38 Fascinating "Facts" That Are Wrong

#1 Popeye's Lie

The myth:Spinach makes you strong like Popeye the Sailor man!

The myth comes from the fact that spinach is high in iron but wait spinach is actually not very high in iron. Believe it or not, this part of the myth comes from a handwriting error in 1870 when a Doctor Wolf accidentally put a decimal point in the wrong place and made it look like Spinach had 10 times more iron that it really has. Now to the strong part of the myth: in order to get muscle strength, you need to exercise and do weight training eating spinach (or anything else for that matter) won't make you strong on its own it will only give you the energy you need to survive your workout.

#2 Classical Statues

The myth: Classical statues and buildings were finished in white stone or marble.

When most of us think of the Romans and Greeks, we think of the beautiful white statues and buildings that they left behind them. But even way back in the 1800s, statues that had been excavated were found to contain traces of paint pigment. At the time, color was considered a non-essential part of beauty so no one bothered to try to replicate the original appearance of these great works of art. Fortunately for us, in more recent years people have tried to replicate matching the original pigments found embedded in the stone.

#3 Honest Abe

The myth:Abraham Lincoln was a Republican when he won the 1864 election.

By changing the name of his party to "National Union Party", Lincoln was able to court Copperhead (War Democrat) voters who would never vote Republican. More than just a name change, he selected the only southern Democrat senator not to resign his seat , Andrew Johnson, to run as vice-president. Despite a convention to raise support for mid-term elections, the Republicans in the party joined the ranks of the radicals. By March of 1867, Johnson was the only Unionist in office that had not defected and it became a splinter group of the Democratic Party although ironically the Republicans kept the name of National Union Republicans for a while and consider it part of their lineage.

#4 The Evil Veggie Eater

The myth: Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian and didn't drink alcohol.

This is a very common myth that seems to be extremely popular perhaps because it seems ironic that a man who caused one of the worst cases of genocide in history loved animals so much that he wouldn't eat them. But this ironic twist is actually untrue. What is true is that Hitler did prefer a diet of vegetables, but he had a strong fondness for German Sausage and ham, and his cook in the 1930s, Dione Lucas, said that his favorite dish was stuffed baby pigeon. Oh and to wash it all down, Hitler's drink of choice? Beer or watered-down wine. This was also confirmed by Hitler's waiter, Salvatore Paolini.

#5 inventor of the Telephone

The myth: Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

We have all heard the tale of Alexander Graham Bell inventing the phone and using it for the first time to call his secretary Mr Watson, but the first functioning telephone was actually invented 15 years earlier by Philipp Reis, a German inventor. His device (which he called the Reis Telephon) was first demonstrated in 1861. The Reis Telephon was only able to transmit musical tones quite clearly, and human voices faintly. There is no doubt at all, that the first transmission of human voices over wire was on the device created by Reis, a full fifteen years prior to the invention by the man who now receives all the accolades for it.

#6 Haggis

The myth: Haggis is Scottish.

It turns out that haggis (the tasty dish of minced lamb's heart, lungs, and liver) is an import to Scotland most likely from Scandinavia long before Scotland was even a nation. In fact, even the Roman's used to eat a very similar dish and it is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey: "a man before a great blazing fire turning swiftly this way and that a stomach full of fat and blood, very eager to have it roasted quickly." While we are on the subject, Bagpipes are not Scottish either: they were described in ancient writings of the Hittites (from present day Turkey), and kilts (though not tartan) were also introduced to Scotland by the Vikings.

#7 Einstein Failed Math

The myth: Einstein failed math at school.

This is a surprisingly old error which everyone seems to believe. Its origins seem to be a 1935 article in the Ripley's Believe it or not magazine in which the myth first appears in print under the heading "Greatest living mathematician failed in mathematics." Many failing students probably take heart in the myth thinking that there may be hope for them if Einstein could flunk math and still become a genius, but unfortunately for them, Einstein showed genius from a very young age including in the field of mathematics. When he was shown the article from the magazine, Einstein laughed and said: "I never failed in mathematics. Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus."

#8 Boston Tea Party

The myth: American colonists protested the Tea Tax with the Boston Tea Party because it raised the price of tea.

The American colonists preferred Dutch tea to English tea. The English Parliament placed an embargo on Dutch tea in the colonies, so a huge smuggling profession developed. To combat this, the English government LOWERED the tax on tea so that the English tea would be price competitive with Dutch teas. The colonists (actually some colonists led by the chief smugglers) protested by dumping the tea into Boston Harbor.

#9 Dog Years

The myth: One dog year is equal to seven human years.

