Historical/scientific "facts" that you've discovered aren't true..

[SlitheryDee]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
There is also that realization at some point in a person's life where you figure out that "history" (at least what you learn in elementry or high school) is as much propoganda as fact. The winner always writes the hisotry books and far too often people seem to take their accounts at face value. Even in recent hitsory, I rember when I first heard that the USSR killed way more Nazis than the USA did I though it was total BS, but looking at WWII the eastern from is FAR more important than the western front and yet all you hear growing up in America are D-Day and on (which occured after the war was more or less already decided).

There's my big one. History is mutable. Chances are, beyond the barest of facts like who won what battle or which person was at what governmental post when (and even not those possibly), historic events happened for either slightly or completely different reasons in either slightly or completely different ways than people commonly believe they did. Looking at history books from earlier times can give you an idea of how things are reinterpreted over time or "rectified" if I might use a term from Orwell's "1984".

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
There are a couple of ones that are obvious now but blew me away when I was a little kid. For example:

-rockets thrust doesn't need ground to push off of
-the earth isn't any farther from the sun during winter

There is also that realization at some point in a person's life where you figure out that "history" (at least what you learn in elementry or high school) is as much propoganda as fact. The winner always writes the hisotry books and far too often people seem to take their accounts at face value. Even in recent hitsory, I rember when I first heard that the USSR killed way more Nazis than the USA did I though it was total BS, but looking at WWII the eastern from is FAR more important than the western front and yet all you hear growing up in America are D-Day and on (which occured after the war was more or less already decided).

What? D-Day was important in the war. Without it, the War would have gone on until Germany beat Russia or vice versa.

 

[CallMeJoe]

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
What? D-Day was important in the war. Without it, the War would have gone on until Germany beat Russia or vice versa.

The western front was important in ensuring that the western allies had a say in post-war Europe. The Soviet Union had already beaten Germany in the east; it was just a question of how long it would take them to get to Berlin.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: CallMeJoe

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
What? D-Day was important in the war. Without it, the War would have gone on until Germany beat Russia or vice versa.

The western front was important in ensuring that the western allies had a say in post-war Europe. The Soviet Union had already beaten Germany in the east; it was just a question of how long it would take them to get to Berlin.

Without an invasion in the West the best veteran units of the German army could have been sent East and crushed Stalin.

 

[CallMeJoe]

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
Without an invasion in the West the best veteran units of the German army could have been sent East and crushed Stalin.

What makes you think "the best veteran units of the German army" weren't already there? Most westerners fail to realize how powerful the Soviet army was by 1944.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: CallMeJoe

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
Without an invasion in the West the best veteran units of the German army could have been sent East and crushed Stalin.

What makes you think "the best veteran units of the German army" weren't already there? Most westerners fail to realize how powerful the Soviet army was by 1944.

And most Soviet fanboys forget that the Russians wouldn't have been in any position to contest the Germans without the immense amount of war material provided by the US. Further, preparation for the D-Day invasion tied up hundreds of German divisions from France to Norway at a time when they would have been exceptionally valuable to the Eastern Front.

There is no way the Soviets could have defeated Germany alone. In fact, the Soviets owe a great deal to the Greek partisans who delayed the German invasion, though they'd never admit that Moscow would have fallen without that delay.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: destrekor

Originally posted by: her209
George Washington chopped down a cherry tree.
Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a key on it while it was raining.
Albert Einstein failed math.
Al Gore didn't invent the Internet.

And finally (drumroll please)

The plane doesn't take off.

The rumor was that it was raining? Benjamin Franklin DID fly a kite with a key attached to it. He did the experiment when a storm cloud flew over.

+

There is no real evidence he ever did that, although he apparenty did suggest it in a paper. In any case it was done first by a Frenchman.

Henry Ford didn't invent the car at all, not even close - I believed that until a few years ago.

Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telephone.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: astroidea

Originally posted by: her209
George Washington chopped down a cherry tree.
Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a key on it while it was raining.
Albert Einstein failed math.
Al Gore didn't invent the Internet.

And finally (drumroll please)

The plane doesn't take off.

Einstein failed math as a kid because he was too lazy to do all the routine homework they gave, even though he was a genius at it and probably aced all the tests.

No one has shown proof that he didn't do the routine homework. The story is just a story without some sort of evidence.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: CallMeJoe

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
Without an invasion in the West the best veteran units of the German army could have been sent East and crushed Stalin.

