mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
I haven’t challenged you guys in a couple weeks but I’m back with a good one. Every year at this time the media talks about Black Friday and describes it as the biggest shopping day of the year. But, as Snopes points out, this is a myth. It’s frequently not even in the top 5 shopping days in terms of dollars spent. So, this got me thinking about myths, misconceptions, urban legends, etc. And I’d like you guys to make us all a little smarter by sharing some that really get under your skin - or just ones you think are funny.
I’ll pick my favorite on Friday. Now go, make us all a little less dumb with your crazy knowledge!
Comments (42)
Comment
In The Magazine
“Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere …”
Although the imortalized Mr. Revere did ride with news of the pending invasion - he only carried the news a grand total of 19 miles from the lookout to Cambridge; and once there pretty much only told the local colonial leader. Israel Bissell, on the other hand, learned of the invasion simultaneously and upon being dispatched rode all the way to Philadelphia - or just over 300 miles - warning the colonial leaders of the coming invasion.
We can thank Longfellow for giving all the credit to Paul Revere … and thereby creating the myth of his rousing cry.
Facts are better than legends - legends fade.
posted by Ed on 11-28-2006 at 11:48 am
There are a ton of cooking myths I hate. The worst thing is, they are perpetuated by people who should know better: Chefs (particularly those on TV)
Sealing the meat:
This one says that “searing” the meat at the beginning of cooking (cooking all surfaces til brown, in a pan over high heat) will somehow “seal in” the juices. This is obviously wrong to anyone who takes a second to press the meat afterwards. Juices pour out.
I expect the mistake comes from the similarity between the words “sear” and “seal”.
In reality, the opposite is true, and the real reason for this high heat is to cause flavourful browning reactions on the surface, especially if the meat will then be cooked in a liquid, where the relatively low temperature won’t cause these reactions). These are called The Maillard Reaction”.
What really happens when you heat meat is that the proteins contract and squeeze the water out like squeezing wet a sponge.
If you overcook it, it’s toast (literally!)
But if you cook it properly, and allow it to “rest” at room temperature for 10 minutes afterwards, the proteins partly relax and allow some water to be reabsorbed. Juicy!
posted by mistercharlie on 11-28-2006 at 12:00 pm
to continue with Ed’s Paul Revere theme:
“The British are coming!”
If this is what Mr. Revere called out as he rode, people were probably very confused since most everyone in the colonies was British. Its more likely that he shouted “The redcoats are coming” or “The regulars are out”
posted by Dan H. on 11-28-2006 at 1:31 pm
I think one of my biggest ones is when people make a joke about a “virgin” birth and refer to it as an immaculate conception. The Immaculate Conception is the conception of Mary without the taint of Original Sin; the birth of Jesus is the Virgin Birth.
Common mistake and not a big deal (unless you’re uber-religious and easily offended,) but I’ve seen it books and plays used incorrectly and they should know better.
“Stinky Sue is pregnant?!? No way, it’s got to be an immaculate conception! Har har har….”
Not only is it wrong, it’s not funny, which I think is the greater sin.
posted by Lyssa on 11-28-2006 at 3:07 pm
Mythconception #515 Blind as a bat
The fact that bats are blessed with amazing echolocation ability doesn’t necessarily preclude decent visual perception. They “see” with their ears when it’s dark, but most can see just fine with their eyes as well when light is available.
posted by Tom on 11-28-2006 at 5:19 pm
You probably have to live in Florida to “get” this one, but the myth is that the city of Sarasota is “The Cultural Capital Of Florida” which is total nonsense. Yes, true, there is a small, struggling cultural scene here, but even a cursory glance at the city’s own newspaper’s Weekend Section shows that about 90% or even more of the events listed take place in Tampa, about 75 miles away, making the claim of “Cultural Capital” a local joke. This is no big deal, of course, unless you actually moved to Sarasota and bought a house there based on based on that “Cultural Capital” claim!
posted by Condoleeza on 11-29-2006 at 7:28 am
I don’t have any documentation to throw around on this, but I believe the War on Christmas is an urban myth. So many folks are complaining that they aren’t free to say Merry Christmas, or put up religious displays on their personal property. What? Who ever took offense when you wished them Merry Christmas? I believe it only happens in press releases and forwarded emails, not in real life. Most folks are happy to get a friendly greeting, whatever it is.
posted by Miss Cellania on 11-29-2006 at 11:59 am
Here’s one I often wonder about.
