted by mhum at 9:33 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mhum at 9:33 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Electrons?
The single electron hypothesis
The single electron hypothesis
The one-electron universe postulate, proposed by theoretical physicist John Wheeler in a telephone call to Richard Feynman in the spring of 1940, is the hypothesis that all electrons and positrons are actually manifestations of a single entity moving backwards and forwards in time. According to Feynman:posted by jamjam at 9:35 AM on June 28, 2023 [3 favorites]I received a telephone call one day at the graduate college at Princeton from Professor Wheeler, in which he said, "Feynman, I know why all electrons have the same charge and the same mass" "Why?" "Because, they are all the same electron!"[1]
Of the 30 largest container shipping companies, only 1 is based/headquartered in the US, Matson. I'm pretty sure that even when you go down the list of top 100 container shippers, you won't find more than a very small handful of US-based firms.
posted by mhum at 10:01 AM on June 28, 2023
posted by mhum at 10:01 AM on June 28, 2023
Best answer: Of the current 193 UN member states, only one has a flag that does not contain red, white, or blue. Can you guess which one? Answer here.
posted by mhum at 10:14 AM on June 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by mhum at 10:14 AM on June 28, 2023 [8 favorites]
Delaware has exactly one natural lake, Silver Lake, which was apparently formed by retreating glaciers. This surprised me because Long Island typically marks the terminal moraine, i.e. the southernmost limit, of the eastern North American ice sheets. (In fact, Long Island's bedrock is made of glacial till.) Silver Lake is only about 500 feet from the Atlantic Ocean, which is also highly unusual for a lake. Silver Lake lies next to Lake Comegys; the two lakes were originally one and the same, but in the 19th century a tannery deposited such enormous amounts of offal next to it that Lake Comegys was formed. Thus, Lake Comegys is anthropogenic.
There is also one natural lake in the state of West Virginia, known as Trout Pond. However, it is now ephemeral and frequently dried out because the karst underneath it has gradually eroded, as karst does. Whether this should count as a natural lake any more is a matter for debate.
There are arguably two natural lakes in the state of Tennessee, both of which were formed by avulsion of the Mississippi River duing the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. Water levels in Reelfoot Lake have been maintained with a spillway since 1930; the outflow of Reelfoot Lake feeds Isom Lake, which currently doesn't look like much of a lake at all on Google Earth. So whether Isom Lake actually counts as a lake, and whether Reelfoot Lake counts as a fully natural lake, is up to the reader.
Virginia has two natural lakes, but one of them, Mountain Lake, has undergone severe depletion in the last 20 years and is frequently more of a mud pit. You could argue, then, that Lake Drummond in the Great Dismal Swamp is Virginia's only natural lake. Lake Drummond is quite curious in that it sits at a topographic high point in the middle of a swamp -- in other words, it's a lake at the top of a hill. No one is entirely sure how Lake Drummond formed; a professor of mine once theorized that a lightning-induced fire could have burned some of the drier peat and vegetation along this high point, thus reducing its volume and creating an indentation.
Maryland is the one state in the union that unequivocally has no natural lakes.
Every now and then someone will claim that Texas only has one natural lake. This is flagrant and easily disproved nonsense -- nothing but Texan exceptionalism and fabulist blather. Texas has several natural lakes at a bare minimum and you should be appalled if anyone tells you otherwise.
You may also be asking: what distinguishes a lake from a pond from a puddle? Ephemerality might be the only meaningful distinction. Beyond this, nobody knows.
posted by cubeb at 10:14 AM on June 28, 2023 [10 favorites]
There is also one natural lake in the state of West Virginia, known as Trout Pond. However, it is now ephemeral and frequently dried out because the karst underneath it has gradually eroded, as karst does. Whether this should count as a natural lake any more is a matter for debate.
There are arguably two natural lakes in the state of Tennessee, both of which were formed by avulsion of the Mississippi River duing the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. Water levels in Reelfoot Lake have been maintained with a spillway since 1930; the outflow of Reelfoot Lake feeds Isom Lake, which currently doesn't look like much of a lake at all on Google Earth. So whether Isom Lake actually counts as a lake, and whether Reelfoot Lake counts as a fully natural lake, is up to the reader.
