Each entry on this list of common misconceptions is worded as a correction; the misconceptions themselves are implied rather than stated. These entries are concise summaries of the main subject articles, which can be consulted for more detail.
Federal
legal tender laws in the United States do not state that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept
cash for payment, though it must be regarded as valid payment for debts when tendered to a
creditor.[1]
The letters "AR" in
AR-15 stand for "ArmaLite Rifle", reflecting the company (
ArmaLite) that originally manufactured the weapon. They do not stand for "
assault rifle" or "
automatic rifle".[3]
The
Chevrolet Nova sold very well in
Latin American markets;
General Motors did not need to rename the car. While no va does mean "it doesn't go" in Spanish, nova was easily understood to mean "new".[4]
The common image of
Santa Claus (
Father Christmas) as a jolly old man in red robes was not created by
The Coca-Cola Company as an advertising gimmick. Santa Claus had already taken this form in American popular culture and advertising by the late 19th century, long before Coca-Cola used his image in the 1930s.[5]
Netflix was not founded after its co-founder
Reed Hastings was charged a $40 late fee by
Blockbuster. Hastings made the story up to summarize Netflix's
value proposition, and Netflix's founders were actually inspired by
Amazon.[6]
PepsiCo never owned the "6th most powerful navy" in the world after a deal with the
Soviet Union. In 1989, Pepsi acquired several decommissioned warships as part of a barter deal.[7][8] The oil tankers were leased out and the other ships sold for scrap.[9] A follow-on deal involved another 10 ships.[10]
Food and cooking
Searing does not seal moisture in
meat; in fact, it causes it to lose some moisture. Meat is seared to
brown it, to affect its color, flavor, and texture.[11]
Twinkies, an American snack cake generally considered to be "
junk food", have a
shelf life of around 45 days, despite the common claim (usually facetious) that they remain edible for decades.[12] Twinkies, with only
sorbic acid as an added preservative, normally remain on a store shelf for 7 to 10 days.[13]
With the exception of some
perishables, properly stored foods can safely be eaten past their "expiration" dates.[14][15] The vast majority of
expiration dates in the United States are regulated by state governments and refer to food quality, not safety; the "use by" date represents the last day the manufacturer warrants the quality of their product.
Seeds are not the spicy part of
chili peppers. In fact, seeds contain a low amount of
capsaicin, one of several compounds which induce the
hot sensation (pungency) in mammals. The highest concentration of capsaicin is located in the
placental tissue (the
pith) to which the seeds are attached.[16][17]
Hydrox is not a knock-off of
Oreos. Hydrox, invented in 1908, predates Oreos by four years and outsold it until the
1950s, when Oreos raised prices and the name "Hydrox" became increasingly unappealing due to being said to sound like a laundry detergent brand, after similar new brands of the decade.[22][23]
Potato chips were not invented by a frustrated
George Speck in response to a customer, sometimes given as
Cornelius Vanderbilt, complaining that his
French fries were too thick and not salty enough.[28][29] Recipes for potato chips existed in cookbooks as early as 1817.[30] The misconception was popularized by a 1973 advertising campaign by the St. Regis Paper Company.[31]
Spices were not used in the Middle Ages to mask the flavor of rotten meat before refrigeration. Spices were an expensive luxury item; those who could afford them could afford good meat, and there are no contemporaneous documents calling for spices to disguise the taste of bad meat.[32]
Steak tartare was not invented by
Mongol warriors who tenderized meat under their saddles.[33] The dish originated in the early 20th century, in Europe, as a variation on the German-American
Hamburg steak.[34]
Whipped cream was not invented by
François Vatel at the
Château de Chantilly in 1671; the recipe is attested at least a century earlier in France and England,[35] but the name crème chantilly was only popularized in the 19th century.[36]
The difference between the taste of "
banana-flavored" candy and a real banana is not due to the former being specifically designed to replicate the taste of
Gros Michel bananas, the
cultivar that dominated the export market before the rise of
Cavendish bananas. All banana cultivars derive their flavor from a complex mix of many compounds, while a single compound,
isoamyl acetate, gives banana candy its flavor. Isoamyl acetate naturally occurs in bananas as well as many other fruits and fermented beverages.[38] It is more concentrated in Gros Michel bananas than in Cavendish bananas, but its use in candy production was due to its easy availability, not any specific resemblance to a banana's flavor. Candies flavored with it have been labeled both "banana-flavored" and "pear-flavored."[39][40]
Microwave ovens do not cook food from the inside out. 2.45 GHz microwaves can only penetrate approximately 1 centimeter (3⁄8 inch) into most foods. The inside portions of thicker foods are mainly heated by heat conducted from the outer portions.[44]
Microwave ovens do not cause cancer, as
microwave radiation is non-ionizing and therefore does not have the cancer risks associated with
ionizing radiation such as
X-rays. No studies have found that microwave radiation causes cancer, even with exposure levels far greater than normal radiation leakage.[45]
Microwaving food does not reduce its
nutritive value and may preserve it better than other cooking processes due to shorter cooking times.[46]
Film and television
Ronald Reagan was never seriously considered for the role of Rick Blaine in the 1942 film Casablanca, eventually played by
Humphrey Bogart. An early studio press release mentioned Reagan, but the studio already knew that Reagan was unavailable because of his upcoming military service.[47] Indeed, the producer had always wanted Bogart for the part.[48]
Sign languages are not the same worldwide. Aside from the
pidginInternational Sign, each country generally has its own native sign language, and some have more than one.[60]
The
Chinese word for "crisis" (危机) is not composed of the symbols for "danger" and "opportunity"; the first does represent danger, but the second instead means "
inflection point" (the original meaning of the word "crisis").[61][62] The myth was perpetuated mainly by a campaign speech from
John F. Kennedy.[61]
André-Marie Ampère did not invent nor popularize the
ampersand, nor is it named after him.[67] Its name derives from the Latin phrase per se (meaning "by itself"), meaning that the symbol stands for and, per se.[68]
Irregardless is a word.[69][70]Nonstandard,
slang, or
colloquial terms used by English speakers are sometimes alleged not to be real words, despite appearing in numerous dictionaries. All words in English became accepted by being commonly used for a certain period of time; thus, there are many vernacular words currently not accepted as part of the
standard language, or regarded as inappropriate in formal speech or writing, but the idea that they are not words is a misconception.[71] Other examples of words that are sometimes alleged not to be words include burglarize, licit,[72] and funnest[73] which appear in numerous dictionaries as English words.[74]
The word crap did not originate as a
back-formation of British plumber
Thomas Crapper's
aptronymous surname, nor does his name originate from the word crap.[81] The surname "Crapper" is a variant of "Cropper", which originally referred to someone who harvested crops.[82] The word crap ultimately comes from
Medieval Latincrappa.[83]
The use of the word faggot as a pejorative for homosexual men was not derived from the
burning of homosexuals at the stake with
a bundle of sticks. Homosexuality was never punished with immolation in either England or its colonies.[84] The actual etymology is unknown; it may come from an insult for unpleasant old women, or from British slang for
a student that does errands for their superior.[85][86]
The word fuck did not originate in the Middle Ages as an
acronym for either "
fornicating under consent of king" or "for unlawful carnal knowledge", either as a sign posted above
adulterers in the
stocks, or as a sign on houses visible from the road during the
Black Death. Nor did it originate as a corruption of "pluck yew" (an idiom falsely attributed to the English for drawing a
longbow).[87] It is most likely derived from
Middle Dutch or other
Germanic languages, where it either meant "to thrust" or "to copulate with" (fokken in Middle Dutch), "to copulate", or "to strike, push, copulate" or "penis".[87][88] Either way, these variations would have been derived from the
Indo-European root word -peuk, meaning "to prick".[87]
The expression "
rule of thumb" did not originate from an English law allowing a man to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb, and there is no evidence that such a law ever existed.[89] The false etymology has been broadly reported in media including Time magazine (1983), The Washington Post (1989) and CNN (1993).[90] The expression originates from the seventeenth century from various
trades where quantities were measured by comparison to the width or length of a thumb.[91][92]
The word the was never pronounced or spelled "ye" in
Old or
Middle English.[93] The confusion, seen in the
common stock phrase "
ye olde", derives from the use of the character
thorn (þ), which in Middle English represented the sound now represented in Modern English by "th". Early
printing presses often lacked
types for the letter þ, meaning that "þͤ" () and "þe" were substituted with the visually similar "yͤ" and "ye", respectively.[94]
The
anti-Italian slur wop did not originate from an acronym for "without papers" or "without passport";[95] it is actually derived from the term guappo (roughly meaning thug or "dandy"), from Spanish guapo.[96]
Xmas did not originate as a secular plan to "take the Christ out of Christmas".[97]X represents the Greek letter
chi, the first letter of Χριστός (Christós), "Christ" in Greek,[98] as found in
the chi-rho symbol ΧΡ since the 4th century. In English, "X" was first used as a
scribal abbreviation for "Christ" in 1100; "X'temmas" is attested in 1551, and "Xmas" in 1721.[99]
Law, crime, and military
It is not necessary to wait 24 hours before filing a
missing person report. When there is evidence of violence or of an unusual absence, it is important to start an investigation promptly.[100][101]Criminology experts say the first 72 hours in a missing person investigation are the most critical.[102]
Twinkies were not
claimed to be the cause of San Francisco mayor
George Moscone's and supervisor
Harvey Milk's murders. In the trial of
Dan White, the defense successfully argued White's
diminished capacity as a result of severe depression. While eating Twinkies was cited as evidence of this depression, it was never claimed to be the cause of the murders.[103]
The
US Armed Forces have generally forbidden military enlistment as a form of
deferred adjudication (that is, an option for convicts to avoid jail time) since the 1980s.