This bogus fact is usually worked out so that a dog life is equal to a human life in total years, but the numbers just don't add up. The average human life expectancy is 78, while the average dog life expectancy (in false dog years) would equal around 90 years. Furthermore, different dog breeds have dramatically different life expectancies, ranging from a short 6 years to 13 or more years (in general, the smaller the dog, the longer its life expectancy). Furthermore, dogs have a very short "childhood" and a very long middle-age, making the comparison completely invalid.

#10 Prohibition

The myth:The 18th Amendment to the Constitution (Prohibition) outlawed drinking.

Drinking alcohol was never outlawed only making, transporting, and selling it. Liquor could legally be consumed provided it was purchased before Prohibition. If you want to get pedantic about it, the 18th Amendment did not even outlaw that. It was the Volstead Act that implemented Prohibition that made making, transporting and selling alcohol illegal. The 21st Amendment would later repeal this amendment but still make it illegal to transport alcohol in areas where it was still banned (so-called "dry counties").

From time to time, the 18th/21st Amendment still is the basis for lawsuits between a state and the federal government. For example, in South Dakota v. Dole (1987), South Dakota claimed that the federal government's national minimum drinking age of 21 was a violation of the 21st Amendment but the federal government's position was upheld 7-2 under the Tax and Spend clause.

#11 Coffee Cure

The myth: Coffee can help sober a person up.

Not true. Alcohol is metabolized by the body at a constant rate (one unit of around eight grams per hour) and you can't do anything to make it happen faster. Beer contains two units of alcohol per pint, so if you drink two pints, it will take four hours for your blood alcohol level to return to zero. All coffee will do is make you a wide-awake drunk. Just as a cold shower will make you a wet drunk. All you can do is settle down and wait for the effects to pass naturally.

#12 Elevator Freefall

The myth: Elevators have killed or can kill when their cable snapped.

There is a small element of truth to this "fact" but we will get to that soon. Firstly, elevators usually have a minimum of four operating cables, as well as an inbuilt braking system and a backup braking system in the shaft which forces a wedge into the shaft to prevent too rapid a drop. If the cables were all to snap (and believe me, elevator cables are strong), the cars braking system would detect the free fall and automatically apply. If that also fails, the shaft's braking system takes over.

Now, the small element of truth I mentioned earlier is that there has been one recorded account of a complete elevator free fall; it was caused by an airplane which crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945. The crash caused the cables in the elevator to be weakened ultimately leading to them breaking. The person riding the lift (Betty Lou Oliver) survived the 75 floor free fall because of air pressure beneath the car.

#13 Booze Hounds

The myth: St Bernard Dog's carried or carry flasks of brandy around their necks.

St Bernard dogs have never been used to carry small barrels of brandy. In fact, alcohol can make hypothermia worse so the whole idea is not just made up it is dangerous. The famous monks at the travelers hospice in the St Bernard Pass (where the name of the dogs originated) state that they have never put brandy casks on their rescue dogs but they do keep a few flasks lying around for the tourist's photos.

#14 Roosevelt and the Great Depression

The myth: Franklin D. Roosevelt dealt with the Great Depression by asking employers to reduce profits and not lower wages, promoted public works programs, and creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. was

Despite the fact that he started federal programs that were the precursor of the New Deal, President Herbert Hoover never really felt that the Depression would last as long as it did. Many people felt that Hoover was uncaring of the plight of the poor; however Hoover was independently wealthy before entering politics and gave all of his government checks to charity. He believed in charity as his work in Europe during and after World War I shows and when he became Secretary of Commerce in the United States he worked to foster ties between business and government to improve service throughout the nation. Herein lies the fundamental problem that Hoover had with dealing with the Depression; when the Great Depression hit, he counted on the generosity of all Americans to help the country through and unfortunately, he was sadly mistaken.

It's interesting to note that in Barack Obama's current handling of the Recession, he is more like Hoover than Roosevelt including counting on banks to increase loans (which they were hesitant to do for both Hoover and Obama) and running deficit spending (it was campaigning against deficit spending that helped Roosevelt win the presidency in 1932).

#15 No Jumping

The myth: Elephants are the only mammal that can't jump.

First of all, just so you know, it is true that adult elephants can't jump if by jumping we mean the state of having no feet on the ground at the same time after propelling oneself from a stationary position. But contrary to the popular myth that it is is the only mammal that can't, it is joined by a few others. Firstly, the sloth is unable to jump which suits its lazy lifestyle rather well. Also, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses also cannot jump, though unlike elephants, when they run it is possible for them to have all four feet off the ground.

