Before Google (or even textbooks!), many of us learned ‘facts’ that turned out to be hilariously wrong. For example:

• My teacher swore atoms looked like tiny solar systems (Rutherford model, we see you!).

• A neighbor told me lightning never strikes the same place twice—turns out, the Empire State Building begs to differ.

What outdated or quirky science myths did you grow up with? Bonus points if you later proved them wrong yourself!

P.S. If you’re a younger member, share myths your elders tried to sell you. Let’s debunk with dignity!

Catching a cold from getting wet.

Flu was a bad cold.

People could die of "old age"

The universe was once smaller than an atom then expanded.

Well it's not one I really believed, but my maternal grandfather once tried to con me into believing that the reason his dining room carpet used to gradually move anticlockwise so that it periodically needed straightening, was due to the Coriolis Effect.

And I think I did for a while believe that one about water swirling down the plughole in opposite directions in the northern and southern hemispheres.

11 hours ago, Olivia Chen said:

Before Google (or even textbooks!), many of us learned ‘facts’ that turned out to be hilariously wrong. For example:

• My teacher swore atoms looked like tiny solar systems (Rutherford model, we see you!).

• A neighbor told me lightning never strikes the same place twice—turns out, the Empire State Building begs to differ.

What outdated or quirky science myths did you grow up with? Bonus points if you later proved them wrong yourself!

P.S. If you’re a younger member, share myths your elders tried to sell you. Let’s debunk with dignity!

Shame on you

you've shattered my illusions if you are trying to tell me that the tooth fairy and santa claus do not exist.

If the latter who has been delivering my mail this past week ?

24 minutes ago, studiot said:

Shame on you

you've shattered my illusions if you are trying to tell me that the tooth fairy and santa claus do not exist.

If the latter who has been delivering my mail this past week ?

Oh no, I’d never mess with Tooth Fairy logistics. She’s got the best dental plan in the universe. 😉 But Santa’s mailroom? That’s between you, him, and the USPS tracking number! 📮🎅

(P.S. If you’ve got photographic proof of either, my inbox is open… for science.)

1 hour ago, pinball1970 said:

Catching a cold from getting wet.

Flu was a bad cold.

People could die of "old age"

The universe was once smaller than an atom then expanded.

Ah, the classics! ‘Don’t go outside with wet hair, you’ll catch cold!’ (Meanwhile, viruses: ‘Actually, we’re the real culprits…’). And don’t get me started on ‘old age’ as a cause of death. Turns out, time doesn’t kill us, it just helps 😅.

But the universe being smaller than an atom? That one’s true and still blows my mind daily. 🤯

So which myth do you miss believing the most? (I low-key still side-eye drafts near open windows…)

1 hour ago, exchemist said:

Well it's not one I really believed, but my maternal grandfather once tried to con me into believing that the reason his dining room carpet used to gradually move anticlockwise so that it periodically needed straightening, was due to the Coriolis Effect.

And I think I did for a while believe that one about water swirling down the plughole in opposite directions in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Ah, the Coriolis Effect, nature’s perfect scapegoat for misbehaving carpets and suspiciously rotating plugholes! 🌪️ Your grandfather was a genius. (Though I’d argue the real mystery is why any of us believed the toilet-swirl things, turns out you need a very still bathtub and zero interference to see it. MythBusters tested it and, well… RIP childhood wonder.)

So, confession: did you ever try to ‘test’ the hemisphere theory on vacation? 🧐 I may or may not have stared at a sink in Australia for an embarrassing length of time…

Just now, Olivia Chen said:

Oh no, I’d never mess with Tooth Fairy logistics. She’s got the best dental plan in the universe. 😉 But Santa’s mailroom? That’s between you, him, and the USPS tracking number! 📮🎅

USPS ????

For the past week or so the posties around here have been delivering dressed as santa.

It is some management iniative to promote the Royal Mail.

And furthermore Sunday last a whole posse of bikers in santa costumes rode up to the local hospital ro deliver their annual gift to the children's wing.

😄

Edited June 30Jun 30 by studiot

12 minutes ago, Olivia Chen said:

Oh no, I’d never mess with Tooth Fairy logistics. She’s got the best dental plan in the universe. 😉 But Santa’s mailroom? That’s between you, him, and the USPS tracking number! 📮🎅

(P.S. If you’ve got photographic proof of either, my inbox is open… for science.)

