# Common Misconceptions Many Reasonably Intelligent People Have and Your Corrections **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 9, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226 "2011-05-09T02:24:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/141 "2011-05-10T23:06:12Z")
[The Internet was _not_ designed to survive nuclear war.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12532172&postcount=15) ---
**Author:** ![Amasia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Amasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amasia)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/142 "2011-05-10T23:12:30Z")
Jail ≠ Prison They are very different institutions with different purposes and people end up in them for quite different reasons. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/143 "2011-05-10T23:22:42Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > Red, yellow, and blue are NOT the primary pigment colors! But they are _a_ traditional set of primary colors, although one with not as wide a color gamut as CMY. The questions sucks as written for many reasons, but in the context of a pub quiz, if you’re clever enough to know the difference between additive and subtractive primaries, you’re probably clever enough to guess they’re fishing for the primaries all of us were taught in kindergarten. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/144 "2011-05-11T00:31:56Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > Red, yellow, and blue are NOT the primary pigment colors! > > Once at a trivia night at a local restaurant and the question was “What are the primary colors?” Our team didn’t know if they meant additive or subtractive, so we assumed additive and put down red, green, and blue. The hostess who was running the trivia night insulted us that we were stupid and that every kindergartener knows that it is red, yellow, and blue. We appealed to no avail. > > Additive Primary Colors: > Red, green, blue > > Subtractive Primary Colors: > Cyan, magenta, and yellow I’ve never heard of the “primary colors” NOT being: red, blue, yellow. Please explain how those answers would be correct, or even KNOWN at your typical trivia night. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/145 "2011-05-11T02:24:08Z")
What other countries call Canadian bacon is not what Canadians call bacon. The so-called Canadian bacon is back bacon or peameal bacon; what Canadians eat as bacon is what Americans eat as bacon. Back bacon is available, but it is far from a commonly-eaten food, whereas regular bacon is. That money from the government is somehow “free” money - that’s OUR money. The government doesn’t create money\*; it taxes us and uses the money it gets from us for its programs. That a low-maintenance yard means that you don’t have to do anything in it, ever again. Low-maintenance is not NO maintenance. No maintenance is just paving that sucker over. \*Yeah, I know, it kind of does, but for this argument, it doesn’t, okay? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/146 "2011-05-11T03:01:19Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > I’ve never heard of the “primary colors” NOT being: red, blue, yellow. Please explain how those answers would be correct, or even KNOWN at your typical trivia night. Well, you know how you have an RGB monitor? Do you know why it’s RGB? Because those three are the additive primary colors. With those three colors of light, you can generate the vast majority of colors. With printing, which is a subtractive process, the primaries are cyan, magenta, and yellow. Those will produce the widest gamut, as far as I know, of any three color primary color system. In actual practice, though, black is also needed, because creating black from cyan, magenta, and yellow, ends up muddy. Look closely at a color newspaper or magazine photograph. It’s made up of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dots. Why would these be known? Because those two sets of color primaries are standard. I doubt a majority of people know that, being more familiar with the traditional grade-school taught subtractive primaries of red, blue, and yellow, but it’s not exactly obscure, especially if you’ve ever worked in Photoshop or any image editing program. Or taken a physics class. Now, at a pub, as I said above, I would have guessed they were going for the traditional set of red, blue, and yellow, but it depends on the pub. The fact that they did not specify additive or subtractive primaries would lead me to conclude that they’re going for the common answer. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/147 "2011-05-11T03:06:27Z")
Various historical ones: -Germans were naturally Anti-Semitic and desired the Holocaust to happen -The Puritans were a bunch of humourless folk who were afraid that anyone anywhere might be happy ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/148 "2011-05-11T03:08:59Z")
I just want to remind people about the “and your corrections” part of the thread title. Not to be a jerkish junior mod but just because that is the part of this thread that is the most interesting and informative for me. ---
