Need some commonly accepted untruths/misconceptions

[Malak]

and there really is a God who listens to all of your prayers and performs miracles when he feels like it.

Proven true.

 

[feralkid]

It worked for me.
All those years in Minnesota I never got sick.
Soon as I joined the Navy and went down to Florida I got sick as a dog. Of course, it could have had something to do with being surrounded by pussies with no immune system. Weak people are germ factories.

Yet you are the one who got sick as a dog.

Your wimpy little immune system needs to toughen up.

See what bullshit looks like from the other side?

 

[mrjminer]

For Bell here is the report of the affidavit given in court from the patent examiner that he told Bell all about the details in how Grays patent application worked before Bell filed the final patent because he was in debt and Bell paid him $100
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Zenas-fisk-wilber-affidavit.png

So... let's go ahead and ignore the FACT that every court filing resulted in acknowledging the telephone was invented by Bell, that Bell denied ever having paid the patent clerk any money, and, of course:

Although Bell was accused, and is still accused, of stealing the telephone from Gray,[59] Bell used Gray's water transmitter design only after Bell's patent was granted and only as a proof of concept scientific experiment[60] to prove to his own satisfaction that intelligible "articulate speech" (Bell's words) could be electrically transmitted.[61] After March 1876, Bell focused on improving the electromagnetic telephone and never used Gray's liquid transmitter in public demonstrations or commercial use.

You could argue that Bell used Gray's water method in a proof of concept prototype, but the telephone as it was forever known and used, has never used Gray's method.

As for Edison:

On October 8, 1883, the U.S. patent office ruled that Edison's patent was based on the work of William Sawyer and was therefore invalid. Litigation continued for nearly six years, until October 6, 1889, when a judge ruled that Edison's electric light improvement claim for "a filament of carbon of high resistance" was valid. To avoid a possible court battle with Joseph Swan, whose British patent had been awarded a year before Edison's, he and Swan formed a joint company called Ediswan to manufacture and market the invention in Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison

Woodward didn't invent the lightbulb, he invented a method of using filaments, which was greatly improved by Edison, as Woodward's initial design would not be practical for making the light bulb widely accessible (or as practical). Sawyer's patent claim against Edison was deemed invalid by courts.The best of Edison's and Swan's light bulbs were combined into the conventional light bulb, but Edison's design was better, and he had been working on it longer than Swan (he merely did not get the initial patent first). Hence, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Swan did do a lot of other cool stuff, though, if I remember correctly from science class.

School textbooks aren't inaccurate on these issues, they merely don't acknowledge the failures of scientists' whose work got used only in prototypes and never in commercial versions of an actual public item -- and they give information based on court rulings. In other words, they don't cater to conspiracy theorists.

I would strongly advise NOT writing a college paper based off the ramblings of people in this thread -- AND not basing all of your information off of a wikipedia page (I did so in this post because this is the internet, and the information people cited from Wiki magically did not contain any of the information Wiki had that could be used to dissolve their arguments).

 

[Jeff7]

...
I would strongly advise NOT writing a college paper based off the ramblings of people in this thread -- AND not basing all of your information off of a wikipedia page (I did so in this post because this is the internet, and the information people cited from Wiki magically did not contain any of the information Wiki had that could be used to dissolve their arguments).

You mean ATOT isn't a legitimate source of information?

:'(

 

[SirStev0]

Put you and a water bear into orbit for a week and see which one dies first.

My evolved cognative thought would allow me to wear a space suit and pack some heat. Me: 1; Bear: dead.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

yeah but, what if it fell down their throat and...

well, it would still only knock out one of the lungs.

also, falling from the empire state building wouldn't enhance it much.

The obvious solution is to use a roll of pennies. Or a small sack. Really, if you want to whack somebody with coins you should be willing to invest more than one cent.

 

[yh125d]

I think deionized water is what is needed to stop electrical conductivity.

They're fairly similar, but yeah I should elaborate


Distilled water is as close as makes no difference really to being nonconductive, which is why its often used in water cooling. But you have to be careful, and after awhile it is possible that it can pick up enough ions to be conductive enough to short something, but this is rare

 

[gorobei]

tomatoes are vegetables.

people only use 10% of their brains.

dogs and cats are completely colorblind

 

[shortylickens]

Yet you are the one who got sick as a dog.

Your wimpy little immune system needs to toughen up.

See what bullshit looks like from the other side?

Yes I do, it looks like you.
Good job, sir.

 

[DrPizza]

That the flu shot/flu mist causes you to catch the flu.

That when you ignore air resistance & come up with the "ideal conditions" a projectile follows a parabolic path. Unless, of course, "ideal conditions" refers to a flat earth. A parabola is "close enough for all practical purposes."

 

[irishScott]

From the 10 Commandments, "Though shalt not kill" is really "Though shalt not murder" when literally translated.

 

[Locut0s]

That the flu shot/flu mist causes you to catch the flu.

That when you ignore air resistance & come up with the "ideal conditions" a projectile follows a parabolic path. Unless, of course, "ideal conditions" refers to a flat earth. A parabola is "close enough for all practical purposes."

LOL From what I can tell it's not even a killed or antenuated vacine. It's probably made from specific surface antigens of the virus. Which would mean it's physically impossible to get the flu from it.

