List of misconceptions

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This is a list of uncontroversial, undisputed clarifications to common misconceptions.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.


Contents

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Geography

  • Contrary to popular belief, Mount Everest is not the tallest mountain in the world. Mauna Kea in Hawaii is, with a base-to-summit height of 10,314 meters (33,480 feet) (however, its base is on the ocean floor, so its height above sea level is only 4,208 m (13,796 ft)). Mount Everest has a sea level-to-summit height of 8850 meters (29035 feet). However, Mount Everest is the world's HIGHEST mountain. Mount Kilimanjaro is often described as the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, measured from its base (at ground level) to the summit at 5,896 meters (19,344 feet).
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History

  • Some believe that Christopher Columbus had a hard time receiving support because Europeans believed in a flat Earth. In fact, sailors and navigators of the time knew that the Earth was spherical, but (correctly) disagreed with Columbus's estimates of the distance to the Indies. If the Americas did not exist, and Columbus had continued to the Indies (even putting aside the threat of mutiny he was under) he would not have survived long enough to reach them.
  • While scarcely a success, the charge of the Light Brigade was not a complete loss — more than half the calvarymen who began the charge finished it unwounded.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte was not especially short. After his death in 1821, the French emperor's height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet. This corresponds to 5 feet 6.5 inches in Imperial (British) feet, or 1.686 metres, making him slightly taller than an average Frenchman of the 19th century [1]. The metric system was introduced during his lifetime, so it was natural that he would be measured in feet and inches for much of his life. A French inch was 2.71 centimetres [2], an Imperial inch is 2.54 centimetres. In addition to this miscalculation, his nickname le petit caporal adds to the confusion, as non-francophones mistakenly take petit literally as meaning "small"; in fact, it is an affectionate term reflecting on his camaraderie with ordinary soldiers. He also surrounded himself with soldiers, his elite guard, who were always six feet tall or taller.
  • During World War II, King Christian X of Denmark did not thwart Nazi attempts to identify Jews by wearing a yellow star himself. Jews in Denmark were never forced to wear the Star of David. The Danish government did help most Jews flee the country before the end of the war [3].
  • Italian dictator Benito Mussolini did not make the trains run on time. Much of the repair work had been performed before Mussolini and the fascists came to power in 1922. Accounts from the era also suggest that the Italian railway's legendary adherence to timetables was more myth than reality [4].
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Life

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Animals

  • An old (and surely dying) superstition is that toads can give people warts if they are touched. In reality, warts are caused by a virus that doesn't have anything to do with toads. Nevertheless, people should avoid touching frogs or toads, for some of them secrete poison through glands.
  • Dragonflies do not have stingers, and do not bite people.


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Entertainment

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Films

Luke: "He told me enough! He told me you killed him."
Darth Vader: "No. I am your father!"
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Television

  • The line "Beam me up, Scotty" was never spoken in Star Trek. "Scotty, Beam me up" was used in the fourth movie, long after the misquotation had become a cliche.
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Food and drink

Main article: List of misleading food names


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Science

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Astronomy

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Planets

  • The difference in temperature between the seasons occur because the planet is tilted on its axis, not due to a changing distance from the Sun (which at most is only 1.7% from the average distance). Indeed, during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth is at the closest point of its orbit to the Sun. The Southern Hemisphere experiences summer at that time.
  • The seasons are also not the same length. Due to the earth moving fastest in its orbit when closest to the Sun, the southern summer / northern winter is the shortest season, with northern summer / southern winter being the longest. However, the difference on earth is only a matter of a few days, while on Mars with its more eccentric orbit the difference is more distinct.
  • Saturn is not the only planet with rings. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings, though those of Saturn are the most visually striking (and the only ones easily seen).
  • While at a low orbit, the Great Wall of China can certainly be seen from space but it is not unique in that regard. From a low orbit of the earth, many artificial objects are visible on the earth, not just the Great Wall of China. Highways, ships in the sea, dams, railroads, cities, fields of crops, and even some individual buildings. As to the claim that it's the only man-made object visible from the moon, Apollo astronauts have reported that they could not see any man-made object from the moon, not even the Great Wall.
  • There is no third 'biggest' planet in our solar system. Of the two possible candidates, Uranus and Neptune, Uranus is the greater in volume (63 Earth volumes against 58), while Neptune is the greater in mass (17 Earth masses against 15).
  • There is no "dark side" of the Moon. The Moon is in synchronous orbit--that is, it takes exactly the same time to rotate once around its axis than it does to make one orbit around the Earth--so it has a far side, because it always keeps the same hemisphere pointed towards Earth. When the Moon is roughly between the Sun and Earth, it is daytime for the "far side" and night time for the "near side". When the Moon gets "behind" the Earth, it is night time for the "far side" and daytime for the "near side".
  • The gravity of a black hole is weaker than, not stronger than, the gravity of the star which formed it. Isaac Newton's laws of gravitation state that, for an object with a spherically-symmetric distribution of mass, two things affect how much gravitational force is felt: mass of the object and distance to the object's centre. A black hole has less mass than the star which formed it, because only very massive stars collapse into black holes, and very massive stars end their lives with a supernova which blasts away some of the original star's material. However, you can go closer to a black hole's centre than you can to a star's centre without cutting into the object's diameter, and this is why a black hole's gravity feels very strong if you go close enough to it.
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Meteors

