List of common misconceptions

Food and cooking

Fortune cookies, despite being associated with Chinese cuisine, were actually invented in Japan^[1] and are almost never eaten in China, where they are seen as American.^[2]

• Searing meat may cause it to lose moisture in comparison to an equivalent piece of meat cooking without searing. Generally, the value in searing meat is that it creates a brown crust with a rich flavor via the Maillard reaction.^[3][4]
• Food containing wine or liquor retains alcohol even after cooking. According to the USDA, 75% of the alcohol remains after flambéing, 25% after one hour of baking or simmering, and 10% after two hours of baking or simmering.^[5] However, the amount of alcohol consumed while eating a dish prepared with alcohol will rarely if ever be sufficient to cause even low levels of intoxication.^[6]
• There is no consistent data supporting monosodium glutamate (MSG) as triggering migraine headache exacerbation or other symptoms of so-called Chinese restaurant syndrome. Although there have been reports of an MSG-sensitive subset of the population, this has not been demonstrated in placebo-controlled trials.^[7][8]
• Twinkies have a shelf life of approximately 45 days^[9] (25 in their original formulation)—far shorter than the common (and somewhat jocular) myth that Twinkies are edible for decades or longer.^[10] They generally remain on a store shelf for only 7 to 10 days.^[11]
• Fortune cookies, despite being associated with Chinese cuisine in the United States, were invented in Japan and introduced to the US by the Japanese.^[1] The cookies are extremely rare in China, where they are seen as symbols of American cuisine.^[2]

Law, crime, and military

• It is rarely necessary to wait 24 hours before filing a missing person report. In instances where there is evidence of violence or of an unusual absence, law enforcement agencies in the United States often stress the importance of beginning an investigation promptly.^[15] The UK government website says in large type, "You don't have to wait 24 hours before contacting the police".^[16]
• No one ever claimed in court that Twinkies made them commit a crime. In the murder trial of Dan White, the defense attorneys successfully argued diminished capacity as a result of severe depression. While eating Twinkies was given as evidence of depression, it was never claimed to be the cause of the murders. Despite this, people often claim that White's attorneys argued that Twinkies made him commit the murders.^[17]
• The US Armed Forces have generally forbidden deferred adjudication, or military enlistment in lieu of jail, since the 1980s. US Navy protocols discourage the practice, while the other four branches have specific regulations against it.^[18][19]
• Legal tender laws in the United States do not state that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept cash for payment.^[20][21][22]
• Sending a document to yourself in the mail does not give you additional copyright protection in the United States,^[23] nor in the United Kingdom.^[24]

Literature

Music

• "Edelweiss" is not the national anthem of Austria, but an original composition created for the musical The Sound of Music.^[25] The Austrian national anthem is "Land der Berge, Land am Strome" ("Land of the Mountains, Land on the River").^[26]
• "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was not composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was 5 years old; he only composed variations on the tune, at the age of 25 or 26.^[27]

Religion

Christianity and Judaism

Often shown as an apple in art, the fruit in the Garden of Eden is not named in Genesis.^[31]

• The forbidden fruit mentioned in the Book of Genesis is never identified as an apple,^[31] a misconception widely depicted in Western art. The original Hebrew texts mention only tree and fruit. Early Latin translations use the word mali, which can be taken to mean both "evil" and "apple". In early Germanic languages the word "apple" and its cognates usually meant simply "fruit". German and French artists commonly depict the fruit as an apple from the 12th century onwards, and John Milton's Areopagitica from 1644 explicitly mentions the fruit as an apple.^[32] Jewish scholars have suggested that the fruit could have been a grape, a fig, wheat, an apricot, or an etrog.^[33]
• There is no evidence that Jesus was born on December 25.^[34] The Bible never claims a date of December 25 (he and his followers primarily used the Hebrew calendar, which as a lunisolar calendar does not have a day-to-day correspondence to the fully solar Roman calendar nor its modern-day descendant Gregorian calendar); contextual clues may imply a date closer to September.^[34] The fixed date is attributed to Pope Julius the First because in the year 350 CE he declared the twenty-fifth of December the official date of celebration.^[35][36] The date may have initially been chosen to correspond with either the day exactly nine months after Christians believe Jesus to have been conceived,^[37][38] the date of the Roman winter solstice,^[39] or one of various ancient winter festivals (especially Dies Natalis Solis Invicti).^[37][40]
• 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 Casper, Melchior, and Balthazar. Three magi are supposed because three gifts are described, and artistic depictions of the nativity have almost always depicted three magi since the 3rd century.^[41] The Bible specifies no interval between the birth and the visit, and artistic depictions and the closeness of the traditional dates of December 25 and January 6 encourage the popular assumption that the visit took place in the same season as the birth, but later traditions varied, with the visit taken as occurring up to two years later.^[42]

No Biblical or historical evidence supports Mary Magdalene having been a prostitute.^[43]

• 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. The misconception likely arose due to a conflation between Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany (who anoints Jesus's feet in John 11:1-12), and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus's feet in Luke 7:36-50.^[43]
• 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 Latin name from birth. Luke indicates the coexistence of the names in Acts 13:9: "...Saul, who also is called Paul...".^[44][45]
• The term "Immaculate Conception" was not coined to refer to the virgin birth of Jesus, nor does it reference a supposed belief in the virgin birth of Mary, his mother. Instead, it denotes a Roman Catholic belief that Mary was not in a state of original sin from the moment of her own conception.^[46]
• Roman Catholic dogma does not say that the pope is either sinless or always infallible.^[47] Catholic dogma since 1870 does state that a dogmatic teaching contained in divine revelation that is promulgated by the pope (deliberately, and under certain very specific circumstances) is free from error, although official invocation of papal infallibility is rare. While most theologians state that canonizations meet the requisites,^[48] aside from that, most recent popes have finished their reign without a single invocation of infallibility. Otherwise, even when speaking in his official capacity, dogma does not hold that he is free from error.
• Mormons who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) no longer practice polygamy, although it was historically practiced in the LDS Church.^{[49][50][51][52]} Currently, the LDS Church excommunicates any members that practice polygamy within the organization.^[53] However, some Mormon fundamentalist sects still practice polygamy within their groups.^[54][55] For more details on this subject, see Mormonism and polygamy.

