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  3. What was a fact taught to you in school that has been proven false during your lifetime?

What was a fact taught to you in school that has been proven false during your lifetime?

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asklemmy
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  • M [email protected]

    6 x 6 mothefuckers. Y'all tell me that didn't immediately form "36" in your brain.

    sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.comS This user is from outside of this forum
    sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.comS This user is from outside of this forum
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    wrote on last edited by
    #74

    Nope, went through "(6 × 5) + 6". Slightly slower, but much more flexible since you can do that with any (base 10 representation of a) number that has a reasonable number of digits.

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    • M [email protected]

      That wasn’t so much a “fact” told in school as it was a prediction, and it was true for them. Some people carried pocket calculators, but most people didn’t. Some supermarkets has calculators built into their carts, but most didn’t.

      Failing to predict society’s norms in 20 years isn’t the same as teaching a false fact.

      thogot@lemm.eeT This user is from outside of this forum
      thogot@lemm.eeT This user is from outside of this forum
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      wrote on last edited by
      #75

      The same was told to me even as everybody already had mobile phones with calculators in them or even iPhones

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      • K [email protected]
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        wrote on last edited by
        #76

        My sysadmin professor told me to not learn about tape backups because they are going away soon

        Like 3 years later ransomware was invented

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        • H [email protected]

          Did they finally find that out? Last time I checked even PhDs in aerospace engineering still added "we think" at the end of their explanations.

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          wrote on last edited by
          #77

          It is known yeah. Another user commented it. If you take a wing and put it in a wind tunnel you can put sensors in its wake to measure the pressure. By manipulating the fluid flow you can change the pressure. So low pressure on top and high pressure on bottom. Multiply that by the surface area and you get a force. Smaller force on top of the wing, lower force on the bottom of the wing. So the wing goes up. Of course theres some physics going on in the fluid that explains the change in pressure, but this is just a quick and simply-put explanation because I took a fat amount of zquil and am tired.

          Source: Im getting a PhD in aerospace engineering

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          • K [email protected]
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            wrote on last edited by
            #78

            Stomach ulcers are caused by stress. Nope.

            Alcoholism runs in families. Nope.

            Heart disease runs in families. Nope.

            cactus_head@programming.devC 1 Reply Last reply
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            • I [email protected]

              Basic mathematical literacy is a prerequisite to being able to use a calculator.

              L This user is from outside of this forum
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              wrote on last edited by
              #79

              Literacy, sure. Like I can see say a formula for a median, or how to plot a simple linear regression, but I cannot actually do that math myself on paper without fucking it up. The more steps the worse it gets. I might genuinely have dyscalculia or something idk.

              With a calculator though? No problem. Never any issues with doing budgeting or some basic statistics. If anything I'm kind of known as the math-sy one amongst my peers just because I know a bit more than an average person about statistics due to my interest in economics and politics, and a little bit about electricity from my hobby in electronics with breadboards and shit.

              Heck I remember writing a calculator app for my mobile app dev class in my compsci bsc and one time testing it while hunting for a weird bug, a result looked wrong, but as it turns out it was actually me that was wrong, and the result was right.

              In my cybersec MSc I got really fucked by them inexplicably making us do IP address calculations in binary, but then I can also count on my fingers in binary, and made a full adder circuit once.

              Tomorrow I'll be calculating memory offsets to practice buffer overflows, but I still don't even know most of the multiplication table, and subtracting or adding double digit numbers takes me a minute in my head.

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              • sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.comS [email protected]

                Nope, went through "(6 × 5) + 6". Slightly slower, but much more flexible since you can do that with any (base 10 representation of a) number that has a reasonable number of digits.

                L This user is from outside of this forum
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                wrote on last edited by
                #80

                What? How is multiplying by 5 more convenient than any other number?

                sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.comS 1 Reply Last reply
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                • F [email protected]

                  Not only in School, even at university I was taught the DNA structure was solved by Watson und Crick. But they stole data from Rosalind franklin and even openly admitted it years later.

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                  wrote on last edited by
                  #81

                  Edison ivented the light bulb in the US. No, it was Tungsram in Hungary. Edison did employ him as a result though.
                  Bell invented the telephone. No, it was Edison labs. Bell stiole the patent from an Italian guy when he was working in the patent office.
                  Philco invented the TV set. Nothing to do with it, it was Edison-Marconi. The CRT controller was invented in the Soviet Union hence the Philco invention story.

