[QUOTE=Runs With Scissors]
Until age 21, I thought that the Earth magically tilted back and forth on its axis 23 1/2 degrees. I could NOT figure out how it knew…
To this day I get out a globe and a flashlight and explain to my students EXACTLY how it works 
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How . . . how does it work?
[QUOTE=Jaochai]
How . . . how does it work?
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It stays tipped at the same angle all the time; but as it moves around the sun, at one point the northern hemisphere is tipped towards the sun, at other points the southern hemisphere is.
Try getting an orange and holding it so its axis is diagonal; now move it in a circle but don’t move the axis – for example, by holding the orange motionless in your hand and moving your hand, not the orange, in a circle. Now, do the same thing, but hold your other fist so that it’s at the centre of the circle you’re moving the orange in. The axis of the orange stays at the same angle – the orange doesn’t teeter back and forth – but at one point, its upper “pole” is pointing away from your other fist (the “winter solstice” in its “northern hemisphere”), and at the opposite point, its lower “pole” is (the “summer solstice”).
Or, to put it another way:
northern summer Ø··························· 
···························Ø northern winter
Yes, the axis of the Earth stays tipped at the same angle and orientation relative to space, not relative to the sun. Thus, at one side of the Earth’s orbit, the south-pole end of the axis is closest to the sun. Six months later, halfway around the orbit, the north-pole end of the axis is closest to the sun.
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Yes, the axis of the Earth stays tipped at the same angle and orientation relative to space, not relative to the sun. Thus, at one side of the Earth’s orbit, the south-pole end of the axis is closest to the sun. Six months later, halfway around the orbit, the north-pole end of the axis is closest to the sun.
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Due to the elliptical nature of the earth’s orbit, the earth, including the north pole, is actually farther from the sun during summer (in the northern hemisphere) than winter. What matters is that the north pole is angled towards the sun during the summer months, and away from the sun in the winter. The southern hemisphere experiences opposite seasons for the same reason.
I had no idea until this thread that people actually thought that pineapples grew on trees.
How about this one: Most stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, not stress. Warning: gross pics.
[QUOTE=jsgoddess]
I think I will always be befuddled by pineapples. It’s just wrong. They should hang from trees like… giant strawberries or something.
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In that case, I’ve got more bad news for you! :eek:
The most personally shocking for me was when I found out that my parents actually had other boy/girlfriends before they met each other, something I didn’t even consider until a hilariously late age. I’ve always read alot, so by my brother’s existance I’d been forced to accept that they must have had sex with each other at least twice, but that was as far as that thinking had ever dared to go.
The most publically embarassing one was when I mis-spelt “lawyer” as “lawer” in high school, on the blackboard, 3 times in a row. :o
I’d never had to spell it before! It totally looks right! OMG!
[QUOTE=Nanoda]
The most personally shocking for me was when I found out that my parents actually had other boy/girlfriends before they met each other, something I didn’t even consider until a hilariously late age.
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When I found out what year my parents got married, I did the math and realized my eldest brother was 4 years old at the time. It did not occur to me until a few years later to wonder why they waited that long to get married, and I think it took at least a year after THAT to wonder if perhaps my brother was from a previous relationship my mother had(he is).
My dad used to watch hockey a lot and as they went to commercial, they always said the coverage was “brought to you by” whoever the sponsors were. “Broughtiyoo” always sounded like one word. I’m not sure how I imagined it being spelled or defined.
I don’t know if I definitely thought the sea monsters and mermaids on the (now replaced) submarine ride at Disneyland were real. But I didn’t really think they were fake. I just never thought about it one way or the other. The part where all those bubbles would come up and they would say “We’re diving EVEN DEEPER” was pretty convincing though.
[QUOTE=TJdude825]
I just never thought about it one way or the other. The part where all those bubbles would come up and they would say “We’re diving EVEN DEEPER” was pretty convincing though.
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Oh man, ever been to the Living Seas in Epcot? They have these “hydrolaters” that “take you to the ocean floor.” You can see through the windows the rocky walls flying by as you make your ‘decent,’ as well as the water bubbles rising to the surface,
When I learned that we weren’t actually going anywhere, except for a brief inch-long drop (to simulate touching ground), I couldn’t fathom how that could be. It’s so damn convincing!
