History

[edit]United States of America

 Christopher Columbus's efforts to obtain support for his voyages were not hampered by
a European belief in a flat Earth. In fact, sailors and navigators of the time knew that the Earth is
spherical, but (correctly) disagreed with Columbus' estimates of the distance to India. If the Americas
did not exist, and had Columbus continued to India (even putting aside the threat of mutiny he was
under), he would have run out of supplies before reaching it at the rate he was traveling. The problem
here was mainly a navigational one, the difficulty of determining longitude without an accurate clock.
This problem remained until inventor John Harrison designed his first marine chronometers. The
intellectual class had known[1] that the earth was spherical since the works of the Greek philosophers
Plato and Aristotle.[2] Eratosthenes made a very good estimate of the Earth's diameter in the third
century BC.[3][4]
 Contrary to the popular image of the Pilgrim Fathers, the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in
present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, did not dress in black, wear buckles, or wear black steeple
hats. According to Plimoth Plantation historian James W. Baker, this image was formed in the 19th
century when buckles were a kind of emblem of quaintness. This is also the reason illustrators
gave Santa Clausbuckles.[5][6][7][8]
 George Washington did not have wooden teeth. According to a study of Washington's four known
dentures by a forensic anthropologist from the University of Pittsburgh (in collaboration with
the National Museum of Dentistry, itself associated with the Smithsonian Museum), the dentures were
made of gold, hippopotamus ivory, lead, and human and animal teeth (including horse and donkey
teeth).[9]
 Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 did not immediately free
all American slaves.[10] The Proclamation pertained only to rebelling states. Since those states did not
recognize the power of the federal government, most slaves were not immediately freed as a direct
result of the Proclamation. Regions in the South that were under Confederate control when the
Proclamation was issued ignored its dictum, so slave ownership persisted until Union troops captured
further Southern territory. Immediately affected regions were Tennessee, southern Louisiana, and
parts of Virginia.[11] It was only with the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 that slavery
was officially abolished in all of the United States.

[edit]Europe
Napoleon on the Bellerophon, a painting by Charles Lock Eastlake depicting Napoleon Bonaparte, who was taller than his
nickname, The Little Corporal, suggests

 Napoleon Bonaparte (pictured) was not especially short.[12] After his death in 1821, the French
emperor's height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet. This corresponds to 5 feet
6.5 inches in modern international feet, or 1.686 metres.[13][14] There are competing explanations for
why he was nicknamed le Petit Caporal (The Little Corporal)[15], but few modern scholars believe it
referred to his physical stature. Another explanation is that Napoleon was often seen with his Imperial
Guard, which contributed to the perception of him being short because the Imperial Guards were
above average height.
 Italian dictator Benito Mussolini did not "make the trains run on time". Much of the repair work had
been performed before Mussolini and the Fascists came to power in 1922. Accounts from the era
also suggest that the Italian railways' legendary adherence to timetables was more myth than reality.
[16]
Also worth noting that "making the trains run on time" was actually a figure of speech, in the Italian
language as spoken in the 1920s and 30s, meaning "making things work"; it wasn't really about
trains, it had a more general meaning.[citation needed]
 There is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their helmets.[17][18]
 During World War II, King Christian X of Denmark did not thwart Nazi attempts to identify Jews by
wearing a yellow star himself. Jews in Denmark were never forced to wear the Star of David. The
Danes did help most Jews flee the country before the end of the war.[19][20]
 Marie Antoinette did not actually use the phrase "let them eat cake" when she heard that the
French peasantry was starving due to a dearth of bread. The phrase was first published in
 Rousseau's "Confessions" when Marie was only 10 years old and most scholars believe
that Rousseau coined it himself, or that it was said by Maria-Theresa, the wife of Louis XIV. What
Rousseau or Maria-Theresa actually said was, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," Marie Antoinette was a
very unpopular ruler and many people therefore attribute the phrase "let them eat cake" to her, in
keeping with her reputation as being hard-hearted and disconnected from her subjects.[21]