Do birds really explode if they eat the rice thrown at weddings?
I’ve heard that they do, and I’ve heard that they don’t, but I’m not about to go throw some rice on my yard to find out. Has anyone actually seen this happen? Have there been any scientific (and cruelty-free) studies on this effect?
So many questions…
posted by C.J. Carlin on 11-30-2006 at 11:29 am
When I was small, the big thing was to try and catch a bird, having been told that if you sprinkle salt on it’s tail, it cannot fly. Believe it or not there was a whole generation of little kids carrying salt shakers around and trying to inch up on a bird on the ground in order to make it flightless and catchable with the salt. I think it was some health nut’s idea in the 50’s to make children run around like maniacs getting exercise. In a last-ditch effort to prove it true, I used the rather vicious family budgie in a cage at our house. I threw salt into the cage onto his tail and then let him out. He flew around the room 3 times, evacuated his bowels on my shoulder, and took a chunk out of my ear.
posted by Cat E. on 11-30-2006 at 11:32 am
The rice thing isn’t true about birds so far as I know, but it sure did help out the birdseed people. However, alka seltzer pieces, when thrown to seagulls and other birds will cause them to bloat and if given enough, explode. They do not have the capacity to belch.
posted by DaddyCarlin on 11-30-2006 at 11:34 am
The urban myth that always gets me is the idea that the Great Wall of China is the only manmade object visible from the moon. After a moment’s thought, surely anyone could figure that if you could see the GWoC (at less than 10 meters wide) from the moon, you could also see roads, airports, cruise ships, and the Metrodome, right? Apparently not, as this myth refuses to die.
posted by Greg on 11-30-2006 at 11:58 am
One of my biggest knowledge pet peeves deals with the emancipation proclimation. It seems everyone thinks that this silly piece of paper freed the slaves, when if fact it did nothing more than bolster the morale of the northern forces. The north was getting tired of fighting, so Lincoln thought if he gave them a reason to fight, it would turn things around. So, he wrote the Emancipation Proclimation stating that slaves in the south were free. Since the south didn’t recognize the north’s right to boss them, it didn’t affect squat there. And the few union states that had slaves weren’t forced to free them until after the civil war. So, total number of slaves freed by the E.P. = 0.
posted by Ambra Taylor on 11-30-2006 at 12:05 pm
Eating turkey makes you sleepy because it contains triptophan.
If you eat enough, sure you get sleepy -because your stomach is full, but that’s it. The triptophan in turkey is not in the correct chemical form to cause the sleepiness reaction that people blame on it every year.
posted by Sara on 11-30-2006 at 1:59 pm
My pet “myth” is the idea that hospitals get busier, police get more calls, and folks at work act up when there is a full moon. There have been numerous studies on this - so far no one has uncovered a statistically significant increase (or difference) in the number of hospital admissions, criminal activities, or petty annoyances during a full moon.
posted by Jane Oakley on 11-30-2006 at 2:05 pm
“Magellan was the first person to sail around the world, proving the Earth is round.”
First of all, Magellan was killed in the Philippines, and never made it back to Spain. But even the rest of his crew didn’t “prove” the Earth is round. Absolutely anyone in the world who gave it a moment’s thought could find ample evidence of the Earth’s shape. We see ships gradually fall below the horizon. Eclipses always cast circular shadows. A flat earth would mean sunrise and sunset happen simultaneously everywhere. There are plenty of other reasons that one can deduce without the use of some fool in a boat.:)
Of course, even more grating is: “Columbus proved the earth is round.”
posted by Nick on 11-30-2006 at 2:15 pm
Turkey definetly doesn’t make you sleepy because it contains the amino acid tryptophan. By itself, this protein building block does nothing. However, tryptophan is a precusor to the monoamine serotonin which is plays a central role in the regulation of sleep. Theoretically, eating a ton of turkey leads to an increase in serotonin which will make you sleepy. I’m guessing this is where the myth originated. This is a great misunderstanding.