What makes you think "the best veteran units of the German army" weren't already there? Most westerners fail to realize how powerful the Soviet army was by 1944.

My historian friend claims that the Russian army only had one rifle per 3 soldiers, but they had TONS of soldiers. I don't necessarily know if that's a "powerful" army...

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Check out this book. It would be interesting to see a book along those lines published for every country.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
There are a couple of ones that are obvious now but blew me away when I was a little kid. For example:

-rockets thrust doesn't need ground to push off of
-the earth isn't any farther from the sun during winter

There is also that realization at some point in a person's life where you figure out that "history" (at least what you learn in elementry or high school) is as much propoganda as fact. The winner always writes the hisotry books and far too often people seem to take their accounts at face value. Even in recent hitsory, I rember when I first heard that the USSR killed way more Nazis than the USA did I though it was total BS, but looking at WWII the eastern from is FAR more important than the western front and yet all you hear growing up in America are D-Day and on (which occured after the war was more or less already decided).

Technically the Earth was further away from the sun during the summer (the opposite of what most people expect) than in the winter last year. The difference is negligible and does not influence the seasons at all, but it is a fun fact 😛

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Originally posted by: BrownTown
There are a couple of ones that are obvious now but blew me away when I was a little kid. For example:

-rockets thrust doesn't need ground to push off of
-the earth isn't any farther from the sun during winter

There is also that realization at some point in a person's life where you figure out that "history" (at least what you learn in elementry or high school) is as much propoganda as fact. The winner always writes the hisotry books and far too often people seem to take their accounts at face value. Even in recent hitsory, I rember when I first heard that the USSR killed way more Nazis than the USA did I though it was total BS, but looking at WWII the eastern from is FAR more important than the western front and yet all you hear growing up in America are D-Day and on (which occured after the war was more or less already decided).

We learnt that IN high school. Hell, anyone studying anything should know that. It's a basic necessity that you always need to take bias into account when considering anything. You never take sources at face value. Be it history or anything else.

That's why you shouldn't read history books if you want to learn history. Primary sources >> history books, and even those can only really be trusted if you have multiple sources for confirmation.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: destrekor

Originally posted by: her209
George Washington chopped down a cherry tree.
Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a key on it while it was raining.
Albert Einstein failed math.
Al Gore didn't invent the Internet.

And finally (drumroll please)

The plane doesn't take off.

The rumor was that it was raining? Benjamin Franklin DID fly a kite with a key attached to it. He did the experiment when a storm cloud flew over.

+

There is no real evidence he ever did that, although he apparenty did suggest it in a paper. In any case it was done first by a Frenchman.

Henry Ford didn't invent the car at all, not even close - I believed that until a few years ago.

Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telephone.

He flew it. But lightning didn't hit the kite

 

[Cogman]

OO, my list.

- Electrons can be treated as waves much like photons are (that one blew me away, just learned it fairly recently)
- Hot dogs really DO contain almost every meat known (Ok, Chicken, beaf, pork, turkey, ect. Not cat as far as I know 🙂)
- The ability to make some pretty dangerous stuff with common household products is more real then most realize. (Bleach + Vinegar.. mmm Cl2. Yeah chemistry)
- A lot of rocket fuel is mainly made of, sugar (IE, homemade rocket fuel)
- Professionally written books can contain TONS of errors (my chem teacher is pointing this one out to me. Our book has not just logic errors, but TONS of grammatical and spelling errors in it)

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: CallMeJoe

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
What? D-Day was important in the war. Without it, the War would have gone on until Germany beat Russia or vice versa.

The western front was important in ensuring that the western allies had a say in post-war Europe. The Soviet Union had already beaten Germany in the east; it was just a question of how long it would take them to get to Berlin.

Although it is still undeniable that the western front was important - the major diversionary tactics employed in the weeks leading up to D-Day forced the Germans to have a large number of troops in the west in an attempt to repel a beach invasion (even though counterespionage efforts had the Germans believing that the D-Day landing was to occur somewhere else). Had the Germans easily been able to take the UK, there would have been almost no "western front" and the Soviet Union may have been unable to break the eastern front.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: her209
George Washington chopped down a cherry tree.
Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a key on it while it was raining.
Albert Einstein failed math.
Al Gore didn't invent the Internet.

And finally (drumroll please)

The plane doesn't take off.