**Author:** ![Amasia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Amasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amasia)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/149 "2011-05-11T03:26:26Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Various historical ones: > > -Germans were naturally Anti-Semitic and desired the Holocaust to happen > -The Puritans were a bunch of humourless folk who were afraid that anyone anywhere might be happy This don’t seem like common misconceptions. The German anti-semitism seems very debatable, depending precisely what you meant. Perhaps I am misunderstanding. And I’ve never heard anyone, let along anyone I would consider “reasonably intelligent,” hold that view about Puritans. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/150 "2011-05-11T03:28:59Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Well, you know how you have an RGB monitor? Do you know why it’s RGB? Because those three are the additive primary colors. With those three colors of light, you can generate the vast majority of colors. > > With printing, which is a subtractive process, the primaries are cyan, magenta, and yellow. Those will produce the widest gamut, as far as I know, of any three color primary color system. In actual practice, though, black is also needed, because creating black from cyan, magenta, and yellow, ends up muddy. Look closely at a color newspaper or magazine photograph. It’s made up of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dots. > > Why would these be known? Because those two sets of color primaries are standard. I doubt a majority of people know that, being more familiar with the traditional grade-school taught subtractive primaries of red, blue, and yellow, but it’s not exactly obscure, especially if you’ve ever worked in Photoshop or any image editing program. Or taken a physics class. > > **Now, at a pub, as I said above, I would have guessed they were going for the traditional set of red, blue, and yellow, but it depends on the pub. The fact that they did not specify additive or subtractive primaries would lead me to conclude that they’re going for the common answer**. I AGREED with what I bolded. BTW, never took Physics, but DO know how a TV picture is created. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/151 "2011-05-11T03:47:40Z")
> [@Amasia](#): > > And I’ve never heard anyone, let along anyone I would consider “reasonably intelligent,” hold that view about Puritans. The allusion is to a fairly famous quote by H.L. Mencken: > [@](#): > > Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. There’s also the common meaning of “Puritanical” as morally strict, stern, and forbidding, especially as regards sex and/or pleasure. The historical Puritans’ reputation for such strictness is partially deserved, but only partially. [Here’s Wikipedia’s take](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan#Restrictions_and_pleasures) (with the caveat that Wikipedia is not an infallible source) explaining that the Puritans were not averse to drinking in moderation nor to sexual pleasure within marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Amasia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Amasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amasia)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/152 "2011-05-11T03:52:29Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > The allusion is to a fairly famous quote by H.L. Mencken:There’s also the common meaning of “Puritanical” as morally strict, stern, and forbidding, especially as regards sex and/or pleasure. > > The historical Puritans’ reputation for such strictness is partially deserved, but only partially. [Here’s Wikipedia’s take](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan#Restrictions_and_pleasures) (with the caveat that Wikipedia is not an infallible source) explaining that the Puritans were not averse to drinking in moderation nor to sexual pleasure within marriage. I’m aware of the term, but just haven’t heard it used to seriously mean that Puritans were “afraid that anyone anywhere might be happy.” ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/153 "2011-05-11T04:29:49Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > A lot of people seem to think that the indexes in the backs of books are somehow automatically generated via computer. > > Actually they are composed by professional indexers (like me!), most of whom do this on a freelance basis. > > Edit: This may be esoteric enough to be DQ’ed by the OP’s rules, but I’ve run into enough people who think this that I thought I’d mention it. As a librarian, I thank you for your work. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/154 "2011-05-11T05:17:17Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Various historical ones: > > -Germans were naturally Anti-Semitic and desired the Holocaust to happen I don’t think _all_ Germans were naturally anti-Semitic but I do feel that most of Europe was, if not hostile to the Jews, certainly not favorable to them, and that’s enough to make the potential for a Holocaust possible if the right leader came along who was able to make it happen. A Holocaust could have happened anywhere. Actually, it did happen in other countries. Half of Europe collaborated with Hitler’s plan to exterminate the Jews, and collaborated enthusiastically. And it also could have easily happened in Russia, too, if any of the communist leaders wanted to do it. