Wiekes weetjes: 10 facts that sound real, but aren't

Secretly, there are so many facts that are assumed to be true but are actually completely false. Facts that I have seen as truth for years and now I am coming home from a cold fair. I went on a little investigation: what are those fun facts that I have sometimes passed on (because I have a love for fun facts), which means I now have to contact some people to tell them that I gave them fake news? Yes, seriously: the facts below are really not true.

1. Carrots are good for your eyesight
Nope. False. They are healthy, that’s true, but we already knew that. Where does this come from? The Brits communicated this to the Germans during World War II. They said that they could spot German planes better at night by excessively eating carrots. In reality, they just had new equipment that made that possible. But hey, a new myth was born. Side note: if someone takes too little vitamin A, carrots can help improve eyesight, but that’s because carrots (like many other foods) contain vitamin A, and a deficiency can lead to reduced vision.

2. You eat an average of four spiders in your sleep
I have heard this in various forms. But how many spiders do we unknowingly consume? No idea, but the number is closer to zero than to four. There has never been a documented case of a person actually eating a spider, in other words: there is no evidence that this happens at all.

3. Goldfish have a memory of three seconds
Also not true: goldfish can remember things for up to five months. Still not mega long, but definitely a bit longer than three seconds. Funny: this myth was first debunked by a fifteen-year-old boy, who every time placed a Lego block in the goldfish bowl with food around it. After a week, the goldfish still remembered that there was food to be had (despite the fact that it was initially scared of the block when it was first placed).

4. It takes seven years for your body to digest a swallowed piece of gum
No, no worries: to put it bluntly, you just poop it out in its entirety the next day. But hey, at least it’s out of your body. Just imagine, seven years with such a lump in your stomach.

5. Lightning never strikes the same place twice
Well, this does happen. The CN Tower, for example, in Toronto (Canada), is struck by lightning an average of 75 times a year.

6. Einstein failed math
I have seen this come up so often that it doesn’t matter if you are bad at school because ‘even Einstein failed math’. That’s a nice motivational talk, except that it’s just not true. Because, very shockingly, Einstein was always brilliant at math. Even in school, yes. He was a bit less good at languages.

7. If you find a young bird, you shouldn’t touch it because your scent will be smelled by the mother bird
Crazy myth and I wonder who ever came up with this. Long story short: it’s not true. If the little bird is healthy and you can put it back in the nest, you should definitely do that. By the way, birds can’t smell that well either.

8. We only use ten percent of our brains
How cool Bradley Cooper could play that in Limitless: it’s not true. We use our entire brains 100 percent. It is true that we don’t use all parts at the same time. Just like a traffic light: it only uses 33 percent at a time, while it is used 100 percent in total. Yes, I just compared people to a traffic light.

9. Cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis
I believed this for a long time and even though I know it’s not true, I still don’t want to crack my knuckles too often. All it does is make a sound from the air that’s in there. That’s all. No problem then.

10. The Sahara is the largest desert in the world
Nope, that’s Antarctica. People associate desert with sand and heat and mirages, but that’s not necessarily the case. A desert is an area where little precipitation falls and where it is very dry.