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There is nothing more human than being confidently incorrect. We’ve all been guilty of it, giving answers that are completely wrong, or casually citing statistics, facts, and figures that have no bearing on reality.
So one netizen wanted to set the record straight and asked the internet for its favorite often repeated fact that is actually false. People shared all sorts of information that might send you reeling when you realize something you’ve firmly believed as true is a lie. So get comfortable as you scroll through and be sure to upvote your favorites and comment your thoughts below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
That you can sweat out "toxins".
You liver and kidney remove toxins from your body. Your sweat glands are physically incapable of "removing toxins"
TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago
Also detox pills and such - complete useless (medical active coal aside)
RELATED:
#2
People in the Middle Ages thought the Earth was flat. The Greeks had already calculated the radius of the sphere with great precision centuries before.
Many of the “facts” on this list come from Hollywood scriptwriters who absolutely needed something to happen in a scene that wouldn’t work in real life. From CPR to deflators, a lot of emergency medicine doesn’t magically take a dying person from on the brink to breathing and talking within moments.
People also love a “gotcha!” story, hence the weird, ever-present insistence that Albert Einstein failed math, despite this being untrue. It does make for a great story, a misunderstood genius, an evil authority figure, and the idea that being “bad” at math is not a precursor to intellectual failure. Except, of course, Alber Einstein was by no means bad at math.
#3
There is no "24 hour waiting period" on a missing persons report. If someone is missing, even if its for just an hour, you can most certainly file a report.
arthbach 1 year ago
24 hours is a reasonable amount of time for a healthy adult who has gone missing in non-suspicious circumstances. It's far, far too long to wait if it is a child, a person with dementia, or with major health problems. The police will conduct a risk assessment, and use their judgment as to whether the person is indeed at risk, or whether they have 'gone off for a few days without telling anyone'.
#4
that life expectancy several hundred years ago was only 35 or so.
the average age was lower due to incredibly high infant mortality rates. however, if you could survive infancy/childhood, you'd likely live well into your late 50s or 60s.
#5
CPR is used to restart hearts and is quite successful. CPR is hugely unsuccessful and isn't used to restart hearts, it's used to keep circulation going until medication to restart the heart can be administered.
A defibrillator is used to restart hearts. Nope again. It's used to stop hearts that are beating incorrectly in the hope that when they restart they'll be beating all nice and proper.
Ranch Dressing 1 year ago
Defibrillators are devices that apply an electric charge or current to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat. If the heart rhythm stops due to cardiac arrest, also known as sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), a defibrillator may help it start beating again. From the National Institutes of Health
There is also a strange cottage industry around survival tips that are simply unhelpful, bizarre, or even dangerous. It seems like every single wilderness expert has their own suggestion on what to do if you see a bear, which of course also depends on the type of bear, the time of year, and, presumably, a host of other factors.
#6
Many people believe that eating carbs makes you fat. Carbs don't make you fat, overeating food does.
Gimme that Cash 1 year ago
Too much of anything will make you gain weight. Except water, ig...
#7
The structure of a wolf pack. Contrary to what most people think, there is no alpha, beta, ect. in the pack. Rather, the pack is made up of a family with the mother and father leading, followed by their cubs and later the families of their cubs. After a while the cubs break off from the pack to find their mates and will remain on their own.
#8
St Patrick isn't Irish. He's Welsh.
In a few cases, simple repetition of an outdated fact has done the trick. Once a piece of information is thoroughly embedded in the public consciousness, it becomes very hard to dislodge, it even gains a sort of mythological power where people repeat it, without being able to identify where they first heard it.
#9
Sugar makes kids hyper. It does not
Sewanee Citizen 1 year ago
People often confuse sugar with the events where all the kids are allowed to have it, like a birthday party. It's a party just for little kids! That's why they go nutty!
#10
It is a complete falsehood that if a penguin does not find love, it waddles off to die alone.
I was horrified when I first saw this, and since I couldn't find anything else on the internet about it, I reached out to Dr. Dees Boersma at the University of Washington and asked her about this claim.
She told me that she has 33 years of data and has observed pairings that have stayed together for as long as sixteen years. She also told me that penguins can get 'divorced' when not successful at mating, and that they will most likely will 'divorce' if not hatched. There is also a major gender skew of more males than females. If a male want a mate, he HAS to have a nest set up. Furthermore, females don't come ashore unless they are going to mate. So some females will skip breeding season if they are not in a mating mood.