US Navy protocols discourage the practice, while the other four branches have specific regulations against it.[104]
The United States does not require police officers to identify themselves as police in the case of a
sting or other undercover work, and police officers may lie when engaged in such work.[105] Claiming
entrapment as a defense instead focuses on whether the defendant was induced by undue pressure (such as threats) or deception from law enforcement to commit crimes they would not have otherwise committed.[106]
Crime in the United States decreased between 1991 and 2022; the rate of violent crime per 100,000 people fell by almost 50%, and the rate of
property crime fell by more than half.[107][108][109] The number of gun homicides also decreased.[110]
Undocumented immigrants in the US have substantially lower
crime rates than US-born citizens.[111] Compared to undocumented immigrants, US-born citizens are over twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes.[112] Immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than US-born citizens.[113][114]
Neither the
Mafia nor other criminal organizations regularly use or have used
cement shoes to drown their victims.[121] There are only two documented cases of this method being used in murders: one in 1964 and one in 2016 (although, in the former,
the victim had concrete blocks tied to his legs rather than being enclosed in cement).[122] The
French Army did use cement shoes on Algerians killed in
death flights during the
Algerian War.[123]
In the United States, a
defendant may not have their case dismissed simply because they were not read their
Miranda rights at the time of their arrest. Miranda warnings cover the rights of a person when they are taken into custody and then
interrogated by law enforcement.[124] If a person is not given a Miranda warning before the interrogation is conducted, statements made by them during the interrogation may not be admissible in a trial. The prosecution may still present other forms of evidence, or statements made during interrogations where the defendant was read their Miranda rights, to get a conviction.[125]
Chewing
gum is not punishable by
caning in
Singapore. Although importing and selling chewing gum
has been illegal in Singapore since 1992, and
corporal punishment is still an applicable penalty for certain offenses in the country, the two facts are unrelated; chewing gum-related offenses have always been only subject to
fines, and the possession or consumption of chewing gum itself is not illegal.[126][127]
Chalk outlines in crime scenes are rare in modern investigations, despite being a popular
trope in fiction.[130]
No cases have been proven of strangers
killing or permanently injuring children by intentionally hiding poisons, drugs, or sharp objects such as razor blades in candy during Halloween trick-or-treating.[131] However, in rare cases, adult family members have spread this story to cover up
filicide or accidental deaths. Folklorists, scholars, and law enforcement experts say that the story that strangers put poison into candy and give that candy to trick-or-treating children has been "thoroughly debunked".[132][131]
Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein is named after the fictional scientist
Victor Frankenstein, who created the sapient creature in the novel, not the creature itself, which is never named in the novel and is now usually called
Frankenstein's monster. However, as later adaptations started to refer to the monster itself as Frankenstein, this usage became well-established, and some no longer regard it as erroneous.[134][135]
Listening to Mozart or classical music does not enhance intelligence (or
IQ). A study from 1993 reported a short-term improvement in
spatial reasoning.[145][146] However, the weight of subsequent evidence supports either a null effect or short-term effects related to increases in mood and arousal, with mixed results published after the initial report in Nature.[147][148][149][150]
The Rolling Stones were not performing "
Sympathy for the Devil" at the 1969
Altamont Free Concert when
Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by a member of the local
Hells Angels chapter that was serving as security. While the incident began while the band was performing the song, prompting a brief interruption before the Stones finished it, the actual stabbing occurred later as the band was performing "
Under My Thumb".[157] The misconception arose from mistaken reporting in Rolling Stone.[158]
The Beatles' 1965 appearance at
Shea Stadium was not the first time that a rock concert was played at a large, outdoor sports stadium in the U.S. Such venues were employed by
Elvis Presley in the 1950s and the Beatles themselves in 1964.[159]
Concept albums did not begin with rock music in the 1960s. The format had already been employed by singers such as
Frank Sinatra in the 1940s and 1950s.[160]
Phil Collins did not write his 1981 hit "
In the Air Tonight" about witnessing someone drowning and then confronting the person in the audience who let it happen. According to Collins himself, it was about his emotions when divorcing from his first wife.[161]
Cass Elliot ("Mama Cass" of
The Mamas & the Papas) did not die from choking on a ham sandwich.[162][163] This falsehood was initiated by her manager who wanted to avoid the implication that her death was associated with substance abuse.[164]
Religion
Buddhism
The
historical Buddha is not known to have been fat. The chubby monk known as the "fat Buddha" or "laughing Buddha" in the West is a 10th-century Chinese Buddhist folk hero by the name of
Budai.[165]
Christianity
Jesus was most likely not
born on December 25, when
his birth is traditionally celebrated as
Christmas. It is more likely that his birth was in either the season of
spring or perhaps
summer. Although the
Common Era ostensibly counts the years since the birth of Jesus,[166] it is unlikely that he was born in either AD 1 or 1 BC, as such a numbering system would imply. Modern historians estimate a date closer to between 6 BC and 4 BC.[167]
The
Bible does not say that exactly three
magi came to visit the baby Jesus, nor that they were kings, or rode on camels, or that their names were
Caspar,
Melchior, and
Balthazar, nor what color their skin was. Three magi are inferred because three gifts are described, but the Bible says only that there was more than one magus.[168][169][170]
The idea that
Mary Magdalene was a prostitute before she met Jesus is not found in the Bible or in any of the other earliest Christian writings. It has been a disputed doctrine in several theological traditions whether Mary Magdalene,
Mary of Bethany (who
anoints Jesus' feet in
John 11:1–12), and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus' feet in
Luke 7:36–50 were the same woman.[171][172]
Paul the Apostle did not change his name from Saul. He was born a Jew, with Roman citizenship inherited from his father, and thus carried both a Hebrew and a Greco-Roman name from birth, as mentioned by
Luke in
Acts 13:9: "...Saul, who also is called Paul...".[173]
Roman Catholic
dogma does not say that the
pope is either
sinless or always infallible.[176] Catholic dogma since 1870 does state that a
divine revelation by the pope (generally called ex cathedra) is free from error, but it does not hold that he is always free from error, even when speaking in his official capacity.[177]
St. Peter's Basilica is not the
mother church of
Roman Catholicism, nor is it the official seat of the
Pope. These equivalent distinctions belong to the
Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, which is located in Rome outside of
Vatican City but over which the Vatican has extraterritorial jurisdiction. This also means that St. Peter's is not a
cathedral in the literal sense of that word. St. Peter's is, however, used as the principal church for many papal functions.[178]
Saint Augustine did not say "God created hell for inquisitive people".[183] He actually said: "I do not give the answer that someone is said to have given (evading by a joke the force of the objection), 'He was preparing hell for those who pry into such deep subjects.' ... I do not answer in this way. I would rather respond, 'I do not know,' concerning what I do not know than say something for which a man inquiring about such profound matters is laughed at, while the one giving a false answer is praised."[184] So Augustine is saying that he would not say this and that he does not know the answer to the question.
The
First Council of Nicaea did not establish the books of the Bible. The Old Testament had likely already been
established by Hebrew scribes before Christ. The
development of the New Testament canon was mostly completed in the third century before the Nicaea Council was convened in 325;[185] it was finalized, along with the
deuterocanon, at the
Council of Rome in 382.[186]
Constantine the Great did not make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. While he was the first Christian emperor and made Christianity legal with the
Edict of Milan, Christianity was not declared the official religion of the Roman Empire until 380AD, some 43 years after Constantine's death.[187][188][189]
Most Muslim women do not wear a
burqa (also transliterated as burka or burkha), which covers the body, head, and face, with a mesh grille to see through. Many Muslim women cover their hair and face (excluding the eyes) with a
niqāb, or just their hair with a
hijab[190] and many Muslim women wear neither face nor head coverings of any kind.[191]
A
fatwa is a non-binding legal opinion issued by an
Islamic scholar under
Islamic law; it is therefore commonplace for fatwā from different authors to disagree. The misconception that it is a death sentence stems from a fatwā issued by Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran in 1989 where he said that the author
Salman Rushdie had earned a death sentence for
blasphemy.[192][193]
The word "
jihad" does not always mean "
holy war"; its literal meaning in Arabic is "struggle". While there is such a thing as "
jihad bil saif", or jihad "by the sword",[194] it can be any spiritual or moral effort or struggle,[195][196] such as seeking knowledge, putting others before oneself, and inviting others to Islam.[197]
The
Quran does not promise martyrs 72 virgins in heaven. It does mention that virgin female companions,[198]houri, are given to all people, martyr or not, in heaven, but no number is specified. The source for the 72 virgins is a
hadith in
Sunan al-Tirmidhi by
Imam Tirmidhi.[199][200] Hadiths are sayings and acts of Muhammad as reported by others, not part of the Quran itself.[201][199]
The name golf is not an acronym for "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden".[205][206] It may have come from the Dutch word kolf or kolve, meaning "
club",[206] or from the Scottish word goulf or gowf meaning "to strike or cuff".[205]
The
black belt in martial arts does not necessarily indicate expert level or mastery. It was introduced for
judo in the 1880s to indicate competency at all of the basic techniques of the sport. Promotion beyond 1st
dan (the first black belt rank) varies among different martial arts.[208]
The use of
triangular corner flags in English football is not a privilege reserved for those teams that have won an
FA Cup in the past[209] as depicted in a scene in the film Twin Town. The
Football Association's rules are silent on the subject, and often the decision over what shape flag to use has been up to the individual club's groundskeepers.[210]
India did not withdraw from the
1950 FIFA World Cup because their squad played barefoot, which was against
FIFA regulations.[211] In reality, India withdrew because the country's managing body, the
All India Football Federation (AIFF), was insufficiently prepared for the team's participation and gave various reasons for withdrawing, including a lack of funding and prioritizing the
Olympics.[212]
Video games
There is no definitive proof that
violent video games cause people to become violent. Some studies have found no link between aggression and violent video games,[213][214] and the popularity of gaming has coincided with a decrease in youth violence.[215][216] The
moral panic surrounding video games in the 1980s through to the 2020s, alongside several studies and incidents of violence and legislation in many countries, likely contributed to proliferating this idea.[217][218]
The Japanese government did not pass a law banning
Square Enix from releasing the Dragon Quest games on weekdays due to its causing too many schoolchildren to cut class. The only extent of the government's involvement was that the
National Diet held hearings over rises in muggings caused by the release of Dragon Quest III.[223][224]
The
Pyramids of Egypt were not constructed with
slave labor. Archaeological evidence shows that the laborers were a combination of skilled workers and poor farmers working in the off-season with the participants paid in high-quality food and tax exemptions.[228][229] The idea that slaves were used originated with
Herodotus, and the idea that they were
Israelites arose centuries after the pyramids were constructed.[230][229]
Galleys in ancient times were not commonly operated by
chained slaves or prisoners, as depicted in films such as Ben Hur, but by paid laborers or soldiers,[231] with slaves used only in times of crisis, in some cases even gaining freedom after the crisis was averted.
Ptolemaic Egypt was a possible exception.[232] Other types of vessel, such as merchant vessels (usually sailing vessels) were manned by slaves, sometimes even with slaves as
ship's master.[233]
The
Minoan civilization was not destroyed by the
eruption of Thera. Early archaeologists speculated that the eruption may have been remembered in
Plato's parable of
Atlantis. However, the eruption occurred centuries before the end of the Minoan era.[236]
The ancient Greeks did not use the word "
idiot" (
Ancient Greek: ἰδιώτης,
romanized: idiṓtēs) to disparage people who did not take part in civic life or who did not vote. An ἰδιώτης was simply a private citizen as opposed to a government official. Later, the word came to mean any sort of non-expert or layman, then someone uneducated or ignorant, and much later to mean stupid or mentally deficient.[238]
The
Roman salute, in which the arm is fully extended forwards or diagonally with palm down and fingers touching, was not used in ancient Rome. The gesture was first associated with ancient Rome in the 1784 painting The Oath of the Horatii by the French artist
Jacques-Louis David, which inspired later salutes, most notably the
Nazi salute.[239]
Vomiting was not a regular part of
Roman dining customs.[240] In
ancient Rome, the architectural feature called a vomitorium was the entranceway through which crowds entered and exited a stadium, not a special room used for purging food during meals.[241]
Julius Caesar was not born via
caesarean section. Such a procedure would have been fatal to the mother at the time, and Caesar's mother was still alive when Caesar was 45 years old.[243][244] The name "caesarean" probably comes from the Latin verb caedere 'to cut'.[245]
While modern
life expectancies are much higher than those in the Middle Ages and earlier,[247] adults in the Middle Ages did not die in their 30s or 40s on average. That was the life expectancy at birth, which was skewed by high infant and adolescent mortality. The life expectancy among adults was much higher;[248] a 21-year-old man in medieval England, for example, could expect to live to the age of 64.[249][248] However, in various places and eras, life expectancy was noticeably lower, as in
medieval London, where 90% of people in general died before the age of 45[250] and one study estimated that 36 percent of men and 56 percent of women in medieval urban areas passed before the age of 35.[251] Monks in this time period often died in their 20s or 30s.[251]
Vikings did not
name Iceland "
Iceland" as a ploy to discourage others from settling it.
Naddodd and
Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson both saw snow and ice on the island when they traveled there, giving the island its name.[254]Greenland, on the other hand, was named in the hope that it would help attract settlers.[255]
In the tale of
King Canute and the tide, the king did not command the tide to reverse in a fit of delusional arrogance.[256] According to the story, his intent was to prove a point to members of his privy council that no man is all-powerful, and that all people must bend to forces beyond their control, such as the tides.
Marco Polo did not import
pasta from China,[257] a misconception that originated with the Macaroni Journal, published by an association of food industries to promote the use of pasta in the United States.[258] Marco Polo describes a food similar to "
lasagna" in his Travels, but he uses a term with which he was already familiar.
There is no evidence that
iron maidens were used for torture, or even yet invented, in the Middle Ages. Instead they were pieced together in the 18th century from several
artifacts found in museums, arsenals and the like to create spectacular objects intended for commercial exhibition.[259]
Spiral staircases in castles were not designed in a clockwise direction to hinder right-handed attackers.[260][261] While clockwise spiral staircases are more common in castles than anti-clockwise, they were even more common in medieval structures without a military role, such as religious buildings.[262][260]
The
plate armor of European soldiers did not stop soldiers from moving around or necessitate a crane to get them into a saddle. They would routinely fight on foot and could mount and dismount without help.[263] However, armor used in tournaments in the late Middle Ages was significantly heavier than that used in warfare,[264] which may have contributed to this misconception.