#16 High-fructose corn syrup

The myth:High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is making us fat.

Since HFCS entered the American food supply in the 1970s, and the rates of obesity started to rise about then. Consequently, many blame HFCS for the fat plague. It's true of course that the calories HFCS contributes can be linked to the nation's obesity problems, but its calories are no different from those in refined white sugar: the makeup of HFCS (55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose) is close to that of white sugar (50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose), which means that our bodies digest HFCS and sugar in very similar ways. Nutritionally speaking, the two are virtually identical.

#17 Prince of Darkness

The myth: In the Old Testament of The Bible, "Lucifer" refers to the fallen angel.

"Lucifer" (light-bearer)is a generic title referring to the morning star (Venus). As such, it has been used throughout history to refer to Satan, Christ, and others. With this in mind, Isaiah 14:12 starts out "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!". Taken as a separate verse, this appears to refer to the battle of angels however, the PASSAGE starts at Isaiah 12:4 "Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon" and towards the end is Isaiah 14:22 "For I will rise up against them saith the Lord of hosts, and cut of from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, Saith the Lord." Thus Lucifer in the Old Testament refers to some unnamed Babylonian king.

#18 Christopher Columbus

The myth: Christopher Columbus discovered that the world was round.

This is a very old myth that is surprisingly believed by millions of people. What we are told is that the Genoese Columbus' peers doomed his trip to failure because they thought he would fall off the edge of the earth. Now this was in the 1490s but man has known the earth was round since the idea was first put forth by Pythagorus 2,000 years before Spain even existed. Columbus did fail to reach his original destination, but in so doing he discovered the Americas. Not a bad end to a failed journey really. The round earth theory was so well established that the navigational methods at the time were all based on the fact that the earth was round.

#19 Joan of Arc

The myth:Joan of Arc was convicted of heresy.

Joan denied all of the heresy charges and she was never convicted of that crime despite the many traps the prosecution laid for her. During the trial, a prosecutor made an off-hand question and asked if it was true that she dressed like a man during battles. Seeing no harm in telling the truth, she replied yes and this was enough to seal her doom. This transvestism violated Deuteronomy 22:5 and was enough for the court to convict her of violating God's Law and since that particular law carries a death penalty, she was burned at the stake. Great care was made to give the appearance of a trial in accordance with canon law, but many aspects, including the official record, were fraudulent. Pope Callixtus III reopened the trail and she was exonerated and Bishop Pierre Cauchon castigated for using a religion court to settle a secular dispute.

#20 Typhoid Mary

The myth:Typhoid Mary, the most dangerous woman in America, killed hundreds (if not thousands) by infecting them with typhoid.

The story is Typhoid Mary is relatively well known and it certainly is true that she (Mary Mallon) carried Typhoid fever without catching it herself. It is also true that she caused human deaths as a consequence. What is not true is the enormity of the carnage she left behind her. In fact, Mary (who worked as a cook) caused 30 53 (different sources cite different numbers) people to catch Typhoid, but only 3 of those people died. When it was first discovered that Mary was the cause of these people becoming ill, she was quarantined. This was for a short time only as it was felt that it was unfair to quarantine her as others in a similar situation were not. Mary was allowed to leave on the condition that she stop working as a cook. She accepted the condition but unable to get a job paying as well as cooking, she took on a false name and began working at a hospital as a cook. She caused 25 people there to become sick and one died. For this reason she was arrested and put in quarantine until she died 18 years later. She is pictured above in a bed during her first quarantine.

#21 Cell phones and Cancer

The myth: Cell phones cause brain cancer.

Lawsuits and news headlines have fueled the myth that cell phones cause cancer, particularly brain cancer, and 30 percent of Americans still believe this myth, according to the Discovery Health/Prevention telephone survey. Consumers could easily have missed the reports showing no danger from cell phones because they didn't receive alarming front-page coverage like the original reports. A few studies suggested a link with certain rare types of brain tumors, but the consensus among well-designed population studies is that there is no consistent association between cell phone use and brain cancer.

#22 Married Priests?

The myth: Catholic priests can't be married.

In order to clear this one up, we need to first understand the nature of the Catholic Church. Within the universal Church there are sections (also called churches but not in the sense that they are separate) the most common one is, of course, the Roman (or Latin) Catholic Church. Then there is the Eastern Catholic Church (not to be confused with the Orthodox which is a different religion). Both of these churches fall under the jurisdiction of the Pope and all believe the same doctrines.

