# Things that people get Very Wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 12, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958 "2012-07-12T02:18:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/101 "2012-07-15T15:53:47Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > What would an Australian Aboriginal who emigrates to England be called, when visiting America? Mike? (unless his first name were Dave or something) ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/102 "2012-07-15T15:55:44Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Mike? (unless his first name were Dave or something) No. “Mike” is the only correct answer to that question. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/103 "2012-07-15T16:09:35Z")
> [@Hero\_From\_Sector\_7G](#): > > Okay… > > I can see how in an attempt to dumb down a rather complex process there might be misunderstandings, but to say that a microwave heats by kerjiggerin’ the water isn’t too far fetched. > > Source [Dielectric heating - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_heating) I understand dielectric heating, skin effect, etc. However, many science-types insist 2.45 GHz was selected as the operating frequency for a microwave oven because “a water molecule _resonates_ at 2.45 GHz.” I was simply pointing out that the resonant frequency of a water molecule is _not_ 2.45 GHz. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/104 "2012-07-15T17:13:38Z")
I know people who swear there is a road to Nome, Alaska, and that there are inter-island bridges in the Aleutians. In the stupid question department, a common tourist question in Juneau, AK (a coastal town) is “how far above sea level is Juneau?” The answer invariably is “at high tide or low tide?” Mind you, these are people who arrived on a cruise ship. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/105 "2012-07-15T17:26:17Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > In the stupid question department, a common tourist question in Juneau, AK (a coastal town) is “how far above sea level is Juneau?” The answer invariably is “at high tide or low tide?” Mind you, these are people who arrived on a cruise ship. I don’t get it. Why would they ask this in Juneau, and not in Brooklyn, NY, or in Oakland, CA? Are they confusing “altitude” with “latitude”, and curious how far north they are? Or are they impressed with the fjords and canyon-like (but sea-level) channels around there, and think that somehow they’ve significantly gone “upstream”, like they imagine (almost as wrongly) a barge does up the Mississippi from New Orleans to Minneapolis? Or is it something else altogether? ---
**Author:** ![Kerrigan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/49beb7/32.png) [@Kerrigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kerrigan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/106 "2012-07-15T20:56:02Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I don’t get it. Why would they ask this in Juneau, and not in Brooklyn, NY, or in Oakland, CA? Are they confusing “altitude” with “latitude”, and curious how far north they are? Or are they impressed with the fjords and canyon-like (but sea-level) channels around there, and think that somehow they’ve significantly gone “upstream”, like they imagine (almost as wrongly) a barge does up the Mississippi from New Orleans to Minneapolis? Or is it something else altogether? I’m guessing it’s because if you are close enough to the sea to wade in it, you are _at_ sea level. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/107 "2012-07-15T20:58:12Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > What does she have to say about President Obama? No idea. Haven’t had any contact with her since trying to get her to explain her reasoning, over a decade ago. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/108 "2012-07-15T21:18:34Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > In the stupid question department, a common tourist question in Juneau, AK (a coastal town) is “how far above sea level is Juneau?” The answer invariably is “at high tide or low tide?” Mind you, these are people who arrived on a cruise ship. Um, [56 feet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneau,_Alaska). LA is 233 feet above sea level, etc. Being on the ocean doesn’t mean a city is all at 0 feet above sea level. The standard reference point is usually city hall. How many coastal cities have their city hall on the shore? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/109 "2012-07-15T22:16:59Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Um, [56 feet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneau,_Alaska). > > LA is 233 feet above sea level, etc. > > Being on the ocean doesn’t mean a city is all at 0 feet above sea level. The standard reference point is usually city hall. How many coastal cities have their city hall on the shore? That’s the airport elevation, which is the official elevation used for most cities with an airport. City Hall or airport, it’s for standardization, not for accuracy. One might as well use my old house on 6th street in Juneau, which was probably a hundred feet or more above sea level. But it’s a coastal town with a very long coastline, so the proper response would be ‘at sea level’. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/110 "2012-07-15T23:56:26Z")
When watching a geology show that mentioned the supercontinent of Pangea 300 million years ago, I had a girlfriend ask “If people weren’t around back then, how do we know it’s name?” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/111 "2012-07-16T00:11:44Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > In the stupid question department, a common tourist question in Juneau, AK (a coastal town) is “how far above sea level is Juneau?” The answer invariably is “at high tide or low tide?” Mind you, these are people who arrived on a cruise ship. Tourists frequently ask for a town’s elevation? Really? Who on earth, stupid or smart, would be interested in that, or think to ask that question? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/112 "2012-07-16T00:19:03Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Tourists frequently ask for a town’s elevation? Really? Who on earth, stupid or smart, would be interested in that, or think to ask that question? I asked this once. I was trying acclimate myself to high altitude and wanted to know if White’s City was significantly higher than Carlsbad New Mexico, as if it were a thousand or so feet higher it would help me to acclimate more gradually better. (But as it turns out I camped at Guadalupe Mountains National Park which _was_ significantly higher than either, due to circumstances I won’t get into here.) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/113 "2012-07-16T00:19:26Z")