For example, a female she studied had skipped pairing with her male for a year. The male looked for another mate didn't find one, and then the next year she was back with him. They do have emotions and they do vary in aggressiveness over a lifetime.
Furthermore, because there are many more males than females, a lot of males have never gotten mates. One of the penguins they've studied, "Turbo", a Magellan penguin, has not had a mate in 14 years and he keeps on trying.
So penguins do not, in fact, waddle off to die if they do not find a mate.
#11
That you eat 8 spiders in your sleep. You actually eat them mostly in your processed food, as the FDA allows a limit on things like peanut butter and tomato soup.
But some border on absurd, for example, the fact that undercover cops have to tell you. Besides the fact that this would make the entire point of being undercover useless, it’s probably a good idea to understand that the police can and will lie to people during the course of an investigation. Hence why it’s always best to lawyer up.
#12
The best way to escape a bear is to run down hill. You may get faster running down hill, guess who else does too?
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
The best way to escape a bear is to outrun your hiking buddy.
#13
> *1. Rabbits love to eat carrots.* Eating carrots can actually make rabbits sick because of their high sugar content. Rabbits mainly should only eat hay and/or grass. > *2. George Washington died of a cold.* George Washington was diagnosed with a cold, but actually he was suffering from a severe infection called “epiglottitis.” > *3. Dogs only see in black, white and gray.* Dogs are dichromial animals, so while they recognize fewer color differences than humans, who are trichromial, they still see a variety of actual colors. > *4. The red liquid coming from a steak is blood.* The liquid dripping out of a steak is mostly myoglobin, which is a binding protein found in muscle tissue. > *5. Searing meat seals the moisture in the meat.* Searing meat may cause it to lose more moisture in comparison to an equivalent amount of cooking without searing. Generally, the value in searing meat is that it creates a brown crust with a rich flavor. > *6. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was five years old.* “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” was not composed by Mozart. He only composed variations on the tune, and then at the age of 25 or 26. > *7. Jesus was born on December 25.* The Bible never claims December 25 as the birth date of Jesus but may imply a date closer to September. The fixed date is attributed to Pope Julius the First because in the year 350 CE he declared the 25th of December the official date of celebration. > *8. The black belt in martial arts indicates expert level or mastery.* The black belt in martial arts indicates high competence, but it does not necessarily indicate expert level or mastery. > *9. The oxygen we breathe comes from trees.* The oceans are responsible for 70% of the oxygen that we breathe, and it mostly comes from phytoplankton. > *10. The pyramids in Egypt were built by slaves.* Egyptian pyramids were built by workers, most likely paid workers.
In some rare cases, these facts were spread as disinformation and have simply managed to survive any scrutiny. This is why lists like this are useful, as it helps reset all the incorrect facts we might each be carrying around. So if you would like to investigate some more of Bored Panda’s actually false fact lists, look no further.
#15
The food pyramid. It was lobbied into what we grew up on by the food industry, having plenty of grain. I mean, come on, grain is not more necessary than vegetables and fruit.
Gimme that Cash 1 year ago
Yup! Protein ( amino acids) is essential for cell growth and repair of damaged tissues, Carbs (glucose) are sources of fuel. Fruit and veggies are a good source of vitamins and minerals and contain dietary fibers that prevents constipation by providing bulk to stool and softening it. Not one is less important the the other (don't consume too much sugar, even though they are sources of energy, there is little nutritional benefit)
#16
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."
This originated as an ad campaign to sell breakfast cereal.
Aaron Parker 1 year ago
Whenever I eat anything substantial within a couple hours of waking up it makes me nauseated and feeling bloated all day. So yeah, I've never liked this saying or believed it to be true for my body at least.
#17
That we only use 10% of our brain and if we could use 100% we'd all be super geniuses or something.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
I was just listening to something about this the other day. What sparked it was brain scans done on a man who only had about 10% of his brain, the rest of his skull was empty. So it was reported that your brain can still function (this guy had no signs of neurological issues otherwise) with that little brain. Years later someone read this, misunderstood, and spread it that we only use 10%. Then of course sci-fi took that idea and ran with it.
#18
The whole tongue map thing. You don't have parts of the tongue that only react to a specific taste.
#19
While dining, the ancient Romans did not ritualistically eat so much that they had to interrupt eating to go vomit. An entranceway to a stadium of that time was called a *vomitorium* and had nothing to do with dining. I have seen this "fact" in at least two children's history books and I have no idea how or why some historian came up with this weird claim.