Whether
chastity belts, devices designed to prevent women from having
sexual intercourse, were invented in
medieval times is disputed by modern historians. Most existing chastity belts are now thought to be deliberate fakes or anti-masturbatory devices from the 19th and early 20th centuries.[265]
Medieval cartographers did not regularly write "
here be dragons" on their maps. The only maps from this era that have the phrase inscribed on them are the
Hunt-Lenox Globe and the
Ostrich Egg Globe, next to a coast in
Southeast Asia for both of them. Maps instead were more likely to have "here are lions" inscribed. Maps in this period did occasionally have illustrations of mythical beasts like
dragons and
sea serpents, as well as exotic animals like
elephants, on them.[267]
The
Mexica people of the
Aztec Empire did not mistake
Hernán Cortés and his landing party for gods during Cortés'
conquest of the empire. This notion came from Francisco López de Gómara, who never went to Mexico and concocted the myth while working for the retired Cortés in Spain years after the conquest.[272]
Shah Jahan, the Indian
Mughal Emperor who commissioned the
Taj Mahal, did not cut off the hands of the rumored 40,000 workers or lead designers so as to not allow the construction of another monument more beautiful than the Taj Mahal. This is an urban myth that goes back to the 1960s.[273][274][275]
The
early settlers of the
Plymouth Colony in North America usually did not wear all black, and their
capotains (hats) were shorter and rounder than the widely depicted tall hat with a buckle on it. Instead, their fashion was based on that of the late
Elizabethan era.[276] The traditional image was formed in the 19th century when buckles were a kind of emblem of
quaintness.[277] (The
Puritans, who also settled in Massachusetts near the same time, did frequently wear all black.)[278]
The familiar story that
Isaac Newton was inspired to research the nature of
gravity when an
apple fell on his head is almost certainly apocryphal. All Newton himself ever said was that the idea came to him as he sat "in a contemplative mood" and "was occasioned by the fall of an apple".[279]
Marie Antoinette did not say "
let them eat cake" when she heard that the French peasantry were starving due to a shortage of bread. The phrase was first published in
Rousseau's Confessions, written when Marie Antoinette was only nine years old and not attributed to her, just to "a great princess". It was first attributed to her in 1843.[281]
George Washington did not have
wooden teeth. His
dentures were made of lead, gold, hippopotamus
ivory, the teeth of various animals, including horse and donkey teeth,[282][283] and human teeth, possibly bought from slaves or poor people.[284][285] Because ivory teeth quickly became stained, they may have had the appearance of wood to observers.[283]
The signing of the
United States Declaration of Independence did not occur on July 4, 1776. After the
Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence on July 2, the final language of the document was approved on July 4, and it was printed and distributed on July 4–5.[286] However, the actual signing occurred on August 2, 1776.[287]
There was never a bill to make
German the
official language of the United States that was defeated by one vote in the
House of Representatives, nor has one been proposed at the state level. In 1794, a petition from a group of German immigrants was put aside on a procedural vote of 42 to 41, that would have had the government publish some laws in German. This was the basis of the
Muhlenberg legend, named after the
Speaker of the House at the time,
Frederick Muhlenberg, who was of German descent and abstained from this vote.[289]
Modern
Napoleon Bonaparte was not especially short for a
Frenchman of his time. He was the height of an average French male in 1800, but short for an aristocrat or officer.[290] After his death in 1821, the French emperor's height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in
French feet, which in English measurements is 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m).[291][292]
Cinco de Mayo is not
Mexico's Independence Day, but the celebration of the Mexican Army's victory over the French in the
Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Mexico's Declaration of Independence from Spain in 1810 is celebrated on September 16.[294]
Albert Einstein did not fail mathematics classes in school. Einstein remarked, "I never failed in mathematics.... Before I was fifteen I had mastered
differential and
integral calculus."[296] Einstein did, however, fail his first entrance exam into the
Swiss Federal Polytechnic School (ETH) in 1895, when he was two years younger than his fellow students, but scored exceedingly well in the mathematics and science sections, and then passed on his second attempt.[297]
Alfred Nobel did not omit
mathematics in the
Nobel Prize due to a rivalry with mathematician
Gösta Mittag-Leffler, as there is little evidence the two ever met, nor was it because Nobel's spouse had an affair with a mathematician, as Nobel was never married. The more likely explanation is that Nobel believed mathematics was too
theoretical to benefit humankind, as well as his personal lack of interest in the field.[298] (See also:
Nobel Prize controversies)
Grigori Rasputin was not assassinated by being fed cyanide-laced cakes and
wine, shot multiple times, and then thrown into the
Little Nevka river when he survived the former two. A contemporary autopsy reported that he was just killed with gunshots. A sensationalized account from the memoirs of co-conspirator
PrinceFelix Yusupov is the only source of this story.[299][300][301]
The
Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini did not "make the trains run on time". Much of the repair work had been performed before he and the
Fascist Party came to power in 1922. Moreover, the Italian railways' supposed adherence to timetables was more propaganda than reality.[302]
There is no evidence of
Polish cavalry mounting a brave but futile charge against German
tanks using lances and sabers during the German
invasion of Poland in 1939. This story may have originated from German propaganda efforts following the
charge at Krojanty.[303]
The
Nazis did not use the term "Nazi" to refer to themselves. The full name of the
Nazi Party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party), and members referred to themselves as Nationalsozialisten (National Socialists) or Parteigenossen (party comrades). The term "Nazi" was in use prior to the rise of the
Nazis as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backwards farmer or
peasant. Opponents of the National Socialists abbreviated their name as "Nazi" for derogatory effect and the term was popularized by German exiles outside of Germany.[304]
US President
John F. Kennedy's words "Ich bin ein Berliner" are
standard German for "I am a Berliner (citizen of Berlin)."[306] It is not true that by using the
indefinite articleein, he changed the meaning of the sentence from the intended "I am a citizen of Berlin" to "I am a
Berliner", a Berliner being a type of German pastry, similar to a
jelly doughnut, amusing Germans.[307] Furthermore, the pastry, which
is known by many names in Germany, was not then — nor is it now — commonly called "Berliner" in the Berlin area.[308]
Although popularly known as the "red telephone", the
Moscow–Washington hotline was never a telephone line, nor were red phones used. The first implementation of the hotline used
teletype equipment, which was replaced by
facsimile (fax) machines in 1988. Since 2008, the hotline has been a secure computer link over which the two countries exchange
email.[309] Moreover, the hotline links the
Kremlin to the
Pentagon, not the
White House.[310]
Betsy Ross did not design or make the first official
U.S. flag, although it is widely known as the
Betsy Ross flag. The claim was first made by her grandson a century later.[315]
Abraham Lincoln did not write his
Gettysburg Address speech on the back of an envelope on his train ride to
Gettysburg. The speech was substantially complete before Lincoln left Washington for Gettysburg.[319][320]
The
Alaska Purchase was generally viewed as positive or neutral in the United States, both among the public and the press. The opponents of the purchase who characterized it as "
Seward's Folly", alluding to
William H. Seward, the Secretary of State who negotiated it, represented a minority opinion at the time.[321][322]
The
Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was not caused by
Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern. A newspaper reporter later admitted to having invented the story to make colorful
copy.[325]
There is no evidence that
Frederic Remington, on assignment to
Cuba in 1897, telegraphed
William Randolph Hearst: "There will be no
war. I wish to return," nor that Hearst responded: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures, and I'll furnish the war". The anecdote was originally included in a book by
James Creelman and probably never happened.[326]
Immigrants' last names were not Americanized (voluntarily, mistakenly, or otherwise) upon arrival at
Ellis Island. Officials there kept no records other than checking ship manifests created at the point of origin, and there was simply no paperwork that would have let them recast surnames, let alone any law. At the time in New York, anyone could change the spelling of their name simply by using that new spelling.[328] These names are often referred to as an "
Ellis Island Special".
Prohibition did not make drinking alcohol illegal in the United States. The
Eighteenth Amendment and the subsequent
Volstead Act prohibited the production, sale, and transport of "intoxicating liquors" within the United States, but their possession and consumption were never outlawed.[329]
The 1930 painting American Gothic depicts a father and adult daughter, not a husband and wife as is commonly believed.[331][332]
There was no widespread outbreak of panic across the United States in response to
Orson Welles' 1938
radio adaptation of
H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Only a very small share of the radio audience was listening to it, but newspapers played up isolated reports of incidents and increased emergency calls being
eager to discredit radio as a competitor for advertising. Both Welles and CBS, which had initially reacted apologetically, later came to realize that the myth benefited them and actively embraced it in later years.[333]
U.S. Senator
George Smathers never gave a speech to a rural audience describing his opponent,
Claude Pepper, as an "
extrovert" whose sister was a "
thespian", in the apparent hope they would confuse them with similar-sounding words like "pervert" and "lesbian". Smathers offered US$10,000 to anyone who could prove he had made the speech; it was never claimed.[338]
Rosa Parks was not sitting in the front ("white") section of the bus during the event that made her famous and incited the
Montgomery bus boycott. Rather, she was sitting in the front of the back ("colored") section of the bus, where African Americans were expected to sit, and rejected an order from the driver to vacate her seat in favor of a white passenger when the "white" section of the bus had become full.[339]
The
African-American intellectual and activist
W. E. B. Du Bois did not renounce his U.S. citizenship while living in
Ghana shortly before
his death.[340][341] In early 1963, his membership in the
Communist Party and support for the Soviet Union led the
U.S. State Department not to renew his
passport while he was already in Ghana. After leaving the embassy, he stated his intention to renounce his citizenship in protest, but while he took Ghanaian citizenship, he never actually renounced his American citizenship.[342][340]
When
Kitty Genovese was murdered outside her apartment in 1964, there were not 38 neighbors standing idly by and watching who failed to call the police until after she was dead, as was initially reported[343] to widespread public outrage that persisted for years and even
became the basis of a theory in social psychology. In fact, witnesses only heard brief portions of the attack and did not realize what was occurring, and only six or seven actually saw anything. One witness, who had called the police, said when interviewed by officers at the scene, "I didn't want to get involved",[344] an attitude later attributed to all the neighbors.[345]
While it was praised by one architectural magazine before it was built as "the best high apartment of the year", the
Pruitt–Igoehousing project in
St. Louis, Missouri, considered to epitomize the failures of
urban renewal in American cities after it was demolished in the early 1970s, never won any awards for its design.[346] The architectural firm that designed the buildings did win an award for an earlier St. Louis project, which may have been confused with Pruitt–Igoe.[347]
There is little contemporary documentary evidence for the notion that US Vietnam veterans were
spat upon by anti-war protesters upon return to the United States. This belief was detailed in some biographical accounts and was later popularized by films such as Rambo.[348][349][350]
Women
did not burn their bras outside the Miss America contest in 1969 as a protest in support of
women's liberation. They did symbolically throw bras in a trash can, along with other articles seen as emblematic of women's position in American society such as mops, make-up, and high-heeled shoes. The myth of bra burning came when a journalist hypothetically suggested that women may do so in the future, as men of the era burned their draft cards.[351]
The
"dark side of the Moon" receives about the same amount of light from the
Sun as the
near side of the Moon. Describing the far side of the Moon as "dark" does not mean that it never receives light, but rather that it had never been seen until humans
sent spacecraft around the Moon, since the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth due to
tidal locking.[363]
Black holes have the same gravitational effects as any other equal mass in their place. They will draw objects nearby towards them, just as any other celestial body does, except at very close distances to the black hole, comparable to its
Schwarzschild radius.[364] If, for example, the Sun were replaced by a black hole of equal mass, the orbits of the planets would be essentially unaffected. A black hole can pull in a substantial inflow of surrounding matter, but only if the star from which it formed was already doing so.[365]
Egg balancing is possible on every day of the year, not just the
vernal equinox,[372] and there is no relationship between any astronomical phenomenon and the ability to balance an egg.[373]
The
Fisher Space Pen was not commissioned by
NASA at a cost of millions of dollars, while the Soviets used pencils. It was independently developed by Paul C. Fisher, founder of the Fisher Pen Company, with $1 million of his own funds.[374] NASA tested and approved the pen for space use, then purchased 400 pens at $6 per pen.[375] The Soviet Union subsequently also purchased the Space Pen for its
Soyuz spaceflights.[376]
The
Sun is not yellow; rather, it emits light across the full spectrum of visible colors, and this combined light appears white when outside of Earth's atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere
scatters shorter wavelengths of light, particularly blues and violets, more than longer wavelengths like reds and yellows, and this scattering is why the Sun appears yellow during the day or orange or red during sunrise and sunset.[379][380]
The
Great Wall of China is not the only
human-made object visible from space or from the Moon. None of the
Apollo astronauts reported seeing any specific human-made object from the Moon, and even Earth-orbiting astronauts can see it only with magnification. City lights, however, are easily visible on the night side of Earth from orbit.[381]
The
Big Bang model does not fully explain the
origin of the universe. It does not describe how energy, time, and space were caused, but rather it describes the emergence of the present universe from an ultra-dense and high-temperature initial state.[382]
Bulls are not enraged by the color red, used in capes by professional
bullfighters. Cattle are
dichromats, so red does not stand out as a bright color. It is not the color of the cape, but the perceived threat by the bullfighter that incites it to charge.[384]
Lemmings do not engage in
mass suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating. The scenes of lemming suicides in the 1958
Disney documentary film White Wilderness, which popularized this idea, were completely fabricated. The lemmings in the film were actually purchased from
Inuit children for 25 cents apiece, transported to the filming location in
Canmore, Alberta, and repeatedly shoved off a nearby cliff by the filmmakers to create the illusion of a mass suicide.[385][386] The misconception itself is much older, dating back to at least the late 19th century, though its exact origins are uncertain.[387]
Dogs do not consistently age seven times as quickly as humans.