Sports

Marcos Torregrosa wearing a black belt with a red bar

• Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball, nor did it originate in Cooperstown, New York. It is believed to have evolved from other bat-and-ball games such as cricket and rounders and first took its modern form in New York City.^[67][68]
• 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 black belt varies among different martial arts. In judo and some other Asian martial arts, holders of higher ranks are awarded belts with alternating red and white panels, and the highest ranks with solid red belts.^[69]
• 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, despite a wide belief to the contrary^[70] that inspired 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.^[71]

Words, phrases and languages

• Non-standard, 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 informal words currently regarded as "incorrect" in formal speech or writing, but the idea that they are not words is a misconception.^[72][73] Examples of words that are sometimes alleged not to be words include "irregardless",^[74][75] "conversate", "funnest",^[76] "mentee", "impactful", and "thusly",^[77] all of which appear in numerous dictionaries as English words.^[78]
• The word "fuck" did not originate in Christianized Anglo-Saxon England (7th century CE) as an acronym for "Fornication Under Consent of King"; nor did it originate as an acronym for "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", either as a sign posted above adulterers in the stocks, or as a criminal charge against members of the British Armed Forces; nor did it originate during the 15th-century Battle of Agincourt as a corruption of "pluck yew" (an idiom falsely attributed to the English for drawing a longbow).^[79] Modern English was not spoken until the 16th century, and words such as "fornication" and "consent" did not exist in any form in English until the influence of Anglo-Norman in the late 12th century. The earliest certain recorded use of "fuck" in English comes from c. 1475, in the poem "Flen flyys", where it is spelled fuccant (conjugated as if a Latin verb meaning "they fuck"). It is of Proto-Germanic origin, and is related to either Dutch fokken and German ficken or Norwegian fukka.^[80]
• The word "crap" did not originate as a back-formation of British plumber Thomas Crapper's surname, nor does his name originate from the word "crap", although the surname may have helped popularize the word.^[81] The surname "Crapper" is a variant of "Cropper", which originally referred to someone who harvested crops.^[82][83] The word "crap" ultimately comes from Medieval Latin crappa, meaning "chaff".^[84]
• The expression "rule of thumb" did not originate from a 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.^[85] The true origin of this phrase remains uncertain, but the false etymology has been broadly reported in media including The Washington Post (1989), CNN (1993), and Time magazine (1983).^[86]
• The word "gringo" did not originate during the Mexican–American War (1846–48), the Venezuelan War of Independence (1811–23), the Mexican Revolution (1910–20), or in the American Old West (c. 1865–99) as a corruption of the lyrics "green grow" in either "Green Grow the Lilacs" or "Green Grow the Rushes, O" sung by US-American soldiers or cowboys;^[87] nor did it originate during any of these times as a corruption of "Green go home!", falsely said to have been shouted at green-clad American troops.^[88] The word originally simply meant "foreigner", and is probably a corruption of Spanish griego, "Greek".^[89]
  
  

  "Xmas," along with a modern Santa Claus, used on a Christmas postcard (1910)
• The anti-Italian slur wop is widely considered to have originated from an acronym for "without papers" or "without passport,"^{[90][91][91][92]} whereas it actually originated from the term guappo (roughly meaning thug) in 1908,^[93][94] predating modern immigration laws.^[95]
• "420" did not originate from the Los Angeles police or penal code for marijuana use.^[96] In California, Police Code 420 means "juvenile disturbance",^[97] and California Penal Code section 420 prohibits the obstruction of access to public land.^[96][98] The use of "420" started in 1971 at San Rafael High School, where it indicated the time, 4:20 pm, when a group of students would go to smoke under the statue of Louis Pasteur.^[96]
• The word "the" was never pronounced or spelled "ye" in Old or Middle English.^[99] The confusion derives from the use of the character thorn (þ) in abbreviations of the word "the", which in Middle English text () looked similar to a y with a superscript e.^[100][101]
• "Xmas" did not originate as a secular plan to "take the Christ out of Christmas".^[102] X stands for the Greek letter chi, the starting letter of Χριστός (Christos), or "Christ" in Greek.^[103] The use of the word "Xmas" in English can be traced to the year 1021 when monks in Great Britain used the X as abbreviation while transcribing classical manuscripts into Old English in place of "Christ".^[102] The Oxford English Dictionary's "first recorded use of 'Xmas' for 'Christmas' dates to 1551."^[104]
• The pronunciation of coronal fricatives in Spanish did not come around as imitation of a lisping king. Only one Spanish king, Peter of Castile, is documented as having a lisp, and the current pronunciation originated two centuries after his death.^[105]
• The Chevrolet Nova sold very well in Latin American markets; General Motors did not need to rename the car. While "no va" does mean "doesn't go" in Spanish, "nova" is understood as "new" and drivers in Mexico and Venezuela where it was first sold bought it eagerly. There was no need to change the model name,^[106] despite claims to the contrary.^[107][108]
• Sign languages are not the same worldwide. Aside from the pidgin International Sign, each country generally has its own native sign language, and some have more than one (although there are also substantial similarities among all sign languages).^{[109][110][111]}
• Eskimo tribes, such as the Inuit and Aleut, do not have a disproportionate number of words representing snow in their languages. The myth comes from a misconstruction of Franz Boas's original statement noting that Eskimos had a variety of words for various snow-related concepts; Boas noted that the same was true of English.^[112][113]

