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50 Facts Rewritten

A big part of our job as tutors/teachers is to correct misconceptions. Find where a student is going wrong, explain why that is incorrect and offer a better way of thinking.

Here I have followed that ideal by rewriting fifty popular factoids, and turned them into facts. Click on the links to show why they are true, enjoy.

The Earth and Space

People did not think the world was flat.You cannot see the Great Wall of China from space.The sky is not blue because it reflects the sea Meteorites are not hot.Mars is not red, up close it is butterscotch.Coriolis does not effect water to spiral in different directions on different sides of the equator.There are not more people alive than dead.

Education

Learning styles (Visual, Auditory or Kinaesthetic), do not exist Giving grades is not beneficial to students No-one can properly Multi-task.Brain games do not make you smarter Fee paying schools do not have better teachers Flash card/rereading/making notes is not effective revision Doing worksheets is the most effective form of revision

Your Brain

You do not use 10% of your brain Traumatic memories can not be repressed and recovered years after they occurred,Left Brain/Right Brain dominance is nonsense Photographic memory doesn't exist Schizophrenics do not have "voices" in their head Confidence is not a reliable indicator of memory accuracy,

Food and Drink

You do not need eight glasses of water a day Fortune cookies are not chinese Eating before swimming isn't bad Alcohol does not makes you warmer.Chewing gum doesn't take seven year to digest Searing meat does not "seal in" moisture.

Your Body

Most heat in the body is not lost through your head.Cracking your knuckles does not cause arthritis.It does not hurt a sleepwalker if they are woken up.Teeth will not dissolve in coke-cola.You lots more than five senses. Deoxygenated Blood is not blue.

Animals

You do not eat eight spiders a year in your sleep earthworms are cut in half, two does not make two earthworms A ducks quacks does echo.Bats are not Blind Gold fish do not have a three second memory Chameleon’s don’t really change their colour to match their background Science can explain how a bumblebee flies.Bulls are not enraged by red.A daddy longlegs do not have the most poisonous bite in the world.Sharks do get cancer

Inventors

Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb. Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet.Henry Ford did not invent either the automobile or the assembly line. Alexander Graham Bell wasn't the first person to invent the telephone

Worldwide

Vikings didn't have horned helmets JFK, saying "Ich bin ein Berliner" didn't mean "I am a donut" Napoleon wasn't short Having a gun means you are more likely to died Using a mobile phone at a petrol station will not cause an explosion

Dr Andy Gibson
BSc PGCE QTS MSc PhD

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