Things almost everyone believes. Tap one to find out what's really going on.
Myth: Most people assume the "War of the Stray Dog" is a made-up internet joke rather than a real international crisis from 1925.Did a stray dog really start a war between Greece and Bulgaria?Myth: Most people assume molasses is far too slow and gooey to hurt anyone, so a deadly molasses flood must be a tall tale.Did a wave of molasses really kill people in Boston?Myth: Most people assume Lincoln had Secret Service bodyguards at Ford's Theatre who failed to protect him.Did Abraham Lincoln create the Secret Service on the day he was shot?Myth: Most people believe the dancing plague of 1518 definitely killed dancers by the dozen, often quoted as 15 deaths a day.Did people really dance themselves to death in 1518?Myth: Most people assume Mr. Potato Head has always come with his own plastic potato body.Did Mr. Potato Head originally come without a potato?Myth: Most people assume a planet's day must always be far shorter than its year, as it is on Earth.Is a day on Venus longer than a year on Venus?Myth: Most people picture Elvis being found slumped on the toilet seat, killed by a simple drug overdose.Did Elvis really die on the toilet?Myth: Most people assume Happy Birthday to You is an ancient folk song that nobody has ever owned or charged money for.Did someone really own the copyright to Happy Birthday?Myth: Most people believe a very young Mozart composed the melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.Did Mozart write Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?Myth: Most people believe Monopoly was invented by Charles Darrow, a down-on-his-luck salesman who sold it to Parker Brothers during the Great Depression.Was Monopoly invented by a woman to criticise landlords?Myth: Most people assume the first webcams were built for serious jobs like security or science, not for checking on coffee.Was the first webcam really pointed at a coffee pot?Myth: Most people assume the most common protein on the planet is something famous from labels and tubs, like collagen or the protein in meat.What is the most abundant protein on Earth?Myth: Most people assume the commonest mineral on Earth is something we see every day, like the quartz in sand.What is the most common mineral on Earth?Myth: Most people assume the stars in our galaxy must vastly outnumber anything on a single planet, including its trees.Are there more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way?Myth: Most people assume helium, like most elements, was discovered on Earth in a lab or a gas well before anyone spotted it anywhere else.Was helium discovered on the Sun before it was found on Earth?Myth: Most people believe Venus is Earth's closest planetary neighbour at all times because its orbit is the nearest to ours.Which planet is closest to Earth on average?Myth: Most people believe the blue whale is the heaviest living thing on the planet.What is the heaviest living thing on Earth?Myth: Most people assume space can't have a smell at all, because it is a vacuum with nothing in it to sniff.What does space smell like?Myth: Most people believe bacteria outnumber human cells in the body by about ten to one.Are there more bacteria than human cells in your body?Myth: Most people believe fingers wrinkle in the bath simply because the skin absorbs water and puckers up like a sponge.Why do your fingers wrinkle in water?Myth: Most people assume the only light humans give off is invisible infrared body heat, the kind thermal cameras pick up.Do humans glow in the dark?Myth: Most people assume a giant tortoise holds the record for the longest-lived animal with a backbone.What is the longest-living animal with a backbone?Myth: Most people assume France's longest land border must be with a European neighbour such as Spain or Belgium.Which country does France share its longest border with?Myth: Most people believe Mount Everest's summit is the point on Earth closest to space.Which mountain peak is closest to space?Myth: Most people believe fortune cookies are a traditional Chinese dessert.Where do fortune cookies come from?Myth: Most people believe the green paste on their sushi plate is genuine wasabi.Is the wasabi served with sushi real wasabi?Myth: Most people believe fingerprints are a uniquely human feature, or at most shared only with apes.Do any animals have fingerprints like humans?Myth: Most people believe fully grown sunflowers turn their heads to track the sun across the sky every day.Do sunflowers really follow the sun?Myth: Most people believe Russia, as the world's largest country, must have the most time zones.Which country has the most time zones?Myth: Most people assume Hawaiian pizza was invented in Hawaii.Where was Hawaiian pizza invented?Myth: Most people assume the 'mare' in nightmare is a horse, picturing a dark steed galloping through bad dreams.Is the mare in nightmare a horse?Myth: Many people believe OK comes from a Native American, Greek or Scottish word, or from a president's nickname.What does OK actually stand for?Myth: Most people assume clue was always a detective word meaning a piece of evidence.Where does the word clue come from?Myth: Most people believe Roman soldiers received their wages in salt, and that this is why we say salary.Were Roman soldiers really paid in salt?Myth: Most people assume bubble wrap was designed from the start as protective packaging.What was bubble wrap originally invented for?Myth: Most people think vending machines are a modern invention from the industrial age.When was the first vending machine invented?Myth: A popular story claims golf has 18 holes because a bottle of Scotch holds 18 shots, one per hole.Why does a golf course have 18 holes?Myth: Most people have heard that love comes from the French word l'oeuf, because a zero looks like an egg.Why is zero called love in tennis?Myth: Most people imagine the first basketball game was high-scoring, like the sport today.What was the score of the first ever basketball game?Myth: Most people assume the Hundred Years' War lasted exactly a century of nonstop fighting.How long did the Hundred Years’ War actually last?Myth: Most people believe Olympic medals have only ever been awarded for athletic events.Did the Olympics once give out medals for art?Myth: Most people picture Cleopatra living in the same era that the great pyramids of Giza were built.Did Cleopatra live closer to the Moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid?Myth: Many people assume the first music performed in space was a space-themed pop song like David Bowie's Space Oddity.What was the first song ever played in space?Myth: Many people assume I Will Always Love You was originally Whitney Houston's song, so Elvis never had the chance to sing it.Why didn’t Elvis ever record I Will Always Love You?Myth: Many people