Ancient

Ancient Greek sculptures were originally painted bright colors.^{[114][115][116]}

Vomitorium to a Roman amphitheatre in Toulouse

• Ancient Greek sculptures were originally painted bright colors; they only appear white today because the original pigments have deteriorated. Some well-preserved statues still bear traces of their original coloration.^{[114][115][116]}
• The ancient Greeks did not use the word "idiot" to disparage people who did not participate 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.^[117]
• Vomiting was not a regular part of Roman dining customs.^[118] 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.^[119]
• The death of Greek philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria at the hands of a mob of Christian monks in 415 was a result of her involvement in a bitter political feud between her close friend and student Orestes, the Roman prefect of Alexandria, and the bishop Cyril, not her religious views.^[120][121] Her death also had nothing to do with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria,^[122] which had already ceased to exist centuries before Hypatia was born.^[122]
• The Library of Alexandria was not destroyed by the Muslim Army during the capture of the city in 641. Modern consensus suggests the library had likely already been destroyed centuries before this incident.^[123][124] It is instead believed that the Library of Caesarea, a key repository of Christian literature, was the library destroyed near this time.^[125]

Middle Ages and Renaissance

• It is true that life expectancy in the Middle Ages and earlier was low; however, one should not infer that people usually died around the age of 30.^[126] In fact, earlier low life expectancies were very strongly influenced by high infant mortality, and the life expectancy of people who lived to adulthood was much higher. A 21-year-old man in medieval England, for example, could by one estimate expect to live to the age of 64.^[127]
• There is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their helmets.^[128] In fact, the image of Vikings wearing horned helmets stems from the scenography of an 1876 production of the Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle by Richard Wagner.^[129]
• Vikings did not drink out of the skulls of vanquished enemies. This was based on a mistranslation of the skaldic poetic use of ór bjúgviðum hausa (branches of skulls) to refer to drinking horns.^[130]
• 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.^[131]
• King Canute did not command the tide to reverse in a fit of delusional arrogance.^[132] His intent that day, if the incident even happened, was most likely to prove a point to members of his privy council that no man is all-powerful, and we all must bend to forces beyond our control, such as the tides.
• There is no evidence that iron maidens were invented in the Middle Ages or even used for torture. Instead they were pieced together in the 18th century from several artifacts found in museums in order to create spectacular objects intended for (commercial) exhibition.^[133]
• 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 as a matter of course fight on foot and could mount and dismount without help. In fact, soldiers equipped with plate armor were more mobile than those with mail armor (chain armor), as mail was heavier and required stiff padding beneath due to its pliable nature.^[134] It is true that armor used in tournaments in the late Middle Ages was significantly heavier than that used in warfare,^[135] 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. The latter were made due to the widespread belief that masturbation could lead to insanity, and were mostly bought by parents for their teenage children.^[136]

Medieval depiction of a spherical Earth.

• Medieval Europeans did not believe Earth was flat. Scholars have known the earth is spherical since at least 500 B.C.^[137] This myth was created in the 17th century by Protestants to argue against Catholic teachings.^[138]

• Christopher Columbus's efforts to obtain support for his voyages were hampered not by belief in a flat Earth but by valid worries that the East Indies were farther than he realized.^[139] In fact, Columbus grossly underestimated the earth's circumference because of two calculation errors.^[140] He and all of his crew would have died of starvation, thirst or scurvy had they not been lucky enough to bump into the uncharted continent of North America.^{[141][142][143]}
• The myth that Columbus proved the earth was round was propagated by authors like Washington Irving in A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus.^[144][145]

• Columbus never reached any land that now forms part of the mainland United States of America; most of the landings Columbus made on his four voyages, including the initial October 12, 1492 landing (the anniversary of which forms the basis of Columbus Day), were on Caribbean islands which today are independent countries. Columbus was also not the first European to visit the Americas: at least one explorer, Leif Ericson, preceded him by reaching what is believed to be the island now known as Newfoundland, part of modern Canada, though he never made it to the mainland.^[146][147]
• Marco Polo did not import pasta from China,^[148] a misconception which originated with the Macaroni Journal, published by an association of food industries with the goal of promoting the use of pasta in the United States.^[149] Marco Polo describes a food similar to "lagana" in his Travels, but he uses a term with which he was already familiar. Durum wheat, and thus pasta as it is known today, was introduced by Arabs from Libya, during their conquest of Sicily in the late 7th century, according to the newsletter of the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association,^[150] thus predating Marco Polo's travels to China by about six centuries.

Early modern

• Contrary to the popular image of the Pilgrim Fathers, the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in North America 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: doublets, jerkins and ruffs. Both men and women wore the same style of shoes, stockings, capes, coats and hats in a range of colors including reds, yellows, purples, and greens.^[151] According to Plimoth Plantation historian James W. Baker, the traditional image was formed in the 19th century when buckles were a kind of emblem of quaintness.^[152][153]
• The accused at the Salem witch trials in North America were not burned at the stake; about 15 died in prison, 19 were hanged and one was pressed to death.^[154][155]
• 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 when Marie was only nine years old and most scholars believe that Rousseau coined it himself, or that it was said by Maria-Theresa, the wife of Louis XIV. Even Rousseau (or Maria-Theresa) did not use the exact words but actually Qu'ils mangent de la brioche, "Let them eat brioche" (a rich type of bread). Marie Antoinette was an unpopular ruler; therefore, people attribute the phrase "let them eat cake" to her, in keeping with her reputation as being hard-hearted and disconnected from her subjects.^[156]
• George Washington did not have wooden teeth. His dentures were made of gold, hippopotamus ivory, lead, animal teeth (including horse and donkey teeth),^[157] and probably human teeth purchased from slaves.^[158]
• 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.^[159] However, the actual signing occurred on August 2, 1776.^[160]
• Benjamin Franklin did not propose that the wild turkey be used as the symbol for the United States instead of the bald eagle. While he did serve on a commission that tried to design a seal after the Declaration of Independence, his proposal was an image of Moses. His objections to the eagle as a national symbol and preference for the turkey were stated in a 1784 letter to his daughter in response to the Society of the Cincinnati's use of the former; he never expressed that sentiment publicly.^[161][162]
• 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, a speaker of German descent who abstained from this vote.^{[163][164][165]}

