TOP 10 COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

Discover the truth behind the world’s top 10 most common misconceptions — from Napoleon’s height to the myth about humans evolving from monkeys. Bust myths with facts now!

NAPOLEON WAS UNUSUALLY SHORT

Much of the reason for the rumors that Napoleon was a short man (and thus had to compensate by invading countries and becoming ruler of Europe) comes from the confusion between old French feet and Imperial (British) feet. Measured shortly after his death in 1821, Napoleon was recorded at five feet, two-inches in French feet, which corresponds to five-feet, six-and-a-half inches in Imperial feet. This makes him slightly taller than the average Frenchman of the nineteenth century. Napoleon’s nickname of “le petit caporal” has also perpetuated the rumor, with non-francophones interpreting “petit” to refer to his height, when it was actually a term of affection referring to his camaraderie with ordinary soldiers.

DANISH PASTRIES COME FROM DENMARK

Arguably the world’s most misleadingly named food, Danish pastries actually originated in Austria and were inspired by Turkish baklava. Their name comes from Danish chef L. C. Klitteng who popularized them in Western Europe and the United States in the early twentieth century, including baking them for the wedding of President Woodrow Wilson in 1915. In Denmark and much of Scandinavia, Danish pastries are called “Viennese Bread.”
During the Islamic cartoon controversy of 2006, Danish pastries were renamed “Roses of the Prophet Muhammad” in Iran due to their association with the offending country.

METEORITES ARE HOT WHEN THEY HIT EARTH

We’ve all seen the cartoons where a meteor falls to Earth (at which point it becomes a meteorite) with a red-hot tinge and smoke blowing off it in all directions. In truth, small meteorites are cold when they hit Earth; in fact, many are found with frost on them. A meteorite has been in the near-absolute zero temperature of space for billions of years, so the interior of it is very cold. A meteor’s great speed is enough to melt its outside layer, but any molten material will be quickly blown off, and the interior of the meteor does not have time to heat up because rocks are poor conductors of heat. Also, atmospheric drag can slow small meteors to terminal velocity by the time they hit the ground, giving them time to cool down.

WATER SPINS IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS

Toilet water does not spin in a given direction due to being in a particular hemisphere of Earth. That phenomenon only occurs in weather patterns of hundreds of miles in size, like hurricanes, due to the rotation of Earth.

BATS ARE BLIND

A common misconception perpetuated by its use in metaphors and similes (see also number five), bats actually have fairly normal eyesight, although they are very photosensitive and often dazzled by excessive light. However, bats do often use echolocation in situations where their eyesight fails them, such as times of darkness.

CHAMELEONS CHANGE COLOR TO MATCH THEIR SURROUNDINGS

An interesting and fun idea, sure, but simply not true. While chameleons can be perceived to change their color to match their background, a chameleon’s color change is actually the expression of the physical and physiological condition of the lizard. Chameleons are already naturally camouflaged to match their surroundings and change their colors depending on their mood and sometimes as a sign of communication. A chameleon that is frightened, for example, will turn black.

A DUCK’S QUACK DOESN’T ECHO

Sounds ludicrous, right? Well, this rumor somehow worked up a cult following on the Internet, where people protested its factuality with an almost religious fervor. It got to the point that a respected scientist actually decided to take valuable time out of his day, when he could be curing cancer or something else unimportant, to test this theory. Trevor Cox, of the University of Salford, England, confirmed what all us logical people knew all along: a duck’s quack does echo.
He placed a duck in a reverberation chamber and tested its quack. Sure enough, he concluded that a duck’s quack does echo, though the sound that comes back is very soft due to the fading nature of the actual quack. Hooray for science.

HITLER WAS AN ATHEIST

“We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have, therefore, undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.” —Adolf Hitler, Berlin, 1933
One of the most damning criticisms of Hitler and of atheism in general is that Hitler, as an atheist, had no morals and thus could kill freely without care or feeling. Well, Hitler was certainly not an atheist; he was born a Roman Catholic, although how religious he actually was is debatable. It is clear though that Hitler was an evil man and that his religion was irrelevant to his malevolent personality.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote fondly of his experiences in church festivals, and as leader of the Nazi party, he made many references to the glory of Christianity in his speeches. He adopted many aspects of Catholic hierarchy, liturgy, and symbolism, though he was very critical of Catholicism in private. Hitler favored Protestantism, due to its being open to interpretation. He also ridiculed occultism and neo-Paganism.
Strangely enough, Hitler greatly admired the Muslim faith and tradition saying, “the Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?”

HUMANS EVOLVED FROM MONKEYS

One of the most common misconceptions about Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is that Darwin claimed we evolved from chimpanzees. Darwin never actually said this, nor will any respectable biologist. This myth was actually spread by religious zealots during the nineteenth century, in order to try and discredit Darwin and promote anti-evolutionism among the religious. Humans and chimpanzees are actually cousins (we share about 94 percent of our DNA with them) and both evolved from a common ancestor, thought to be Sahelanthropus tchadensis, around seven million years ago.

THE NORTH POLE IS NORTH AND THE SOUTH POLE IS SOUTH

Actually, in terms of physics, the North Pole (while geographically in the north) is actually a south magnetic pole, and the South Pole (geographically in the south) is a north magnetic pole. When your compass is pointing north, it is actually pointing to the south pole of Earth’s magnetic field. About 780,000 years ago, this would not have been the case, as the magnetic poles of the Earth were reversed (this is called a geomagnetic reversal). Oh—and just to complicate things further, the poles drift around randomly—they are not in fixed spots. This is most likely due to movements in the molten nickel-iron alloy in the Earth’s core.