It’s far more likely likely that eating a ton of turkey (or a ton of any food for that matter) makes you sleepy because it activates digestion which is controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system. This division of your nervous system is associated with rest/sleepiness. When you are not active your parasympatheitc nervous system increases the rate of digestion compared to the lowered rate of digestion by the sympathetic nervous system when your body is experiencing an adrenaline rush or high levels of activity. I’m assuming this also works in reverse. Thus, if you eat a ton of turkey your body will need to increase the rate of digestion which will stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system leading to feelings of sleepiness. That feeling of sleepiness is not at all related to increased levels of tryptophan in your system.
posted by Biochemistry student on 11-30-2006 at 2:37 pm
I don’t have anything new to add, but I definitely second the Emancipation Proclamation: I alwayts teach my high school students that it was more of a P.R. move than anything. Lincoln said, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.”
About Black Friday: from personal experience as a retail salesperson, I believe that a study could show that it is the biggest shopping day by sheer volume of shoppers. Other days are bigger because big ticket items are bought at different times, but that day after Thanksgiving sees an AMAZING number of people out in the stores.
posted by Ross on 11-30-2006 at 2:41 pm
I hate the myth that sugar makes children hyperactive. As a psychology professor on the Cornell website notes, “Many controlled studies have been conducted to test this idea and failed to find any effect of sugar consumption on children’s behavior.”
Personally, I think my kids get a little hyper when I give them a candybar because they’re so darn glad to have a candy bar.
Also, the only way for chocolate to cause acne would be to rub it on your skin until it clogs your pores. That’s another annoying one.
posted by Steve on 11-30-2006 at 2:45 pm
There is a new movie about Marie Antoinette coming out. I would really like to see it.
Marie Antoinette never said, “Let them eat cake.” Historians have known better all along, actually, but it is still popularly believed that Marie, wife of Louis XVI and queen of France on the eve of the French Revolution, uttered the insensitive remark upon hearing peasants’ complaints that there wasn’t enough bread to go around. Not true.
The attribution is doubly erroneous in English, truth be known, because the word “cake” is a mistranslation. In the original French the alleged quote reads, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche,” which means, literally, “Let them eat rich, expensive, funny-shaped, yellow, eggy buns.
posted by Mike Landau on 11-30-2006 at 3:18 pm
Cat E., my dad used to tell me that, he said if you can sprinkle salt on a birds tail you can catch it. My brother and I never believed him, but he and his siblings believed their father and ran around with salt shakers after birds. LOL, I believe the theory they later learned was that if you are close enough to sprinkle salt on the bird’s tail you are close enough to catch it.
posted by Ellen on 11-30-2006 at 4:20 pm
I have a few!
If you shave hair it will grow back thicker.
I’ve never understood the reasoning behind this; shaving doesn’t change the hair follicle, it just cuts the hair at the skin. I think it’s possible that people think this because the hair does grow in a little stronger, because it’s brand new and hasn’t been worn down at all. But with time the hair will be just the same.
Adding salt makes water boil faster.
It actually increases the temperature at which the water boils, which in turn cooks the food a little faster. But if anything, it will delay the time the water takes to boil because it has to reach a slightly higher temperature.
If you start with cold water, rather than hot water, the cold water will boil faster.
Alternately, to make ice cubes, start with boiling water rather than cold water because hot water freezes faster.
These just defy logic.
posted by Liz on 11-30-2006 at 4:51 pm
Liz:
Yes, salt will increase the temperature that water boils at, but to increase the temperature any useful amount you’d not be able to eat what you cooked in the water - too salty. So this one is a double “it don’t make no sense a-tall.” Salt is just for taste.