Modern

Napoleon on the Bellerophon, a painting of Napoleon I by Charles Lock Eastlake. Napoleon was taller than his nickname, The Little Corporal, suggests.

• Napoleon Bonaparte was not short. He was actually slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time.^[166][167] 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 (1.69 m).^[168][169] Some believe that he was nicknamed le Petit Caporal (The Little Corporal) as a term of affection.^[170] Napoleon was often accompanied by his imperial guard, who were selected for their height^[171]—this could have contributed to a perception that he was comparatively short.
• 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.^[172][173]
• Cowboy hats were not initially popular in the Western American frontier, with derby or bowler hats being the typical headgear of choice.^[174] Heavy marketing of the Stetson "Boss of the Plains" model in the years following the American Civil War was the primary driving force behind the cowboy hat's popularity, with its characteristic dented top not becoming standard until near the end of the 19th century.^[175]
• Despite being referenced commonly in culture^[176][177] and society at large,^{[178][179][180]} the idea that Victorian Era doctors invented the vibrator to cure female 'hysteria' via triggering orgasm is a product of a single work^[181] rejected by most historians.^{[182][183][184]}
• The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was not caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern. A newspaper reporter invented the story to make colorful copy.^[185]
• The claim that Frederic Remington, on assignment to Cuba in 1897, telegraphed William Randolph Hearst that "There will be no war. I wish to return" and that Hearst responded, "Please remain. You furnish the pictures, and I'll furnish the war" is unsubstantiated. This anecdote was originally included in a book by James Creelman, though there is no evidence that the telegraph exchange ever happened, and substantial evidence that it did not.^[186][187]
• 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 which would have created such an effect, let alone any law. At the time in New York, anyone could change the spelling of their name simply by using that new spelling.^[188] These names are often referred to as an "Ellis Island Special".
• 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. Despite being historically represented with different characteristics in different colours of robes, Santa Claus had already taken his modern form in popular culture and seen extensive use in other companies' advertisements and other mass media at the time Coca-Cola began using his image in the 1930s.^[189]
• Italian dictator Benito Mussolini did not "make the trains run on time". Much of the repair work had been performed before Mussolini and the Fascists came to power in 1922. Accounts from the era also suggest that the Italian railways' legendary adherence to timetables was more propaganda than reality.^[190]
• 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 even listening to it, and isolated reports of scattered incidents and increased call volume to emergency services were played up the next day by newspapers, 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.^[191][192]
• There is no evidence of Polish cavalry mounting a brave but futile charge against German tanks using lances and sabres during the German invasion of Poland in 1939. This story may have originated from German propaganda efforts following the charge at Krojanty, in which a Polish cavalry brigade surprised German infantry in the open, and successfully charged and dispersed them, until driven off by armoured cars. While Polish cavalry still carried the sabre for such opportunities, they were trained to fight as highly mobile, dismounted cavalry (dragoons) and issued with light anti-tank weapons.^[193][194]
• During the occupation of Denmark by the Nazis during World War II, King Christian X of Denmark did not thwart Nazi attempts to identify Jews by wearing a yellow star himself. Jews in Denmark were never forced to wear the Star of David. The Danish resistance did help most Jews flee the country before the end of the war.^[195]

Albert Einstein, photographed at 14, did not fail mathematics at school.

• Albert Einstein did not fail mathematics classes (never "flunked a math exam") in school. Upon seeing a column making this claim, Einstein said "I never failed in mathematics... Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus."^[196][197] 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, then passed on his second attempt.^[198]
• Actor Ronald Reagan was never seriously considered for the role of Rick Blaine in the 1942 film classic Casablanca, eventually played by Humphrey Bogart. This belief came from an early studio press release announcing the film's production that used his name to generate interest in the film. But by the time it had come out, Warner Bros. knew that Reagan was unavailable for any roles in the foreseeable future since he was no longer able to defer his entry into military service.^[199] Studio records show that producer Hal B. Wallis had always wanted Bogart for the part.^[200][201]
• 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". Time, which is sometimes cited as the source, described the story of the purported speech as a "yarn" at the time,^[202] and no Florida newspaper reported such a speech during the campaign. The leading reporter who covered Smathers said he always gave the same boilerplate speech. Smathers had offered US$10,000 to anyone who could prove he had made the speech; it was never claimed.^[203]
• John F. Kennedy's words "Ich bin ein Berliner" are standard German for "I am a Berliner."^[204][205] An urban legend has it that due to his use of the indefinite article ein, Berliner is translated as jelly donut, and that the population of Berlin was amused by the supposed mistake. The word Berliner is not commonly used in Berlin to refer to the Berliner Pfannkuchen; is usually called ein Pfannkuchen.^[206]
• 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,^[207] as is often claimed.^{[208][209][210]} In early 1963, due to his membership in the Communist Party and support for the Soviet Union, the U.S. State Department did not renew his passport while he was already in Ghana overseeing the creation of the Encyclopedia Africana. After leaving the embassy, he stated his intention to renounce his citizenship in protest. But while he took Ghanaian citizenship, he never went through the process of renouncing his American citizenship,^[211] and may not even have intended to.^[207]
• When bartender Kitty Genovese was murdered outside her Queens apartment in 1964, 37 neighbors did not stand idly by and watch, not calling the police until after she was dead, as The New York Times initially reported^[212] to widespread public outrage that persisted for years. Later reporting established that the police report the Times had initially relied on was inaccurate, that Genovese had been attacked twice in different locations, and while the many witnesses heard the attack they only heard brief portions and did not realize what was occurring, with only six or seven actually reporting seeing anything. Some called police; one who said "I didn't want to get involved", an attitude which later came to be attributed to all the residents who saw or heard part of the attack.^[213]
• 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 that culminated in Hunter's death began while the band was performing the song, prompting a brief interruption before the Stones finished it, it concluded several songs later as the band was performing "Under My Thumb".^[214][215] The misconception arose from mistaken reporting in Rolling Stone.^[216]
• While it was praised by one architectural magazine prior to its construction as "the best high apartment of the year", the Pruitt–Igoe housing 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.^[217] 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.^[218]
• 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 emails.^[219] Moreover, the hotline links the Kremlin to the Pentagon, not the White House.^[220]