Ben Franklin did fly the kite. It wasn't struck by lightening as some elementary teachers may explain.

 

[CallMeJoe]

Originally posted by: AndrewR
And most Soviet fanboys forget that the Russians wouldn't have been in any position to contest the Germans without the immense amount of war material provided by the US. Further, preparation for the D-Day invasion tied up hundreds of German divisions from France to Norway at a time when they would have been exceptionally valuable to the Eastern Front.

There is no way the Soviets could have defeated Germany alone. In fact, the Soviets owe a great deal to the Greek partisans who delayed the German invasion, though they'd never admit that Moscow would have fallen without that delay.

Absolutely correct. I've always said Benito Mussolini was one of the greatest assets the Allies had in the war. Without his Greek adventure, and the resultant bail-out by the German army delaying the start of Operation Barbarossa, Moscow would almost certainly have fallen in 1941. Unlike 1812, the Soviets couldn't have fallen back and waited out the invaders because the rail lines the Soviet army relied on for troop transfers and resupply would have been bifurcated. Also agreed are the importance of the Lend-Lease supplies, and that the threat of the invasion was important in holding valuable Panzer divisions in the west. I still contend, however, that the invasion itself was far more important in reshaping post-war Europe than it was necessary to finish off the Axis.

 

[Eeezee]

Here are the little facts that blew my mind

- Some people still think the Earth is flat
- Some people still think that there is no gravity on the moon (I knew this when I was a kid - how else would astronauts fall back to the moon when they jump?)
- Many mathematicians commonly make algebra mistakes (it's true! But they are nearly flawless when it comes to calculus)
- Einstein won the Nobel Prize for the photoelectric effect (and not General Relativity)
- Some physicists think Feynman was smarter than Einstein (and that Feynman's contributions to physics had a greater impact - I think it's impossible to compare them)
- The 300 Spartans were really several thousand (but fought an impressive battle nonetheless)
- People living near Coal power plants are exposed to higher radiation doses than people living near Nuclear power plants (from Science, December 8 1978, check your local Science Library)
- Quantum Mechanics has numerous real-world applications that have been in use for decades (I always thought it had no applicability, boy was I wrong)
- I didn't think a president's administration could ever be as evil as Nixon's... until the Bush administration
- There's still a lot of bigotry in the Southern and Midwestern states (not just 'I don't want to hire a black guy' racism but the 'I hate all n***ers and f**ots' type of general bigotry). I thought for sure by the year 2000 we'd be over that bullshit.
- Halo was never a revolutionary game franchise (and neither were its sequels)
- Gears of War sucked

That's all I can think of for now.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: CallMeJoe

Originally posted by: AndrewR
And most Soviet fanboys forget that the Russians wouldn't have been in any position to contest the Germans without the immense amount of war material provided by the US. Further, preparation for the D-Day invasion tied up hundreds of German divisions from France to Norway at a time when they would have been exceptionally valuable to the Eastern Front.

There is no way the Soviets could have defeated Germany alone. In fact, the Soviets owe a great deal to the Greek partisans who delayed the German invasion, though they'd never admit that Moscow would have fallen without that delay.

Absolutely correct. I've always said Benito Mussolini was one of the greatest assets the Allies had in the war. Without his Greek adventure, and the resultant bail-out by the German army delaying the start of Operation Barbarossa, Moscow would almost certainly have fallen in 1941. Unlike 1812, the Soviets couldn't have fallen back and waited out the invaders because the rail lines the Soviet army relied on for troop transfers and resupply would have been bifurcated. Also agreed are the importance of the Lend-Lease supplies, and that the threat of the invasion was important in holding valuable Panzer divisions in the west. I still contend, however, that the invasion itself was far more important in reshaping post-war Europe than it was necessary to finish off the Axis.

I think that's undeniable. The invasion itself really wasn't necessary to end the war in Europe, just the impending threat of invasion.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Cogman
OO, my list.

- Electrons can be treated as waves much like photons are (that one blew me away, just learned it fairly recently)
- Hot dogs really DO contain almost every meat known (Ok, Chicken, beaf, pork, turkey, ect. Not cat as far as I know 🙂)
- The ability to make some pretty dangerous stuff with common household products is more real then most realize. (Bleach + Vinegar.. mmm Cl2. Yeah chemistry)
- A lot of rocket fuel is mainly made of, sugar (IE, homemade rocket fuel)
- Professionally written books can contain TONS of errors (my chem teacher is pointing this one out to me. Our book has not just logic errors, but TONS of grammatical and spelling errors in it)

Actually, you can treat ANY particle as a wave, not just electrons. A friend of mine works for a professor who does diffraction experiments (which you can only do with waves) with atoms and heavy particles.