Let’s see, the water has to cool off to room temperature AND THEN still cool to freezing, I don’t see why you think it wouldn’t be faster. However, making ice cubes with boiling water makes nicer (clearer) ice cubes, because some of the gases that make the bubbles in the cubes are boiled away. Of course, there are still bubbles, just not as many.
posted by Brian on 11-30-2006 at 6:10 pm
I love the myth (and what it says about our devotion to the idea of ’something for nothing’) that compells people to snap tabs off aluminum cans and save them to recycle. Years ago it was for free time on kidney dialysis machines. The National Kidney Foundation spent loads of time trying to debunk the myth with little success. The truly amazing thing though, is that so many people believed it that it eventually came true! McDonald’s started accepting them and recycling them. Now the proceeds are donated to the Ronald McDonald House. No amount of trying to explain that saving the whole can and not just the pull-tab would be more worthwhile recycling will stop this phenomenon! Check it out at Snopes!
posted by Amy Doyle on 11-30-2006 at 6:31 pm
I know not to give a dog chocolate, but my mother used to say not to give a dog candy because it would get worms. I finally thought about this and last year I asked her did it ever give her worms? Its just sugar! How does sugar give you worms??? I may be wrong, but I havent heard any documentation on this.
posted by Tracey on 11-30-2006 at 7:58 pm
I believe “Black Friday” actually refers to the day when retailers financially get out of “the red” and into “the black.”
(In accounting terms, operating at a loss is “in the red” and making a profit is “in the black.”
posted by MP on 12-1-2006 at 12:30 am
Every year for halloween we give out pop rocks (among other things), and every year I bring the leftovers to work. I always get a few people who are afraid to eat them because “Mikey died eating them while drinking Coke”… Total urban legend.
posted by Chris on 12-1-2006 at 10:51 am
To those who correctly pointed out the myth of the Emancipation Proclamation, bravo! Please also teach your students that the War Between the States was NOT a civil war, as it is incorrectly called. It was a war waged by the remaining Union to force the Confederate States of America to rejoin after their legal secession.
posted by History Girl on 12-1-2006 at 2:21 pm
My pet peeve is the myth that we only use 10% of our brains. Geez, that one just won’t die out!
posted by Red Jenny on 12-1-2006 at 3:33 pm
Re. Water boiling faster.
I am pretty sure that I saw Mr. Wizard episode as a kid that actually proved that hot water does freeze faster than room temperature water with an experiment.
posted by Caleb on 12-1-2006 at 4:21 pm
I have tried freezing 2 ice trays: one filled with cold water, one with hot (although not boiling hot as it would have wrecked the plastic tray) water. The hot water tray did in fact freeze faster than the cold water tray.
posted by Maria on 12-2-2006 at 9:12 am
Hi,
We Canadians don’t pronounce the word ‘about’ as ‘a-boot’.
Atlantic Canadians do say ‘a-boat’; which, coincidentally enough, we also use to fish in.
In central and western Canada, they pronounce it ‘a-bowt’.
I have to admit, though, that I do, on occasion, say ‘eh’ at the end of my sentences but just enough to propagate the stereotype.
posted by Jamie on 12-2-2006 at 11:07 am
Hot water loses heat faster than cold water so in the end it freezes faster. Many hockey teams use warm-to-hot water to make their rinks, both because it freezes clearer (so the lines, etc. can show), and because it freezes a bit faster.
posted by Chris on 12-2-2006 at 2:10 pm
What about the one that says yams and sweet potatoes are the same? So much confusion over a name! (If you haven’t heard this one, just type yams vs sweet potatoes into your favorite search engine.)
posted by Larissa R. on 12-2-2006 at 4:09 pm
The yam is the tuber of a tropical vine - often found in Latin and Caribbean markets whereas the sweet potato is the storage root of a plant in the morning glory family and it is grown in the U.S.
posted by Chris on 12-2-2006 at 7:46 pm
Back on the political track of myths such as Paul Revere and the Emancipation Proclamation. The most annoying myth, in my opinion, is that the United States was founded on the basis of Christian principles. This obvious personification of ignorance astonishes anyone who is well educated because of two very important factors.