Astronomy

A satellite image of a section of the Great Wall of China, running diagonally from lower left to upper right (not to be confused with the much more prominent river running from upper left to lower right). The region pictured is 12 by 12 kilometres (7.5 mi × 7.5 mi).

• The Great Wall of China is not, as is claimed, 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 barely see it. City lights, however, are easily visible on the night side of earth from orbit.^[221]
• 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 planetary body does, except at very close distances to the black hole.^[222][223] 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 act like a "cosmic vacuum cleaner" and pull a substantial inflow of matter, but only if the star it forms from is already having a similar effect on surrounding matter.^[224]
• Seasons are not caused by the Earth being closer to the Sun in the summer than in the winter, but by the Earth's 23.4-degree axial tilt. Each Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun in its respective summer (July in the Northern Hemisphere and January in the Southern Hemisphere), resulting in longer days and more direct sunlight, with the opposite being true in the winter.^[225][226]
  Further information: Effect of sun angle on climate
• When a meteor or spacecraft enters the atmosphere, the heat of entry is not (primarily) caused by friction, but by adiabatic compression of air in front of the object.^{[227][228][229]}
• Egg balancing is possible on every day of the year, not just the vernal equinox,^[230] and there is no relationship between astronomical phenomena and the ability to balance an egg.^[231]

Biology

Vertebrates

The color of a red cape does not enrage a bull

• Older elephants that are near death do not leave their herd and instinctively direct themselves toward a specific location known as an elephants' graveyard to die.^[232]
• Bulls are not enraged by the color red, used in capes by professional matadors. 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 matador that incites it to charge.^[233]
• Dogs do not sweat by salivating.^[234] Dogs actually do have sweat glands and not only on their tongues; they sweat mainly through their footpads. However, dogs do primarily regulate their body temperature through panting.^[235] See also Dog anatomy.
• Lemmings do not engage in mass suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating. This misconception was popularized by the Disney film White Wilderness, which shot many of the migration scenes (also staged by using multiple shots of different groups of lemmings) on a large, snow-covered turntable in a studio. Photographers later pushed the lemmings off a cliff.^[236] The misconception itself is much older, dating back to at least the late 19th century.^[237]
• Bats are not blind. While about 70 percent 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.^[238]
• Ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand to hide from enemies.^[239] This misconception was probably promulgated 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."^[240]
• A duck's quack actually does echo,^[241] although the echo may be difficult to hear for humans under some circumstances.^[242]
• Frogs die immediately when cast into boiling water, rather than leaping out; furthermore, frogs will attempt to escape cold water that is slowly heated past their critical thermal maximum.^[243]
• The notion that goldfish have a memory span of just a few seconds is false.^[244][245] It is much longer, counted in months.
• Sharks can suffer from cancer. The misconception that sharks do not get cancer was spread by the 1992 Avery Publishing book Sharks Don't Get Cancer by I. William Lane and used to sell extracts of shark cartilage as cancer prevention treatments. Reports of carcinomas in sharks exist, and current data do not allow any speculation about the incidence of tumors in sharks.^[246]
• Great white sharks do not mistake human divers for pinnipeds. Their attack behaviors on humans and pinnipeds are very different: when attacking a seal, a great white shark surfaces quickly and violently attacks it. Attacks on humans, on the other hand, are more relaxed and slow: 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.^[247]
• 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 more like human families: there is no defined sense of rank, parents are in charge until the young grow up and start their own families, younger wolves do not overthrow an "alpha" to become the new leader, and social dominance fights are situational.^[248][249]

Invertebrates

Bombus pratorum over an Echinacea purpurea inflorescence; a widespread misconception holds that bumblebees should be incapable of flight.

