Misconceptions

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
Toilet waste is never intentionally dumped overboard from 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. The infamous blue ice is caused by accidental leakages from the waste tank. Passenger trains, on the other hand, have historically flushed onto the tracks; however, modern trains usually have retention tanks on board the train.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
The Immaculate Conception is not synonymous with the virgin birth of Jesus, nor is it a supposed belief in the virgin birth of Mary, his mother. Rather, 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, on the other hand, is the belief that Mary miraculously conceived Jesus while remaining a virgin.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say exactly three magi came to visit the baby Jesus, nor that they were kings, rode on camels, or that their names were Casper, Melchior and Balthazar. Matthew 2 has traditionally been combined with Isaiah 60:1–3.
60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
An illustration of the equal transit-time fallacy.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
Three magi are supposed because three gifts are described, and artistic depictions of the nativity after about the year 900 almost always depict three magi. 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 afterwards (Matthew 2:11).

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
It is not true that air takes the same time to travel above and below an aircraft's wing. 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, as described in the incorrect and correct explanations of lift force.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
The idea that lightning never strikes the same place twice is one of the oldest and most well-known superstitions about lightning. There is no reason that lightning would not be able to strike the same place twice; if there is a thunderstorm in a given area, then objects and places which are more prominent or conductive (and therefore minimize distance) are more likely to be struck. For instance, lightning strikes the Empire State Building in New York City about 100 times per year.

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Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
Although frequently repeated as fact, a penny dropped from the Empire State Building will not kill a person or crack the sidewalk. Due to terminal velocity the speed of a falling penny cannot exceed 30–50 miles per hour regardless of the distance from which it is dropped, as demonstrated on an episode of Mythbusters.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
The notion of catharsis holds that frustration and anger should not be bottled up or else a person risks allowing those feelings to accrue and eventually explode in some harmful way. Instead, it recommends that frustration and anger should be released through harmless expression, such as by screaming or punching a pillow. However, experimental psychology has shown that such expression can increase rather than decrease harmful behavior. In one experiment, people who engaged in catharsis (by hitting a punching bag) were significantly more likely to aggress toward a peer shortly afterward than were people who did not engage in catharsis.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
Photographic or eidetic memory refers to the ability to remember images with extremely high precision – so high as to mimic a camera. However, it is highly unlikely that photographic memory exists, as to date there is no hard scientific evidence that anyone has ever had it. Many people have claimed to have a photographic memory, but those people have been shown to have good memories as a result of mnemonic devices rather than a natural capacity for detailed memory encoding.