science - I Used To Believe

Choose one of the following categories: chemistry, physics, technology, telephones,or view the best beliefs in this section as voted by visitors. Here are the ten most recently added beliefs:

Until I learned about it in eighth grade, I thought the periodic table didn't always look the same way. It made sense to me that it could be rearranged, since it looked like such a crazy shape already.
This belief probably arose from the fact that, because of that crazy shape, I could never remember what it looked like between the times I saw it.

Aretia

I used to believe that elevators were magical boxes that, when you pushed a button for a floor, all the intervening floors of the building collapsed upon themselves while the elevator stayed put. The floors were then magically rebuilt when you pressed the button for your original floor. Strangely, I didn't worry about what happened to all the people on those floors that collapsed.

Anon

I believed that there was a giant gathering where a man in red and white pin stripes stood at a podium and would hold up an item and declare the name it would be known by. Ex: I declare this a toaster; no long will bread be uncooked.

Matthew B.

I used to believe that if you played with the phone without permission, the operator would come through the phone holes and stab you in the ear. After learning this, I never played with the phone again.

OperatorLady

(Some back-info for young people: When I was young, there were no such things as digital cameras. So if you wanted to see a picture immediately after taking it, you'd have to use a Polaroid camera. After you snapped a picture, a square sheet would slide out of the camera, and then the picture would develop on the square sheet during the next few minutes.)

As a child, my family would never let me see a Polaroid picture in the process of developing (they probably didn't
want me to get fingerprints on the pictures).

Consequently, I got the misconception that the pictures would be ruined if you looked at them before they were completely developed.

J-L

I thought if you are exposed to radiation you would instantly mutate and grow extra arms or something like in the comic books. I also thought it could turn you into part animal-part human creature

Nate

I used to believe that if everyone would walk in the same direction at the same time we could make the earth's spin reverse. I never could get everyone to do this, so I still believe it (at least a little) and I have a MS in geology.

I used to believe that the world spun so fast that cars didn't move. Instead it was the rotation of the Earth that was causing roads to move underneath the tires of the cars.

Anon

I used to think that little people (or maybe mice) lived inside traffic lights, because there had to be something inside operating it.

When I was younger I was absolutely convinced that there was a real value for "x" and that everyone was hiding it from me. I got a scholarship to highschool.

Mike