• Earthworms do not become two worms when cut in half. Only a limited number of earthworm species^[250] are capable of anterior regeneration. When such earthworms are bisected, only the front half of the worm (where the mouth is located) can feed and survive, while the other half dies.^[251] Some species of planarian flatworms, however, actually do become two new planarians when bisected or split down the middle.^[252]
• Houseflies have an average lifespan of 20 to 30 days, not 24 hours.^[253] The misconception may arise from confusion with mayflies, which, in some species, have an adult lifespan of as little as 5 minutes.^[254] A housefly egg will hatch into a maggot within 24 hours of being laid.^[255]
• The daddy longlegs spider (Pholcidae) is not the most venomous spider in the world, and they can indeed pierce human skin, though the tiny amount of venom they carry causes only a mild burning sensation for a few seconds.^[256] In addition, there is also confusion regarding the use of the name daddy longlegs, because harvestmen (order Opiliones, which are arachnids, but not spiders), crane flies (which are insects), and male mosquitoes (also insects) are also sometimes called daddy longlegs in regional dialects, and may occasionally share the misconception of being venomous.^[257][258]
• The flight mechanism and aerodynamics of the bumblebee (as well as other insects) are actually quite well understood, despite the urban legend that calculations show that they should not be able to fly. In the 1930s, the French entomologist Antoine Magnan indeed postulated that bumblebees theoretically should not be able to fly in his book Le Vol des Insectes (The Flight of Insects).^[259] Magnan later realized his error and retracted the suggestion. However, the hypothesis became generalized to the false notion that "scientists think that bumblebees should not be able to fly".
• The widespread urban legend that one swallows a high number of spiders during sleep in one's life has no basis in reality. A sleeping person causes all kinds of noise and vibrations by breathing, the beating heart, snoring etc. all of which warn spiders of danger.^[260][261]
• Earwigs are not known to purposefully climb into external ear canals, though there have been anecdotal reports of earwigs being found in the ear.^[262] Entomologists suggest that the origin of the name is actually a reference to the appearance of the hindwings, which are unique and distinctive among insects, and resemble a human ear when unfolded.^[263][264]

Plants

Sunflowers with the sun clearly visible behind them.

• Poinsettias are not highly toxic to humans or cats. While it is true that they are mildly irritating to the skin or stomach,^[265] and may sometimes cause diarrhea and vomiting if eaten,^[266] an American Journal of Emergency Medicine study of 22,793 cases reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers showed no fatalities and few cases requiring medical treatment.^[267] According to the ASPCA, poinsettias may cause light to mid-range gastrointestinal discomfort in felines, with diarrhea and vomiting as the most severe consequences of ingestion.^[268]
• Flowering sunflowers point in a fixed direction (often east) all day long.^{[269][270][271]} 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.^[272]

Computing

• Computers running macOS or Linux are not immune to malware such as trojan horses or computer viruses.^[294] While Microsoft Windows has historically had a much larger number of viruses developed for it, this is a consequence of its extremely large market share^[295] – specialised malware designed to attack macOS and Linux systems has existed for many years.

Human body and health

Electric fans in South Korea. A widely held misconception is that leaving fans on while asleep can be fatal.

• Waking sleepwalkers does not harm them. While it is true that a person may be confused or disoriented for a short time after awakening, this does not cause them further harm. In contrast, sleepwalkers may injure themselves if they trip over objects or lose their balance while sleepwalking.^[296][297]
• In South Korea, it is commonly and incorrectly believed that sleeping in a closed room with an electric fan running can cause what is called fan death. According to the Korean government, "In some cases, a fan turned on too long can cause death from suffocation, hypothermia, or fire from overheating."^[298] The Korea Consumer Protection Board issued a consumer safety alert recommending that electric fans be set on timers, direction changed and doors left open. According to Yeon Dong-su, dean of Kwandong University's medical school, "If it is completely sealed, then in the current of an electric fan, the temperature can drop low enough to cause a person to die of hypothermia."^[299] However, leaving a fan running in an unoccupied room will not cool it; rather, due to energy losses from the motor and viscous dissipation, a fan will slightly heat a room.
• 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 there is no evidence cited regarding stomach cramps or the consumption of food.^[300]
• Drowning is often inconspicuous to onlookers.^[301] In most cases, raising the arms and vocalising are impossible due to the instinctive drowning response.^[301] Waving and yelling (known as "aquatic distress") is a sign of trouble, but not a dependable one: most victims demonstrating the instinctive drowning response do not show prior evidence of distress.^[302]
• Human blood in veins is not actually blue. Hemoglobin give blood its red color. Deoxygenated blood has a deep red color, and oxygenated blood has a light cherry-red color. The misconception probably arises for two reasons: 1) Veins below the skin appear blue or green. This is due to a variety of reasons only weakly dependent on the color of the blood, including subsurface scattering of light through the skin, and human color perception. 2) Many diagrams use colors to show the difference between veins (usually shown in blue) and arteries (usually shown in red).^[303]
• Exposure to a vacuum, or experiencing uncontrolled decompression, does not cause the body to explode, or internal fluids to boil. (However, fluids in the mouth or lungs will boil at altitudes above the Armstrong limit.) Instead, it would 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.^[304]
• Exercise-induced muscle soreness is not caused by lactic acid buildup.^[305] Muscular lactic acid levels during and after exercise do not correlate with soreness,^[306] and stretching before or after exercise does not reduce soreness.^[307] Exercise-induced muscle soreness is thought to be due to microtrauma from an unaccustomed or strenuous exercise, against which the body adapts with repeated bouts of the same exercise.^[308]

Senses

An incorrect map of the tongue showing zones which taste bitter (1), sour (2), salty (3) and sweet (4). In reality, all zones can sense all tastes.

• Infants can and do feel pain.^[309][310]
• All different tastes can be detected on all parts of the tongue by taste buds,^[311] with slightly increased sensitivities in different locations depending on the person, contrary to the popular belief that specific tastes only correspond to specific mapped sites on the tongue.^[312]
• There are 5 primary tastes, not 4. In addition to bitter, sour, salty, and sweet, humans have taste receptors for umami, which is a savory or meaty taste.^[313]
• 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).^[314] Other senses sometimes identified are the sense of time, itching, pressure, hunger, thirst, fullness of the stomach, need to urinate, need to defecate, and blood carbon dioxide levels.^[315][316]

Brain

Golgi-stained neurons in human hippocampal tissue. It is commonly believed that humans will not grow new brain cells, but research has shown that some neurons can reform in humans.