At one time it was called Urkontinent by Alfred Wegener. Later renamed to Pangea at a 1927 symposium that discussed Wegener’s work. > **[Pangaea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea)** > > Pangaea or Pangea (/pænˈdʒiːə/ pan-JEE-ə) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous period approximately 335 million years ago, and began to break apart about 200 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic and beginning of the Jurassic. Pangaea was C-shaped, with the bulk of its mass stretching between Earth's northern and southern pol The na... > [@Fubaya](#): > > When watching a geology show that mentioned the supercontinent of Pangea 300 million years ago, I had a girlfriend ask “If people weren’t around back then, how do we know it’s name?” ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/114 "2012-07-16T00:56:18Z")
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: My boss once asked me, What’s 10 minus 8?" My boss. We also had an argument about whether Christmas Day was on the 25th. He insisted for a full minute that it was on the 26th. One whole minute. Christmas Day, people. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/115 "2012-07-16T01:15:59Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Some people think a ceiling fan cools the room. It doesn’t. It actually makes the room hotter. The reason you feel cooler is that it increases air circulation which helps your sweat evaporate more effectively. The increased sweat evaporation is what makes you cooler. I don’t get this. I turned off my ceiling fan for 45 minutes today because the microphone I was dictating to kept picking up its sounds and Dragon was typing the wrong things. The room temp went from 85F to 92.5F in that time span, and then dropped once I turned the fan back on. Why didn’t the temperature go up once the fan was on again if it makes the room hotter/why did the temperature drop once the fan was on again? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/116 "2012-07-16T01:59:03Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I don’t get this. I turned off my ceiling fan for 45 minutes today because the microphone I was dictating to kept picking up its sounds and Dragon was typing the wrong things. The room temp went from 85F to 92.5F in that time span, and then dropped once I turned the fan back on. Why didn’t the temperature go up once the fan was on again if it makes the room hotter/why did the temperature drop once the fan was on again? The point of a ceiling fan isn’t to cool the room. It’s to protect you from nighttime blimp attacks. ---
**Author:** ![ThreadPirateRoberts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@ThreadPirateRoberts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThreadPirateRoberts)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/117 "2012-07-16T02:40:47Z")
\ > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > The point of a ceiling fan isn’t to cool the room. It’s to protect you from nighttime blimp attacks. can someone please link to this thread? pretty please? Back on topic, my mother, a previous member of the teeming millions told me that glass was a liquid. If it as you say, is not could someone help fight the ignorance and tell me why old glass is thicker at the bottom than the top and looks as though it has drips in it? ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/118 "2012-07-16T02:55:01Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I don’t get this. I turned off my ceiling fan for 45 minutes today because the microphone I was dictating to kept picking up its sounds and Dragon was typing the wrong things. The room temp went from 85F to 92.5F in that time span, and then dropped once I turned the fan back on. Why didn’t the temperature go up once the fan was on again if it makes the room hotter/why did the temperature drop once the fan was on again? Was the temperature on the other side of the walls, floor or ceiling cooler than in your room? If so, that might explain it. The circulating air flowing over the walls will accelerate the temperature equalization in and out of the room. Like if you are in a middle apartment where the people above and below you have AC, then the circulating air will help conduct the heat from your apartment to the cooler spaces. When the outside is cooler than the inside, you may be transferring more heat out than the fan is adding. But if the space outside your room was actually hotter than 85, then I don’t know what was going on. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/119 "2012-07-16T03:17:35Z")
> [@Shamozzle](#): > > I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: My boss once asked me, What’s 10 minus 8?" My boss. Coworker (looking through a house plan): “Whats the difference between twelve square meters and twelve meters square?” Me: _pause_ “Not much.” I gather she had gotten a little mixed up between the same measurement written as both 12sqm (in the document) & 12m[sup]2[/sup] (on the plan drawing). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/120 "2012-07-16T04:25:55Z")
> [@ThreadPirateRoberts](#): > > If it as you say, is not could someone help fight the ignorance and tell me why old glass is thicker at the bottom than the top and looks as though it has drips in it? Glass used to be formed [in a cylinder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylinder_blown_sheet) and unrolled to flat, which meant it was quite imperfect. Modern glass is most often [floated on a liquid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Float_glass) to get it perfectly flat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958.md?page=7)