Virginia has two natural lakes, but one of them, Mountain Lake, has undergone severe depletion in the last 20 years and is frequently more of a mud pit. You could argue, then, that Lake Drummond in the Great Dismal Swamp is Virginia's only natural lake. Lake Drummond is quite curious in that it sits at a topographic high point in the middle of a swamp -- in other words, it's a lake at the top of a hill. No one is entirely sure how Lake Drummond formed; a professor of mine once theorized that a lightning-induced fire could have burned some of the drier peat and vegetation along this high point, thus reducing its volume and creating an indentation.
Maryland is the one state in the union that unequivocally has no natural lakes.
Every now and then someone will claim that Texas only has one natural lake. This is flagrant and easily disproved nonsense -- nothing but Texan exceptionalism and fabulist blather. Texas has several natural lakes at a bare minimum and you should be appalled if anyone tells you otherwise.
You may also be asking: what distinguishes a lake from a pond from a puddle? Ephemerality might be the only meaningful distinction. Beyond this, nobody knows.
posted by cubeb at 10:14 AM on June 28, 2023 [10 favorites]
Leonard McCoy said "Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a (...)" only once in all of recorded Star Trek history. And that one time was in one of the reboot movies.
(he did say a lot of things very close to it many many times, of course)
posted by Flunkie at 10:42 AM on June 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
(he did say a lot of things very close to it many many times, of course)
posted by Flunkie at 10:42 AM on June 28, 2023 [6 favorites]
Best answer: Fairy rings look like a lot of mushrooms, but there's a single mycelium underneath. See also Pando, a tree that looks like a forest.
---
This next example likely requires too much explaining for whatever you're hoping to publish, but it's a really good, surprising one, which I find excellent for honing my students' ideas about infinity in mathematics.
In combinatorics, a graph is a collection of nodes (usually drawn as dots), some pairs of which are joined by edges. For example, you could make a graph with a dot for each of your college friends, with edges to show who had dated whom.
A graph is defined by which pairs are linked, not by the particular way the dots are arranged in a drawing, so it's possible for two rather different-looking graphs to be the same, or isomorphic to use the technical term. For example, these three graphs are isomorphic as they all have four nodes with every node connected to every other node. (But any graph in which some pair of nodes is not connected would not be isomorphic to these graphs.)
Now let's say you and I each start with N dots drawn on a piece of paper, and decide in some random way which pairs to link up. It's possible we could draw isomorphic graphs, but it's not very likely. For example, with just 10 nodes, there are 12,005,168 different graphs we could draw, where different means "not isomorphic". With 20 nodes, there are 645,490,122,795,799,841,856,164,638,490,742,749,440 possible graphs.
HOWEVER! If we start with infinitely many nodes, and use almost any reasonable process to create a random graph -- such as flipping a coin for every pair of nodes to decide whether they get connected -- then we are virtually certain to produce isomorphic graphs. This holds true even if our coins are weighted differently, so that I draw edges 90% of the time and you draw edges 10% of the time. The best nontechnical explanation I can give is that in an infinite random graph, reasonably everything happens, so every part of my graph is reproduced somewhere in your graph and vice versa. (Technical details.)
posted by aws17576 at 10:45 AM on June 28, 2023
---
This next example likely requires too much explaining for whatever you're hoping to publish, but it's a really good, surprising one, which I find excellent for honing my students' ideas about infinity in mathematics.
In combinatorics, a graph is a collection of nodes (usually drawn as dots), some pairs of which are joined by edges. For example, you could make a graph with a dot for each of your college friends, with edges to show who had dated whom.
A graph is defined by which pairs are linked, not by the particular way the dots are arranged in a drawing, so it's possible for two rather different-looking graphs to be the same, or isomorphic to use the technical term. For example, these three graphs are isomorphic as they all have four nodes with every node connected to every other node. (But any graph in which some pair of nodes is not connected would not be isomorphic to these graphs.)