• Mental abilities are not absolutely separated into the left and right cerebral hemispheres of the brain.^[355] Some mental functions such as speech and language (e.g. Broca's area, Wernicke's area) tend to activate one hemisphere of the brain more than the other, in some kinds of tasks. If one hemisphere is damaged at an early age, these functions can often be recovered in part or even in full by the other hemisphere (see Neuroplasticity). Other abilities such as motor control, memory, and general reasoning are served equally by the two hemispheres.^[356]
• It is not true that by the age of two years, humans have generated all of the brain cells they will ever have, a belief held by medical experts until 1998.^{[357][358][359]} It is now understood that new neurons can be created in some parts of the postnatal brain.^[360] A 2013 study showed that also in old age, about 700 new neurons are produced in the hippocampus daily.^[361]
• Vaccines do not cause autism or autism spectrum disorders. Although fraudulent research by Andrew Wakefield claimed a connection, repeated attempts to reproduce the results ended in failure, and the research was ultimately shown to have been manipulated.^[362]
• People do not use only ten percent of their brains. While it is true that a small minority of neurons in the brain are actively firing at any one time, the inactive neurons are important too.^[363][364] This misconception has been commonplace in American culture at least as far back as the start of the 20th century, and was attributed to William James, who apparently used the expression metaphorically.^[365]
• All humans learn in fundamentally similar ways.^[366] In particular, there is no evidence that people have different learning styles,^[366] nor that catering teaching styles to purported learning styles improves information retention.^[367]

Disease

See also: Misconceptions about HIV and AIDS

The bumps on a toad are not warts, and therefore cannot cause warts on humans

• Drinking milk or consuming other dairy products does not increase mucus production.^[368][369] As a result, they do not need to be avoided by those with the flu or cold congestion.
• Humans cannot catch warts from toads or other animals; the bumps on a toad are not warts.^[370][371] Warts on human skin are caused by human papillomavirus, which is unique to humans.
• Neither cracking one's knuckles nor exercising while in good health causes osteoarthritis.^[372][373]
• Eating nuts, popcorn, or seeds does not increase the risk of diverticulitis.^[374] These foods may actually have a protective effect.^[375]
• Stress plays a relatively minor role in hypertension.^[376] Specific relaxation therapies are not supported by the evidence.^[377] Acute stress has been shown to temporarily increase blood-pressure levels.^[376] Evidence from observational studies has shown a possible association between chronic stress and a sustained rise in high blood-pressure.^[376] From the medical perspective, stress plays a small part in hypertension, whereas a recurring theme in studies of the attitudes of lay people was that stress was by far the most important cause.^[376]
• 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.^[378][379]
• Vitamin C does not prevent the common cold, although it may have a protective effect during intense cold-weather exercise and may slightly reduce the duration and severity of colds once infected.^[380][381]
• In people with eczema, bathing does not dry the skin and may in fact be beneficial.^[382][383]
• There are not, nor have there ever been, any programs that will provide access to dialysis machines in exchange for pull tabs on beverage cans.^[384] This rumor has existed since at least the 1970s, and usually cites the National Kidney Foundation as the organization offering the program. However, the Foundation themselves have denied that this is the case, noting that 80 percent of the cost of dialysis in the United States is usually covered by Medicare.^[385] However some charities, such as the Kansas City Ronald McDonald House Charities, will accept pull tab donations, which are then turned over to a local recycler for their scrap metal value.^[386]
• Rhinoceros horn in powdered form is not used as an aphrodisiac in traditional Chinese medicine as Cornu Rhinoceri Asiatici (犀角, xījiǎo, "rhinoceros horn"). It is prescribed for fevers and convulsions,^[387] a treatment not supported by evidence-based medicine.
• 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.^[388]

Inventions

• George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter, though he reputedly discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes.^[389][390]
• Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet;^[391] flushing toilets were first used in the Indus Valley Civilization, around the 26th century BCE.^[392] The forerunner of the modern toilet was invented by the Elizabethan courtier Sir John Harington, who was banished from court when his book on the subject poked fun at important people.^[393] Crapper, however, did much to increase its popularity and introduced several innovations, including the 'valveless waste-water preventer', which allowed the toilet to flush effectively without leaving the flush water running for a long time.^[394] The word crap is also not derived from his name (see the Words, phrases and languages section above).^[395]
• Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb.^[396] 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.^[397][398] Karl Benz (co-founder of Mercedes-Benz) is credited with the invention of the first modern automobile,^[399] and the assembly line has existed throughout history.
• Al Gore never said that he "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.^[400][401] Gore was the original drafter of the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991, which provided significant funding for supercomputing centers,^[402] and this in turn led to upgrades of a major part of the already-existing early 1990s Internet backbone, the NSFNet,^[403] and development of NCSA Mosaic, the browser that popularized the World Wide Web.^[402] (See also Al Gore and information technology.)
• James Watt did not invent the steam engine,^[404] nor were his ideas on steam engine power inspired by a kettle lid pressured open by steam.^[405] Watt improved upon the already commercially successful Newcomen atmospheric engine 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.^[406]

Materials science

• Glass does not flow at room temperature as a high-viscosity liquid.^[407] Although glass shares some molecular properties found in liquids, glass at room temperature is an amorphous solid that only begins to flow above the glass transition temperature,^[408] though the exact nature of the glass transition is not considered settled among scientists.^[409] Panes of stained glass windows are often thicker at the bottom than at the top, and this has been cited as an example of the slow flow of glass over centuries. However, this unevenness is due to the window manufacturing processes used at the time.^[408][409] No such distortion is observed in other glass objects, such as sculptures or optical instruments, that are of similar or even greater age.^{[408][409][410]}
• Most diamonds are not formed from highly compressed coal. More than 99 percent of diamonds ever mined have formed in the conditions of extreme heat and pressure about 90 miles (140 km) below the earth's surface. Coal is formed from prehistoric plants buried much closer to the surface, and is unlikely to migrate below 2 miles (3.2 km) through common geological processes. Most diamonds that have been dated are older than the first land plants, and are therefore older than coal. It is possible that diamonds can form from coal in subduction zones and in meteoroid impacts, but diamonds formed in this way are rare and the carbon source is more likely carbonate rocks and organic carbon in sediments, rather than coal.^[411][412]