[edit]U.S. Politics

 Al Gore never said that he "invented" the Internet; Gore actually said, "During my service in the
United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."[22]Gore was the original drafter of
the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991, which provided significant funding
for supercomputing centers, and this in turn led to upgrades of a major part of the already existing,
early 1990s Internet backbone, the NSFNet, and development of NCSA Mosaic, the browser that
popularized the World Wide Web; see Al Gore and information technology.
 John F. Kennedy's words "Ich bin ein Berliner" are standard German for I am a Berliner. An urban
legend has it that due to his use of the indefinite article ein, Berliner is translated as jam doughnut,
and that the population of Berlin was amused by the supposed mistake. The normal convention when
stating a nationality or, for instance, saying one is from Berlin, would be to leave out the indefinite
article "ein." However, Kennedy used the indefinite article here correctly to emphasize his relation to
Berlin.[23][24] Additionally, at the time, the word Berliner was not used in Berlin to refer to the Berliner
Pfannkuchen, they were simply called Pfannkuchen.[25]

[edit]Law

[edit]United States of America

 Entrapment law in the United States does not forbid police officers from denying that they are
police.[26] It is concerned with enticing people to commit crimes they would not have considered in the
normal course of events.[27]

[edit]Cooking

 Searing meat does not "seal in" moisture, and in fact may actually cause meat to lose moisture.
Generally, meat is seared to create a brown crust with a rich flavor via the Maillard reaction.[28][29]
 Mussels that do not open when cooked may still be fully cooked and safe to eat.[30]
  Some cooks believe that because of alcohol's low boiling point, causing it to evaporate quickly
when heated, food items cooked with wine or liquor will be non-alcoholic. However, much of the
alcohol remains- 25% at 1 hour and 10% at 2 hours.[31]
 Sushi does not mean raw fish, and not all sushi includes raw fish.[32][33] The usual Japanese term
for raw fish is sashimi. The term sushi actually comes from the rice used, "sumeshi", which is gently
folded with a vinegar and salt and sugar dressing.[34] Toppings for the rice may traditionally include
raw fish—but also cooked seafood, fish roe, egg, or vegetables such as cucumber, daikon radish,
or ume plum. The dish constituting sushi and other fillings wrapped in a seaweed is referred to
as makizushi, a type of sushi.
 While putting metal in a microwave can damage the magnetron by causing an impedance
mismatch, it depends on the shape and size of the metal and the time it is in the microwave. Electrical
arcing may also occur on pieces of metal that are not smooth, or have points (e.g. a fork). Distributed
metallic surfaces that are not subject to arcing and do not appreciably alter the magnetron's RF load
can be used in a microwave with no danger; examples include the metalized surfaces used in
browning sleeves and pizza-cooking platforms.[35][36]
 Danish pastries do not come from Denmark, they actually originated in Austria.[37] (In Denmark
they are called 'Wienerbrød' which means 'Bread from Vienna'.)

[edit]Science

[edit]Astronomy
A satellite image of a section of the Great Wall of China, running diagonally from lower left to upper right (not to be confused
with the much more prominent river running from upper left to lower right). The region pictured is 12 x 12 km (7.5 x 7.5
miles).

