Prepare to open your eyes for the first time in your life (any Matrix fans out there?), because the guys at Information is Beautiful are taking a Mythbusters role and putting popular facts to the test.
From the little things like fixing the goldfish memory from three seconds to three months, to something that should be in every school book, like that vaccines don't actually cause autism; these fact checks sure have the potential to turn you into a champ on those quiz nights.
But if you're still feeling a little suspicious, head over to the Information is Beautiful website, where every fact is linked to the articles by the scientific community that proves them wrong.
(h/t: demilked)
This post may include affiliate links.
I wondering how this hoax featured in so many tv shows make the chances to find the missing-persons in numbers :(
This has been discussed on Bored Panda before. The above is true for the US and a number of other countries, but some countries have this 24 hour period, other have even 2 or 3 days period.
No, as soon as you have reason to suspect someone is missing, the police will take your report. Having arbitrary time limits doesn't help anyone.
Load More Replies...And because of this thousands of people are at risk of death from not vaccinating
"You always believed" my a*s! I might not be a medical professional, but I'm not an IDIOT!
Thank you, Master Markus. I generally don't like 2nd person titles for articles. They're assuming I'm thinking this way and do things that way and such...
Load More Replies...That blond lady with big boobs says different, so now who are you gonna believe?
It's true that the study that started this all was faked, but I don't think people should stop questioning medical treatments and norms. Be an educated advocate for yourself and your loved ones.
Sure, in general, but THIS particular lie is pretty cleared up and the only thing that parents who don't vaccinate their kids get are kids with diseases.
Load More Replies...I just found out I'm not related to either Adam or Eve. Thank you "23andme"
Just like white Jesus. If you think for yourself it makes you wonder about everything else.
But they actually do abandon. I saw it after trying to save wild baby birds, that fell down, and after petting a chicken - his mother hen just pecked it to death after I put it to common area with many other chickens
My dad was a sleepwalking teen. Grandma said he leaped out of a window one time. I had heard you risk killing them by waking but she swears she yelled at him before he took the plunge!
I used to sleepwalk as a child. When I was about 3, one of our neighbors picked me up at about 3:00 am, walking down the middle of the street in my little jammies. Luckily, we lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone else, and no one locked their doors. My Mom started locking doors after that little episode.
This is not true about everyone! I have a grandfather who sleepwalks. One time my grandmother tried to awake him and he became moderately violent. He ended up hurting himself and my grandmother. I don't know, but his epilepsy may be a factor. It may not be true for everyone, but you may want to try to learn more about a sleepwalker before attempting to wake them.
be careful and be gentle. sleepwalkers are v easy to frighten - they can dream they're suddenly in a nightmare, and turn violent. after all, most of their minds are offline [deep asleep], so they aren't lucid at all.
Every time my cat goes by the goldfish, they swim frantically. Luckily this does not happen often. I'd venture to guess that those fish definitely remember the cat!
Have you ever seen a notepad near the car? Probably it is researching the fishs' memory span...
Load More Replies...goldfish have a very dull life - they're usually bored rigid, which is possibly why they seem to have short memory. :-)
my fishes know that i am going to feed them so everytime i open the tank they all swim up to me everyday lawl
Same for me when I fed my Uncle's fish. All the fish, the betas, goldfish, even his frog would swim up to get the food.
Load More Replies...Or, if you keep them in light for some time, they will change colour into white
Love, love, love this one. Ever since I've known this I get a real kick out of old movies or guys dressed as Vikings with a horned helmet. :-D
I always wondered about this because the only animal I could think of having horns in that area were goats and I haven't seen a goat with rhino sized horns.
even the Asterix books depict the horned helmets on the Vikings. lol. :-)
But they had those already, even before the opera, because when they kill a deer or a taurus they take their horns and then adds those to the helmet? Right?
I've never heard of this before actually, and I doubt that's true! I know good friends who are really passionate about History and that viking helmets had no horns is one of the first things they taught me. ...also I dare anyone to take a warrior with antlers on his hat seriously :P
Load More Replies...But did you know that if you put your toilet paper on backwards there is a place spiders hide?
I had a wolf spider run across my face in the middle of the night so I'm not sure this is true. I caught it and put it outside.