Aging in dogs varies widely depending on the breed; certain breeds, such as
giant dog breeds and
English bulldogs, have much shorter lifespans than average. Most dogs age consistently across all breeds in the first year of life, reaching adolescence[clarification needed] by one year old; smaller and medium-sized breeds begin to age more slowly in adulthood.[390]
The
phases of the Moon have no effect on the
vocalizations of wolves, and
wolves do not howl at the
Moon.[391] Wolves howl to assemble the pack usually before and after hunts, to pass on an alarm particularly at a den site, to locate each other during a storm, while crossing unfamiliar territory, and to communicate across great distances.[392]
There is no such thing as an "
alpha" in a
wolf pack. An early study that coined the term "alpha wolf" had only observed unrelated adult wolves living in captivity. In the wild, wolf packs operate like families: parents are in charge until the young grow up and start their own families, and younger wolves do not overthrow an "alpha" to become the new leader.[393][394]
Bats are not blind. While about 70% of bat species, mainly in the
microbat family, use
echolocation to navigate, all bat species have eyes and are capable of sight. In addition, almost all bats in the
megabat or fruit bat family cannot echolocate and have excellent night vision.[395]
Sharks can get
cancer. The misconception that sharks do not get cancer was spread by the 1992 book Sharks Don't Get Cancer, which was used to sell extracts of shark
cartilage as cancer prevention treatments. Reports of
carcinomas in sharks exist, and current data do not support any conclusions about the incidence of tumors in sharks.[399]
Great white sharks do not mistake human
divers for seals or other
pinnipeds. When attacking pinnipeds, the shark surfaces quickly and attacks violently. In contrast, attacks on humans are slower and less violent: the shark charges at a normal pace, bites, and swims off. Great white sharks have efficient eyesight and
color vision; the bite is not predatory, but rather for identification of an unfamiliar object.[400]
Snake jaws cannot unhinge. The posterior end of the lower jaw bones contains a quadrate bone, allowing jaw extension. The anterior tips of the lower jaw bones are joined by a flexible ligament allowing them to bow outwards, increasing the mouth gape.[401][402]
Porcupines do not shoot their
quills. They can detach, and porcupines will deliberately back into attackers to impale them, but their quills do not project.[405][406][407]
Mice do not have a special appetite for
cheese, and will eat it only for lack of better options; they actually favor sweet, sugary foods. The myth may have come from the fact that before the advent of refrigeration, cheese was usually stored outside and was therefore an easy food for mice to reach.[408]
There is no credible evidence that the
candiru, a South American parasitic catfish, can swim up a human
urethra if one urinates in the water in which it lives. The sole documented case of such an incident, written in 1997, has been heavily criticized upon peer review, and this phenomenon is now largely considered a myth.[409]
Pacus, South American fish related to
piranhas, do not attack or feed on human
testicles. This myth originated from a misinterpreted joke in a 2013 report of a pacu being found in
Øresund, the strait between
Sweden and
Denmark, which claimed that the fish ate "
nuts".[410][411]
Piranhas do not eat only meat but are
omnivorous, and they only swim in schools to defend themselves from predators and not to attack. They very rarely attack humans, only when under stress and feeling threatened, and even then, bites typically only occur on hands and feet.[412]
The
hippopotamus does not produce pink milk, nor does it sweat blood. The skin secretions of the hippopotamus are red due to the presence of
hipposudoric acid, a red pigment which acts as a natural
sunscreen, and is neither sweat or blood. It does not affect the color of their milk, which is white or beige.[413]
The
Pacific tree frog and the
Baja California chorus frog are some of the only
frog species that make a "ribbit" sound. The misconception that all frogs, or at least all those found in North America, make this sound comes from its extensive use in Hollywood films.[414][415]
A human touching or handling eggs or baby birds will not cause the adult birds to abandon them.[416] The same is generally true for other animals having their young touched by humans as well, with the possible exception of rabbits (as rabbits will sometimes abandon their nest after an event they perceive as traumatizing).[417]
Eating
rice,
yeast, or
Alka-Seltzer does not cause birds to explode and is rarely fatal. Birds can
pass gas and
regurgitate to expel gas, and some birds even include
wild rice as part of their diet.[418][419] The misconception has often led to weddings using
millet,
confetti, or other materials to shower the newlyweds as they leave the ceremony, instead of the
throwing of rice that is traditional in some places.[418][420][421]
The bold, powerful cry commonly associated with the
bald eagle in popular culture is actually that of a
red-tailed hawk. Bald eagle vocalizations are much softer and chirpier, and bear far more resemblance to the calls of
gulls.[422][423]
Ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand to hide from enemies or to sleep.[424] This misconception's origins are uncertain but it was probably popularized by
Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), who wrote that ostriches "imagine, when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed".[425]
A duck's quack actually does
echo,[426] although the echo may be difficult to hear for humans under some circumstances.[427] Despite this, a British panel show compiling interesting facts has been given the name Duck Quacks Don't Echo.
60 common
starlings were released in 1890 into New York's
Central Park by
Eugene Schieffelin, but there is no evidence that he was trying to introduce every bird species mentioned in the works of
William Shakespeare into North America. This claim has been traced to an essay in 1948 by naturalist
Edwin Way Teale, whose notes appear to indicate that it was speculation.[428][429]
The skin of a
chameleon is not adapted solely for
camouflage purposes, nor can a chameleon change its skin colour to match any background.[430]
Rabbits are not specially partial to
carrots. Their diet in the wild primarily consists of
dark green vegetables such as grasses and clovers, and excessive carrot consumption is unhealthy for them due to containing high levels of sugar. This misconception originated from
Bugs Bunny cartoons, whose carrot-chomping habit was meant as a reference to a minor character in It Happened One Night.[431][432]
Invertebrates
Not all
earthworms become two worms when cut in half. Only a limited number of earthworm species[433] are capable of anterior
regeneration.[434]
Houseflies have an average lifespan of 20 to 30 days, not 24 hours.[435] The misconception may arise from confusion with
mayflies, which, in
one species, have an adult lifespan of as little as 5 minutes.[436]
The daddy longlegs spider (Pholcidae) is not the most
venomous spider in the world. Their fangs are capable of piercing human skin, but the tiny amount of venom they carry causes only a mild burning sensation for a few seconds.[437] Other species such as
harvestmen,
crane flies, and male
mosquitoes are also called daddy longlegs in some regional dialects, and share the misconception of being highly venomous but unable to pierce the skin of humans.[438][439]
People do not swallow large numbers of
spiders during sleep. A sleeping person makes noises that warn spiders of danger.[440][441] Most people also wake up from sleep when they have a spider on their face.[442]
Earwigs are not known to purposely climb into external ear canals, though there have been anecdotal reports of earwigs being found in the ear.[448] The name may be a reference to the appearance of their hindwings, which are unique and distinctive among insects, and resemble a human ear when unfolded.[449][450]
While certainly critical to the
pollination of many plant species,
European honey bees are not essential to human food production, despite claims that
without their pollination, humanity would starve or die out "within four years".[451] In fact, many important crops need no insect pollination at all. The ten most important crops,[452] accounting for 60% of all human food energy,[453] all fall into this category.
Ticks do not jump or fall from trees onto their hosts. Instead, they lie in wait to grasp and climb onto any passing host or otherwise trace down hosts via, for example,
olfactory stimuli, the host's body heat, or
carbon dioxide in the host's breath.[454][455]
Carnivorous plants can survive without food. Catching insects, however, supports their growth.[463]
Poinsettias are not highly
toxic to humans or cats. While it is true that they are mildly irritating to the skin or stomach,[464] and may sometimes cause
diarrhea and vomiting if eaten, they rarely cause serious medical problems.[465]
Sunflowers do not always point to the Sun. Flowering sunflowers face a fixed direction (often east) all day long, but do not necessarily face the Sun.[466] However, in an earlier developmental stage, before the appearance of flower heads, the immature buds do track the
Sun (a phenomenon called
heliotropism), and the fixed alignment of the mature flowers toward a certain direction is often the result.[467]
The word theory in "the theory of
evolution" does not imply scientific doubt regarding its validity; the concepts of theory and hypothesis have specific meanings in a scientific context. While theory in colloquial usage may denote a hunch or conjecture, a scientific theory is a set of principles that explains an observable phenomenon in
natural terms.[470][471] "Scientific fact and theory are not categorically separable",[472] and evolution is a theory in the same sense as
germ theory or the theory of
gravitation.[473]
The theory of evolution does not attempt to explain the origin of life[474] or the origin and development of the universe. The theory of evolution deals primarily with changes in successive generations over time after life has already originated.[475] The scientific model concerned with the origin of the first organisms from organic or inorganic molecules is known as
abiogenesis, and the prevailing theory for explaining the early development of the universe is the
Big Bang model.
Evolution is not a
progression from inferior to superior organisms, and it also does not necessarily result in an
increase in complexity. Evolution through
natural selection only causes organisms to become more
fit for their environment.[476] A population can evolve to become simpler or to have a smaller
genome,[477] and
atavistic ancestral genetic traits can reappear after having been lost through evolutionary change in previous generations.[478] Biological
devolution or de-evolution is a
misnomer, not only because it implies that organisms can only evolve backward or forward, but also because it implies that evolution may cause organisms to evolve in the "wrong" direction.[479][480]
Evolution does not "plan" to improve an organism's fitness to survive.[484][485] This misconception is encouraged as it is common shorthand for
biologists to speak of a purpose as a concise form of expression (sometimes called the "metaphor of purpose");[486] it is less cumbersome to say "Dinosaurs may have evolved feathers for courtship" than "Feathers may have been selected for when they arose as they gave dinosaurs a selective advantage during courtship over their non-feathered rivals".[487] However, this can result in many students explaining evolution as an intentional and purposeful process.[488]
Mutations are not entirely
random, nor do they occur at the same frequency everywhere in the genome. Certain regions of an organism's genome will be more or less likely to undergo mutation depending on the presence of
DNA repair mechanisms and other
mutation biases. For instance, in a study on Arabidopsis thaliana, biologically important regions of the plant's genome were found to be protected from mutations, and beneficial mutations were found to be more likely, i.e. mutation was "non-random in a way that benefits the plant".[489][490][491]
Dimetrodon is often mistakenly called a
dinosaur or considered to be a contemporary of dinosaurs in popular culture, but it became extinct some 40 million years before the first appearance of dinosaurs. Being a
synapsid, Dimetrodon is actually more closely related to
mammals than to dinosaurs, birds, lizards, or other
diapsids.[500][501][502]
Humans and
aviandinosaurs currently
coexist, but humans and non-avian dinosaurs did not coexist at any point.[504] The last of the non-avian dinosaurs died 66 million years ago in the course of the
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, whereas the earliest members of the genus Homo (humans) evolved between 2.3 and 2.4 million years ago. This places a 63-million-year expanse of time between the last non-avian dinosaurs and the earliest humans. Humans did coexist with
woolly mammoths and
saber-toothed cats: extinct mammals often erroneously depicted alongside non-avian dinosaurs.[505]
Most
diamonds are not formed from highly compressed
coal. More than 99% of diamonds ever mined have
formed in the conditions of extreme heat and pressure about 140 kilometers (87 mi) below the earth's surface. Coal is formed from prehistoric plants buried much closer to the surface, and is unlikely to migrate below 3.2 kilometers (2.0 mi) through common geological processes. Most diamonds that have been dated are older than the
first land plants, and are therefore older than coal.[531]
Diamonds are not infinitely hard, and are subject to wear and scratching: although they are the hardest known material on the
Mohs Scale, they can be scratched by other diamonds[532] and worn down even by much softer materials, such as vinyl records.[533]
Neither
"tin" foil nor
"tin" cans still use
tin as a primary material.