Mathematics

Pythagoras was not credited with discovering the Pythagorean theorem until centuries after his death.^[413][414]

• Although the Greek philosopher Pythagoras is most famous today for his alleged mathematical discoveries,^[414] classical historians dispute whether he himself ever actually made any significant contributions to the field.^[415][414] Pythagoras cannot have been the first to discover the Pythagorean theorem because it was known and used by the Babylonians over a millennium before he was born^{[414][415][413]} and the discovery of the theorem was not attributed to him until centuries after his death.^[413][414] The real, historical Pythagoras was probably a mystic sage who taught the doctrine of metempsychosis (reincarnation).^[416]
• There is no evidence that the ancient Greeks deliberately designed the Parthenon to match the golden ratio.^[417][418] 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.^[419][420]
• Within the realm of real numbers, a repeating decimal consisting of the digit 9 repeated infinitely represents exactly the same quantity as the number one, despite appearing to be smaller at first glance. Within the realm of infinitesimals, a distinction between the two forms can be of use.^[421]

Physics

An illustration of the (incorrect) equal-transit-time explanation of aerofoil lift

• It is not true that lift force is generated by the air taking the same time to travel above and below an aircraft's wing.^[422] 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,^[422] 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,^[423] it is false to make a connection between the flow on the two sides of the paper using Bernoulli's equation since the air above and below are different flow fields and Bernoulli's principle only applies within a flow field.^[424] The paper rises because the air follows the curve of the paper and a curved streamline will develop pressure differences perpendicular to the airflow.^[425] Bernoulli's principle predicts that the decrease in pressure is associated with an increase in speed, i.e. that as the air passes over the paper it speeds up and moves faster than it was moving when it left the demonstrator's mouth. But this is not apparent from the demonstration.^[426]
• The Coriolis effect does not cause water to consistently drain from basins in a clockwise/counter-clockwise direction depending on the hemisphere. Rotation is determined by what ever minor rotation is initially present at the time the water starts to drain. The Coriolis force can impact the direction of the flow of water but only in rare circumstances. The water has to be so still that the effective rotation rate of the Earth is faster than that of the water relative to its container and the externally applied torques (such as might be caused by flow over an uneven bottom surface) have to be very small.
• Gyroscopic forces or geometric trail are not required for a rider to balance a bicycle or for it to demonstrate self-stability.^[427][428] Although gyroscopic forces and trail can be contributing factors, it has been demonstrated that those factors are neither required nor sufficient by themselves.^[427]
• The idea that lightning never strikes the same place twice is one of the oldest and best known superstitions about lightning. There is no reason that lightning would not be able to strike the same place twice; if there is a thunderstorm in a given area, then objects and places which are more prominent or conductive (and therefore minimize distance) are more likely to be struck. For instance, lightning strikes the Empire State Building in New York City about 100 times per year.^[429][430]
• A penny dropped from the Empire State Building will not kill a person or crack the sidewalk.^[431] The terminal velocity of a falling penny is about 30–50 miles per hour (50–80 km/h), and the penny will not exceed that speed regardless of the height from which it is dropped. At that speed, its energy is not enough to penetrate a human skull or crack concrete, as demonstrated on an episode of MythBusters. As MythBusters noted, the Empire State Building is a particularly poor setting for this misconception, since its tapered shape would make it impossible to drop anything directly from the top to street level. MythBusters also pointed out that this doesn't mean that dropping coins from high altitude is safe. It might still cause harm.
• 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. They actually save energy (five to fifteen percent) because heat transfer across the surface of the building is roughly proportional to the temperature difference between its inside and the outside. ^[432][433]

Psychology

• Dyslexia is not a cognitive disorder characterized by the reversal of letters or words and mirror writing. It is a disorder of people who have at least average intelligence and who have difficulty in spelling words, reading quickly, writing words, "sounding out" words in the head, pronouncing words when reading aloud and understanding what they read. Although some dyslexics also have problems with letter reversal, that is not a symptom that is characteristic of dyslexia.^[434]
• There is no scientific evidence for the existence of "photographic" memory in adults (the ability to remember images with so high a precision as to mimic a camera),^[435] but some young children have eidetic memory.^[436] Many people have claimed to have a photographic memory, but those people have been shown to have good memories as a result of mnemonic devices rather than a natural capacity for detailed memory encoding.^[437] There are rare cases of individuals with exceptional memory, but none of them have a memory that mimics a camera.
• Schizophrenia is not split or multiple personality disorder; that is, dissociative identity disorder.^[438] 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.^[439]

Transportation

• Toilet waste is never intentionally jettisoned from an aircraft. All waste is collected in tanks which are emptied into toilet waste vehicles.^[440] Blue ice is caused by accidental leakage from the waste tank. Passenger trains, on the other hand, have indeed historically flushed onto the tracks; modern trains 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,^[441] in spite of worry among Americans that concrete harms batteries.^[442] Early batteries might have been susceptible to moisture from floors due to leaky, porous cases, but for many years lead–acid car batteries have had impermeable polypropylene cases.^[443] While most modern automotive batteries are sealed, and do not leak battery acid when properly stored and maintained,^[444][445] the sulfuric acid in conventional "flooded" lead-acid batteries can leak out and stain, etch, or corrode concrete floors.^[446][447]