 The discovery of the spherical shape of the Earth does not date to the Middle Ages. It was well
known throughout the Hellenistic period. See Myth of the Flat Earth.
 It is commonly claimed that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from the
Moon.[38] This is false. None of the Apollo astronauts reported seeing any man-made object from the
Moon. The misconception is believed to have been popularized by Richard Halliburton decades
before the first moon landing.[39]
 Black holes, unlike their common image, do not act as cosmic vacuum cleaners any more than
other stars.[40] When a star collapses into a black hole, the gravitational attraction at a given distance
from the body is no greater than it was for the star. That is to say, were the Sun to be replaced by a
black hole of the same mass, the Earth would continue in the same orbit (assuming spherical
symmetry of the sun). Because black hole formation is explosive, the object would lose a certain
amount of its energy in the process, which, according to the mass–energy equivalence, means that a
black hole would be of lower mass than the parent object, and actually have a weaker gravitational
pull.[41][page needed]
 When a meteor lands on Earth (after which it is termed a meteorite), it is not usually hot. In fact,
many are found with frost on them. A meteoroid's great speed during entry is enough to melt
or vaporize its outermost layer, but any molten material will be quickly blown off (ablated), and the
interior of the meteoroid does not have time to heat up because the hot rocks are poor conductors of
heat.[42] Also, atmospheric drag can slow small meteoroids toterminal velocity by the time they hit the
ground, giving the surface time to cool down.[43][page needed]
 It is a common misconception that seasons are caused by the Earth being closer to the Sun in
the summer than in the winter. In fact, the Earth is actually farther from the Sun when it is summer in
the Northern Hemisphere. Seasons are the result of the Earth being tilted on its axis by 23.5 degrees.
As the Earth orbits the Sun, different parts of the world receive different amounts of direct sunlight. In
July, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun giving longer days and more direct sunlight;
in January, it is tilted away. The seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, which is tilted
towards the Sun in January and away from the Sun in July. In tropical areas of the world, there is no
noticeable change in the amount of sunlight.[44][45]See also effect of sun angle on climate.
 It is not[46] easier to balance an egg on its end on the first day of spring. In fact, the ease or
difficulty of balancing an egg is the same 365 days a year. This myth is said to originate with the egg
of Li Chun, an ancient Chinese folk belief that it is easier to balance an egg on Li Chun, the first day
of spring in the Chinese lunar calendar. In Chinese Li means setup/erect, Chun spring/egg. Setup
 spring is a Chinese solar term, literally interpreted as erecting an egg for fun. It was introduced to the
western world in aLife article in 1945, and popularized once again by self-titled "urban
shaman" Donna Henes, who has hosted an annual egg-balancing ceremony in New York City since
the mid-1970s.[47][48][49]

[edit]Human body and health

An incorrectmap of the tongueshowing zones which taste bitter (1), sour (2), salty (3) and sweet (4). In reality, all zones can
sense all tastes.

