Hello scientists!
Last time, I said that we were going to talk about physics, but I changed my mind. Physics will be next, though! Instead, let's go over some common misconceptions.
1. The Great Wall of China is claimed to be the only man-made structure visible from the Moon. This is wrong for two reasons. The first is that you can't see it when you're higher than 180 miles, much closer than the Moon. Although it is longer than 13,000 miles, it is only 30 feet wide, putting it at a great disadvantage. The second reason the myth is wrong is that there are many man-made things visible from the Moon, such as city lights. This is what it looks like from a low-Earth orbit:
And no, it's not that line running from top-left to bottom-right; that's a river. The wall runs from bottom-left to top-right. If you can barely see it, this picture is also zoomed in from a satellite that is no where close to the Moon.
2. As we all know, bulls hate the color red. Except they don't. Red isn't even a bright color to cattles' eyes. They instead charge the matador because they appear as a potential threat.
3. Pennies falling from the Empire State Building are feared of killing someone on the ground. However, there's a scientific principle called terminal velocity. This is when the drag, or air resistance, on something falling is as strong as gravity. This results on the object neither slowing or speeding up. The terminal velocity of a penny is 30-50 mph. At this speed, a penny won't have enough velocity to crack the human skull. Granted, it will hurt, but you'll survive.
4. This one is actually one that proves me wrong. The heating of a meteor is not actually caused by air rubbing against it, but air compressing in front of the meteor. So I was wrong about those Russian meteors from two entries ago.
5. Black holes are often thought to be violent eaters of the universe. That's true, but only if the objects are very close to it. After all, if they have the same mass as a star, they will have the same gravitational pull. In fact, if the Sun was replaced by a black hole with the same mass, Earth wouldn't notice (except humans would). The only difference is that a black hole is a lot denser.
6. Not all worms that are cut in half produce two new worms. The front half will usually live with its mouth, while the rear half will die. However, some flatworms can actually produce two worms from two halves, known scientifically as anterior regeneration.
7. This one may be the most surprising of all. For years I've likced ice cream only with the tip of my tongue to taste the most sweetness. As we've all seen at one point or another, different parts of the tongue are used to taste different things, such as sweetness and spiciness. Apparently, that actually isn't true. If you recognize this:
you know what I'm talking about. Turns out that every part of the tongue can detect each primary taste almost as well as the others, although it may differentiate from person to person. To add to that, the locations of sensitivity are never the same, and there are actually five primary tastes, not four. The fifth is called umami, used to describe tastes such as meat.
8. Speaking of senses, we often think that we have five senses: sight, taste, scent, touch, and sound. We actually have much more than that, including, but not limited to: balance, acceleration, pain, body position, temperature, time, itching, pressure, hunger, thirst, when to stop eating, when to go #1 and #2, and the most famous one of all, carbon dioxide levels in the blood.
9. Sugar doesn't make people hyper, especially children. In tests, children were both given sugar-free soda and soda with sugar that tasted and looked exactly the same. After the test, both children behaved the same and had the same amount of energy.
10. As you may have guessed by now, humans don't just use 10% of their brain. This can be simply proven with an MRI. The brain is incredibly complex, but one things scientists do know is that it uses more than 10% of it's neutrons. This source of this myth can be traced back to philosopher William James, who used the phrase metaphorically.
Thanks for reading! Make sure to comment below! As I mentioned, I promised something physics related and Apocalyptic Friday is coming up, so I'm thinking I'll just combine the two. Tune in then!
Until next time,
Ben's jamin'
Benjamin
P.S. Make sure you check out John's math blog at http://johncooksmathblog.blogspot.com.
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