10 Common Misconceptions

1) Einstein got bad grades in school.

Generations of children have been heartened by the thought that this Nobel Prize winner did badly at school, but they're sadly mistaken. In fact, he did very well at school, especially in science and maths (unsurprisingly).

2) Cheese are mice's favorite food.

Mice enjoy food rich in sugar as well as peanut butter and breakfast cereals. So a Snickers bar would go down much better than a lump of cheddar.

3) Napoleon was short.

He was actually around 5ft 7, completely average for the 18th/19th century

4) Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.

Edison invented a lot of things – in fact he's one of the most famous inventors of all time – but the light bulb wasn't one of them. What he did was develop a light bulb at the same time as the British man, Joseph Swan, who came up with it originally.

5) Lemmings (nothing to do with 360 gamers T_T) throw themselves over cliffs to commit suicide

The poor old things are sometimes so desperate for food that they do, according to the BBC "jump over high ground into water", but they aren't committing group suicide.

6) Water flushes differently in different hemispheres

No it doesn't. Sorry!

7) Humans evolved from apes

Darwin didn't actually say this, but he's been misreported ever since. What he did say was that we, and apes, and chimpanzees for that matter, had a common ancestor, once, a long, long time ago.

8) Vikings had horns/helmets with horns.

Vikings may have been buried with their helmets and with drinking horns. When they were dug up by the Victorians, they assumed that the helmets had horns.

9) Columbus believed the earth was flat

He may not have known how big the world was, but he wasn't worrying about falling off the edge of it.

10) Different parts of the tongue detect different tastes

You do have different taste buds on your tongue and some are more sensitive than others. But they aren't divided into perfect, easy-to-teach sections.

Alot of those I already knew.

nice, although I now want that woollen viking hat and the woollen chicken leg

I think this is misleading. Most of this stuff isn't taught in school. They are general misconceptions passed on by the rest of the population. I've heard all of these, but none of them in the classroom.

Joseph Swan didn't even invent the lightbulb either. It was progressed by him and later perfected by Thomas Edison. There's no point in making him out to be a fraud leeching off of someone else's success, because I doubt he even said himself it was his invention. It was actually invented by a man called Humphry Davy apparently. I read that he created a lightbulb that was so powerful it was later used in lighthouses and such, but was never practical for home use. 21 other people continued to progress it slowly until Swan made significant progress and later Edison perfected it for home use. That's what I read at least.

Who learns that Columbus thought the world was flat? We learned the opposite. wstfld

8 isn't correct. Vikings were depicted with horns in an attempt to demonize them; associating the vikings with the workings of the devil. They were told to have horns long before any victorians dug up a viking gravemound.

[QUOTE="wstfld"]Who learns that Columbus thought the world was flat? We learned the opposite. cd_rom

[QUOTE="cd_rom"][QUOTE="wstfld"]Who learns that Columbus thought the world was flat? We learned the opposite. wstfld

I already know 2, 5 and 9

nice thread :) there shouldn't be any conception about the first one.... i really don't know why some people will buy the idea that one of the greatest scientists ever lived couldn't handle his schoolwork.

A few of those I did not know thats pretty interesting

Who the hell teaches that lemmings jump off cliffs to commit suicide? :? Columbus tried to sail around the world to find a faster route to India, why anyone would say he thought the world was flat is beyond me.

There is much controversy over what Napolean's true height was. There are various records of him being different heights.

Only a bad school would teach you those things. Fun fact, the most everyday and useful thing Edison invented is the word 'Hello'. Humans have up to 22 senses, but most definitely more than 5. HellsAngel2c

LOL I'm 5'7. :P

5'9" is average height for a caucasoid European male. Anything under that is considered short.UT_Wrestler

[QUOTE="HellsAngel2c"]Only a bad school would teach you those things. Fun fact, the most everyday and useful thing Edison invented is the word 'Hello'. Humans have up to 22 senses, but most definitely more than 5. harashawn

Wow I can genuinely say I was surprised by #s 3, 4, 8, and 10.

5'9" is average height for a caucasoid European male. Anything under that is considered short.UT_Wrestler

Well damnit now I'm insulted :P

nice thread :) there shouldn't be any conception about the first one.... i really don't know why some people will buy the idea that one of the greatest scientists ever lived couldn't handle his schoolwork.

Jinroh_basic

Unless I'm mistaken Einstein was actually homeschooled through a good portion of his childhood simply because he was too smart for the teachers and disliked school.

Nobody believes that Columbus thought the world was flat. The whole purpose of him sailing west was to reach India and prove the world was round (the reason why native americans are often called "indians" is because columbus thought he was in India.) 5'9" is average height for a caucasoid European male. Anything under that is considered short.UT_Wrestler

I might be wrong but I don't think he invented the bulb. I think he invented the filament that is used in the bulb.

Aside from that we don't know who invented what first, when or where. We only know who brought it to the general public first, who took credit first.

Another miscomption, 20/20 vision is not perfect, but average

[QUOTE="UT_Wrestler"]5'9" is average height for a caucasoid European male. Anything under that is considered short.TacticalDesire

Well damnit now I'm insulted :P

i didn't know most of those tc, that was interesting, thankyou.

Nobody believes that Columbus thought the world was flat. The whole purpose of him sailing west was to reach India and prove the world was round (the reason why native americans are often called "indians" is because columbus thought he was in India.)UT_Wrestler

Link

5'9" is average height for a caucasoid European male. Anything under that is considered short.UT_Wrestler

Good list!
I'm a little surprised about the Vikings. Their hats would have looked very odd without horns... Possibly a mercy-misconception.

As for the first fact, I'm really not surprised :P
But, apparently he did marry his cousin. And she was also mathematically inclined. Supposedly.

you should watch QI

from what i can remember the biggest misconception was 2 of each animal on noah's ark

The last one about the tongue doesn't even include the other two things that humans can taste. The tongue may not be sectioned perfectly but certain parts are more sentive to certain tastes. I am taking Human Anatomy and Physiology we just learned about this last term

I already read this a couple weeks ago. It was featured on the BNET bar here.

Decent article. Though I'm not sure whether they are completely true facts or not.

First President

The misconception:George Washington was the first president of theU.s.
Why we want to believe it:because he was the first president of the post-Independence governing body of the United States

While Washington was the first president of an independent United States of America, he was actually the seventeenth head of the locally governing body of the nation. The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the thirteen colonies who, with the President of the congress, governed the United States during the American Revolution. The first president of the Continental Congress was Peyton Randolph (pictured above), and the most famous was John Hancock who served twice as the fourth and the thirteenth. The president had far less power than the post-independence president, but for all intents and purposes he was the de-facto leader of the United States, in rebellion against the King. The last sitting of the Continentalcongresswas on March 2, 1789, two days before the first session of the 1st United States Congress, and one month before the inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the USgovernmentas it is known today.