1) The fact that the original settlers of this land came for religious freedom is true, but the real reason that the colonies were established was for economic reasons (tobacco and trade). These established colonies were obviously not trying to base everything they did off of religious pecepts and instead indulged themselves more-or-less in such “sins” as prostitution and alcoholism.
2)The writers of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were mostly “deists” that didn’t follow any mainstream religion and thusly couldn’t write a framework for a nation based on a Christianity when they themselves were not!
posted by Phillip Edwards on 12-3-2006 at 4:19 pm
re: the Emancipation Proclamation. It terms of morale move, it was indeed great for the North–and also for Southern slaves who heard about it. Talk about incentive to flee “masters!” Yes, it freed slaves only in areas in “rebellion,” and of course those areas did not recognize the proclamation. But it did inspire many slaves in those areas to flee to the North or areas under Union control, hence helping to free them.
As well, the whole issue of whether or not it truly freed any slaves comes down to how people view the war: as a civil war in which the South had no right to secede (and was therefore still bound by presidential proclamations) or as a war between two different nations after the South legitimately left the Union. The debate over the South’s right to secede will likely never die. Perhaps, then, students should be introduced to *both* sides and allowed to debate them & decide for themselves, rather than being taught one as gospel.
Rather than start another war, I won’t address Lincoln’s views on slavery. :)
posted by Erin on 12-5-2006 at 9:21 am
My daughter did the Hot v Cold water freezing experiment as a school project.
If you take two equal amounts of water, one boiling and the other cold or room temperature, and put them in the freezer, the container of boiling water will in fact freeze before the other container.
Why? While both containers will lose heat on their way to becoming ice, the boiling water will cool at a faster rate, i.e. it will release more heat than the container of cold water until both containers are just above freezing. At that point the the container that started with boiling water will freeze before the other container because it now has less water. It has less water because it lost all that heat through evaporation.
posted by Mik on 12-5-2006 at 12:34 pm
To Phillip:
There were two areas of colonies. The southern colonies of Virginia were indeed settled with the goal of bringing profits to its companies shareholders, but the colonies in Massachusetts were founded by Puritans who wanted to show mother England how a true god-loving society could (and should) function. The Charlestown community was founded by some the most literate and well-off middle-class members of English society. So many of these intelligent Puritans left England between 1630 and 1640, that Charles I then banned emmigration to America.
The Massachusetts colonies DID base everything they did on religion. The Puritans believed that every aspect of ones life should be weighed and judged based on wether it complimented or detracted from worshipping God.
Of course things changed a bit over the next 150 years, so by the time the constitution was written, the forefathers recognized that the government shouldn’t be controlled by a religious belief AND that religious belief shouldn’t be controlled by the government.
posted by mike on 12-5-2006 at 1:48 pm
Re: hot vs cold water boiling faster - I think the explanation by “mik” makes sense - once both are down to room temp, the originally hot water freezes faster because there is now less of it - makes perfect sense, so it’s easy to see where that particular myth came from. I think I just have to try it myself now.
These were all really interesting.
Liz
posted by Liz on 12-9-2006 at 10:38 pm
Praise God that the only educated person alive (you best hide becasue according to this genius every other educated person knows the truth) read this blog and sent in the rebuttal to the myth that all educated people know that the colonies were started on the premise of prostitution and alcoholism. If I could I’d thump brainiac on the head…dolt!
posted by Veronica on 12-19-2006 at 7:50 pm
The thing about boiling water also has to do with circulation. When the boiling water is put into the freezer, the vast temperature differences create currents within the ice cube. The hot water moves up to the top, chills, and falls down again. It’s the same concept as stirring your drink with ice cubes to get them to melt faster (and in doing so chill the drink faster.)
posted by Brent on 1-29-2007 at 2:12 pm
RE: Birds and Rice:
I had always heard this one explained that since the rice is not cooked, and the bird can in fact break up the rice when it eats it, that the problem lies when the bird then drinks water after eating the rice, as the rice will expand as it absorbs the water, thus distending their stomachs. /end runon
posted by Spanky on 7-1-2007 at 11:09 am