10 Biggest Misconceptions We Learn in School

[HUSKER 37]

10 Biggest Misconceptions We Learn in School

 

 

1) Einstein got bad grades in school.

 

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

 

 

 

 

2) Mice like cheese

 

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

 

 

 

3) Napoleon was short.

 

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

 

 

 

4) Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.

 

Edison invented a lot of things in fact hes one of the most famous inventors of all time but the light bulb wasnt one of them. What he did was develop a light bulb at the same time as the British man, Joseph Swan, who came up with it originally.

 

 

 

5) Lemmings throw themselves over cliffs to commit suicide

 

The poor old things are sometimes so desperate for food that they do, according to the BBC jump over high ground into water, but they arent committing group suicide.

 

 

 

6) Water flushes differently in different hemispheres

 

No it doesnt. Sorry!

 

 

 

7) Humans evolved from apes

 

Darwin didnt actually say this, but hes been misreported ever since. What he did say was that we, and apes, and chimpanzees for that matter, had a common ancestor, once, a long, long time ago.

 

 

 

 

Vikings had horns/helmets with horns.

 

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

 

 

 

9) Columbus believed the earth was flat

 

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

 

 

 

10) Different parts of the tongue detect different tastes

 

You do have different taste buds on your tongue and some are more sensitive than others. But they arent divided into perfect, easy-to-teach sections.

 

 

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Sort of off topic but I watched a 2 hour show on History Channel several months ago about the Kensington Runestone and some of the theories behind it. It was pretty interesting. One of the theories they talked about was the idea of Columbus discovering America. The show theorized that Columbus may not have "discovered" America but was instead told/shown how to get here by a relative who had some type of connection to the Knights Templar who in turn were told/shown how to get here by Vikings/Norsemen who used runestones as a way of marking a land claim.

[zoogs]

That sounds like a rather fanciful claim. And what of thinking it was India upon landing? (or is that a misconception too...ha!)

[VA Husker Fan]

You (or whoever wrote the piece) were actually taught in school about which direction water flushes in the southern equator? I've heard of all of these, but few if any of them were learned in school.

[huKSer]

You (or whoever wrote the piece) were actually taught in school about which direction water flushes in the southern equator? I've heard of all of these, but few if any of them were learned in school.

Its a misconception on the Coriolis Effect: fluids will rotate to the left ONLY if they are hundreds of miles across (oceans and atmosphere) when you are either south of the equator or if you will, in the southern hemisphere.