# Ten common science myths **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 18, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438 "2012-11-18T20:38:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/21 "2012-11-19T03:50:16Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I think Sol might beat out even Sirius, if one is being pedantic. Yes but for some reason it’s never in the night sky. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/22 "2012-11-19T03:56:19Z")
1. Great Wall visible from space 2. Polaris brightest star 3. Zigzag to outrace crocs 4. We use 10% of the brain 5. Bullets explode gas tanks 6. Bulls hate red 7. Lightning never strikes twice 8. Glass is solid 9. Penny dropped from skyscraper kills 10. No gravity in space ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/23 "2012-11-19T05:40:37Z")
Agreed that this really did not need to be in video form, especially since they spent so little time on each myth. The last one especially needed at least one more sentence explaining why the astronauts appear weightless if gravity is only 10% weaker in orbit. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/24 "2012-11-19T06:15:49Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Me three. I read fast. Videos however go at the pace of the person who made them. I don’t have the time or patience. This is exactly what I think of videos! Unless it’s something that needs to show motion or 3D that can’t be seen from a picture, videos are usually not a good choice. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/25 "2012-11-19T06:47:13Z")
I had never even heard of number 8. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/26 "2012-11-19T16:25:50Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Wait, I thought window glass being thicker at the bottom was a manufacturing thing, not glass flow. Glass might flow, but more slowly than to explain window glass. > > No? I read somewhere that glass does flow, but it takes a really really long time, something like 10,000+. I swore I read it in one of Cecil’s columns, but I can’t find it. But yeah, that video screwed the pooch on that one. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/27 "2012-11-19T16:33:59Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > I had never even heard of number 8. Really? It’s one of my favourite integers. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/28 "2012-11-19T16:40:37Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I read somewhere that glass does flow, but it takes a really really long time, something like 10,000+. I swore I read it in one of Cecil’s columns, but I can’t find it. > > But yeah, that video screwed the pooch on that one. The master speaks: > **[How come you can see through glass?](https://www.straightdope.com/21341284/how-come-you-can-see-through-glass)** _Lesser folk might prefer it otherwise, but there’s no sharp line dividing liquids and solids. A supercooled liquid, the term applied to glass for many years, has been rapidly chilled past its normal freezing point and become apparently solid without assuming the regular crystalline structure typical of solids. The term du jour, amorphous solid, means an apparently solid substance that lacks crystalline structure and instead has the random organization of liquids. In other words, we used to think of glass as a solidlike liquid, and now we think of it as a liquidlike solid. Big frickin’ deal. I concede that changes in the properties of glass once it cools past the “glass transition temperature” are an argument for calling it a solid. But to my mind the real question is whether glass flows, as liquids do. I’m happy to say it does, just not very fast. In the original column I wrote, “At room temperature [glass’s] rate of flow is so slow that it would take billions of years to ooze out of shape.” In the October 1999 issue of Discover, Yvonne Stokes, a mathematician at the University of Adelaide in Australia, says that it would take a mere ten million years for a windowpane to get 5 percent thicker at the bottom._ ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/29 "2012-11-19T16:42:34Z")
Ah, thanks. I was only off by a factor of 1000. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/30 "2012-11-19T16:52:01Z")
I repeated the crocodile one just last weekend :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/31 "2012-11-19T17:18:54Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Really? It’s one of my favourite integers. The number 8 is actually a Common Science Myth. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/32 "2012-11-19T17:21:56Z")
> [@Dr\_Doom](#): > > The number 8 is actually a Common Science Myth. Is it true that if I could skate, I would be great? If I could make a figure eight? That’s a circle that turns 'round upon itself? And if I turned it on its side it becomes infinite? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/33 "2012-11-19T22:28:26Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Me three. I read fast. Videos however go at the pace of the person who made them. I don’t have the time or patience. Me too. If something is online in video form that does not really need to be in video form, then I usually give it a miss. It is not the experience I want and enjoy from the internet. When I want to passively consume entertainment or info I will watch TV. What is worse, half (or more) of the online videos these days seem to have an unskippable ad before them. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/34 "2012-11-19T22:47:59Z")
Unless I am on a specifically video oriented site like youtube or…youtube, I like at least having the option of a transcript or something. (Actually, even on youtube I like it when there’s a transcript.) ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/35 "2012-11-19T23:08:17Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The master speaks: > > [How come you can see through glass? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/110/how-come-you-can-see-through-glass) I’m pretty sure the same can be said of other solids though, so glass isn’t unique (isn’t permanent warping or deformation under pressure an example of a solid flowing?). Another example, rocks flow inside of Earth, even when they aren’t so hot that they are molten, or the example I gave with ice in a glacier. All of these also occur on much shorter timescales, mainly due to the amount of stress. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/36 "2012-11-20T01:22:46Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > 1. Great Wall visible from space > 2. Polaris brightest star > 3. Zigzag to outrace crocs > 4. We use 10% of the brain > 5. Bullets explode gas tanks > 6. Bulls hate red > 7. Lightning never strikes twice > 8. Glass is solid > 9. Penny dropped from skyscraper kills > 10. No gravity in space Thanks. -D/a ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/37 "2012-11-20T11:22:48Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Me three. I read fast. Videos however go at the pace of the person who made them. I don’t have the time or patience. Yep. Having to watch a video to get the story is like being stuck sharing a book with the slowest reader in the universe at school. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/38 "2012-11-20T13:47:49Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Yep. Having to watch a video to get the story is like being stuck sharing a book with the slowest reader in the universe at school. LOL, exactly! ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/39 "2012-11-21T01:24:15Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > [They dropped the ball on glass, though.](http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/10-common-science-myths/ufo29xzr?q=science&rel=msn&from=en-us_msnhp&form=MSNrll) They didn’t say it was a liquid, but did say that it flows. I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to see until reading further down the page. It looks like Bing NZ doesn’t have Videos. I did manage to view by searching for “video 10 science myths” and clicking on the Yahoo au site. I hadn’t heard of the zigzag to outrun a croc before, but I knew they didn’t go fast on land except when they lunge at something within their reach. So, not running but striking. Everyone know the brightest star in the southern skies is Sirius. We can’t even see Polaris in NZ. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438/40 "2012-11-21T01:41:13Z")
> [@Kiwi\_Fruit](#): > > . . .I hadn’t heard of the zigzag to outrun a croc before, but I knew they didn’t go fast on land except when they lunge at something within their reach. So, not running but striking. . . . Not just that they can’t run fast–they can’t run _far_. They’re build for that powerful tail to power them around under water. Those stubby little legs on dry land, not so much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ten-common-science-myths/641438.md?page=3)