
List of common misconceptions - thecosas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions
======
pranau
> The functional principle of a microwave oven is dielectric heating rather
> than resonance frequencies of water, and microwave ovens can therefore
> operate at many frequencies. Water molecules are exposed to intense
> electromagnetic fields in strong non-resonant microwaves to create heat. The
> 22 GHz resonant frequency of isolated water molecules has a wavelength too
> short to penetrate common foodstuffs to useful depths. The typical oven
> frequency of 2.45 GHz was chosen partly due to its ability to penetrate a
> food object of reasonable size, and partly to avoid interference with
> communication frequencies in use when microwave ovens became commercially
> available.

I was very surprised reading this because my school's textbook claimed that
microwaves heat food using the resonant frequencies of water. This fact was
drilled into our heads over the course of multiple tests. It's disappointing
that millions of students every year still learn this incorrect explanation.

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valbaca
The "taste zones" of the tongue misconception makes me the most angry. We were
taught this in school. I remember having to color in areas of the tongue.

And yet any of us could've very easily disproven this and it doesn't
correspond to our experienced reality and yet we all believed it because we
had be taught it in school.

~~~
flukus
This was one of our introductions to the scientific method and an experiment
we actually conducted as well. I remember it making no difference to me but
pretended it did due to peer pressure.

I wonder if false teachings like this can create a mistrust in science from an
early age?

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mysterypie
That Wikipedia entry is a list of things that many people believe are true,
but are definitely false.

We also need a list of things that many people believe are true, but have no
scientific basis. I.e., things that may be true or false, but no study has
shown conclusive evidence either way. The medical and personal health fields
are overflowing with things that people believe for which there is no
evidence.

~~~
awat
I like where you are going with this but I can think of a few that change what
seems to be weekly.

As a heavy coffee drinker I’ve learned I reduced my cancer risk and increased
it, back and forth for years according to trending studies.

~~~
davidivadavid
Presumably things that change weekly like that would be the chief candidates
for such a list.

~~~
bmn__
[https://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/](https://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/)

------
0xcde4c3db
> Microwave ovens do not cook food from the inside out. 2.45 Ghz microwaves
> can only penetrate approximately 1 centimeter (0.39 in) into most foods. The
> inside portions of thicker foods are mainly heated by heat conducted from
> the outer portions.

I think the main reason this myth persists is stuffed/filled food items such
as pizza rolls, burritos, Pop Tarts, Hot Pockets, etc.. With these, there's
typically an outer layer that is thermally insulating and lower-density, while
the filling is more thermally conductive and higher-density (water/fat). This
means that even if the temperature is uniform, the filling will be perceived
as much hotter than the outer layer.

~~~
jcranmer
Microwaves work by heating the polar molecules in liquid solution, which
essentially means water in food. If you've got food with some kind of crust,
the crust tends to be dehydrated. Consequently, the crust doesn't get much
heating, particularly when compared to the internal melange.

In that vein, it's not really wrong to say that the food is cooked from the
inside out, so long as you don't understand to mean that it is literally
cooked from the exact middle. The heating is still coming from the interior
which is conducting heat to the exterior shell; that's it the outermost layers
of the interior filling that's heating, not the innermost layers, is a minor
detail by comparison.

~~~
mmt
I think, more practically, it's that this characteristic of heating is in
stark contrast to traditional ovens, which are very much exclusively outside-
in, no matter the composition. That is, "cooking inside out" is useful as a
heuristic even if, pedantically, a misconception.

I routinely use a microwave to pre-heat the inside [1] of something before
finishing it off in an oven or toaster oven (sometimes in convection mode).
That way, I gain the vast majority of the benefit of speed from my high-
powered microwave along with the mouthfeel and caramelization benefit of the
traditional oven.

The contrast can be particularly stark (and useful) when working at
temperatures above boiling.

I once ended up convincing my Mom into using the "cooking the inside"
heuristic of a microwave in order to save an apple Charlotte that came out
with uncooked dough in the center [2]. It took a few single-minute zaps to get
it there, but it worked great.

[1] Well, of course, the whole, but it's the inside that's important for this
exercise

[2] She was quite distraught because she'd never had that failure in the
dozen-plus times she'd made the cake previously. Despite being a veteran of
the semiconductor industry, she suspected herself first instead of the oven
hardware, which it turned out to be.

------
extralego
George Washington did not have wooden teeth. His dentures were made of gold,
hippopotamus ivory, lead, animal teeth (including horse and donkey
teeth),[160] and probably human teeth purchased from slaves.[161]

~~~
charlieflowers
Surprised to see "purchased from" paired with "slaves." It shows that the way
slaves were treated was more nuanced than I thought. (Perhaps out of guilt?
Because it seems any slave owner had enough power over slaves to just take
them if desired).

~~~
yorwba
If slaves can't be trusted not to run away without constant supervision,
they're not cheaper than just paying someone to do the work (unless one person
can somehow supervise a large group of slaves). What keeps a slave from
running away even if they have the opportunity is the risk of getting caught
and punished. But if the slaves are always punished (e.g. by forcefully
removing their teeth), the decision is suddenly in favor of running away and
maybe evading punishment. So it is in the interest of the slave owner to
mostly treat their slaves like normal workers and pay them. The benefit of
ownership is just that slaves can't easily find another job, so they can be
paid less than a free worker.

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quickthrower2
How is this a misconception?

Infants can and do feel pain.

~~~
na85
Anyone who's accidentally bonked their infant daughter in the head with a jar
of diaper cream knows they feel pain.

.... not that I've done that.

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sidcool
This is a goldmine. I held a few of the misconceptions myself.

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rocky1138
These should be covered in primary school. It's amazing how many of these were
taught to us as universal truths.

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mianos
If you have some spare time, definitely check out the archived 'Talk' pages.
There are some real belly laugh generating gems in there!

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pesmhey
Nice, I’ve been looking for sone new party tricks!

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valbaca
Also, it's not the first Tuesday in February:
[https://xkcd.com/843/](https://xkcd.com/843/)

------
Sylos
> While Microsoft Windows has a much larger number of viruses developed for
> it, this is a consequence of its extremely large market share

...and it's terrible security and it's still prevalent installation method of
downloading random binaries off of the internet and then executing them with
administrator permissions.