There are a lot of differences between the two groups and these are all in matters of style of worship and certain rules. In the Eastern Church, priests are allowed to be married but a married priest can't become a Bishop. It also happens that occasionally in the Latin Church, pastors from other religions such as the Church of England are allowed to become priests (if they renounce their religion and become Catholic) even though they are married, so married priests can be found in all parts of the Roman Catholic Church.

#23 King Charles III

The myth: Prince Charles will be Charles III when he assumes England's throne.

It has been officially denied (imagine talking about what name you'll have when your mum dies), but it is believed by many sources based on reports from Charles' friends that he will take George VII as his regnal name when he assumes the throne. There are many theories as to why with the two most popular being: Charles is an unlucky name for English monarchs (Charles I was deposed and Charles II very nearly so) and that George is to honor his grandfather George VI.

#24 The Great Wall of China

The myth:The Great Wall of China is the only manmade structure visible from space.

Well this is wrong on many levels. Firstly, while you are still close enough to earth to actually see the great wall, you can also see road networks, and other large objects created by man. There is, in fact, no distance from earth in which you can only see the great wall. By the time you get a few thousand miles away, you can see nothing manmade.

Astronaut Alan Bean said:

"The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white (clouds), some blue (ocean), patches of yellow (deserts), and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible on this scale. In fact, when first leaving earth's orbit and only a few thousand miles away, no man-made object is visible at that point either."

#25 Peenuts

The myth:A scientific study on peanuts in bars found traces of over 100 unique specimens of urine.

After rigorous searching for more information, it turns out that no scientific study (or non-scientific study for that matter) has ever been conducted into peanuts at bars.

However, there was a study in ice-cubes in UK bars in 2003 which discovered that 44% of ice cubes tested contained coliform bacteria bacteria that comes from human poop. Even more shockingly, 5% were infected with the potentially deadly E. Coli bacteria. I guess that proves that they aren't making their ice cubes from bottled water. So, next time you are in London, pass on the ice and enjoy some peanuts instead.

#26 Offer To Buy

The myth: If someone wrongly advertises goods for the wrong price, they have to sell it to you at that price.

This is a very popular misconception and I have even seen people arguing about it in a shop. But the reality is a little more bland. A shop price is an "invitation to bargain" not an "invitation to buy". This is true in the United States, United Kingdom, Commonwealth nations, and probably the rest of the Western world. If a shop makes a mistake, they can simply continue to sell the goods at the normal price. Attempts to defraud by advertising lower prices are caught in other consumer laws. However, it should be noted that if an electronic transaction is completed you may be eligible to keep the goods if a mistake is made.

#27 S.O.S?

The myth:The Titanic was the first ship to send out the SOS signal.

Initially the Titanic sent out the CQD signal (standing for "All stations: distress") but Britain had recently signed up to the new standard of SOS so one of the crew suggested that it be used as well: "Send SOS; it's the new call, and besides, this may be your last chance to send it!" It certainly was new to British ships, but the standard had been in use for some years prior and there is even a newspaper article from 1909 which describes its use by an American ship, the Arapahoe.

#28 Polar Bears

The myth: Polar Bears are left handed.

Where this myth came from is now lost in the dark recesses of history. The widespread of this misnomer is quite extraordinary with more google results announcing it as gospel than not. But in reality, scientists who have spent their working lives studying polar bears have found that they are actually ambidextrous (they use both hands equally well). It is possible that the myth was started when people observed the bears working well with their left hands, but they neglected to notice that they also worked well with their right.

#29 Plague Be Gone

The myth: The Great Fire of London in 1666, ended the Great Plague of 1665.

A study done by the University of London recently found no correlation between the location of the fire and the geography of the dreadful plague. It was just a coincidence that the fire happened around the same time as the plague was beginning to mysteriously disappear. Most of the areas effected by the plague were poor parts of London north, south and east of the city walls whereas the fire was in the city itself. Encyclopedia Britannica says "The cessation of plague in England must be regarded as spontaneous."

#30 Bananas Crisis

The myth: In ten years there will be no bananas left.

There is some basis in truth to this myth (as is often the case) there is a disease (fusarium wilt, or Panama disease) that is threatening bananas in some Asian countries and it is the Banana most Americans are familiar with (the Cavendish banana) but it is not likely to wipe out the entire world's stock of bananas or even the Cavendish banana as it has not infected some of the larger exporting farms. Furthermore, the cavendish is only one of roughly 300 types of bananas that are available and good for human consumption.

#31 The New Deal

The myth: Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" was built upon the ideas on John Maynard Keynes.