 Different tastes can be detected on all parts of the tongue by taste buds,[50] with slightly increased
sensitivities in different locations depending on the person, contrary to the popular belief that specific
tastes only correspond to specific mapped sites on the tongue.[51] The original tongue map was based
on a mistranslation by a Harvard psychologist of a discredited German paper[52] that was written in
1901.
 People do not use only ten percent of their brains. While it is true that a small minority of neurons
in the brain are actively firing at any one time, the inactive neurons are important too.[53][54] This myth
has been commonplace in American culture at least as far back as the start of the 20th century, and
was attributed to William James, who apparently used the expression metaphorically.[55] Some
findings of brain science (such as the high ratio of glial cells to neurons) have been mistakenly read
as providing support for the myth.[55]
 There is no single theory that satisfactorily explains myopia—in particular, studies show that so-
called eyestrain from close reading and computer games can lead to myopia, but the underlying
physiologic mechanism is poorly understood. There is also no evidence that reading in dim light or
sitting close to a television causes vision to deteriorate.[56][57]
 Shaving does not cause hair to grow back thicker or coarser or darker. This belief is because hair
that has never been cut has a tapered end, whereas, after cutting, there is no taper. Thus, it appears
thicker, and feels coarser due to the sharper, unworn edges.[58] Hair can also appear darker after it
grows back because hair that has never been cut is often lighter due to sun exposure.
 Hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after a person dies. Rather, the skin dries and
shrinks away from the bases of hairs and nails, giving the appearance of growth.[59]
 Although there are hair care products which are marketed as being able to repair split ends and
damaged hair, there is no such cure. A good conditioner might prevent damage from occurring in the
first place, but the only way to get rid of split ends after they appear is by a hair cut.[60][61][62]
 Sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children.[63] Double blind trials have shown no difference in
behavior between children given sugar-full or sugar-free diets, even in studies specifically looking at
children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or those considered "sensitive" to sugar. The
difference in behaviour proved to be psychological.[64]
 Prolonged exposure to cold weather such as rain or winter conditions does not increase the
likelihood of catching a cold.[65] Although common colds are seasonal, with more occurring during
winter, experiments so far have failed to produce evidence that short-term exposure to cold weather
or direct chilling increases susceptibility to infection, implying that the seasonal variation is instead
due to a change in behaviours such as increased time spent indoors close to others.[66][67][68][69] Viruses
spread more easily when humidity is low which is the case during wintertime.[70] A lowering of body
temperature can, however, reduce the body's resistance to an infection that is already present, and
cause temporary sneezing and runny nose.[71] (See hypothermia)
 It is a common misconception that sleepwalkers should not be awakened. While it is true that a
person may be confused or disoriented for a short time after awakening, sleepwalkers may injure
themselves if they trip over objects or lose their balance while sleepwalking. Such injuries are
common among sleepwalkers.[72][73]
 In Korea, it is commonly believed that sleeping in a closed room with an electric fan running can
be fatal in the summer. According to the Korean government, "In some cases, a fan turned on too
long can cause death from suffocation, hypothermia, or fire from overheating." The Korea Consumer
Protection Board issued a consumer safety alert recommending that electric fans be set on timers,
direction changed and doors left open. Belief in fan death is common even among knowledgeable
medical professionals in Korea. According to Dr. Yeon Dong-su, dean of Kwandong University's
medical school, "If it is completely sealed, then in the current of an electric fan, the temperature can
drop low enough to cause a person to die of hypothermia."[74][75][76][77]
 Warts on human skin are caused by viruses that are unique to humans (Human papillomavirus).
Humans cannot catch warts from toads or other animals; the bumps on a toad are not warts.[78]
 A popular myth regarding human sexuality is that men think about sex every seven seconds. In
reality, there is no scientific way of measuring such a thing and, as far as researchers can tell, this
statistic greatly exaggerates the frequency of sexual thoughts.[79][80][81]
  Although it is commonly believed that most body heat is lost through a person's head, this is not
correct. The head loses as much heat as any other part of the body.[82]
 An exercise myth is that a low-intensity workout (in the "fat-burning" zone where your heart rate is
60–70% of your maximum heart rate) burns more calories from fat than a high-intensity workout.
While you do burn a greater percentage of fat in a low-intensity workout, you should burn more
calories from fat through a high-intensity workout than a low-intensity workout of the same length. For
example, a 30 minute low-intensity workout might burn 200 calories at 60% fat (120 calories from fat)
while a high-intensity workout of the same length could burn 400 calories at 35% fat (140 calories
from fat).[83]
 A person who is drowning does not thrash around in the water and call for help, as in fictional
depictions of drowning. Except in rare circumstances, a person who is drowning is physiologically
unable to vocalize or wave for help, due to submersion of the mouth, water in the airway, and
instincts that cause the drowning victim to press or crawl at the water with their hands.[84]