Aluminum foil has replaced tin foil in almost all uses since the 20th century; tin cans now primarily use
steel or aluminum as their main metal.[534]
Although the core of a wooden
pencil is commonly referred to as "lead", wooden pencils do not contain the
chemical element lead, nor have they ever contained it; "black lead" was formerly a name of
graphite, which is commonly used for pencil leads.[535]
The
deep web is not primarily full of
pornography,
illegal drug trade websites, and stolen bank details. This information is primarily found in a small portion of the deep web known as the "
dark web". Much of the deep web consists of academic libraries, databases, and anything that is not indexed by normal search engines.[538]
Private browsing (such as
Chrome's "Incognito Mode") does not protect users from being
tracked by websites, employers, governments, or one's
internet service provider (ISP). Such entities can still use information such as
IP addresses and
user accounts to uniquely identify users.[539][540] Private browsing also does not provide additional protection against viruses or malware.[541]
Submerging a phone in rice after it has suffered from
water damage has not been shown to be effective in repairing them.[542][543] Even if submerging them in a
desiccant were more effective than leaving them to dry in open air, common desiccants such as silica gel or cat litter are better than
rice.[544]
Economics
The total number of people living in
extremeabsolute poverty globally, by the widely used metric of $1.00/day (in 1990 U.S. dollars) has decreased over the last several decades, but most people surveyed in several countries incorrectly think it has increased or stayed the same.[546] However, this depends on the poverty line calculation used. For instance, if the metric used is instead one that prioritizes meeting a standard life expectancy that no longer significantly rises with additional consumption enabled by income, the number of individuals in poverty has risen by nearly 1 billion.[547][548]
Human population growth is decreasing and the world population is expected to peak and then begin falling during the 21st century. Improvements in agricultural productivity and technology are expected to be able to meet anticipated increased demand for resources, making a global
human overpopulation scenario unlikely.[549][550][551]
For any given
production set, there is not a set amount of labor input (a "
lump of labor") to produce that output. This fallacy is commonly seen in
Luddite and later, related movements as an argument either that automation causes permanent, structural unemployment, or that labor-limiting regulation can decrease unemployment. In fact, changes in capital allocation, efficiency, and
economies of learning can change the amount of labor input for a given set of production.[552]
Income is not a direct factor in determining
credit score in the United States. Rather, credit score is affected by the amount of unused available credit, which is in turn affected by income.[553] Income is also considered when evaluating creditworthiness more generally.
The US public vastly overestimates the amount spent on
foreign aid.[554]
In the US, an increase in
gross income will never reduce a taxpayer's post-tax earnings (
net income) by putting them in a higher
tax bracket. Tax brackets specify
marginal tax rates: only income earned in the higher tax bracket is taxed at the higher rate.[555] An increase in gross income can reduce net income in a
welfare cliff, however, when benefits are withdrawn when passing a certain income threshold.[556] Prevalence of the misconception varies by political party affiliation.[557]
Constructing new housing decreases the cost of rent or of buying a home in both the immediate neighborhood and in the city as a whole. In
real estate economics, "supply skepticism" leads many Americans to misunderstand the effect of increasing the supply of housing on housing costs. The misconception is unique to the housing market.[558][559]
Earthquake strength (or magnitude) is not commonly measured using the
Richter scale. Although the Richter scale was used historically to measure earthquake magnitude (although, notably, not
earthquake damage), it was found in the 1970s that it does not reliably represent the magnitude of large earthquakes. It has therefore been largely replaced by the
moment magnitude scale,[581] although very small earthquakes are still sometimes measured using the Richter scale.[582] Nevertheless, earthquake magnitude is still widely misattributed to the Richter scale.[583][584][585]
Lightning can, and often does,
strike the same place twice. Lightning in a thunderstorm is more likely to strike objects and spots that are more prominent or conductive. For instance, lightning strikes the
Empire State Building in
New York City on average 23 times per year.[586]
Heat lightning does not exist as a distinct phenomenon. What is mistaken for "heat lightning" is usually ordinary lightning from storms too distant to hear the associated
thunder.[587]
The
Yellowstone Caldera is
not overdue for a
supervolcano eruption.[588] There is also no evidence that it will erupt in the near future. In fact, data indicate there will not be an eruption in the coming centuries.[589] The most likely eruption would be
hydrothermal rather than volcanic. A
caldera-forming volcanic eruption (and subsequent impacts on global weather patterns and agricultural production) is the least likely scenario and has an extremely low likelihood.[590][591]
The
Earth's interior is not molten rock. This misconception may originate from a misunderstanding based on the fact that the
Earth's mantle convects, and the incorrect assumption that only liquids and gases can convect. In fact, a solid with a large
Rayleigh number can also convect, given enough time, which is what occurs in the solid mantle due to the very large thermal gradient across it.[592][593] There are small pockets of
molten rock in the upper mantle, but these make up a tiny fraction of the mantle's volume.[594] The Earth's
outer coreis liquid, but it is liquid metal, not rock.[595]
The
Amazon rainforest does not provide 20% of Earth's oxygen. This is a misinterpretation of a 2010 study which found that approximately 34% of photosynthesis by terrestrial plants occurs in tropical rainforests (so the Amazon rainforest would account for approximately half of this). Due to respiration by the resident organisms, all ecosystems (including the Amazon rainforest) have a net output of oxygen of approximately zero. The oxygen currently present in the atmosphere was accumulated over billions of years.[596]
Rivers do not predominantly flow from north to south. Rivers flow downhill in all compass directions, often changing direction along their course.[598][599] Indeed, many major rivers flow northward, including the
Nile, the
Yenisey, the
Ob, the
Rhine, the
Lena, and the
Orinoco.[600][601]
Waking up a
sleepwalker does not harm them. Sleepwalkers may be confused or disoriented for a short time after awakening, but the health risks associated with sleepwalking are from injury or insomnia, not from being awakened.[603]
Seizures cannot cause a person to swallow their own tongue,[604] and it is dangerous to attempt to place a foreign object into a convulsing person's mouth. Instead it is recommended to gently lay a convulsing person on their side to minimize the risk of asphyxiation.[605]
Drowning is often inconspicuous to onlookers.[606] In most cases, the
instinctive drowning response prevents the victim from waving or yelling (known as "aquatic distress"),[606] which are therefore not dependable signs of trouble; indeed, most drowning victims undergoing the response do not show prior evidence of distress.[607]
Human
blood in
veins is not actually blue. Blood is red due to the presence of
hemoglobin; deoxygenated blood (in veins) has a deep red color, and oxygenated blood (in
arteries) has a light cherry-red color. Veins below the skin can appear blue or green due to
subsurface scattering of light through the skin, and aspects of human color perception. Many medical diagrams also use blue to show veins, and red to show arteries, which contributes to this misconception.[608]
Exposure to a
vacuum, or experiencing all but the most extreme
uncontrolled decompression, does not cause the body to explode or internal fluids to boil (although the fluids in the mouth and lungs will indeed boil at altitudes above the
Armstrong limit); rather, it will lead to a loss of
consciousness once the body has depleted the supply of oxygen in the blood, followed by death from
hypoxia within minutes.[609]
Exercise-induced
delayed onset muscle soreness is not caused by
lactic acid build-up. Muscular lactic acid levels return to normal levels within an hour after exercise; delayed onset muscle soreness is thought to be due to
microtrauma from unaccustomed or strenuous exercise.[610]
Cremated remains are not ashes in the usual sense. After the incineration is completed, the dry bone fragments are swept out of the retort and pulverized by a machine called a cremulator (essentially a high-capacity, high-speed
blender) to process them into "ashes" or "cremated remains".[614]
The
lung's
alveoli are not tiny
balloons that expand and contract under
positive pressure following the
Young–Laplace equation, as is taught in some physiology and medical textbooks. The tissue structure is more like a
sponge with polygonal spaces that unfold and fold under negative pressure from the chest wall.[615]
Half of
body heat is not lost through the head, and covering the head is no more effective at preventing
heat loss than covering any other portion of the body. Heat is lost from the body in proportion to the amount of exposed skin.[616][617] The head accounts for around 7–9% of the body's surface, and studies have shown that having one's head submerged in cold water only causes a person to lose 10% more heat overall.[618] This myth likely comes from a flawed
United States military experiment in 1950, involving a prototype Arctic survival suit where the head was one of the few body parts left exposed.[619] The misconception was further perpetuated by a 1970 military field manual that claimed "40–45%" of heat is lost through the head, based on the 1950 study.[617][619]
Adrenochrome is not harvested from living people and has no use as a recreational drug.
Hunter S. Thompson conceived a fictional drug of the same name in his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, apparently as a metaphor and unaware that a real substance by that name existed; it is Thompson's fictional adrenochrome, and not the real chemical compound, that is the source of numerous conspiracy theories revolving around human trafficking to harvest the fictional drug.[620][621]
Men and women have the same number of
ribs: 24, or 12 pairs. The erroneous idea that women have one more rib than men may stem from the
biblical creation story of
Adam and Eve.[622]
The use of
cotton swabs (aka cotton buds or Q-Tips) in the ear canal has no associated medical benefits and poses definite medical risks.[623]
The idea that a precise number of stages of grief exist is not supported in peer-reviewed research or objective clinical observation, let alone the
five stages of grief model.[624] The model was originally based on uncredited work and originally applied to the
terminally ill instead of the grieving or bereaved.[625]
98.6F is not the normal or average
temperature of the human body. The figure comes from a study from the 1860s that reported 37C as the average, which converts to 98.6F.[626] Modern research shows that average internal temperature for men and women is 36.4 °C (97.5 °F).[627] and that an individual's temperature fluctuates over time with a range of 36.5–37.5 °C (97.7–99.5 °F) being considered normal.[628][629]
The
common cold and the
common flu are caused by
viruses, not exposure to cold temperatures. However, low temperatures may somewhat weaken the immune system, and someone already infected with a cold or influenza virus but showing no symptoms can become symptomatic after they are exposed to low temperatures.[630][631] Viruses are more likely to spread during the winter for a variety of reasons such as dry air, less air circulation in homes, people spending more time indoors, and lower
vitamin D levels in humans.[632][633][634]
Antibiotics will not cure a cold; they treat bacterial diseases and are ineffectual against viruses.[635][636] However, they are sometimes prescribed to prevent or treat
secondary infections.[637]
There is little to no evidence that any illnesses are curable through
essential oils or
aromatherapy.
Fish oil has not been shown to cure
dementia, though there is evidence to support the effectiveness of lemon oil as a way to reduce agitation in patients with dementia.[638]
In those with the
common cold, the color of the
sputum or nasal secretion may vary from clear to yellow to green and does not indicate the class of agent causing the infection.[639] The color of the sputum is determined by
immune cells fighting an infection in the nasal area.[640]
Vitamin Cdoes not prevent or treat the
common cold, although it may have a protective effect during intense cold-weather exercise. If taken daily, it may slightly reduce the duration and severity of colds, but it has no effect if taken after the cold starts.[641]
Humans cannot catch warts from
toads or other animals; the bumps on a toad are not warts.[642]Warts on human skin are caused by
human papillomavirus, which is unique to humans.