believe super glue was invented to close soldiers' wounds on the battlefield.What was super glue originally invented for?Myth: Most people assume the first speeding fine went to someone doing a properly dangerous speed, at least 30 mph.How fast was the first driver ever fined for speeding going?Myth: Most people believe Hound Dog was an original Elvis Presley song.Who had a hit with Hound Dog before Elvis?Myth: Many people assume Beethoven could still hear well enough to enjoy the roar of the crowd at his final symphony's premiere.Why did Beethoven turn around at his Ninth Symphony premiere?Myth: Most people believe 'Elementary, my dear Watson' is Sherlock Holmes's famous catchphrase from the original books.Did Sherlock Holmes ever say Elementary, my dear Watson?Myth: Most people believe Steamboat Willie was the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon ever made.Was Steamboat Willie really Mickey Mouse’s first cartoon?Myth: Most people assume the little yellow chomper has been called Pac-Man from day one.What was Pac-Man’s original name?Myth: Many people assume Scrabble's letter values were calculated scientifically, by a computer or from a complete dictionary.How were Scrabble’s letter scores decided?Myth: Many people believe summer happens because Earth swings closer to the Sun at that time of year.Is Earth closest to the Sun in summer?Myth: Many people believe old church windows are thicker at the bottom because the glass has slowly dripped downwards over the centuries.Is glass really a liquid that flows very slowly?Myth: Many people have heard that hot water always freezes faster than cold water and assume it is a settled scientific fact.Does hot water really freeze faster than cold water?Myth: Most people think a diamond is the ultimate permanent, indestructible material that will stay a diamond for all time.Are diamonds really forever?Myth: Most people believe water itself is an excellent conductor of electricity, which is why it is dangerous near appliances.Does pure water conduct electricity?Myth: Many people think one side of the Moon is always in darkness because we never see it from Earth.Is the dark side of the Moon really dark?Myth: Almost everyone believes the Sun is yellow, because that is how it looks from the ground and how it is drawn in pictures.What colour is the Sun really?Myth: Most people assume astronauts float because there is no gravity in space.Is there zero gravity on the International Space Station?Myth: Many people believe hair and fingernails carry on growing for days after a person dies.Do your hair and nails keep growing after you die?Myth: A popular belief says your heart stops for a moment every time you sneeze.Does your heart stop when you sneeze?Myth: Most people assume every living part of the body gets its oxygen from the blood, delivered by the lungs.Which part of your body gets oxygen straight from the air?Myth: Most people think that once you stop growing, your height is fixed and stays the same all day long.Are you taller in the morning than at night?Myth: Many people believe hippos sweat actual blood when they are hot or stressed.Do hippos really sweat blood?Myth: Most people assume the snapping shrimp's famous crack comes from the two halves of its claw smacking together.Can a snapping shrimp really make a bubble as hot as the Sun?Myth: Many people believe science has proven bumblebees should be unable to fly and they somehow do it anyway.Did scientists really prove bumblebees can’t fly?Myth: Most people assume no animal could survive exposure to the vacuum and radiation of open space.Can any animal survive the vacuum of space without a suit?Myth: Most people assume international borders run neatly around towns, never through the middle of people's homes.Is there a town where your front door decides which country you live in?Myth: Most people assume a coastal city like Los Angeles must be further west than any city in Nevada.Is Reno, Nevada further west than Los Angeles?Myth: Most people assume pineapple stings simply because it is a very acidic fruit.Why does fresh pineapple make your mouth sore?Myth: Most people assume German chocolate cake is a traditional recipe from Germany.Is German chocolate cake from Germany?Myth: Most people assume Brazil must grow most of the world's Brazil nuts.Which country produces the most Brazil nuts?Myth: Most people assume cashews are sold shelled simply because the shells are too hard to crack at home.Why are cashews never sold in their shells?Myth: Most people assume umpire comes from a Latin word for command or empire, because umpires are the ones in charge.Where does the word umpire come from?Myth: Most people believe 'the whole nine yards' comes from World War II fighter pilots firing their entire nine-yard ammunition belts.Where does the phrase ‘the whole nine yards’ come from?Myth: Many people assume goodbye is simply 'good' plus 'bye', a way of wishing someone something good as they leave.Where does the word goodbye come from?Myth: Many people believe sincere comes from 'sine cera', because dishonest sculptors supposedly filled cracks in marble with wax.Does the word sincere really mean ‘without wax’?Myth: Many people assume the Frisbee must be named after its inventor, a Mr Frisbee.Was the Frisbee named after a pie company?Myth: Most people guess the first scanned product was a big-brand supermarket staple like cereal or soup rather than a humble pack of gum.What was the first product ever scanned with a barcode at a checkout?Myth: Most people assume a ship crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific through Panama must sail westward.Is the Pacific end of the Panama Canal further east than the Atlantic end?Myth: Most people assume Egypt, home of the Great Pyramid of Giza, has more pyramids than any other country.Which country has the most pyramids?Myth: Most people assume the dishwasher came out of a big appliance company's engineering department in the 20th century.Who invented the first practical dishwasher?Myth: Most people believe chef George Crum invented potato chips in 1853 to spite Cornelius Vanderbilt, who kept sending back his fries.Did a grumpy chef really invent potato chips to annoy a customer?Myth: Most people think 26.2 miles is the exact distance the ancient Greek messenger ran from Marathon to Athens.Why is a marathon 26.2 miles long?Myth: Many people think the hat-trick comes from ice hockey, where fans throw hats onto the ice after a player scores three goals.Where does the term hat-trick come from?Myth: Many people assume the Ashes urn contains the cremated remains of a famous cricketer.Why is the England v Australia cricket series called the Ashes?Myth: Most people assume the yellow jersey is yellow because it represents gold, like a first-place medal.Why does the Tour de France leader wear a yellow jersey?