Speaking of eating, those fat "Buddha" statues and depictions you see in some Asian restaurants are not the historical Buddha (who founded Buddhism and was not obese). They are *Budai*, a 10th-century Chinese folk hero, who eventually became a buddha himself.
Vix Spiderthrust 1 year ago (edited)
I mean, they came up with it because it sounds like something you'd do in a vomitorium. They were just too lazy to check. And a vomitorium was actually so-named for being an *exit* from a stadium - it's where the people spewed out after the show. So the vomiting is there, but it's metaphorical.
#20
Eating carrots doesnt actually improve your night vision. This was a disinformation campaign carried out by the British in WWII to keep the Germans from discovering that they invented radar. Pretty funny/obvious once you stop and think about it.
#21
That Pearl Harbor was the only attack on US soil during WWII.
In fact, the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor and invaded the Aleutian Islands. There were also U-boat attacks on the West Coast and German spies who landed via U-boat on the East Coast. None of these were particularly consequential in the grand scheme of things though, so they were forgotten.
TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago (edited)
There were also balloons equiped with incendiary bombs that were send from Japan eastwards by using high winds, with at least one case being known to be successful
#22
Microwaves and cell phones cause cancer from "radio waves".
The visible light spectrum has more energy than any of the waves coming from your microwave or cell phone. Both microwaves and cell phones do not emit ionizing radiation. However, humans do! :D
#23
If you're undercover and a cop you have to tell me
WonderWoman 1 year ago
Cops can and do lie to you to get you to tell them information. When they are questioning you, they are not on your side and are not your friend.
#24
Blood isn't blue in your veins. It's definitely still red. Just darker.
Gimme that Cash 1 year ago
Most veins transport deoxygenated blood, which is darker as compare to oxygenated blood.
#25
Sharks aren't actually as dangerous as people make them out to be. I mean, I wouldn't recommend you hug one, nor would I recommend you suddenly act casual around them like they are buds, but it won't come and eat you just because you are there. They have a pretty fine diet, and only really eat anything outside of their diet if they are starving (which is rare).
The only time they will attack outside of feeding, is when they feel you are a threat, or when provoked, and are usually fended off pretty easily by hitting them on the snout/eyes.
Shark Lady 1 year ago
They investigate things with their mouths and will often take an exploratory bite, unfortunately humans are quite delicate so we will potentially lose limbs or our lives. Bull sharks are a******s though, you should definitely stay away from them, they have the most testosterone in the animal kingdom and it makes them kinda grumpy.
#27
That daddy longlegs are the most venomous spiders in the world, but their fangs just aren’t big enough to spread enough venom
#28
The mantis shrimp can't see a million zillion colors, earlier researchers made an assumption that their cones worked in the same way as our three do (color opponency). The Oatmeal and a few others didn't know how to differentiate assumption from fact and popularized this idea of a hyperaware shrimp. Extensive studies since then have disproved their color discrimination magic because, surprise, their retina is built differently.
I think their onepunchman strength is still valid though
Marcellus II 1 year ago
The eye has evolved so many times independently, it's almost as if it's a very useful bodypart.
#29
The myth that Titanic was in any way badly designed, badly built, or badly operated by the standards of the time. In fact there are so many ridiculous inaccuracies surrounding Titanic that it's hard to list even a fraction of them here...
* She was an incredibly seaworthy ship - much more so than any passenger ship around today. The iceberg tore a gash almost a third of the way down her side, and she still stayed afloat for more than two hours!
* In that time, all but two of her lifeboats were launched - there wasn't time to launch any more. She could have had a hundred more lifeboats on board, but that wouldn't have helped without vastly more crew to operate them.
* Titanic's passengers genuinely did believe that she was practically unsinkable. When the time came to begin loading the lifeboats, many thought they would be safer staying on Titanic. There wasn't time for the crew to wait around convincing more people to get in, so when a lifeboat was ready, if there was no-one else waiting to get in, it had to go. This is why so many of Titanic's lifeboats left only half-full - the crew weren't worried about over-filling them.
* Titanic wasn't travelling too fast for the conditions - by the standards of practice around at the time. Further precautions were put into practice after the incident, but no-one on board can be blamed for doing what anyone on any ship would have done the same.