In people with
eczema, bathing does not dry the skin as long as a moisturizer is applied soon after. If moisturizer is not applied after bathing, then the evaporation of water from the skin can result in dryness.[644]
There have never been any programs in the US that provide access to
dialysis machines in exchange for pull tabs on
beverage cans.[645] This rumor has existed since at least the 1970s, and usually cites the
National Kidney Foundation as the organization offering the program. The Foundation itself has denied the rumor, noting that dialysis machines are primarily funded by
Medicare.[646]
High dietary protein intake is not associated with
kidney disease in healthy people.[647] While significantly increased protein intake in the short-term is associated with changes in renal function, there is no evidence to suggest this effect persists in the long-term and results in kidney damage or disease.[648]
Leprosy is not auto-degenerative as commonly supposed, meaning that it will not (on its own) cause body parts to be damaged or fall off.[650] Leprosy causes rashes to form and may degrade cartilage and, if untreated,
inflame tissue. In addition, leprosy is only mildly contagious, partly because 95% of those infected with the mycobacteria that causes leprosy do not develop the disease.[651][650]Tzaraath, a Biblical disease that disfigures the skin is often identified as leprosy, and may be the source of many myths about the disease.[652]
Rust does not cause
tetanus infection. The Clostridium tetani bacterium is generally found in dirty environments. Since the same conditions that harbor tetanus bacteria also promote rusting of metal, many people associate rust with tetanus. C. tetani requires
anoxic conditions to reproduce and these are found in the permeable layers of rust that form on oxygen-absorbing, unprotected ironwork.[653]
Quarantine has never been a standard procedure for those with
severe combined immunodeficiency, despite the condition's popular nickname ("bubble boy syndrome") and its portrayal in films. A
bone marrow transplant in the earliest months of life is the standard course of treatment. The exceptional case of
David Vetter, who lived much of his life encased in a sterile environment because he would not receive a transplant until age 12, was an inspirations for the "bubble boy" trope.[654]
Gunnison, Colorado, did not avoid the
1918 flu pandemic by using
protective sequestration. The implementation of protective sequestration did prevent the virus from spreading outside a single household after a single carrier came into the town while it was in effect, but it was not sustainable and had to be lifted in February 1919. A month later, the flu killed five residents and infected dozens of others.[655]
Statements in
medication package inserts listing the frequency of
side effects describe how often the effect occurs after taking a drug, but are not making any assertion that there is a causal connection between taking the drug and the occurrence of the side effect. In other words, what is being reported on is correlation, not necessarily causation.[656]
A
dog's mouth is not significantly cleaner than a human's mouth. A dog's mouth contains almost as much bacteria as a human mouth.[657][658]
Drinking milk or consuming other
dairy products does not increase
mucus production.[668] As a result, they do not need to be avoided by those with the flu or cold
congestion. However, milk and
saliva in one's mouth mix to create a thick liquid that can briefly coat the mouth and throat. The sensation that lingers may be mistaken for increased
phlegm.[669]
Drinking eight glasses (2–3 liters) of water a day is not needed to maintain health.[670] The amount of water needed varies by person, weight, diet, activity level, clothing, and the ambient heat and humidity. Water does not actually need to be drunk in pure form, and can be derived from liquids such as juices, tea, milk, soups, etc., and from foods including fruits and vegetables.[670][671]
Drinking
coffee and other
caffeinated beverages does not cause dehydration for regular drinkers, although it can for occasional drinkers.[672][671]
Sugar does not cause
hyperactivity in children.[673]Double-blind trials have shown no difference in behavior between children given sugar-full or sugar-free diets, even in studies specifically looking at children with
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or those considered sensitive to sugar.[674] A 2019
meta-analysis found no positive effect of sugar consumption on
mood but did find an association with lower alertness and increased fatigue within an hour of consumption, known as a
sugar crash.[675]
Eating less than an hour before swimming does not increase the risk of experiencing muscle
cramps or
drowning. One study shows a correlation between
alcohol consumption and drowning, but not between eating and stomach cramps.[678]
Swallowed chewing gum does not take seven years to digest. In fact, chewing gum is mostly indigestible, and passes through the digestive system at the same rate as other matter.[686]
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) does not trigger
migraine headaches or other symptoms of so-called
Chinese restaurant syndrome, nor is there evidence that some individuals are especially sensitive to MSG. There is also little evidence it impacts body weight.[687]
Spicy food or coffee do not have a significant effect on the development of
peptic ulcers.[688]
Spinach is not a particularly good source of
dietary iron. While it does contain more iron than many vegetables such as asparagus, Swiss chard, kale, or arugula, it contains only about one-third to one-fifth of the iron in lima beans, chickpeas, apricots, or wheat germ. Additionally, the
non-heme iron found in spinach and other vegetables is not as readily absorbed as the
heme iron found in meats and fish.[691][692][693]
Most cases of
obesity are not related to slower
resting metabolism. Resting metabolic rate does not vary much between people. Overweight people tend to underestimate the amount of food they eat, and underweight people tend to overestimate. In fact, overweight people tend to have faster metabolic rates due to the increased energy required by the larger body.[694]
Alcoholic beverages do not make the entire body warmer.[696] Alcoholic drinks create the sensation of warmth because they cause blood vessels to dilate and stimulate nerve endings near the surface of the skin with an influx of warm blood. This can actually result in making the core body temperature lower, as it allows for easier heat exchange with a cold external environment.[697]
Alcohol does not necessarily kill brain cells.[698] Alcohol can, however, lead indirectly to the death of brain cells in two ways. First, in chronic, heavy alcohol users whose brains have adapted to the effects of alcohol, abrupt ceasing following heavy use can cause
excitotoxicity leading to cellular death in multiple areas of the brain.[699] Second, in alcoholics who get most of their daily calories from alcohol, a deficiency of
thiamine can produce
Korsakoff's syndrome, which is associated with serious brain damage.[700]
The order in which different types of alcoholic beverages are consumed ("Grape or grain but never the twain" and "Beer before liquor never sicker; liquor before beer in the clear") does not affect
intoxication or create adverse side effects.[701]
Authentic
absinthe has no
hallucinogenic properties, and is no more dangerous than any other alcoholic beverage of equivalent proof.[702] This misconception stems from late-19th- and early-20th-century distillers who produced cheap knockoff versions of absinthe, which used
copper salts to recreate the distinct green color of true absinthe, and some also reportedly adulterated cheap absinthe with poisonous
antimony trichloride, reputed to enhance the
louching effect.[703]
An examination of the
hymen is not an accurate or reliable indicator that a woman or girl has had penetrative
sex, because the tearing of the hymen may have been the result of some other event, and some women are born without one.[705][706][707]Virginity tests, such as the
"two-finger" test, are widely considered to be unscientific.[708][709][710]
While pregnancies from sex between
first cousins do carry a slightly elevated risk of
birth defects, this risk is often exaggerated.[714] The risk is 5–6% (similar to that of a woman in her early 40s giving birth),[714][715] compared with a baseline risk of 3–4%.[715] The effects of
inbreeding depression, while still relatively small compared to other factors (and thus difficult to control for in a scientific experiment), become more noticeable if isolated and maintained for several generations.[716]
Having sex before a sporting event or contest is not physiologically detrimental to performance.[717] In fact it has been suggested that sex prior to sports activity can elevate male
testosterone levels, which could potentially enhance performance for male athletes.[718]
There is no definitive proof of the existence of the vaginal
G-spot, and the general consensus is that no such spot exists on the female body.[719]
A person's
hair and
fingernails do not continue to grow after death. Rather, the skin dries and shrinks away from the bases of hairs and nails, giving the appearance of growth.[726]
Shaving does not cause
terminal hair to grow back thicker or darker. This belief is thought to be due to the fact that hair that has never been cut has a tapered end, so after cutting, the base of the hair is blunt and appears thicker and feels coarser. That short hairs are less flexible than longer hairs contributes to this effect.[727]
MC1R, the gene mostly responsible for red hair, is not
becoming extinct, nor will the
gene for blond hair do so, although both are
recessivealleles. Redheads and blonds may become rarer but will not die out unless everyone who carries those alleles dies without passing their hair color genes on to their children.[728]
Acne is not caused by a lack of hygiene or eating fatty foods, though certain medication or a
carbohydrate-rich diet may worsen it.[729]
Dandruff is not caused by poor hygiene, though infrequent hair-washing can make it more obvious. The exact causes of dandruff are uncertain, but they are believed to be mostly genetic and environmental factors.[730]
Inventions
James Watt did not invent the
steam engine,[731] nor were his ideas on steam engine power inspired by a
kettle lid pressured open by steam.[732] Watt improved upon the already commercially successful
Newcomen atmospheric engine (invented in 1712) in the 1760s and 1770s, making certain improvements critical to its future usage, particularly the external condenser, increasing its efficiency, and later the mechanism for transforming reciprocating motion into rotary motion; his new steam engine later gained huge fame as a result.[733]
Although the
guillotine was named after the French physician
Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, he neither invented nor was executed with this device. He died peacefully in his own bed in 1814.[734]
Thomas Crapper did not invent the
flush toilet.[735] A forerunner of the modern toilet was invented by the Elizabethan courtier
Sir John Harington in the 16th century,[736] and in 1775 the Scottish mechanic
Alexander Cumming developed and patented a design for a toilet with an
S-trap and flushing mechanism.[737] Crapper, however, did much to increase the popularity of the flush toilet and introduced several innovations in the late 19th century, holding nine patents, including one for the floating
ballcock.[738] The word crap is also not derived from his name (see the
Words, phrases and languages section above).[739]
Thomas Edison did not invent the
light bulb.[740] He did, however, develop the first practical light bulb in 1880 (employing a carbonized
bamboo filament), shortly prior to
Joseph Swan, who invented an even more efficient bulb in 1881 (which used a cellulose filament).
Henry Ford did not invent either the
automobile or the
assembly line. He did improve the assembly line process substantially, sometimes through his own engineering but more often through sponsoring the work of his employees, and he was the main person behind the introduction of the
Model T, regarded as the first affordable automobile.[741]Karl Benz (co-founder of
Mercedes-Benz) is credited with the invention of the first modern automobile,[742] and the assembly line has existed
throughout history.
Al Gore never said that he had "invented" the Internet. What Gore actually said was, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet", in reference to his political work towards developing the Internet for widespread public use.[743] Gore was the original drafter of the
High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991, which provided significant funding for supercomputing centers,[744] and this in turn led to upgrades of a major part of the already-existing early 1990s Internet backbone, the
NSFNet,[745] and development of
NCSA Mosaic, the
browser that popularized the
World Wide Web.[744] (See also:
Al Gore and information technology)
There is no evidence that the
ancient Greeks deliberately designed the
Parthenon to match the
golden ratio.[754] The Parthenon was completed in 438 BCE, more than a century before the first recorded mention of the ratio by
Euclid. Similarly,
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man makes no mention of the golden ratio in its text, although it describes many other proportions.[755]
The
repeating decimal commonly written as
0.999... represents exactly the same quantity as the number
one. Despite having the appearance of representing a smaller number,
0.999... is a symbol for the number
1 in exactly the same way that 0.333... is an equivalent notation for the number represented by the fraction 1⁄3.[756]
The
p-value is not the probability that the
null hypothesis is true, or the probability that the
alternative hypothesis is false; it is the probability of obtaining results at least as extreme as the results actually observed under the assumption that the null hypothesis was correct, which can indicate the incompatibility of results with the specific statistical model assumed in the null hypothesis.[757] This misconception, and similar ones like it, contributes to the common
misuse of p-values in education and research.[757][758]
If one were to flip a
fair coin five times and get heads each time, it would not be any more likely for a sixth flip to come up tails. Phrased another way, after a long and/or unlikely
streak of
independentlyrandom events, the probability of the next event is not influenced by the preceding events.