I could feel the smell of my dogs' footpads. So it is actually true.
Load More Replies...I feel like this is true. When my dog seems nervous or she is hot, she pants, but she also had wet feet, or moist. Her leg pits seem to produce moisture too. But it could just be her...
Yes dogs can sweat through their paws. Although if that happens it isn't good since it's a sign of stress.
Load More Replies..."Haul these unmovable rocks over here and make me a pyramid" ..."but it's 80 degrees" "QUIT MOANING ITS AN HONOUR!" "In that case..."
But this was written in all history books...I knew this from like 2nd grade
With all the reapect to those who defend(ed) our countries, maybe someday in the future, people will think of soldiers as of slaves, while today we consider it as an honoured and brave thing. And then someone will try to debunk that belief, and someone else will arue that, "sure, an honour to kill and be killed, yeah...." or in a similar way.
Would you mind citing the verse that says that? Because that's interesting. I love studying about things like this.
Load More Replies...So respected slaves. Just Egyptologists wanted to say they weren’t slaves. Nice try.
My teacher put a question on a quiz to name an interesting fact about ancient Egypt. I put this on there and she counted it incorrect on account of inaccuracy. 😛
That's not true either, they have very good vision - they just happen to operate mostly at night while flying at high speeds which the echolocation makes it easier to a) find insects and b) not run smack into trees or walls.
Load More Replies...but if you wax and pluck then it damages the follicle making regrown hair weak and thinner
I tested this out on my own body maybe it's the type of hair or ethnicity but it defiantly grew a lot thicker than the untouched hair
Every time I heard "hair grows in thicker" I just assumed they meant because it's even length and not tapered. It was only until someone tried to counter the "myth" I was talking about that I realized people thought the actual hair strand was thicker than it used to be.
Tell that to the blonde hair that was on my legs before I started shaving.
Some people shave babies heads to try and make their hair thicken up, no joke.
Even when I let it grow back the same length than the untouched hair you could see the difference from a mile away
"He was slightly above average for a Frenchman at that time" conclusions: Frenchman were short hehehe. Kidding... human's average height has increased since then.
An "impression of warmth" vs. real warmth . . . makes no difference to me - pass the brandy please
maybe not for you but for certain people unfortunately counting on alcohol to take them warm outside it does :)
Load More Replies...There were pictures of pyramids from space here not so much time ago...
Those were pictures taken with a zoom lens though, you still can't see it just from space.
Load More Replies...This is just worded wrong. The common misconception is that the Great Wall is visible from the moon, or from orbit. If you get high enough to be technically considered 'in space' LOTS of things are still visible. From orbit, not so much. From the moon, you can barely make out continents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-made_structures_visible_from_space
Stop with the stupid grade comment. It's makes me wonder if you keep saying this to compensate something.
Acctually it's true, so that kinda makes you stupid. Don't be mad at me
Load More Replies...As a psychology scholar and traumatic brain injury survivor, I'm going to go ahead and call BS here
what about ambidextrous people? any difference in fingering their nails? :-)
You make me think differently about these facts when I read these comments! :)
Load More Replies...Yeah, well, "above sea level" is how most people would measure height, so while it's not technically, specifically correct, it's still the tallest mountain standing on uncovered land.
Ehm there's a distinct difference between tallest and highest. If a 6ft person stands on a 1 foot crate he is higher than me but not taller.
Yeah I'm with Markus- highest in terms of how far UP⬆We don't care what's below the damn water!
It's more accurate to measure from the centre of the Earth. Thus the tallest mountain on Earth is Aconcagua in Argentina.
Who didn't know this? Do you mean that people actually think that humans and dinosaurs existed together? (Not to offend you if you didn't know this)...
Idk have you ever seen Alligators, Crocodiles, Komoto Dragons AND rhinos!! lol
My grandfather didn't know this. I really think his generation believed the Flintstones.
Not true, I've seen this documentary, where they lived together and even having petting zoo on island or something!
Maybe it is somehow still possible to recover damaged brain cells, while if cells are dead there's no turn back.