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                  • flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.comF [email protected]

                    "You need to learn this because you won't always have a calculator on you!"

                    J This user is from outside of this forum
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                    wrote on last edited by
                    #82

                    Yeah but its such a hassle to find, so...

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                    • dirk@lemmy.mlD [email protected]

                      How planes generate lift.

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                      wrote on last edited by
                      #83

                      What doesn't help is that plane pilots are basically taught a different version of physics to spare them from liquid dynamics and to see the forces on an aerofoil as independent ones which makes it all pretty confusing for a layperson trying to get a basic understanding of both and marry the two

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                      • N [email protected]

                        I was taught that the moon landing was fake.

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                        wrote on last edited by
                        #84

                        Jesus Christ, how? Why? I'm so sorry

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                        • K [email protected]
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                          wrote on last edited by
                          #85

                          Allergies are entirely genetic. Apparently they ain't or so I hear but it's a bit above my paygrade biology wise

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                          • darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.comD [email protected]

                            Sure. You're very funny.

                            K This user is from outside of this forum
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                            wrote on last edited by
                            #86

                            I was also taught this in school, along with many very unscientific things. When they eventually taught us about evolution (they had to because of national curriculum) they couldn't stop stressing how it was "just an outdated theory" and showed us additional videos which "disproved" it

                            darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.comD 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • L [email protected]

                              Pluto is a great test for what types of person someone is.

                              If someone says Pluto is still a planet. They have a personality where they are immovable and can't accept scientific change.

                              If they do say pluto is a new kind of dwarf planet they arw more accepting of new information and belive in the scientific method.

                              It's a great quick test when meeting news people.

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                              wrote on last edited by
                              #87

                              So presumably NASA is anti-science ?

                              Because they have redetermined that Pluto is a planet.

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                              • J [email protected]

                                Stomach ulcers are caused by stress. Nope.

                                Alcoholism runs in families. Nope.

                                Heart disease runs in families. Nope.

                                cactus_head@programming.devC This user is from outside of this forum
                                cactus_head@programming.devC This user is from outside of this forum
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                                wrote on last edited by
                                #88

                                Dont know about the first two, but heart disease do. heart stroke happened to my mother and both her parents, her dad died from it. My fathers dad died of brain store and doctors say he heart is also weaken(mostly from smoking 30+ years)

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                                • K [email protected]
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                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #89

                                  There are 10 Commandments.

                                  No - there's 14.

                                  M U 2 Replies Last reply
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                                  • K [email protected]
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                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #90

                                    That blood is actually blue until it gets in contact with air

                                    appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.comA M 2 Replies Last reply
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                                    • K [email protected]
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                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #91

                                      Haven't seen anybody post this but how gender and sexuality is, schools are so fucking about straight mom and dad only relationship and nothing else. Man and wife bullshit when there's infinite amounts of gender and sexuality and diversity out there. Fuck I hate Amerikkka

                                      N goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zoneG 2 Replies Last reply
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                                      • B [email protected]

                                        I would say "cursive is how adults write, you'll need to know it", but that wasn't true then either.

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                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #92

                                        "You need a pen licence because that's what you use at work".

                                        Um no. Secretaries, lawyers and journalists used typewriters and engineers used propelling pencils. Builders had these odd rectangular shaped pencils that could write on anything. Fitters and boilermakers used chalk.

                                        Only schoolchildren used biros.

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                                        • L [email protected]

                                          What? How is multiplying by 5 more convenient than any other number?

                                          sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.comS This user is from outside of this forum
                                          sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.comS This user is from outside of this forum
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                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #93

                                          When dealing with base 10 representations, multiplying by 10 is a simple matter of adding zeroes;
                                          dividing numbers that end with a zero is (usually) an afterthought;
                                          doing both operations in that sequence is the same thing is (usually) equally trivial, the only effortful thing I have to do is adding or subtracting a multiplicand, once or twice or thrice.

                                          It's not easier than having the result imprinted in my memory, but it cuts away ~ three quarters of the table.

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