Humans often feel that the underrepresented outcome is more likely, as if it is due to happen. Such thinking may be attributed to the mistaken belief that
gambling, or even chance itself, is a fair process that can correct itself in the event of streaks.[759]
Physics
The
lift force is not generated by the air taking the same time to travel above and below an aircraft's wing.[760] This misconception, sometimes called the
equal transit-time fallacy, is widespread among textbooks and non-technical reference books, and even appears in pilot training materials. In fact, the air moving over the top of an aerofoil generating lift is always moving much faster than the equal transit theory would imply,[760] as described in the
incorrect and
correct explanations of lift force.
Blowing over a curved piece of paper does not demonstrate
Bernoulli's principle. Although a common classroom experiment is often explained this way,[761] Bernoulli's principle only applies within a flow field, and the air above and below the paper is in different flow fields.[762] The paper rises because the air follows the curve of the paper and a curved
streamline will develop pressure differences perpendicular to the airflow.[763][764]
The
Coriolis effect does not cause water to consistently drain from basins in a clockwise/counter-clockwise direction depending on the hemisphere. The common myth often refers to the draining action of
flush toilets and
bathtubs. In fact, rotation is determined by whatever minor rotation is initially present at the time the water starts to drain, as the magnitude of the coriolis acceleration is
negligibly small compared to the inertial acceleration of flow within a typical basin.[765]
A
penny dropped from the
Empire State Building would not kill a person or crack the sidewalk. A penny is too light and has too much air resistance to acquire enough speed to do much damage since it reaches
terminal velocity after falling about 50 feet. Heavier or more aerodynamic objects could cause significant damage if dropped from that height.[768][769]
Using a
programmable thermostat's setback feature to limit heating or cooling in a temporarily unoccupied building does not waste as much energy as leaving the temperature constant. Using setback saves energy (5–15%) because
heat transfer across the surface of the building is roughly proportional to the temperature difference between its inside and the outside.[770][771]
It is not possible for a person to completely submerge in
quicksand, as commonly depicted in fiction,[772] although sand entrapment in the
nearshore of a body of water can be a drowning hazard as the tide rises.[773]
True photographic memory (the ability to remember endless images, particularly pages or numbers, with such a high degree of precision that the image mimics a photo) has never been demonstrated to exist in any individual,[778] although a small number of young children have
eidetic memory, where they can recall an object with high precision for a few minutes after it is no longer present.[779] Many people have claimed to have a photographic memory, but those people have been shown to have high precision memories as a result of
mnemonic devices rather than a natural capacity for detailed memory encoding.[780] There are rare cases of individuals with
exceptional memory, but none of them have a memory that mimics that of a camera.
The phase of the Moon does not influence fertility, cause a fluctuation in crime, or affect the stock market. There is no correlation between the
lunar cycle and human biology or behavior. However, the increased amount of illumination during the full moon may account for increased epileptic episodes, motorcycle accidents, or sleep disorders.[781]
Dyslexia is not defined or diagnosed as
mirror writing or reading letters or words backwards.[783][784] Mirror writing and reading letters or words backwards are behaviors seen in many children (dyslexic or not) as they learn to read and write.[783][784]Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of people who have at least average intelligence and who have difficulty in reading and writing that is not otherwise explained by low intelligence.[785]
Self-harm is not generally an
attention-seeking behavior. People who engage in
self-harm are typically very self-conscious of their wounds and scars and feel guilty about their behavior, leading them to go to great lengths to conceal it from others.[786] They may offer alternative explanations for their injuries, or conceal their scars with clothing.[787][788]
There is no evidence that a chemical imbalance or neurotransmitter deficiency is the sole factor in
depression and other mental disorders, but rather a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors.[789][790]
Schizophrenia is characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, paranoia, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdrawal, decreased emotional expression, and apathy.[791] The term was coined from the Greek roots schizein and phrēn, "to split" and "mind", in reference to a "splitting of mental functions" seen in schizophrenia, not a splitting of the personality.[792] It does not involve split or multiple personalities—a split or multiple personality is
dissociative identity disorder.[793]
Brain
Broad generalizations are often made in popular psychology about certain brain functions being
lateralized, or more predominant in one hemisphere than the other. These claims are often inaccurate or overstated.[794]
The
human brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex, does not reach
"full maturity" or "full development" at any particular age (e.g. 16, 18, 21, 25, 30). Changes in structure and myelination of gray matter are recorded to continue with relative consistency all throughout life including until death. Different mental abilities peak earlier or later in life.[795] The myth is believed to have originated from Jay Giedd's work on the adolescent brain funded by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy,[796] though it has also been popularized by
Laurence Steinberg in his work with adolescent criminal reform who has considered ages 10-25 to constitute cognitive adolescence, despite denying any connection to the notion of the brain maturing at '25'.[797]
Humans do not generate all of the brain cells they will ever have by the age of two years. Although this belief was held by medical experts until 1998, it is now understood that new
neurons can be created
after infancy in some parts of the brain into late adulthood.[798]
People do not use
only 10% of their brains.[799][800] While it is true that a small minority of
neurons in the brain are actively firing at any one time, a healthy human will normally use most of their brain over the course of a day, and the inactive neurons are important as well. The idea that activating 100% of the brain would allow someone to achieve their maximum potential and/or gain various psychic abilities is common in
folklore and fiction,[800][801][802] but doing so in real life would likely result in a fatal
seizure.[803][804] This misconception was attributed to late 19th century leading thinker
William James, who apparently used the expression only metaphorically.[801]
Although
Phineas Gage's brain injuries, caused by a several-foot-long tamping rod driven completely through his skull, caused him to become temporarily disabled, many fanciful descriptions of his aberrant behavior in later life are without factual basis or contradicted by known facts.[805]
All different
tastes can be detected on all parts of the
tongue by
taste buds,[808] with slightly increased sensitivities in different locations depending on the person; the
tongue map showing the contrary is fallacious.[809]
There are not four
primary tastes, but five: in addition to
bitter,
sour,
salty, and
sweet, humans have taste receptors for
umami, which is a "savory" or "meaty" taste.[810][811][812] Fat does interact with specific
receptors in
taste bud cells, but whether it is a sixth primary taste remains inconclusive.[813]
Humans have more than the commonly cited five
senses. The number of senses in various categorizations ranges from 5 to more than 20. In addition to
sight,
smell,
taste,
touch, and
hearing, which were the senses identified by
Aristotle, humans can sense
balance and acceleration (
equilibrioception), pain (
nociception), body and limb position (
proprioception or kinesthetic sense), and relative temperature (
thermoception).[814] Other senses sometimes identified are the sense of time,
echolocation, itching, pressure, hunger, thirst, fullness of the stomach, need to urinate, need to defecate, and blood
carbon dioxide (CO2) levels.[815][816]
The human
sense of smell is not weak or underdeveloped. Humans have similar senses of smell to other mammals, and are more sensitive to some odors than rodents and dogs.[817]
Toxicology
Swallowing
gasoline does not generally require special emergency treatment, as long as it goes into the stomach and not the lungs, and inducing
vomiting can make it worse.[818]
A
chloroform-soaked rag cannot instantly incapacitate a person.[819] It takes at least five minutes of inhaling an item soaked in chloroform to render a person unconscious. Most criminal cases involving chloroform also involve another drug being co-administered, such as
alcohol or
diazepam, or the victim being found to have been complicit in its administration. The misconception that chloroform can be used as an
incapacitating agent[820] has been popularized by
crime fiction authors.
Toilet waste is never intentionally jettisoned from an aircraft. All waste is collected in tanks and emptied into
toilet waste vehicles.[826]Blue ice is caused by accidental leakage from the waste tank.
Passenger train toilets, on the other hand, have indeed historically flushed onto the tracks; modern trains in most developed countries usually have retention tanks on board and therefore do not dispose of waste in such a manner.
Automotive batteries stored on a
concrete floor do not discharge any faster than they would on other surfaces,[827] in spite of worry among Americans that concrete harms batteries.[828] Early batteries with porous, leaky cases may have been susceptible to moisture from floors, but for many years
lead–acid car batteries have had impermeable
polypropylene cases.[829] While most modern automotive batteries are
sealed, and do not leak battery acid when properly stored and maintained,[830] the sulfuric acid in them can leak out and stain, etch, or corrode concrete floors if their cases crack or tip over or their vent-holes are breached by floods.[831]
Casson L (1966). "Galley Slaves". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 97: 35–44.
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10.2307/2936000.
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^Myre G (February 28, 2018).
"A Brief History Of The AR-15". National Public Radio. Archived from
the original on May 13, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2021. AR" comes from the name of the gun's original manufacturer, ArmaLite, Inc. The letters stand for ArmaLite Rifle — and not for "assault rifle" or "automatic rifle.
^Mikkelson, Barbara and David (March 19, 2011).
"Don't Go Here". Snopes.
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^a. See"Expiration dates". Consumeraffairs. Consumer Affairs.
Archived from the original on July 24, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
b.
"Food Product Dating".
Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
c.
"Harvard study finds food expiration labels are misleading". Reuters. September 18, 2013.
Archived from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022. "People think the use-by date means either the product is going to die or you're going to die if you eat it... If the food looks rotten and smells bad, you should throw it away, but just because it's past the date on the package, it doesn't mean it's unsafe.
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^Jacob, Daniel J. Introduction to Atmospheric Chemistry. pp. 177–87. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
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^a.
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the original on March 25, 2012. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
c. WeatherBug Meteorologists (May 17, 2010).
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Archived from the original on July 11, 2010. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
d. Tristan Simpson (April 29, 2022).
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^Hata M, Uyeshima M (March 31, 2015). "Temperature and melt fraction distributions in a mantle wedge determined from the electrical conductivity structure: Application to one nonvolcanic and two volcanic regions in the Kyushu subduction zone, Japan". Geophysical Research Letters. 42 (8): 2709–2717.
Bibcode:
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S2CID128585826.
^a.
"Ask an Astrophysicist".
NASA.
Archived from the original on June 4, 2012. If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury. Holding your breath is likely to damage your lungs, ... but theory predicts—and animal experiments confirm—that otherwise, exposure to vacuum causes no immediate injury. You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness b.
"Exploding Body in Vacuum". ABC Science. April 6, 2005.
Archived from the original on June 4, 2012. ...will we humans explode in the full vacuum of space, as urban legends claim? The answer is that we won't explode, and if the exposure is short enough, we can even survive.
^a. Cheung K, Hume, P, Maxwell, L (2003). "Delayed onset muscle soreness: treatment strategies and performance factors". Sports Medicine. 33 (2): 145–64.
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^Green J, Green, Michael (2006). Dealing With Death: Practices and Procedures. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. p. 112.
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^Prange HD (2003). "Laplace's Law and the Alveolus: A Misconception of Anatomy and a Misapplication of Physics". Advances in Physiology Education. 27 (1): 34–40.
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^Dresden D (March 12, 2020).
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^Mourtzoukou EG, Falagas ME (September 2007). "Exposure to cold and respiratory tract infections". The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. 11 (9): 938–43.
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^Acharya B, Thapa K (January 2016). "Indoor Staying During Winter Season Makes People More Susceptible to Flu". Journal of Nepal Health Research Council. 14 (32): 69–70.
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^Arroll B, Kenealy T (October 21, 2002). "Antibiotics for the common cold and acute purulent rhinitis". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (3): CD000247.
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^Bensky, Dan; Clavey, Steven; Stoger, Erich and Gamble, Andrew (2004) Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, 3rd Edition. Eastland Press.
ISBN978-0-939616-42-8
^Spellman, Frank R; Price-Bayer, Joni. (2010). In Defense of Science: Why Scientific Literacy Matters. The Scarecrow Press. p. 81.
ISBN978-1-60590-735-2 "There is no scientific evidence that crystal healing has any effect. It has been called a pseudoscience. Pleasant feelings or the apparent successes of crystal healing can be attributed to the placebo effect or cognitive bias—a believer wanting it to be true."
^Regal, Brian. (2009). Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia. Greenwood. p. 51.
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^a. Nicolia A, Manzo A, Veronesi F, Rosellini D (2013).
"An overview of the last 10 years of genetically engineered crop safety research"(PDF). Critical Reviews in Biotechnology. 34 (1): 77–88.
doi:
10.3109/07388551.2013.823595.
PMID24041244.