Mercury thermometers still reign supreme in some colleges’ chemistry, physcis and nursing departments.
If it makes you feel any better, I had a roommate who had visited family in Amsterdam a few times and thought (1) they all spoke German there, (2) it was a “short train ride away from Holland”, and that (3) both Germany and Holland were much nicer than Amsterdam.
As if that’s not bad enough, he’s a huge stoner and should really know better.
[QUOTE=StinkyBurrito]
I thought the Washington Redskins were from Washington state until I was about 25.
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Oh, don’t worry. As any Seahawk fan can attest, we’re surprised when the NFL even acknowledges our existence way the fark up here.
[QUOTE=David Simmons]
I suspect the number of wrongs things we learned about sex and genitalia outnumber all of the other wrong things combined.
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If you’ve ever watched those call in sex shows, I’ve heard calls from completely grown women asking if they can get pregnant from oral sex.
As for myself…
I always thought “making ends meet” was “making end’s meat” and “end’s meat” was some reference I never understood.
[QUOTE=alphaboi867]
That’s what “3 holes” means? :eek: All this time I thought it refered to a mouth, vagina, and anus!
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If the reference is to the (natural) places where a woman’s body can take in a penis, then yes, you’re right. If it’s a “three holes down there” comment like the playground boys said, then urethra, vagina, anus is surely it.
I thought ‘awry’ as pronounced ‘ore-ree’, until last year. Glad I had never used it in conversation.
And the pineapple thing…
[QUOTE=matt_mcl]
Or, to put it another way:
northern summer Ø··························· ···························Ø northern winter
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Excellent diagram! (And I love the happy sun.)
I was recently shocked to find out that Moscow was that far west!
I would have put it soo far over it would have been in the middle of China!
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
I’m kind of on the opposite end of this sort of thing right now. Moved by a bad impulse, I began using the salutation
<Individual’s name> et al., in my emails to one of the other departments I have to deal with here at work. One of those people has picked up on that, but he says
<Individual’s name> et all,
And I don’t know how to break it to him that he’s doing it wrong. It’s been at least a year now that he’s been doing this, and he’s working on an MBA too. I feel bad. I should have nipped that one in the bud.
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A colleague kept on using “alas” to mean “I’m delighted to inform you that…” - as in - “Alas, here is the long-awaited report on the XYZ project”. I tried slipping in an “alas” in the correct context to one of my messages to her - which must have sounded contrived because who the hell uses “alas” these days? I think she may have picked up on it, or maybe someone else pointed it out, because I haven’t noticed an “alas” in her communications for a while now.
As for me, the fact that I grew up outside an English-speaking country with one parent who wasn’t a native English speaker meant that some of my English pronunciation was mangled: I used to add an extra syllable to “interesting” - inTEResting - until my drama teacher taught me to say “intristing” at the age of 17.
I also used to say “part of the course” instead of “par for the course”. Hopefully no-one ever noticed.
[QUOTE=Martha]
As for me, the fact that I grew up outside an English-speaking country with one parent who wasn’t a native English speaker meant that some of my English pronunciation was mangled: I used to add an extra syllable to “interesting” - inTEResting - until my drama teacher taught me to say “intristing” at the age of 17.
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You say ‘interesting’ with only three syllables?
:: d&r ::
(Seriously, we say it ‘INturESSting’, (similarly ro SECreTARee’), unless we’re in a hurry, in shich case we say ‘intristing’ as you describe it.)
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe]
I have a lot of words that I had always read but never knew how to say. I seriously just thought over it for a few minutes and I simply can’t remember a good example…Sorry, maybe I’ll get one later.
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I’d seen the word “naughty” in many books. Then one day, I was in Hard Rock Café in Madrid with an American friend and he said “I used to be a very notty boy” - and a little voice in my head said “ooooooh! So THAT’s how you pronounce ‘naughty’!”
Well, at least how Texans who live in DC pronounce it