 

[angminas]

That the flu shot/flu mist causes you to catch the flu.

That when you ignore air resistance & come up with the "ideal conditions" a projectile follows a parabolic path. Unless, of course, "ideal conditions" refers to a flat earth. A parabola is "close enough for all practical purposes."

Please don't lump the shot and mist together. The mist has live virii in it, making it much riskier for some people.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/flumist.asp

 

[Mike Gayner]

LOL From what I can tell it's not even a killed or antenuated vacine. It's probably made from specific surface antigens of the virus. Which would mean it's physically impossible to get the flu from it.

Flu mist (nasal spray) is an attenuated live virus, and AFAIK the injection is a killed vaccine. You cannot catch the flu from either of these.

 

[ShawnD1]

That electrons move at the speed of light through a conductor

Electricity travels at the speed of light. Electrons do not travel at the speed of light. Trying to explain this to someone is nearly impossible.


I should get my dad to post all the misconceptions about bears. He completely goes nuts and starts yelling when he hears city people say stupid shit about bears. They can't climb trees? They climb faster than humans can. They can't run down hills? Yes they can run down hills. Play dead? Bears are scavengers and they will gladly eat your dead body.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Electricity travels at the speed of light. Electrons do not travel at the speed of light. Trying to explain this to someone is nearly impossible.

Nah it's easy to explain to people. Electrons are like the water in a hose. The water flows slowly, and yet if we create pressure at one end we start seeing water flow at the other almost immediately, even if the hose is very long (as long as it's full of water all the time).

 

[Tsaico]

Flu mist (nasal spray) is an attenuated live virus, and AFAIK the injection is a killed vaccine. You cannot catch the flu from either of these.

I hear this one all the time. My theory on why people get sick when they go to get flu shots is because when they are in the same crammed room with lots of people, you tend to get sick from being exposed to so many things at once... to me it is not much better then being in an airplane and breathing the same recylced air.

 

[Mo0o]

Misconception: the blood in your veins is blue

 

[Fenixgoon]

Nah it's easy to explain to people. Electrons are like the water in a hose. The water flows slowly, and yet if we create pressure at one end we start seeing water flow at the other almost immediately, even if the hose is very long (as long as it's full of water all the time).

electricity is the flow of electrons (or holes). electrons have mass. things with mass cannot move at the speed of light.

the thermal and drift velocities of electrons are pretty fast, but they cannot exceed C. (typically around 10^6 m/s)

for the hose, the time needed for the water to flow should be proportional to the speed of sound in water, i think (essentially a phonon).

i'd need to see some rigorous proof to convince me otherwise

 

[ShawnD1]

I hear this one all the time. My theory on why people get sick when they go to get flu shots is because when they are in the same crammed room with lots of people, you tend to get sick from being exposed to so many things at once... to me it is not much better then being in an airplane and breathing the same recylced air.

Part of being "sick" is your immune system, not the virus. Having a cold virus is not why my sinuses get congested so bad that I can't sleep. Sinus congestion is caused by the immune system, and taking a decongestant like Sudafed fixes my breathing problems because it suppresses my immune system.

If you get a flu shot and you suddenly "have the flu", it's probably just your immune system. You're not really infected with anything, but your body still acts like you are. Give it a day or two and it goes away. I really don't blame people for thinking the flu shot makes them sick since that seems like a perfectly logical conclusion to draw from this. I wasn't sick before, then I got a shot, now I'm sick --> the government made me sick.

 

[Locut0s]

the thermal and drift velocities of electrons are pretty fast, but they cannot exceed C. (typically around 10^6 m/s)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_current#Drift_speed

According to wiki the drift velocity is actually usually very slow:

"
Electric currents in solids typically flow very slowly. For example, in a copper wire of cross-section 0.5 mm2, carrying a current of 5 A, the drift velocity of the electrons is of the order of a millimetre per second. To take a different example, in the near-vacuum inside a cathode ray tube, the electrons travel in near-straight lines at about a tenth of the speed of light.
"

 

[Cogman]

Early to bed and early to rise makes you healthy wealthy and wise.

Actually, some recent research has linked sleep deprivation with Alzheimer.

 

[Cogman]

electricity is the flow of electrons (or holes). electrons have mass. things with mass cannot move at the speed of light.

the thermal and drift velocities of electrons are pretty fast, but they cannot exceed C. (typically around 10^6 m/s)

for the hose, the time needed for the water to flow should be proportional to the speed of sound in water, i think (essentially a phonon).

i'd need to see some rigorous proof to convince me otherwise

Electrons have very fast velocities, near the speed of light, They do however, move very slowly down a wire (very slow drift velocity).

Speaking of which, Many believe that electrons are particles that orbit around the nucleus of atoms. The truth is that electrons are more nearly related to photons, in that they are wave particles (they can behave as both).

Some believe white light to be pure, and without color, the truth is that it is a composition of many colors.

 

[yhelothar]

Winter is the coldest season of the year.
Fall is equally cold.

 

[Cogman]

Winter is the coldest season of the year.
Fall is equally cold.

Not true in idaho. Average fall temps are around 50-40*. Winter temperatures dip to sub zero.

Generally late winter/early spring (Jan->Feb) is the coldest time of the year for idaho.