Common Misconceptions Quiz
Many facts we picked up as children are confidently wrong, and some began with a single book or cartoon.
A misconceptions quiz with answers about the things people repeat without checking: animal myths, famous figures, science sayings and a history story that turned out to be invented.
Did you know?
- Old windows that are thicker at the bottom are often cited as proof that glass slowly flows. In fact, glass made centuries ago came out uneven, and glaziers usually set the heavy edge downward. Calculations show glass at room temperature would need far longer than the age of the universe to flow noticeably.
- Humans have more than five senses. Besides sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, the body senses balance, temperature, pain and the position of its own limbs, known as proprioception. Scientists count anywhere from about nine to more than twenty senses, depending on how they are defined.
- Mount Everest's summit is the highest point above sea level, but it is not the point farthest from Earth's centre. Because the planet bulges at the equator, the summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador sits about two kilometres farther from the centre, even though it is far lower above sea level.
Why misconceptions spread
A misconception is a belief that is widely held but wrong, and many are surprisingly old. They spread because they are simple, memorable and repeated by trusted sources, from parents and teachers to textbooks and films. Once a claim sounds familiar, people tend to accept it without checking, a tendency psychologists call the illusory truth effect. Correcting a myth is harder than spreading it, because the correction is usually longer and less exciting than the original story.
Myths about animals
Animal myths often come from a real observation stretched too far. Bats are not blind; most species can see, and many also use echolocation. Ostriches do not bury their heads in sand; they lower their heads to turn their eggs in shallow nests dug in the ground, which from a distance can look similar. Dogs do not see only in black and white either: they see blues and yellows but struggle to tell red from green.
Myths about the body
Several popular claims about the human body have no basis. People use virtually all of their brain, not just ten percent; brain scans show activity across all regions over the course of a day. Shaving does not make hair grow back thicker; a cut hair simply has a blunt tip that feels coarser. Sugar does not make most children hyperactive either: controlled studies in which neither parents nor children knew who had eaten sugar found no difference in behaviour.
How history myths are born
History myths often start with a single popular writer, artist or film. Marie Antoinette probably never told hungry people to eat cake; a similar line appears in a book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau written when she was still a child. Einstein did not fail mathematics at school; he excelled at it. Medieval knights in armour could mount horses and move quite freely, despite the image of soldiers lifted into their saddles by cranes, a scene made famous by a 1944 film.