* Titanic was by no means a fast ship - nor was she ever intended to be. The White Star Line (Titanic's owners) were in competition with one other big shipping line, Cunard. Cunard's liners (Mauretania, Lusitania and later Aquatania) were the fastest in the business. To combat this, instead of fighting for speed, White Star decided to try to make their liners the most luxurious in the world. Olympic and Titanic were famed for their splendour and comfort - passengers said that it was easy to forget that you were at sea, as there were very few vibrations from the engines, and the ships remained stable even in fairly rough seas. By comparison, Cunard's liners were very fast, but their quadruple-screw configuration made vibration more apparent. It's a myth that Titanic was ever trying to make record-breaking speed across the Atlantic.
* She wasn't built using sub-standard materials. This rumour goes around a lot these days because of an article that was written some time ago - what the article is supposed to mean is that there is much better quality steel available today. This was not the case in 1909. Additionally, Titanic's builders were paid on a fee plus materials basis - they were given a set fee to construct the ship, plus the cost of *all* materials used. There was no incentive to use anything but the best steel they could get their hands on. The shipyard had an excellent reputation and would not risk tainting it by using bad steel, which could easily be noticed on inspection anyway.
* Titanic and her two sister ships Olympic and Britannic were also surprisingly manoeuvrable for their size - much more so than was expected. Some will tell you that Titanic's rudder was too small, but this simply isn't true. In fact, Olympic's wartime captain marvelled at her manoeuvrability, and was even able to throw her into a sudden turn, ramming (and sinking) a German U-boat. Olympic was the only merchant vessel throughout the First World War recorded to have sunk an enemy vessel.
* While it's true that the lookouts' binoculars were misplaced (or rather, locked away in a cabinet that no-one on board had the key to open), this made no difference to Titanic's fate. The images of sea captains and pirates scanning the horizon through telescopes, while common in films, has virtually no stead in reality. Binoculars and telescopes narrow your field of vision down to a fine point, making it harder to spot anything. Lookouts on real ships will use their eyes alone to search for objects of interest, and once they've been spotted, will use a set of binoculars to further inspect it. Titanic's lookouts would not have been using their binoculars to search for iceberg even if they'd had them.
* Third class passengers were never trapped below decks - the big metal gates you might remember from the film never even existed. The only time passengers were kept below decks was near the beginning of the disaster, when the officers needed time to prepare the lifeboats. First and second class passengers were allowed on deck, but as there were so many more third-class passengers the crowd was asked to stay below for a short while, until the officers were ready to start loading lifeboats. No-one was ever locked up. In fact a higher percentage of third-class males survived the sinking than second-class males.
* Titanic was the largest ship in the world, but not by much - her older sister Olympic was identical in almost every way. A few changes to Titanic's layout (including the covering up of some promenade decks, making them count as interior space) made her technically larger, but both ships were exactly the same length, breadth and height. Olympic had a GRT (gross registered tonnage) of 45,324 gross register tons. Titanic's GRT was some 1,000 tons greater. After the disaster, Olympic received a refit, after which her GRT was up to about 30 more than Titanic's had been. But Titanic's younger sister, Britannic, which was launched after the disaster and had been modified during construction as a result of it, was about 2 feet wider than her sisters and had a GRT more than 2,000 tons greater than Titanic's.
* White Star Line's owner, Bruce Ismay, likely had nothing to do with the incident. Another myth popularised by the film is that Ismay had convinced Captain Smith to sail faster and try to get to New York in record time. He's also portrayed as a bumbling idiot, and sneaks onto a lifeboat when the officers aren't looking. While we'll never know whether or not Ismay really did discuss Titanic's schedule with Smith, it's incredibly unlikely - Smith was looking to retire after commanding Titanic, had an extremely good reputation, and was a much-loved public figure. Passengers scrambled to sail on a ship under his command. He is unlikely to have been swayed to make rash decisions based on Ismay's need for Titanic to make headlines. Ismay himself played an active role during the sinking, helping passengers into lifeboats and doing what he could where possible (one officer recalled telling him to get out of the way as he was making a nuisance of himself by getting involved, but testified that he was trying to help). Ismay stepped into an empty spot on one of the last boats to leave the ship, just as it was preparing to lower. He didn't take anyone else's space. Unfortunately the media needed a scapegoat, and he was the highest-ranking official to survive the disaster. He adopted a secluded lifestyle after the disaster, funding several naval charities but otherwise staying out of the public eye.