See also: HIV and AIDS misconceptions

[edit]Biology

 The claim[85] that a duck's quack does not echo is false, although the echo may be difficult to hear
for humans under some circumstances,[86] because the quack's sound wave is nearly identical to the
echo's sound wave.[vague]
 The notion that goldfish have a memory of only three seconds is false.[87][88] They have been
trained to navigate mazes and can recognize their owners after an exposure of a few months.[89][90]
 Lemmings do not engage in mass suicidal dives off cliffs when migrating. They will, however,
occasionally, and unintentionally fall off cliffs when venturing into unknown territory, with no
knowledge of the boundaries of the environment. The misconception is due largely to
the Disney film White Wilderness, which shot many of the migration scenes (also staged by using
multiple shots of different groups of lemmings) on a large, snow-covered turntable in a studio.
Photographers later pushed the lemmings off a cliff.[91]
 Bats are not blind. While most bat species do use echolocation to augment their vision, all bats
have eyes and are capable of sight.[92][93][94]
 It's a common myth that an earthworm becomes two worms when cut in half. This is not correct.
When an earthworm is bisected, only the front half of the worm (where the mouth is located) can
survive, while the other half dies.[95] On the other hand, species of the planaria family
of flatworms actually do become two new planaria when bisected or split down the middle.[96] There
are species of flatworm Planarian that can reproduce asexually by regeneration of cut halves.
  According to urban myth, the Daddy Long-Legs Spider (Pholcus phalangioides) is the most
venomous spider in the world. This is false, as the venom this spider carries is far too limited to affect
a human. It would take thousands of these spiders to draw one drop.[97] In addition, there is also
confusion regarding the use of the name Daddy Long Legs, because Harvestmen (order Opiliones,
which are not spiders) andcrane flies (which are insects) are also commonly referred to as Daddy
Long Legs, and share (also incorrectly) the myth of being venomous.[98][99] It is also stated that a
Daddy Long-Legs' fangs are far too small to break human skin. The truth is that there are places on
the body where the skin is thin enough to be broken by the Harvestmen's fangs; the underside of the
wrist, or the eyelids, for example.[citation needed]
 Ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand. This tale originates from the fact that the male
ostrich will dig a large hole (up to 6 to 8 feet wide and 2 to 3 feet deep) in the sand for the eggs.
Predators cannot see the eggs across the countryside which gives the nest a bit of protection. The
female and male take turns sitting on the eggs and, because of the indention in the ground, usually
just blend into the horizon. All birds turn their eggs (with their beak) several times a day during the
incubation period. From a distance it may appear as though the bird has its head in the sand.[100]
 The flight mechanism and aerodynamics of the bumblebee (as well as other insects) are
actually quite well understood, in spite of the urban legend that calculations show that they should not
be able to fly. A few scientists long ago, using flawed techniques, indeed postulated that bumblebees
theoretically should not be able to fly. This became generalized to the false notion that "scientists
think that bumblebees should not be able to fly."

[edit]Evolution
Further information: Objections to evolution and Introduction to evolution

 Biological evolution does not address the origin of life; for that, see abiogenesis. The two are
commonly and mistakenly conflated. The theory of evolution explains the changes in successive
generations of organisms, due to differences in genes and gene frequencies that occur in populations
of living organisms over time. Thus evolution presupposes that life already exists. Biological evolution
likewise says nothing about cosmology, the Big Bang, or the origins of the universe.[101]
 The word theory in the theory of evolution does not insinuate doubt from mainstream science
regarding its validity; the concepts of theory and hypothesis have specific meanings in a scientific
context. Whiletheory in colloquial usage may denote a hunch or conjecture, a scientific theory is a set
of principles that explains observable phenomena in natural terms.[102][103] Evolution is a theory in the
same sense asgerm theory, gravitation, or plate tectonics.[104] (See Objections to Evolution.)
 Evolution does not claim that humans evolved from monkeys,[105] chimpanzees[106] or any other
modern-day primates. Instead, it states that humans and monkeys share a common ancestor that
 lived about 40 million years ago.[107] This common ancestor diverged into separate lineages, one
evolving into so-called New World monkeys and the other into Old World monkeys and apes,
including humans.[108] Similarly, the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, which lived
between 5 and 8 million years ago, evolved into two lineages, one eventually becoming modern
humans and the other splitting again into chimpanzees and bonobos.[105] Thus one cannot consider
any present-day monkeys or apes as reflecting how humans "used to look" or behave. All of these
animal groups have evolved over time.
 Evolution is not a progression from inferior to superior organisms, and it also does not necessarily
require an increase in complexity (see evolution of complexity). A population can evolve to become
simpler, having a smaller genome, but devolution is a misnomer.[109][110]