Marriner Eccles was a prominent banker who saved his family bank from ruin when the Depression hit. It was he who told the Senate in 1933 that the key to stopping the Depression was spending. Roosevelt later rewarded Eccles with the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve and he wrote the Banking Act of 1935, a post he held for fourteen years. In honor of his work, the headquarters of the Federal Reserve is housed in the Eccles Building.

Although Keynes' papers had been around in some form for the three years before the New Deal, the evidence indicates it was not a major influence on national economies until 1936. Keynes work during the Depression consisted primarily with unemployment as a function of savings and investments (1930) and public spending (1933). His book "General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" did not come out until 3 years after Eccles' testimony and the New Deal had started.

#32 Horse Statues

The myth:The number of hooves in the air on a statue of a horse tells us how its rider died.

The idea is that when a statue of a horse has one foot in the air, his rider was wounded in battle but survived. If he has two hooves in the air the rider was killed, and if he has none in the air, the rider survived. While this is a myth interestingly it does seem to apply to the majority of statues relating to Gettysburg equestrians though not James Longstreet who was not wounded but his statue does have one leg raised.

#33 Paul Revere

The myth: Paul Revere rode all the way to Concord on 16 April 1775 to warn American Minutemen that the English army was invading.

Dr. Joseph Warren sent Paul Revere and Charles Dawes to Concord to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the invasion and soon met Dr. Samuel Prescott returning home from an evening out. All three were soon captured by the British, but Dawes and Prescott (not Revere) quickly escaped. Some say that Dawes was then thrown from his horse and had to walk back to Lexington but others claim after the escape he was lost and had to ride back to Lexington. Of the three, only Prescott finished the ride all of the way to Concord.

#34 Newton's Apple

The myth:Newton devised his universal law of gravity when an apple fell on his head from the tree under which he was sitting.

It is always exciting to think of a great discovery happening in the blink of an eye due to a coincidental event we consider that if it were not for the right person being in the right place at the right time, man would have lost an incredibly significant piece of knowledge. For this reason people have clung to the idea that Newton devised his universal law of gravity because of an apple hitting him on the head. But in fact the first mention of an apple in relation to Newton came 60 years after his death: "Whilst he was musing in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (which brought an apple from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth but that this power must extend much further." (John Conduitt)

#35 NASA and Vaccums

The myth: NASA invented the DustBuster.

First of all, how do you vacuum in a vacuum? You don't, so why would NASA need a vacuum cleaner for its space missions? It didn't, but what it did need was a small battery powered drill, so they teemed up with Black and Decker to come up with the perfect device. Once the device had been realized, Black and Decker were left with great technology from which they eventually developed the DustBuster and other useful home devices.

#36 Folding Paper

The myth: You can't fold a piece of paper in half more than 7 times.

This is one we all hear regularly and we believe it because it is true when we tried it. But, in 2002 a US high school student Britney Gallivan proved it wrong by folding a piece of thin gold leaf more than 7 times with the use of tweezers. To further prove that it could be done, she bought a giant roll of toilet paper on the internet and her and her family took it to the local mall where they attempted to fold it more than 7 times. Seven hours of folding later, they had it folded into 12 folds.

#37 Aluminum / Aluminium

The myth: Aluminum is an American corruption of the correct word "aluminium".

While I am sure that many of our American readers will know this, the British and commonwealth readers probably don't. Aluminum is actually the older term, while aluminium was created later by the British to make it sound more like the other elements. Here is a timeline which explains things clearly:1808: Sir Humphrey Davy isolates the metal for the first time. He calls it aluminium

1812: Sir Humphrey decides to change the spelling of his element: he renames it to aluminum the term adopted in the United States

1812: British scientists dislike the new name and change it to aluminium to match the other classical sounding elements.

So, if we are to give the discoverer the naming rights, the proper term is aluminum. And for those who love grammar, here is a slightly off-topic aside: From the late 17th century, "fall" was the universal English word for the third season (both British and Americans used it exclusively). It was not until the 18th century that the British began to use the very old fashioned (dating from the 14th century) word "Autumn" while the Americans continued to use "fall".

#38 I Can't Believe It's Not Plastic!

The myth:Margarine is 1 molecule away from plastic.

Americans eat four times as much margarine as butter every year which seems surprising considering so many people believe this little myth about the chemical spread. While much of the negative stuff we hear about margarine is true, this particular myth is not. Margarine is made by heating vegetable oil and infusing it with hydrogen in other words saturating it to a point that it remains hard at room temperature. It is then mixed with other ingredients to give a white lump that resembles fat. Yellow food coloring is added and voila we have margarine. There is not one molecule of anything that you could add to margarine to turn it into plastic.