Now let's say you and I each start with N dots drawn on a piece of paper, and decide in some random way which pairs to link up. It's possible we could draw isomorphic graphs, but it's not very likely. For example, with just 10 nodes, there are 12,005,168 different graphs we could draw, where different means "not isomorphic". With 20 nodes, there are 645,490,122,795,799,841,856,164,638,490,742,749,440 possible graphs.
HOWEVER! If we start with infinitely many nodes, and use almost any reasonable process to create a random graph -- such as flipping a coin for every pair of nodes to decide whether they get connected -- then we are virtually certain to produce isomorphic graphs. This holds true even if our coins are weighted differently, so that I draw edges 90% of the time and you draw edges 10% of the time. The best nontechnical explanation I can give is that in an infinite random graph, reasonably everything happens, so every part of my graph is reproduced somewhere in your graph and vice versa. (Technical details.)
posted by aws17576 at 10:45 AM on June 28, 2023
aws17576, please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that more a statement about the relationship between infinity and probability in general (i.e. given infinite independent trials, anything with a nonzero chance of happening in any particular trial will happen), not really one about graph theory? And if we do restrict ourselves to graph theory, not even one about just infinite graphs; for example, if we run infinitely many tests of both of us randomly choosing one of the 645 bazillion possibilities with only 20 nodes, some of those tests (infinitely many of them, in fact) will result in matches between our two 20-node graphs.
posted by Flunkie at 11:01 AM on June 28, 2023
posted by Flunkie at 11:01 AM on June 28, 2023
Also, that reminds me: I think it should be made clear that the "one electron" thing is not known to be true (and although I'm not sure, I kind of doubt that it's the mainstream consensus).
posted by Flunkie at 11:04 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Flunkie at 11:04 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
There is only one movie trailer that contains an original master track of a Beatles song.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:20 AM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:20 AM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Babe Ruth won his league's MVP award only once, though that was mainly due to eligibility criteria.
Dan Marino only appeared in one Super Bowl, though this may not be too surprising if you know him mainly as "the greatest QB to never win a Super Bowl".
Several famous actors have only won a single Oscar award. YMMV regarding which ones are surprising but Al Pacino stands out as one for me.
posted by mhum at 1:05 PM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Dan Marino only appeared in one Super Bowl, though this may not be too surprising if you know him mainly as "the greatest QB to never win a Super Bowl".
Several famous actors have only won a single Oscar award. YMMV regarding which ones are surprising but Al Pacino stands out as one for me.
posted by mhum at 1:05 PM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Since Ronald Reagan, there have been 16 justices appointed to the Supreme Court. Of those 16, all but one got their law degree from Harvard, Yale, or Stanford (it's Amy Comey Barrett who went to Notre Dame).
posted by mhum at 1:22 PM on June 28, 2023
posted by mhum at 1:22 PM on June 28, 2023
Best answer: There was only one reigning empress in Chinese history, Wu Zetian.
(Many women acted as regents for their sons or other relatives, but she was the only one who ruled in her own right.)
Oh, and here's a linguistic one: there is only one word in Arabic containing the phoneme ḷ, ʾAḷḷāh (Allah).
posted by zompist at 3:27 PM on June 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
(Many women acted as regents for their sons or other relatives, but she was the only one who ruled in her own right.)
Oh, and here's a linguistic one: there is only one word in Arabic containing the phoneme ḷ, ʾAḷḷāh (Allah).
posted by zompist at 3:27 PM on June 28, 2023 [4 favorites]
There is one nation with a flag that's not a rectangle (Nepal). There's one US state with one (Ohio). There's one Canadian province that had a non-rectangular license plate (Nunavut)—too bad they discontinued that.
posted by adamrice at 3:41 PM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by adamrice at 3:41 PM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The 5,000 species of mammal are classified into 19-26 "orders" [depending on whether, for example you believe that whales are artiodactyls (cows, pigs, hippos and camels) or not - most folks now accept Order Cetartiodactyla.