S2CID9836802. We have reviewed the scientific literature on GE crop safety for the last 10 years that catches the scientific consensus matured since GE plants became widely cultivated worldwide, and we can conclude that the scientific research conducted so far has not detected any significant hazard directly connected with the use of GM crops.
The literature about Biodiversity and the GE food/feed consumption has sometimes resulted in animated debate regarding the suitability of the experimental designs, the choice of the statistical methods or the public accessibility of data. Such debate, even if positive and part of the natural process of review by the scientific community, has frequently been distorted by the media and often used politically and inappropriately in anti-GE crops campaigns. b.
"State of Food and Agriculture 2003–2004. Agricultural Biotechnology: Meeting the Needs of the Poor. Health and environmental impacts of transgenic crops". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved August 30, 2019. Currently available transgenic crops and foods derived from them have been judged safe to eat and the methods used to test their safety have been deemed appropriate. These conclusions represent the consensus of the scientific evidence surveyed by the ICSU (2003) and they are consistent with the views of the World Health Organization (WHO, 2002). These foods have been assessed for increased risks to human health by several national regulatory authorities (inter alia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, the United Kingdom and the United States) using their national food safety procedures (ICSU). To date no verifiable untoward toxic or nutritionally deleterious effects resulting from the consumption of foods derived from genetically modified crops have been discovered anywhere in the world (GM Science Review Panel). Many millions of people have consumed foods derived from GM plants – mainly maize, soybean and oilseed rape – without any observed adverse effects (ICSU). c. Ronald P (May 1, 2011).
"Plant Genetics, Sustainable Agriculture and Global Food Security". Genetics. 188 (1): 11–20.
doi:
10.1534/genetics.111.128553.
PMC3120150.
PMID21546547. There is broad scientific consensus that genetically engineered crops currently on the market are safe to eat. After 14 years of cultivation and a cumulative total of 2 billion acres planted, no adverse health or environmental effects have resulted from commercialization of genetically engineered crops (Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, Committee on Environmental Impacts Associated with Commercialization of Transgenic Plants, National Research Council and Division on Earth and Life Studies 2002). Both the U.S. National Research Council and the Joint Research Centre (the European Union's scientific and technical research laboratory and an integral part of the European Commission) have concluded that there is a comprehensive body of knowledge that adequately addresses the food safety issue of genetically engineered crops (Committee on Identifying and Assessing Unintended Effects of Genetically Engineered Foods on Human Health and National Research Council 2004; European Commission Joint Research Centre 2008). These and other recent reports conclude that the processes of genetic engineering and conventional breeding are no different in terms of unintended consequences to human health and the environment (European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 2010).
^See also: Domingo JL, Bordonaba JG (2011).
"A literature review on the safety assessment of genetically modified plants"(PDF). Environment International. 37 (4): 734–742.
Bibcode:
2011EnInt..37..734D.
doi:
10.1016/j.envint.2011.01.003.
PMID21296423. In spite of this, the number of studies specifically focused on safety assessment of GM plants is still limited. However, it is important to remark that for the first time, a certain equilibrium in the number of research groups suggesting, on the basis of their studies, that a number of varieties of GM products (mainly maize and soybeans) are as safe and nutritious as the respective conventional non-GM plant, and those raising still serious concerns, was observed. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that most of the studies demonstrating that GM foods are as nutritional and safe as those obtained by conventional breeding, have been performed by biotechnology companies or associates, which are also responsible of commercializing these GM plants. Anyhow, this represents a notable advance in comparison with the lack of studies published in recent years in scientific journals by those companies.
Krimsky S (2015). "An Illusory Consensus behind GMO Health Assessment". Science, Technology, & Human Values. 40 (6): 883–914.
doi:
10.1177/0162243915598381.
S2CID40855100. I began this article with the testimonials from respected scientists that there is literally no scientific controversy over the health effects of GMOs. My investigation into the scientific literature tells another story.
And contrast: Panchin AY, Tuzhikov AI (January 14, 2016). "Published GMO studies find no evidence of harm when corrected for multiple comparisons". Critical Reviews in Biotechnology. 37 (2): 213–217.
doi:
10.3109/07388551.2015.1130684.
ISSN0738-8551.
PMID26767435.
S2CID11786594. Here, we show that a number of articles some of which have strongly and negatively influenced the public opinion on GM crops and even provoked political actions, such as GMO embargo, share common flaws in the statistical evaluation of the data. Having accounted for these flaws, we conclude that the data presented in these articles does not provide any substantial evidence of GMO harm.
The presented articles suggesting possible harm of GMOs received high public attention. However, despite their claims, they actually weaken the evidence for the harm and lack of substantial equivalency of studied GMOs. We emphasize that with over 1783 published articles on GMOs over the last 10 years it is expected that some of them should have reported undesired differences between GMOs and conventional crops even if no such differences exist in reality.
and Yang Y, Chen B (2016). "Governing GMOs in the USA: science, law and public health". Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 96 (4): 1851–1855.
Bibcode:
2016JSFA...96.1851Y.
doi:
10.1002/jsfa.7523.
PMID26536836. It is therefore not surprising that efforts to require labeling and to ban GMOs have been a growing political issue in the USA (citing Domingo and Bordonaba, 2011). Overall, a broad scientific consensus holds that currently marketed GM food poses no greater risk than conventional food... Major national and international science and medical associations have stated that no adverse human health effects related to GMO food have been reported or substantiated in peer-reviewed literature to date.
Despite various concerns, today, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the World Health Organization, and many independent international science organizations agree that GMOs are just as safe as other foods. Compared with conventional breeding techniques, genetic engineering is far more precise and, in most cases, less likely to create an unexpected outcome.
^a.
"Statement by the AAAS Board of Directors On Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods"(PDF). American Association for the Advancement of Science. October 20, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2019. The EU, for example, has invested more than €300 million in research on the biosafety of GMOs. Its recent report states: "The main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies." The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the British Royal Society, and every other respected organization that has examined the evidence has come to the same conclusion: consuming foods containing ingredients derived from GM crops is no riskier than consuming the same foods containing ingredients from crop plants modified by conventional plant improvement techniques. b. Pinholster G (October 25, 2012).
"AAAS Board of Directors: Legally Mandating GM Food Labels Could "Mislead and Falsely Alarm Consumers""(PDF). American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
c. European Commission. Directorate-General for Research (2010).
A decade of EU-funded GMO research (2001–2010)(PDF). Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. Biotechnologies, Agriculture, Food. European Commission, European Union.
doi:
10.2777/97784.
ISBN978-92-79-16344-9. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
d.
"ISAAA Summary of AMA Report on Genetically Modified Crops and Foods".
ISAAA. January 2001. Retrieved August 30, 2019. A report issued by the scientific council of the American Medical Association (AMA) says that no long-term health effects have been detected from the use of transgenic crops and genetically modified foods, and that these foods are substantially equivalent to their conventional counterparts. e.
"Featured CSA Report: Genetically Modified Crops and Foods (I-00) Full Text".
American Medical Association. Archived from
the original on June 10, 2001. Crops and foods produced using recombinant DNA techniques have been available for fewer than 10 years and no long-term effects have been detected to date. These foods are substantially equivalent to their conventional counterparts. f.
"Report 2 of the Council on Science and Public Health (A-12): Labeling of Bioengineered Foods"(PDF). American Medical Association. 2012. Archived from
the original(PDF) on September 7, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2019. "Bioengineered foods have been consumed for close to 20 years, and during that time, no overt consequences on human health have been reported and/or substantiated in the peer-reviewed literature". g.
"Restrictions on Genetically Modified Organisms: United States. Public and Scholarly Opinion". Library of Congress. June 30, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2019. Several scientific organizations in the US have issued studies or statements regarding the safety of GMOs indicating that there is no evidence that GMOs present unique safety risks compared to conventionally bred products. These include the National Research Council, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Medical Association. Groups in the US opposed to GMOs include some environmental organizations, organic farming organizations, and consumer organizations. A substantial number of legal academics have criticized the US's approach to regulating GMOs. h. National Academies Of Sciences E, Division on Earth Life Studies, Board on Agriculture Natural Resources, Committee on Genetically Engineered Crops: Past Experience Future Prospects (2016).
Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (US). p. 149.
doi:
10.17226/23395.
ISBN978-0-309-43738-7.
PMID28230933. Retrieved August 30, 2019. Overall finding on purported adverse effects on human health of foods derived from GE crops: On the basis of detailed examination of comparisons of currently commercialized GE with non-GE foods in compositional analysis, acute and chronic animal toxicity tests, long-term data on health of livestock fed GE foods, and human epidemiological data, the committee found no differences that implicate a higher risk to human health from GE foods than from their non-GE counterparts.
^
abCompare: Zeratsky K (April 21, 2012).
"Do detox diets offer any health benefits?".
Mayo Clinic. Archived from
the original on December 16, 2019. Retrieved May 9, 2015. [...T]here's little evidence that detox diets actually remove toxins from the body. Indeed, the kidneys and liver are generally quite effective at filtering and eliminating most ingested toxins.
^a. Pinnock CB, Graham NM, Mylvaganam A, Douglas RM (1990). "Relationship between milk intake and mucus production in adult volunteers challenged with rhinovirus-2". The American Review of Respiratory Disease. 141 (2): 352–56.
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b. Patricia Queen Samour, Kathy King Helm (2005).
Handbook of pediatric nutrition. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
ISBN978-0-7637-8356-3.
^
aba. Valtin H (2002). ""Drink at least eight glasses of water a day." Really? Is there scientific evidence for "8 × 8"?". American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. 283 (5): R993–R1004.
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10.1152/ajpregu.00365.2002.
PMID12376390.
b.
"Über den Durst" (in German). Die Zeit. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
c.
"Muss ich wirklich 3 Liter Wasser am Tag trinken" (in German). Archived from
the original on September 3, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
^Fullerton-Smith J (2007). The Truth About Food. Bloomsbury. pp. 115–17.
ISBN978-0-7475-8685-2. Most parents assume that children plus sugary foods equals raucous and uncontrollable behaviour. ... according to nutrition experts, the belief that children experience a 'sugar high' is a myth.
^Weisberger L, Jamieson, B (July 2009). "Clinical inquiries: How can you help prevent a recurrence of diverticulitis?". The Journal of Family Practice. 58 (7): 381–82.
PMID19607778.
^Messina V, Reed Mangles, Mark Messina (2004). The dietitian's guide to vegetarian diets. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
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^Silverman J (September 9, 2007).
"Are redheads going extinct?". HowStuffWorks.
Archived from the original on December 3, 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
^a.
"How to treat dandruff". American Academy of Dermatology. Retrieved July 2, 2022. Many people believe that dandruff is caused by poor hygiene, but this is not true. b. Rosenblum K (September 25, 2019).
"Dandruff: What It Is and What to Do About It". Cedars-Sinai. Retrieved July 2, 2022. It's often associated with poor hygiene, but that's a misconception—no one's really sure what causes it. c.
"Dandruff". NHS. October 18, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2022. Dandruff is not caused by poor hygiene, although it may be more obvious if you do not wash your hair regularly.
^a. The time allocated for running scripts has expired. b. "Two other beliefs about [the golden ratio] are often mentioned in magazines and books: that the ancient Greeks believed it was the proportion of the rectangle the eye finds most pleasing and that they accordingly incorporated the rectangle in many of their buildings, including the famous Parthenon. These two equally persistent beliefs are likewise assuredly false and, in any case, are completely without any evidence." The time allocated for running scripts has expired.
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^a. The time allocated for running scripts has expired. b. The time allocated for running scripts has expired. c. The time allocated for running scripts has expired.. Reprinted in The Hundredth Monkey – and other paradigms of the paranormal, edited by
Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books. Revised and updated in The Outer Edge: Classic Investigations of the Paranormal, edited by
Joe Nickell,
Barry Karr, and
Tom Genoni, 1996,
CSICOP.
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^a. The time allocated for running scripts has expired. b. U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (1999),
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c. The time allocated for running scripts has expired.. Attributes the title statement to Geoff Meggitt, former UK Atomic Energy Authority.
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^Examples of car battery on concrete misconception in the US from 1983–2011:
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Sources
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Further reading
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