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

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

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    wrote on last edited by
    #26

    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 louslash@sh.itjust.worksL 2 Replies Last reply
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    • chaoscruiser@futurology.todayC [email protected]

      Junk DNA.

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      wrote on last edited by
      #27

      Junk DNA is still a thing - some parts of thr genome are verifiably junk, and the rest is just "unkown". It's just that some of the "unknown" bits back in the day have now been found to actually be useful. At least this is my understanding as a non expert.

      chaoscruiser@futurology.todayC 1 Reply Last reply
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      • K [email protected]
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        wrote on last edited by
        #28

        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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        • bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.deB [email protected]

          That tastes have specific regions on the tongue. We actually had to protest when that shit was taught at our son's elementary school. Don't know if it came up for our younger daughter.

          Poor kids at school had old atlases where Germany was still separated. But I guess that's just obsolete and not false knowledge.

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          wrote on last edited by
          #29

          There's a weird thing here. I totally accept that the traditional tongue map is pseudoscience and debunked, but if you're paying attention to something like wine or good chocolate, letting it spread across your whole tongue really does seem change the flavor and bring new aspects to what you're tasting.

          My subjective impression is that there is some effect to exposing the whole tongue to a stimulus, and I'd really like to understand it more - but when you search the web, you pretty much just get deconstructive articles about the old model, and not much about what might actually be happening.

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          • K [email protected]
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            2ugly2live@lemmy.world2 This user is from outside of this forum
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            wrote on last edited by
            #30

            "Those bullies will be working at a gas station whole you'll be the boss!"

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            • K [email protected]
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              wrote on last edited by
              #31

              My favourite one was that the earth is 6000 years old

              darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.comD estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.comE T 3 Replies Last reply
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              • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlK [email protected]

                Taste buds are arranged by flavor in four sections of the tongue. Complete load of horseshit.

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                wrote on last edited by
                #32

                The multiplication table is still fact even if you have a calculator.

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                • M [email protected]

                  This was my first thought as well!

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                  wrote on last edited by
                  #33

                  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.

                  B J M agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.worksA B 5 Replies Last reply
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                  • M [email protected]

                    Whats about DNA??

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                    wrote on last edited by
                    #34

                    Gene sequencing wasn’t really a thing (at least an affordable thing) until the 2010s, but once it was widely available archaeologists started using it on pretty much anything they could extract a sample from. Suddenly it became possible to track the migrations of groups over time by tracing gene similarities, determine how much intermarrying there must have been within groups, etc. Even with individual sites it has been used to determine when leadership was hereditary vs not, or how wealth was distributed (by looking at residual food dna on teeth). It really has revolutionized the field and cast a lot of old-school theories (often taken for truth) into the dustbin.

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                    • K [email protected]
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                      wrote on last edited by
                      #35

                      The appendix is a vestigial organ that doesn't actually do anything in humans. (It might still fit the definition of vestigial, but it's far from useless and we keep learning more about how valuable gut health is.)

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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!"

                        I This user is from outside of this forum
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                        wrote on last edited by
                        #36

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

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                        • D [email protected]

                          My favourite one was that the earth is 6000 years old

                          darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.comD This user is from outside of this forum
                          darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.comD This user is from outside of this forum
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                          wrote on last edited by
                          #37

                          The question was about things taught at school.

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                          • D [email protected]

                            My favourite one was that the earth is 6000 years old

                            estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.comE This user is from outside of this forum
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                            wrote on last edited by
                            #38

                            Where did you go to school? Everybody knows its 2025 years old.

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                            • K [email protected]
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                              rebekahwsd@lemmy.worldR This user is from outside of this forum
                              rebekahwsd@lemmy.worldR This user is from outside of this forum
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                              wrote on last edited by
                              #39

                              We don't know what the appendix does, the whole pluto thing, I think the Oxford comma is going out of style, and cursive in general.

                              But I love cursive, mine was "very nice" according to my teachers.

                              K A B B S 5 Replies Last reply
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                              • darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.comD [email protected]

                                The question was about things taught at school.

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                                wrote on last edited by
                                #40

                                It's called a Christian school, i wouldn't recommend it

                                darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.comD 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • K [email protected]
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                                  lichtmetzger@discuss.tchncs.deL This user is from outside of this forum
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                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #41

                                  "This is the best time of your life, it will never be as easy."
                                  I wasted more time at school than at work and I didn't have Fridays off, so that was a lie.

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                                  • A [email protected]

                                    The appendix is a vestigial organ that doesn't actually do anything in humans. (It might still fit the definition of vestigial, but it's far from useless and we keep learning more about how valuable gut health is.)

                                    K This user is from outside of this forum
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                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #42

                                    My appendix came damn close to killing me. I vote “not valuable”. 🙂

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                                    • treadful@lemmy.zipT [email protected]

                                      That I was a republican. The teacher gave out this political alignment quiz that was incredibly biased asking things like "do you like lower taxes or higher taxes?" and "do you like more freedom or less freedom?" All the questions basically lead you to the same answers. So the entire class basically had the same result.

                                      This was in middle school so I wasn't even politically engaged yet. I didn't realize how crazy this was until years later.

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                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #43

                                      Seems like the teacher was ahead of their time.

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                                      • W [email protected]

                                        I was taught the Philippines was a US territory. I just learned last night that hasn’t been true since 1946. I went to school in the 90s.

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                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #44

                                        Philippines was a US territory

                                        that hasn’t been true since 1946.

                                        I mean... It was a US territory. Well, at least it was under control of the US in some way. I think one of/the first cruel and unusual constitutional challenges was over something that originated in the Philippines.

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                                        • I [email protected]

                                          The multiplication table is still fact even if you have a calculator.

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                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #45

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

                                          sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.comS cactus_head@programming.devC 2 Replies Last reply
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