Uphaa has a great post about 12 old wives’ tales that simply aren’t true (despite a lot of people believing them). Here’s my take on it:
1) Chewing gum and bubble gum take seven years to digest (False)
I never really understood how anyone could believe this myth. I mean if you think about it for a minute - where would it stay? Why would it stay for seven years and not metal (which I assume is harder to digest) or glue (which is stickier)?
So don’t worry - if you swallow gum it’ll probably be gone by tomorrow (providing you go to the loo).
2) The only man-made structure that you can see from space is the Great Wall of China (False)
If by space you mean “low-Earth orbit”, then yes, you can see the Great Wall of China - but you can see lots of other things too - the Giza Pyramids for example. If you mean the moon, you can’t see the Great Wall from there - sorry.
3) If you drop a penny from the Empire State Building, it could hit and kill someone on the street below (False)
A penny’s maximum/terminal velocity isn’t particularly high, so even if it was thrown off somewhere twice as high as the Empire State Building it would only do enough damage to hurt someone and possibly give them a few stitches (if they’re unlucky). Also, apparently on the top part of the Empire State Building, there’s an updraft and so a penny thrown off would get blown on to one of the ledges below - not the street/a passer-by’s head. Watch the video below (in the full post) to see this all explained.
4) Space is a complete vacuum with no gravity (Pretty much false)
The further away from an object (the Earth, for example) you go, the less of an effect it’s gravity has on you. However, there is always SOME gravitational force acting. Astronauts appear to be weightless as they are in “continuous freefall towards Earth” but staying high up due to their horizontal motion.
Space has atoms floating about, often they’re just quite far apart. Anywhere that particles are can’t be a vacuum.
5) Every few (seven) seconds, men think about sex (False - probably)
From an evolutionary standpoint, men should be thinking about sex every now and then, but seven seconds would be a bit too often. It’s pretty hard to measure these things anyway - but as far as we can tell, men think about sex far less often than that.
6) In your life, you only use 10% of your brain (False)
Thanks to MRI imaging, scientists and doctors have seen for themselves that we use a lot of our brains a lot of the time!
7) Because of the Earth’s rotation, in the south of the equator, water drains the “wrong way round” (False)
The Earth’s rotation isn’t strong enough to affect which way the water drains. A sink’s design may affect it though. You could also go somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere to check for yourself!
8] Animals have a “sixth sense” for natural disasters (False)
Firstly, during natural disasters many animals often die and there’s no evidence to support the “six sense” claim. Many animals have our senses, just more acute - this may make them aware of something bad happening before a normal human notices but that’s about as far as it goes.
9) A human’s mouth is less clean than that of a dog (Hard to tell - probably false)
Dogs have different oral-bacteria to us, so it’s hard to compare our mouths with theirs. Besides, think of all the dirty things dog lick and consider that most people brush their teeth twice (well. at least once - i hope) a day.
10) Lightning never strikes twice (False)
Sadly this isn’t true. It’s attracted to certain things - height and conductivity of something affect it’s chances of being struck by lightning, for example. The Empire State Building is apparently struck by lightning roughly 25 times a year. You might want to read a bit about lightning rods for an example.
11) Yawning is contagious (True, basically)
This is kind of true - if you literally mean that it’s contagious, then no. However we could well be inclined to copy other’s yawns (like chimpanzees).
12) Eating poppy seeds can make a drugs test show positive for opiates (True)
This urban legend is quite popular - it’s in a Seinfeld episode and has been tested by Brainiac (video below). Furthermore, it’s true!
One Comment
Some of those were really interesting - if I ever get a drugs test I’m going to eat poppy seeds before xD