  • When a meteor lands on Earth (termed a meteorite), it usually is not hot. Small meterites are not hot when they fall to Earth — in fact, many are found with frost on them. A meteorite has been in the near absolute zero temperature of space for billions of years, so the interior of it is very cold. A meteor's great speed is enough to melt its outside layer, but any molten material will be quickly blown off (ablated), and the interior of the meteor doesn't have time to heat up because rocks are poor conductors of heat. Also, atmospheric drag can slow small meteors to terminal velocity by the time they hit the ground, giving them some time to cool down (Plaitt 2002:137-38).
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Meteorology

  • It is incorrectly believed that clouds form because cold air "holds" less water vapor than warm air. Air has no capacity to hold water vapor. It is the temperature of the water itself (and its surroundings) that causes humidity, condensation and clouds to form.
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Health

  • It is a very widespread misconception that the common cold can be caused by exposure to cold weather. In reality, the common cold is caused by viruses and has nothing to do with low temperatures. However, the immune system may be compromised when the body is exposed to cold thus increasing the risk of contracting the cold virus.
  • People don't only use ten percent of their brains. The origins of the myth are not clear, it's probably the result of misunderstood or misinterpreted legitimate scientific findings as well as self-help gurus [5].
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Physics

  • Many textbooks claim that Electricity (electrons) within wires flows at nearly (or even exactly at) the speed of light. In fact it's the electrical energy which flows rapidly ("rapidly" is still slower than the speed of light). Electrons, which have mass, can never travel at the speed of light due to the theory of relativity. The drift velocity of the charges in an electric current is extremely slow, on the order of centimetres per hour. Where the electric current is visible, as in electrophoresis, the slow movement of charge carriers can be seen directly. As a very rough analogy, imagine a line of people at an amusement park. When the people at the front board the ride, a space opens up, and rapidly spreads to the back of the line. However, the average velocity of any one person is far slower than the speed at which the space moves.
  • Some believe that the sky looks blue because it reflects the ocean. The sky actually looks blue because shorter wavelengths are scattered more easily by Earth's atmosphere than longer wavelengths, and blue is a short wavelength in the visible spectrum.
  • Many believe that lakes and oceans are blue only because they reflect the blue sky. Actually water looks blue because water is blue; the water molecules do absorb some light, and they absorb red frequencies more than blue. The effect is small, so the blue color only becomes obvious when observing layers of water many meters (or more) thick. (This effect is noticeable to a lesser amount in white-painted swimming pools.) In salt water or mineral-laden fresh water, the color of dissolved minerals can also be seen. Sky-reflection does play a role, but only when the water surface is very calm, and only when the water is observed at a glancing angle less than approximately ten degrees.
  • It is usually claimed that astronauts in orbiting spacecraft are in "zero gravity." In reality they are falling along with the spacecraft, and gravity in a free-fall environment is not easily detected. Earth's gravitational effects are very strong at the low orbit altitudes used by the Shuttle (only 15% less than gravity at Earth's surface), and of course there are also the effects of other planets and the Sun. Gravity falls off rapidly as one leaves the Earth's surface, but one can never completely escape the gravitational pull of the Earth (or any other mass) even at vast distances, though the effect may be negligible.
  • The magnetic pole near Antarctica is usually called the "south magnetic pole," but this is wrong. Since compasses are attracted to opposite poles, and since physics defines "north pole" to be the north-pointing end of a compass, this requires that the Antarctic pole be a north-type pole, while the magnetic pole under the Arctic ocean is a south pole. (However, note that the poles have flipped in past, with the last pole reversal being the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal of 780,000 years ago.)


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Technology

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Transportation

  • Some believe that the ship Mary Celeste was called Marie Celeste. In fact Marie Celeste was the spelling used by Arthur Conan Doyle in a story based on the incident.
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See also

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References

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External links

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