Amazing Myth

MYTH 1.

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| The Earth is orbiting around the Sun. The Earth doesn't orbit around the Sun, it actually orbits around the Solar System's center of mass, known as the Barycenter. Although this point often falls within the mass of the Sun, it can also be shifted by the pull of other larger planets. Therefore, at least some of the time, everything in the solar system is orbiting around empty space.

MYTH 2.| The tongue has different regions dedicated to different tastes. The tongue doesn't have different regions dedicated to different tastes. Every single taste can be sensed on every part of your tongue.

MYTH3. | Returning baby birds to their nests causes their mothers to reject them. Picking up baby birds and returning them to their nests will not cause their mothers to reject them.

MYTH 4. | Sugar makes you hyper. Sugar doesn't actually make you hyper, and the idea of a sugar rush is an urban myth. According to a recent study done by researchers at Yale University, the entire "rush" is a placebo effect that we get from believing that sugar will make us hyper.

MYTH 5. | Chameleons change their colors to blend into their environment. While chameleons often do change their color to match that of their environment, they do it in order to communicate.

MYTH 6. | Napoleon was very short. According to the average height of a French man, Napoleon was actually taller than the average.

MYTH 7. | Vikings had horns on their helmets. Vikings did not wear helmets with horns on them.

MYTH8. | Ingesting chewing gum will take 7 years to digest. It doesn't take 7 years to digest chewing gum. In fact, it can't be digested at all and will simply pass right through you as is. 

MYTH 9. | People with red and blonde hair are going extinct. Red heads and blondes aren't going extinct, they're just becoming more rare due to the world population increasing. In order for red heads or blondes to go extinct, every single person that carries that particular gene would have to die or not reproduce.

MYTH 10. | Bats are blind. Bats aren't actually blind. While some do use echolocation, they also have excellent night vision which allows them to see just as well as we see in the daylight

MYTH 11. | Life expectancy in the middle ages was low. Life expectancy in the middle ages wasn't as low as many people think. The average age was brought down due to high infant mortality rates, however, most adults lived well into their late 60s.

MYTH 12. | Fingers wrinkle because they absorb water. Your fingers don't wrinkle because they absorbed water, they wrinkle because your brain sends them a message to. While many people aren't sure what the exact cause behind the wrinkling is, many researchers suspect it's to improve our grip on wet surfaces.

MYTH 13. | The Coriolis effect changes the direction the toilet flushes. The Coriolis effect doesn't change the direction the toilet flushes, it only affects very large bodies of water. If your toilet is flushing backwards, it's because the water enters the toilet backwards.

MYTH 14. | The goldfish has a 3 second memory. While the goldfish doesn't remember things like us, their memory is capable to absorb much more than 3 seconds of information.

MYTH 15. | Sharks don't get cancer. Just like any living thing, sharks do get cancer.

MYTH 16. | Cracking your knuckles will lead to arthritis. Cracking your knuckles won't lead to arthritis. In fact, a doctor did an experiment on himself by cracking his knuckles on one hand every day for sixty years to see if it would lead to arthritis. In the end, it didn't and Donald Unger, the doctor, received the Medicine Prize from Ig Nobel Prizes.

MYTH 17. | Dropping a penny from the top of the Empire State Building will kill someone. Dropping a penny from the top of the Empire State Building will not kill anyone as the penny wouldn't be able to reach the necessary force to do any damage to a human being.

MYTH 18. | Fingernails and hair continue to grow after death. Fingernails and hair do not continue to grow after death, however the surrounding skin will start to recede which gives off the illusion that the nails are growing.

MYTH 19. | Dogs sweat through their tongue. Dogs don't sweat through their tongue since most of their sweat glands are located in their foot pads. While panting does help keep them cool, panting doesn't mean that they're sweating.

MYTH 20. | You are born with all of the brain cells you will ever have. You aren't born with all of the brain cells that you will ever have because your brain continues to grow and produce new cells in certain regions. This process is called neurogenesis.

MYTH 21. | The color of the mucus in your nose indicates whether you have a bacterial or viral infection. The color of the mucus in your nose doesn't have anything to do with indicating if you have a bacterial or viral infection as the color can vary due to a variety of different illnesses.

MYTH 22. | Lightning doesn't strike the same spot twice. Lightning can and does strike the same spot multiple times. In fact, the Empire State Building is struck up to 100 times a year.

MYTH 23. | Lemmings follow each other and commit mass suicide. Lemmings don't follow each other and commit mass suicide. This was wrongly created by a 1958 Disney documentary titled "White Wilderness," in which the filmmakers ran a pack of lemmings off a cliff in order to make an "entertaining" documentary.

MYTH 24. | There are people who have a photographic memory. There is no such thing as having a photographic memory. While there are people who have exceptional memories, they still can't recall events with as much detail as a photo taken with a camera.

MYTH 25. | The Buddha was obese. The historical Buddha was not obese, and the "chubby Buddha" or the "laughing Buddha" is a 10th century Chinese folk hero called Budai. In Chinese Buddhist culture, Budai came to be revered as an incarnation of Maitreya, the Bodhisttva who will become a Buddha to restore Buddhism after the teachings of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Guatama.

MYTH 26. | Jesus was born on December 25th. There is no evidence that Jesus was born on December 25th. The Bible never claims a date, but simply implies a date closer to September. The fixed date is attributed to Pope Julius the First because in the year 350 CE, he declared the twenty fifth of December the official date of celebration. The date might have been chosen to correspond with either the day exactly nine months after Christians believe Jesus to have been conceived .

MYTH 27. | King Arthur was a real person. While there are mentions in history of a person named Arthur living in England around the late 5th and early 6th century, there's never any mention of him being a king. He's mentioned in the 9th century Historia Brittonum as having taken part in a bloody battle at Mount Badon, and in the Annalaes Cambriae, but the 6th century writer, Gildas, who wrote about the battle, doesn't mention Arthur at all. He's also completely absent from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which is the best guide we have on the happenings of that time.

MYTH 28. | Witches were burned at Salem Witch Trials. The Salem trials in 1692 and 1693 were a terrifying affair, but despite the images of witches being burned, this didn't happen. What did happen is that, most of the 20 people who were convicted, were hanged. Many of those who survived were imprisoned. By that point in time, burning people alive was illegal in England and was also banned in the new American colonies.