Load More Replies...Umami is actually the deliciousness taste... or however you want to word it. It's the sense of deliciousness
What's unfortunate about this is that I had a teacher in elementary school use a whole day to teach my class about how different parts of the tongue taste different things. -__-
We are putting salt to our boiling spaghetti because otherwise they will stick to each other
Ah sorry but yr wrong.The latest investigation found a contemporary news article in an archive
Which contained the info about the cut it named the doctor who provided medical assistance immediately after. They contacted his living relative's who had in their possession a detailed drawing he did as part of his medical duties. Look it up
Bernadette Murphy is the name of the lady that tracked down the "ear" story. If I'm not mistaking there's also a BBC documentary on this :) But however, the phrase in the picture is somehow correct as it's based on the information available before the documentary (the documentary was released somewhere in aug. 2016).
Yes! All those years feeling guilty about my digestive system's walls
Cattle like most non-primate or nocturnal mammals are dichromatic, not colorblind. They see blue, yellow and some green, not red, orange, or purple.
I think it was meant in the generic since of the word. In other words, unable to see some colors.
Load More Replies...we just assume, because there were three gifts, but it could have been a caravan of 50
depend of the height of the object, like for any object on earth, an elephant or a penny. The speed at which an object fall is not dependant of their weight.
They aren't referencing the speed at which it's falling, they are referencing the weight of the penny falling at terminal velocity. Force is equal to mass times acceleration. In this instance, at terminal velocity, the lethality of this example is 100% dependent on weight.
Load More Replies...Also incorrect. The short of breath thing does not come directly from a full stomach. It cones from the less blood in your muscles as a result of a full stomach. However, this can be trained. As a swimmer you eat and swim all the time.
I am with you on this one. I've seen people vomit too. And yes, you may get cramps, usually stomach cramps when you eat and swim. As for real swimmers, they have no issues with this at all. The short breath thing may happen as most people do know know how to handle the water to begin with, not from the food. By the way, there are beer-athlons in GER after some swim events, where the swimmers need to drink a full can of beer and then race. I am not saying I am for this traditions, but again, it is all about the swimmer. And having said that, I've seen an Olympic swimmer almost drown after a party... so yes, just be careful and think before you do. (I am a life saver by profession by the way and deal with this on a daily basis). In short: I disagree with this picture too.
Load More Replies...I've definitely experienced this many times, but maybe because I'm slightly lactose intolerant?
Did you know that calcium isn't that good for bones? It's actually magnesium!!
Mucus is just dead cells that the healthy cells are attacking, that's why it appears that we have more mucus when we are sick.
I refuse to believe this is not true. Milk increases mucus, and makes you sick too. I quit dairy and my health has never been better.
From my experience with colds and dairy products, this sounds like b******t.
Not really. Warts are caused by a virus. Humans do not produce that virus, so you can get it wherever it is. So"only from humans" is incorrect.
I recommend you to waste some time learning how viruses work...
Load More Replies...They must have been thinking about British football hooligans when they named that one.
Picking on the british again when other countries are doing much more damage to the world
Load More Replies...We humans have this weird thing with statistics. It is like we hallucinate just a bit. We see / believe things that are not quite there.
I have found in my family people do tend to die in 3's and then there will be a few years gap before it starts again.
Load More Replies...Maybe its placebo? I could be wrong but its possible right?
Load More Replies...Nobody is literal when they say something is going to break the internet. Who ever came up with these sounds more and more like an insufferable know-it-all the further down the list you go. lol
Like if your bald, baby's are bald and that's why they loose body heat that way
No, their head is far larger relative to their body than adult heads are relative to adult bodies. Also not all babies are bald ;)
Load More Replies...So... basically, my whole life has been a lie. Super. I'm going to go eat an apple
It's interesting that the 'wrong facts' say themselves are right, and this page here are saying those are wrong and we are right.
The title seriously confused me. It can mean two completely different things: "Top 10 facts you used to believe to be fake" or "Top 10 facts you used to believe, turn out to be fake"
So... basically, my whole life has been a lie. Super. I'm going to go eat an apple
It's interesting that the 'wrong facts' say themselves are right, and this page here are saying those are wrong and we are right.
The title seriously confused me. It can mean two completely different things: "Top 10 facts you used to believe to be fake" or "Top 10 facts you used to believe, turn out to be fake"
