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

[Syringer]

Here's my stunner of the day..Napoleon wasn't short! (allegedly)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...on#Napoleon.27s_height

This honestly just shocked me to no end for some reason, and is further proof reality can be a fickly thing..

 

[JohnCU]

bubble gum doesn't really take 7 years to digest

 

[Blueychan]

there was WMD in Iraq

 

[Epic Fail]

Spider can surf the web.

 

[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.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Syringer
Here's my stunner of the day..Napoleon wasn't short! (allegedly)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...on#Napoleon.27s_height

This honestly just shocked me to no end for some reason, and is further proof reality can be a fickly thing..

5'7", still shorty short shortishort!!!

 

[venkman]

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Syringer
Here's my stunner of the day..Napoleon wasn't short! (allegedly)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...on#Napoleon.27s_height

This honestly just shocked me to no end for some reason, and is further proof reality can be a fickly thing..

5'7", still shorty short shortishort!!!

Back then, that might have been considered a decent height considering.

 

[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.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Water flowing down drains in different directions in the Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere isn't true

 

[Lorax]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Water flowing down drains in different directions in the Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere isn't true

well, it's slightly true at least.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Lorax

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Water flowing down drains in different directions in the Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere isn't true

well, it's slightly true at least.

Well it's irrelevant enough that a bunch of other factors are much more important to determining the way water flows down drains and thus it can flow down either way wherever you are. Demonstrations locals put on for tourists at the equator are tricks.

 

[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.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Water flowing down drains in different directions in the Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere isn't true

!
NOOOO, my world has been completely turned upside down down.

+

 

[DangerAardvark]

This historical reenactment changed my life.

 

[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.

+

 

[QueBert]

Jesus not being white is a pretty big one, wonder who the hell is the dude in all the pictures we see of him?

 

[gar3555]

Zee goggles, they do nutting...

I always figured they had to do something, but alas...

 

[rocadelpunk]

yah i just learned within the past 3 months that the water doesn't flush other way in australia : (

 

[yhelothar]

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.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

Originally posted by: rocadelpunk
yah i just learned within the past 3 months that the water doesn't flush other way in australia : (

If you could call it flushing more like a giant blast of water shoving everything down the drain.

 

[venkman]

The fact that the PS3 is actually pretty cool and has a lot of neat games to play.

 

[Chronoshock]

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.

Wrong
http://www.time.com/time/2007/einstein/3.html

 

[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).

 

[JujuFish]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
-the earth isn't any farther from the sun during winter

Depends on which hemisphere you're in.

 

[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.