[edit]Physics

 Contrary to the common myth,[111] the Coriolis effect does not determine the direction that water
rotates in a bathtub drain or a flushing toilet. Generally speaking, the Coriolis effect is only significant
at large scales, such as in weather systems or oceanic currents.[112] In addition, most toilets inject
water into the bowl at an angle, causing a spin too fast to be significantly affected by the Coriolis
effect.[113]
 Gyroscopic forces are not required for a rider to balance a bicycle.[114][115][116] The stability of a
bicycle is determined by its geometry and the rider's ability to counteract tilting by steering.

An illustration of the equal transit-time fallacy.

 It is not true that air takes the same time to travel above and below an aircraft's wing.[117] This
misconception, illustrated at right, is widespread among textbooks and non-technical reference
books, and even appears in pilot training materials. In fact the air moving over the top of an airfoil
generating lift is always moving much faster than the equal transit theory would imply.[118]

Further information: equal transit-time fallacy and lift (force)

 Glass is not a high-viscosity liquid at room temperature: it is an amorphous solid, although it does
have some chemical properties normally associated with liquids. Panes of stained glass windows
 often have thicker glass at the bottom than at the top, and this has been cited as an example of the
slow flow of glass over centuries. However, this unevenness is due to the window manufacturing
processes used in earlier eras, which produced glass panes that were unevenly thick at the time of
their installation. It is common to find old windows which are thicker at the sides or the top.[119][120]
 Air is mostly nitrogen, not oxygen. Dry air contains roughly (by volume) 78% nitrogen,
21% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Air also
contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1%.[121]
 The idea that lightning never strikes the same place twice is one of the oldest and most well-
known misconceptions about lightning. However, there is no reason why lightning would not be able
to strike the same place twice. In fact, lightning strikes the Empire State Building in New York
City about 100 times per year.[122][123]

[edit]Chemistry

 Completely pure water is not a good conductor of electricity.[124] In practical situations (such as
bathtubs, flooded basements) water usually contains impurities (electrolytes) which allow for good
electrical conduction.

[edit]Scientific method

 There is no single, strict scientific method used by all scientists, a misconception popularized by
elementary science textbooks. The rigid hypothesis→experiment→conclusion model of science is an
important part of many fields, particularly basic sciences like physics and chemistry, but is not the
only way to perform genuine science. Many sciences do not fit well into this mold, such as the
observational sciences ofastronomy or paleontology, or the abstract science of mathematics; and
much important scientific work has come from curiosity and unguided exploration, for example,
the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation, or the development of the atomic force
microscope.[125][126]

[edit]Sports

 Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball.[127][128] (See The Abner Doubleday myth.)
 The World Series is not named after the New York World newspaper.[129]
 Cattle (particularly bulls) are not enraged by the color red (something provocative is often said to
be "like a red rag to a bull"). Cattle are red-green color-blind. It is not the color of the cape that angers
the bull, but rather the movement of the fabric that irritates the bull and incites it to charge.[130][131] The
 red color is used to mask the blood that comes from the bull during and at the end of the bull fight.
[citation needed]

 The black belt in martial arts is actually a recent invention from the 1880s, originally created
for judo, and does not necessarily indicate expert level or mastery. It indicates competency of all of
the basic martial arts techniques of that discipline. There are, however, varying degrees of black belt
that eventually lead to master or grandmaster.[132]

[edit]Religion

 The Immaculate Conception is not synonymous with the Virgin birth of Jesus, nor is it about a
supposed belief in the virgin birth of Mary, his mother. The Immaculate Conception is the Roman
Catholic belief that Mary was not subject to original sin from the first moment of her existence, when
she was conceived. The concept of the virgin birth is the belief that Mary gave birth to Jesus while
remaining a virgin.[133]
 Nowhere in the Bible does it say exactly three magi came to visit the baby Jesus, nor that they
were kings or rode on camels. It has traditionally been assumed there were three magi because three
gifts are described, and artistic depictions of the nativity after about the year 900 almost always depict
three magi.[134] Additionally, the wise men in the actual biblical narrative did not visit on the day Jesus
was born, but they saw Jesus as a child, in a house as many as two years afterward (Matthew 2:11).
[135][136]