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/155 "2011-05-11T05:59:13Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > The moon can’t be up in the daytime. There is a co-worker of mine, otherwise intelligent, who believes this. Yes, it can. You can see it, but it’s not as obvious as it is at night, so you have to have some idea where to look. Can I just say thank you? I took an astronomy class a couple years ago, and there would be little sections about common misconceptions. Things like the dark side of the moon and such. But there was one that basically said “Many people think the moon can only be up at night and think there’s something wrong if they see it during the day.” Which I immediately thought “Who the hell wouldn’t know something that happens every single month? Do they never look at the sky during the day? Hell, I knew the moon showed up during the day a lot of times when I was 3!” But now I know there is at least one major idiot who doesn’t know that. So thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/156 "2011-05-11T07:29:43Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > With printing, which is a subtractive process, the primaries are cyan, magenta, and yellow. Those will produce the widest gamut, as far as I know, of any three color primary color system. In actual practice, though, black is also needed, because creating black from cyan, magenta, and yellow, ends up muddy. Look closely at a color newspaper or magazine photograph. It’s made up of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dots. This isn’t as confusing as it first appears. Cyan is a shade of blue, magenta, while not red, is certainly in the reddy/pinky spectrum, and yellow is yellow. Blue, red, and yellow is a serviceable approximation of cyan, magenta, and yellow. What probably confuses people is that they think red, green, blue is instead of red, yellow, blue, but those are different types of colour creation, additive vs subtractive. ---
**Author:** ![put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/put_down_the_sabre)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/157 "2011-05-11T11:51:02Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > What other countries call Canadian bacon is not what Canadians call bacon. The so-called Canadian bacon is back bacon or peameal bacon; what Canadians eat as bacon is what Americans eat as bacon. Back bacon is available, but it is far from a commonly-eaten food, whereas regular bacon is. > > That money from the government is somehow “free” money - that’s OUR money. The government doesn’t create money\*; it taxes us and uses the money it gets from us for its programs. > > That a low-maintenance yard means that you don’t have to do anything in it, ever again. Low-maintenance is not NO maintenance. No maintenance is just paving that sucker over. > > \*Yeah, I know, it kind of does, but for this argument, it doesn’t, okay? ^ Isn’t the only ‘other country’ that calls it ‘Canadian bacon’ the USA? pdts, American bacon hater ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/158 "2011-05-11T13:06:40Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > But they are _a_ traditional set of primary colors, although one with not as wide a color gamut as CMY. The questions sucks as written for many reasons, but in the context of a pub quiz, if you’re clever enough to know the difference between additive and subtractive primaries, you’re probably clever enough to guess they’re fishing for the primaries all of us were taught in kindergarten. Actually, until that night, I was totally unaware of the idea that blue, red, and yellow were the primary colors. I never took an elementary school art class, so I guess I was not exposed to it. That was why it so shocked me when they declared my answer wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/159 "2011-05-11T13:15:57Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Do they never look at the sky during the day? Hell, I knew the moon showed up during the day a lot of times when I was 3!" I think it’s one of those things you have to actively look for. If you don’t spend a lot of time looking up at the sky, a glimpse of the moon here or there won’t register because it’s fairly faint. Me, I’ve taken much more of an interest now, since my son (3) is enamored with the Moon. When we’re outside, it’s fun to point it out and let him run around the yard looking for it from different vantage points. I’ve gotten a better idea of when the moon is up, and where to look for it, than I’ve ever had before. It doesn’t help that 99% of the depictions of the moon you’re likely to see in media are nighttime shots. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226/160 "2011-05-11T13:18:29Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > This is not a coincidence. It’s called tidal locking, and is what eventually happens to most things orbiting another body (“eventually”, to an astronomer, can mean “in billions of years, or more”). A moon that is tidally locked has its orbital and rotation period the same. > > The fact that the sun and moon appear almost exactly the same size in the sky (and, therefore, we can get total solar eclipses) _is_ a coincidence, and isn’t always going to be the case. The moon is moving away from the Earth, and eventually (in a few hundred million years, IIRC) will not be able to totally eclipse the sun any more. The first time I realized this and was explaining it to people, I said that the odds of us having a moon the same apparent size of the sun is astronomical. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions-many-reasonably-intelligent-people-have-and-your-corrections/581226.md?page=9)