Ah, the classics! ‘Don’t go outside with wet hair, you’ll catch cold!’ (Meanwhile, viruses: ‘Actually, we’re the real culprits…’). And don’t get me started on ‘old age’ as a cause of death. Turns out, time doesn’t kill us, it just helps 😅.

But the universe being smaller than an atom? That one’s true and still blows my mind daily. 🤯

So which myth do you miss believing the most? (I low-key still side-eye drafts near open windows…)

Ah, the Coriolis Effect, nature’s perfect scapegoat for misbehaving carpets and suspiciously rotating plugholes! 🌪️ Your grandfather was a genius. (Though I’d argue the real mystery is why any of us believed the toilet-swirl things, turns out you need a very still bathtub and zero interference to see it. MythBusters tested it and, well… RIP childhood wonder.)

So, confession: did you ever try to ‘test’ the hemisphere theory on vacation? 🧐 I may or may not have stared at a sink in Australia for an embarrassing length of time…

I didn’t cross the equator until I was into my 30s. But I think I had by then realised that water in the N hemisphere doesn’t always turn the same way, i.e. in all plugholes. My grandfather was a civil engineer and liked to tease me because I was studying science at school. His chemistry terminology was Edwardian and flummoxed me completely. He would speak of “muriate of potash”, which at the time I had no idea was just KCl. He was an eccentric and entertaining man.

11 minutes ago, studiot said:

USPS ????

For the past week or so the posties around here have been delivering dressed as santa.

It is some management iniative to promote the Royal Mail.

And furthermore Sunday last a whole posse of bikers in santa costumes rode up to the local hospital ro deliver their annual gift to the children's wing.

😄

Well, this explains everything. Santa clearly outsourced his logistics to Royal Mail this year! 🎅📦 (And those bikers? Elite sleigh-team reinforcements.)

Tell your posties they’ve got my vote for ‘Best Festive Workforce.’ Though I do wonder… do they also handle Tooth Fairy deliveries, or is that a separate courier service? 🧚♂️🚛

45 minutes ago, Olivia Chen said:

But the universe being smaller than an atom? That one’s true and still blows my mind daily

No, the current thinking in Cosmology is the opposite. The universe is most likely infinite.

1 hour ago, studiot said:

Shame on you

you've shattered my illusions if you are trying to tell me that the tooth fairy and santa claus do not exist.

If the latter who has been delivering my mail this past week ?

That has been me

17 hours ago, Olivia Chen said:

My teacher swore atoms looked like tiny solar systems (Rutherford model, we see you!)

Rutherford actually never proposed that; it’s the Bohr atom. Rutherford paved the way with the idea that a lot of the atom’s mass was concentrated in one spot (presumably the center) but never really developed any aspect of the model with details about the electrons.

Since the Bohr model was superseded by QM, and people aren’t generally exposed to much QM (outside of those studying physics and chemistry) it’s not all the surprising to me that it’s such a common misconception.

I think a lot of these are accepted and perpetuated by people whose education was limited - it’s outside their area of competence and sounds somewhat reasonable and jibes with what they remember from grade school or high school or otherwise taught at a young age and it never got challenged. Like there only being xx and xy chromosome combinations, and that’s all there is to it, thus limiting sex and gender to two categories.

Anyway, one favorite is there is a permanent dark side of the moon, and another is that the moon is only visible at night. Others: the seasons are caused by distance from the sun, and there’s no gravity in space

4 hours ago, exchemist said:

Well it's not one I really believed, but my maternal grandfather once tried to con me into believing that the reason his dining room carpet used to gradually move anticlockwise so that it periodically needed straightening, was due to the Coriolis Effect.

LOL. I had an uncle who had me believing that you could get your brain scrambled standing right in front of a microwave oven.

1 hour ago, swansont said:

Others: the seasons are caused by distance from the sun,

Although, perihelion being early January, it does mean Oz has a bit more intense peak heat in its summers. The upside is that earth is orbiting faster around perihelion so the southern hemisphere summers are a little shorter. IIRC, the effects of distance and orbital speed mostly balance out and so overall insolation is roughly the same between the hemispheres.