There's a really good problem where you have to calculate how long it would take for a human to "diffract" through a door (it's something like several times the age of the universe)

 

[Jeff7]

Dark matter may not have to exist at all - MOND. 😀

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Here are the little facts that blew my mind

- Some people still think the Earth is flat
- Some people still think that there is no gravity on the moon (I knew this when I was a kid - how else would astronauts fall back to the moon when they jump?)

Ah, and I remember in 5th grade when someone asked, "How does the sun burn in space if there's no air?" and I was thinking, "Nuclear fusion. Duh? Doesn't everyone know that?"

- People living near Coal power plants are exposed to higher radiation doses than people living near Nuclear power plants (from Science, December 8 1978, check your local Science Library)

My physics teacher in high school (don't knock him, he used to teach at a university but got tired of it) said that some people who work in the nuclear plants get less radiation than normal because they spend most of their time inside a heavily shielded structure. How true? I don't know.

- Quantum Mechanics has numerous real-world applications that have been in use for decades (I always thought it had no applicability, boy was I wrong)

Sadly, a lot of people think that all high-end scientific research is utterly pointless. Of course, there was a day when researching interactions of electrons with magnetic fields was "useless" high science, but we wound up with CRTs capable of bringing I Love Lucy to the masses, and hard drives capable of serving up millions of Rickrolls.

- There's still a lot of bigotry in the Southern and Midwestern states (not just 'I don't want to hire a black guy' racism but the 'I hate all n***ers and f**ots' type of general bigotry). I thought for sure by the year 2000 we'd be over that bullshit.

Kind of sad, isn't it? "Your ancestors were from THAT chunk of rock over there, and you have more melanin in your skin than me, so I'm better than you!"

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Actually, you can treat ANY particle as a wave, not just electrons. A friend of mine works for a professor who does diffraction experiments (which you can only do with waves) with atoms and heavy particles.

There's a really good problem where you have to calculate how long it would take for a human to "diffract" through a door (it's something like several times the age of the universe)

That sounds like it might wind up making a bit of a mess. 😉

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
There are a couple of ones that are obvious now but blew me away when I was a little kid. For example:

-rockets thrust doesn't need ground to push off of
-the earth isn't any farther from the sun during winter

There is also that realization at some point in a person's life where you figure out that "history" (at least what you learn in elementry or high school) is as much propoganda as fact. The winner always writes the hisotry books and far too often people seem to take their accounts at face value. Even in recent hitsory, I rember when I first heard that the USSR killed way more Nazis than the USA did I though it was total BS, but looking at WWII the eastern from is FAR more important than the western front and yet all you hear growing up in America are D-Day and on (which occured after the war was more or less already decided).

The winner writes history is so true. If the US lost WWII, we'd be writing about how the evil US tried to stop the world from perfection or some crap like that. (Of course, we'd have to submit the written statement to the government before anyone else saw it).

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: Eeezee

There's a really good problem where you have to calculate how long it would take for a human to "diffract" through a door (it's something like several times the age of the universe)

Talking about 'tunneling'?

I remember some problem in my modern physics book that asked you to calculate the probability of a car tunneling though a speedbump - was something really really small like
2^-10000 or something.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: DangerAardvark

Originally posted by: venkman
Jesus wasn't....

No, I probably shouldn't finish that sentence since this thread could end up being interesting.

I'm going to go with:

-The story of Columbus in 1492 essentially being a complete crock.

-That there wasn't really a spider.

That's actually truer than if you had finished it.

Jesus was a real person, regardless of religion.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Eeezee
- There's still a lot of bigotry in the Southern and Midwestern states (not just 'I don't want to hire a black guy' racism but the 'I hate all n***ers and f**ots' type of general bigotry). I thought for sure by the year 2000 we'd be over that bullshit.

I have seen no less bigotry and racism in Seattle than I did in the middle of nowhere in Ohio. People are assholes everywhere regardless how much some people seem to love to paint the Midwest and the South as backward and ignorant.

ZV