# Common Misconceptions **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 13, 2018, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094 "2018-05-13T17:28:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/21 "2018-05-14T04:28:54Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > This is not untrue. You ain’t go no case. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/22 "2018-05-14T04:43:01Z")
There’s a common misconception that kids with ADHD grow out of it. None do. Some of them find or accumulate enough ways to compensate as they get older; some don’t. (This can be demonstrated by identifying and thwarting the coping strategies of the successful group - they quickly fail.) None receive the stealth brain transplants that would necessarily be the main part of the “they grew out of it” scenario. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/23 "2018-05-14T14:17:17Z")
100% relative humidity is the highest relative humidity possible. No, it’s the relative humidity that you get if you close pure water and air in a sealed isothermal container such that the interface of water and air is flat, and wait long enough. In systems with tiny droplets of water in air, the relative humidity gets much higher. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/24 "2018-05-14T14:21:39Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Water does not freeze at _exactly_ 0 °C. Except when it does. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/25 "2018-05-14T14:23:51Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > MSG causes headaches. But I \*do \*get headaches from it. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/26 "2018-05-14T15:08:11Z")
People think that there are significant labor protections in the US, in particular that if you get fired and the company doesn’t have a damn good reason, you can sue for wrongful termination. In reality, in most of the US if you don’t have a significant labor contract (usually negotiated by a union) and you can’t prove that the firing was because you’re in a protected class (race, religion, gender, and the like) then you can be fired for virtually any reason and have no recourse. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/27 "2018-05-14T15:14:13Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > you can’t prove that the firing was because you’re in a protected class It’s possible to take this too far in the other direction because, guess what, judges _judge_. Judges _exercise human judgment_. Judges aren’t going to be fooled by someone saying that no of course that firing wasn’t racially-motivated I just chose to apply the no drinking after work hours to the only Black employee because he was loud. Really. Any time you get a lot of people together to talk about the law for any length of time, some of them can’t quite grasp the fact that the law is administered by humans. It’s uncanny. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/28 "2018-05-14T15:14:58Z")
Tax brackets - many people think that you can actually lose money by getting a raise if you change “tax brackets”. It doesn’t work like that at all. The percentages increase as you make more but you also just pay the same as anyone else on the lower amounts. Most middle class and up people pay based on multiple tax brackets. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/29 "2018-05-14T20:43:43Z")
that “mano a mano” means “man to man” \* that “begs the question” means “raises the question” \*\* \*it actually means “hand to hand” \*\*it actually means “avoids answering the question” ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/30 "2018-05-14T21:03:08Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > that “begs the question” means “raises the question” \*\* > > \*\*it actually means “avoids answering the question” More like “gives an answer that leads right back to asking the same question”. A politician who dodges a lot of questions is not always begging the question. It depends what kind of answers he gives. Only the answers that “end up back at square one” are begging the question (though the politician may try to hide the fact that he’s done that). ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/31 "2018-05-14T21:15:16Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > The white “smoke” you see from a teapot, iron, etc. is not steam. Steam, by definition, is invisible. What you’re seeing is a mist. > > … I think this in incorrect. Did you mean to say that you don’t see the water vapor? Here’s the first definition of steam from Google: [T]he vapor into which water is converted when heated, forming a white mist of minute water droplets in the air. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/32 "2018-05-14T21:25:19Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I think this in incorrect. Did you mean to say that you don’t see the water vapor? Here’s the first definition of steam from Google: > > [T]he vapor into which water is converted when heated, forming a white mist of minute water droplets in the air. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3ZuMkPsQbjk/hqdefault.jpg "Steam is Always Invisible") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZuMkPsQbjk) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/33 "2018-05-14T21:29:55Z")
> [@Misnomer](#): > > that “begs the question” means “raises the question” \*\* Sure, it originally referred to the logical fallacy _petitio principii_, to assume the conclusion, with an archaic meaning for “beg”. And it still can, in context. But in modern usage, it certainly does now usually mean “raises the question”. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/34 "2018-05-14T21:41:55Z")
[quote=“Peter\_Morris, post:32, topic:814094”] [/QUOTE] I don’t have access to YouTube right now. Can someone tell me whether this makes my response look brilliant or idiotic? The Immaculate Conception one is probably my favorite misconception. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/35 "2018-05-14T21:57:23Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I don’t have access to YouTube right now. Can someone tell me whether this makes my response look brilliant or idiotic? Guy on youtube video says steam is always invisible. I’m not sure what that proves. Certainly, the gas phase of water (water vapor) is invisible. You point was the range of meaning of the word steam. I think you (and the dictionary) are correct, that the word “steam” includes the condensed visible mist. We don’t usually talk about something being “steaming hot” unless we can _see_ wisps rising from the surface. Cite: google images for the word “steaming” (all those that aren’t obviously showing objects placed in a steamer before cooking). ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/36 "2018-05-14T22:09:58Z")
One of the most common misconceptions in cosmology is that it is impossible to observe objects that are receding from us faster than the speed of light. It is still common amongst the general public, but until a few years ago the mistake even appeared in textbooks. The ‘physical meaning’ of recession velocity is pretty obscure and so not much meaning should be read into it; the furthest objects in observable Universe have a recession velocity over 3 times the speed of light. Not so much a misconception, as I doubt few people without a strong interest in cosmology consider the angular diameters of faraway objects, but a little known cosmological fact is that beyond a certain distance (on the order of billions of light years) the further away an object is the bigger it appears (i.e. the larger its image appears relative to it size). This is as an object’s angular diameter depends on the distance it was, relative to the cosmological observer, when the observed light was emitted, and very faraway objects were actually relatively close when the light we now see from them was emitted. Other factors, such as the curvature of space, also affect the angular diameter of an object. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/37 "2018-05-14T22:14:29Z")
DEFCON-5 is not the direst state of military readiness, it is the most relaxed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/38 "2018-05-14T22:24:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Napier** : > > 100% relative humidity is the highest relative humidity possible. > > No, it’s the relative humidity that you get if you close pure water and air in a sealed isothermal container such that the interface of water and air is flat, and wait long enough. > > In systems with tiny droplets of water in air, the relative humidity gets much higher. You can also have a higher humidity if the system isn’t in equilibrium. Take a mass of hot, humid air, and cool it quickly, and you might now have more water vapor in the air than its equilibrium value. That extra vapor is going to condense out. But it won’t do it instantly. And the one about the Immaculate Conception really isn’t helped by the fact that, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the gospel reading in Catholic churches is the one about the Annunciation (the actual name for Jesus’s miraculous conception). ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/39 "2018-05-14T22:35:42Z")
> [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > One of the most common misconceptions in cosmology is that it is impossible to observe objects that are receding from us faster than the speed of light… A fun corollary: photons that we see that were emitted in the first ~5 billion years of the universe were emitted from regions that were then _already_ receding from us faster than light. When first emitted, although these photons moved toward us locally at the speed of light, since their region of space was receding from us faster than light, their net initial movement was _away_ from us! Later, the Hubble Sphere overtook them, moving them into a region of subluminal recession, from which time their net movement has been toward us. Ref: Expanding Confusion: common misconceptions of cosmological horizons and the superluminal expansion of the universe [https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0310808.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0310808.pdf) This is a nice non-technical paper that talks about this and other issues. It includes equations, but it’s quite comprehensible for a layman with some math but no specialized knowledge of cosmology. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094/40 "2018-05-14T22:49:09Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > But it was not deliberate according to **Peter Morris’** cite. It also wasn’t Spock. Hence faith in Spock restored. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/common-misconceptions/814094.md?page=3)