 Nowhere in the Bible does it say Jesus fell to his knees under the weight or strain of carrying the
cross, couldn't carry it any longer, and therefore the cross had to be carried by someone else. It has
been assumed that Simon of Cyrene was told by soldiers to carry Jesus' cross due to Jesus being
unable to carry the cross any longer due to weariness and exhaustion. Three of the four books of the
gospel give account of Simon of Cyrene being forced to carry Jesus' cross by soldiers: Matthew
27:32, Mark 15:21, Luke 23:26. None of the accounts mention Jesus falling to his knees or Jesus
being unable to carry the cross himself.
 The forbidden fruit mentioned in the Book of Genesis is commonly assumed to be an apple,
[137]
and is widely depicted as such in Western art, although the Bible does not identify what type of
fruit it is. The original Hebrew texts mention only "tree." Early Latin translations use the word "mali",
which can be taken to mean both "evil" and "apple". German and French artists commonly depict the
fruit as an apple from the 12th century onwards, and John Milton's Areopagitica from 1644 explicitly
mentions the fruit as an apple.[138] Jewish tradition states that the fruit was most likely a fig.
 A fatwā is a non-binding religious opinion on Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar, not a death
sentence. The popular misconception[139][140] likely stems from the death sentence pronounced as a
 fatwā on the author Salman Rushdie in 1989 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran, when fatwās
first gained widespread media attention in the West.[141]
 The word "jihad" does not always mean "holy war"; literally, the word in Arabic means "struggle".
While there is such a thing as "jihad bil saif", or jihad "by the sword",[142] Islamic scholars usually say
that it implies an effort or struggle of a spiritual kind.[143][144][145]

[edit]Technology

[edit]Inventions

 George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter, though he did reputedly discover three
hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes.[146][147]
 Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet;[148] it was invented by Sir John Harrington in 1596.
Crapper, however, did much to increase its popularity and came up with some related inventions,
such as theballcock mechanism used to fill toilet tanks. He was noted for the quality of his products
and received several Royal Warrants. He was not the origin of the word crap, but his name may have
helped popularize it.
 Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb.[149] He did, however, develop the first practical light
bulb, contemporaneously with Joseph Swan.
 Eli Whitney did not invent the idea of interchangeable parts. He did help to popularize the idea.[150]
 Henry Ford did not invent either the automobile or the assembly line. He did help to develop the
ideas substantially, sometimes through his own engineering but more often through sponsoring the
work of his employees.[150][page needed][151][page needed]
 Guglielmo Marconi did not invent radio, but only modernized it for public broadcasting and
communication [152][153][154]. No single person was responsible for the invention of radio.

[edit]Transportation

 The United States Interstate Highway System was not designed with airplane landings in mind. A
common urban legend states that one out of every five (or ten) miles of highway must be straight and
flat to allow emergency (or military) airplane landings, but this is not the case.[155][156] However, several
parts of the German and later the Swiss Autobahn system were indeed designed to be auxiliary
military airports, both during World War II and the Cold War.[157] Additionally, the Swedish Air
Force built landing strips into their highway system starting in the 1950s with some expansion
continuing into the 1980s. Poland also contains highway strips for landing and takeoff.
 Toilet waste is never intentionally dumped overboard an aircraft. All waste is collected in tanks
which are emptied on the ground by special toilet waste vehicles. A vacuum is used to allow the toilet
 to be flushed with less water and because plumbing cannot rely on gravity alone in an aircraft in
motion.[158][159] The infamous blue ice is caused by accidental leakages from the waste tank.

Source: Wikipedia.org