About 1/4 of all species are rodents Rodentia; 1/5 are bats Chiroptera; 10% Primates . . .
But there is only One living species in Order Tubulidentata: the aardvark Orycteropus afer. To be cherished.
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:46 PM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
About 1/4 of all species are rodents Rodentia; 1/5 are bats Chiroptera; 10% Primates . . .
But there is only One living species in Order Tubulidentata: the aardvark Orycteropus afer. To be cherished.
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:46 PM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Jimi Hendrix only had one top-40 hit, but it was Bob Dylan's song.
So did Rush, but it wasn't a good song.
So did Weezer, but it was their worst song.
So did Garth Brooks, but he was Chris Gaines.
posted by credulous at 7:00 PM on June 28, 2023
So did Rush, but it wasn't a good song.
So did Weezer, but it was their worst song.
So did Garth Brooks, but he was Chris Gaines.
posted by credulous at 7:00 PM on June 28, 2023
Best answer: There is only one person who was ever hit by a meteorite.
There is only one US State with a one syllable name: Maine
Lou Reed, Garth Brooks, and The Grateful Dead each only had one Billboard Top 40 hit in their careers.
In the reverse of your question, there are several versions of the South Carolina State flag, but no single official one.
posted by chrisulonic at 7:10 PM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
There is only one US State with a one syllable name: Maine
Lou Reed, Garth Brooks, and The Grateful Dead each only had one Billboard Top 40 hit in their careers.
In the reverse of your question, there are several versions of the South Carolina State flag, but no single official one.
posted by chrisulonic at 7:10 PM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
New Jersey is the only state in the US where you can’t pump your own gas.As a former Oregonian, I feel compelled to point out that this is still functionally true for most of Oregon. Self-service stations are limited to very low population counties.
posted by Aleyn at 9:10 PM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
There is just one Chatham House Rule:
"When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed."
The phrase "Chatham House Rules" is so pervasive that Chrome automatically adds the S when I type the term into the search bar.
posted by sindark at 10:25 PM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
"When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed."
The phrase "Chatham House Rules" is so pervasive that Chrome automatically adds the S when I type the term into the search bar.
posted by sindark at 10:25 PM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]
Of the nearly 300 moons in the Solar System, only our own Moon is exactly the right size and distance to fit perfectly over the Sun during a total eclipse. The view at totality, with the ring of fire and beautiful solar corona around a black disc, is something that can only be seen on Earth, and only in the current (~100 million year long) stretch of time.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:18 PM on June 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Rhaomi at 11:18 PM on June 28, 2023 [5 favorites]
There are loads of swing bridges of various types in the world, but the still functional ~130 year old Barton Swing Aqueduct is the only swing aqueduct that was ever built.
posted by tomsk at 2:05 AM on June 29, 2023
posted by tomsk at 2:05 AM on June 29, 2023
Response by poster: Lots of these are great, thank you! I'll be processing them and figuring out which I can use, and I'll come back and update if one of them moves forward.
posted by daisyace at 8:37 AM on June 29, 2023
posted by daisyace at 8:37 AM on June 29, 2023
Free solo of El Capitan by Alex Honnold.
Last survivor of Pearl Harbor.
posted by brent at 11:33 AM on June 29, 2023
Last survivor of Pearl Harbor.
posted by brent at 11:33 AM on June 29, 2023
The Green Bay Packers. Only publicly owned franchise in pro sports with limits on ownership.
posted by brent at 11:15 AM on July 1, 2023
posted by brent at 11:15 AM on July 1, 2023
Helium is the only element with an isotope in which the ratio of protons to neutrons is greater than 1.
Tin is the only element with as many as ten stable isotopes.
posted by jamjam at 2:40 PM on July 2, 2023
Tin is the only element with as many as ten stable isotopes.
posted by jamjam at 2:40 PM on July 2, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by offog at 5:04 AM on June 28, 2023 [5 favorites]