* Higher watertight compartments or compartments sealed at the top would not have saved the ship - Most people could tell you that Titanic sunk because the weight of the water in the foremost watertight compartments pulled the bow down, allowing the water to spill over the top into more compartments, and so-on throughout the ship. But had Titanic's watertight bulkhead walls run all the way to the top deck, she might actually have sunk faster - with so much water contained in the front third of the vessel, she would have begun to tilt forwards much earlier, and possibly have broken in two sooner than she did. Sealing the tops of the bulkheads to prevent water from spilling over is actually illegal, and still is today. The International SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) Regulations state that no civil (non-military) vessel can have any obstruction above watertight compartments that could impede a passenger's escape. The bottom line is that Titanic was damaged beyond her specifications, and was doomed from the moment she hit the iceberg.
* "Full Astern" - There's a belief (popularised by the film) that Titanic's engines were thrown full astern on sighting the iceberg, and that this may have hindered her ability to turn away from it. This rumour started because of evidence given by the fourth officer, who who wasn't even on the bridge at the time of the collision. The only survivor who was present was the quartermaster, but from his position in the wheelhouse he couldn't see the commands sent to the engine room on the bridge telegraphs. Survivors from the engine room and the boiler rooms attested that the command was "stop" rather than "astern". Whoever you choose to believe, when you think about the timescale it really makes very little difference. There was less than 40 seconds between the iceberg sighting and the collision - and in that time, the lookouts had to ring the bell, pick up the phone, wait for 6th officer Moody to enter the wheelhouse and answer it, and alert him to the iceberg; then, Moody relayed that order to the most senior officer on the bridge (1st Officer Murdoch); Murdoch ordered the turn to port, then crossed to the telegraph to send the order to stop. Try acting that out in real time, and work out how long the engineers had to act on the "stop" order - not long enough. There's a really good article explaining exactly what went on in the engine rooms [here]( http://www.uco.es/~ff1mumuj/titanic1.htm); this goes into a lot more detail than I can, and comes to the same conclusions. Long story short - there wasn't even enough time to stop the engines, let alone put them in reverse. Slowing down or keeping full-ahead would have had no difference, as the turning circle stays the same. Leaving the starboard engine running may have turned Titanic's bow away from the iceberg, but it would have made it more difficult to keep the stern away.
#30
You see this in the media a lot. That a heart attack is the same as cardiac arrest. It's not. In order for a body to function normally, blood needs to flow to the cells to drop off oxygen and nutrients and take away waste products. If that process stops, the cells begin to starve, fill up with waste and die. The blood travels through arteries in the heart just like most other places in the body. A heart attack is when one or more of those arteries are blocked and the heart tissue starts to die from starvation. If enough cells die, the entire organ dies. A cardiac arrest is when the entire heart fails to pump normally. Resulting in that blood flow stopping throughout the entire body. Not just the heart. There are several causes of cardiac arrest. One of them being a major heart attack that kills enough of the heart muscle. But you can have a cardiac arrest from having a multitude of medical problems. From a burst blood vessel in your brain to a blocked blood vessel in your lungs and even losing enough blood or having a huge systemic infection. These are the people who need CPR. Edited for over simplification and clarity.
Lesbiancats 1 year ago
Heart attack is a plumbing issue, cardiac arrest is an electrical problem. (from my nursing program lol)
#31
That a soul has weight (specifically 21 grams).
The study that this is based on only tested 6 people. One out of the six lost weight at death and only at death. The rest of the patients either had multiple fluctuations, not just at death, or had no change at all. The researcher even said that more studies would need to be done, yet for some reason many people now think that a soul weighs 21 grams.
Paul Pienkowski 1 year ago
I'm Catholic. I've considered the soul to be something spiritual. We can't feel or measure it. It's beyond such things.
#32
There were two that used to get circulated in chain emails back in the day. I haven't seen it in a while, so maybe its gone, but:
A Pregnant Goldfish isn't called a "Twit." For one, Goldfish don't get pregnant; They lay eggs. Secondly, there isn't a record before 1990 or so of anyone saying this.
Second, a duck's quack does indeed echo. I suspect it was also just made up at some point, but there isn't anything special about a duck that makes it break the laws of physics.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
There is a tv show called Duck quacks don't echo where they explained that this was a myth
#33
Saturated fat causes heart disease. This is a common misconception based on Ancel Keys's Seven Countries Study from 1961, where he cherry picked data from seven of the 20ish countries he studied, and constructed a trendline that illustrated the narrative he believed: that we are more likely to get heart disease with the more saturated fat we consume.
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