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When I was about 7 a teacher explained that the whole universe was made up of molecules, which were smaller than a pin head and that there was very little difference between one molecular structure and another. For years I believed that if I had an injection or pricked my skin with a needle then I would distort my molecular structure and turn into a table or something.
Lynne
I can't remember what Superman film it was, but there is a scene where Superman gets a lump of coal, squeezes it really hard and turns it into a diamond for Lois.
I thought, why don't people get one of those car crushing machines and then fill it with coal, you'd be loaded!
Ben
When I was a little girl living in Washington State, we would somtimes drive past the Hanford Atomic Works in Eastern Washington. This was during the height of the Cold War, and there was lots of information floating around about the dangers of atomic radiation.
I was so scared that I used to hold my breath for as long as possible whenever we passed through the Hanford area. I thought that if I didn't inhale, the radiation coudln't "get" me.
naive Washingtonian
I was convinced that chemistry lessons consisted of the teacher standing at the front, saying things like "And now add the green slime to the pink stuff," causing a colour change or an explosion. Actual chemical elements, compounds, etc, never crossed my mind.
I was also convinced that plutonium was green, glowing, and worse still, harmless.
Rachel
Until fifth grade, I used to believe that ice was always a constant 32 degrees F. When I found out that a piece of ice could be COLDER than that, it really blew my mind.
Michael H. USA
Like others, I also reduced elements to water, and everything else. I thought all liquids had water, except mercury, and, strangely enough, milk. There was a milk mystique in my house.
Andrew Weaver
I was convinced that I could invent a machine that would pressurize wood, but denying it oxygen, it would not burn, but melt. I'm still not convinced it's impossible. :-)
Andrew Weaver
I used to believe (and carefully taught this to my even smaller brother) that all liquids were just different things dissolved in water. So engine oil, molten rock etc - all just something plus water.
Martin, England
For some reason, when I was a little kid I was convinced that if you hooked two nine volt batteries to each other, they'd explode violently and destroy anything within about 100 feet.
Jim Thomason...
On a very long museum trip through the gem section, my mother told me that the floride in toothpast comes from florite, the purple crystal. I remember running through the gem section pointing out every 'toothpaste rock' to her. I didn't find out this was a trick until I was about 17 or 18
Michael Pendleton
When I was a child, I was thinking about matterials in general. As had no idea where to start, I started with the fact that some things were solid, some were liquid and some were gasses.
I not yet had made the connection between ice, water and steam, so I thought that everything that is liquid must have some water in it. I just could not figure out how much. If something would be solid, the water was gone.
houghi
When my brother and I would play shooting games, I always would say that something was metal, so he couldn't hit me when I was behind it, or he couldn't break it, because I thought metal was indestructible. I believed this until my early teens.
Matt
i used to believe that if you got a piece of glass and melted it in a fire it would then turn into diamonds. I took a piece of melted glass, went into a bank and asked them how much it was worth....
I used to believe that if you touch the "metal" end at a lightbulb you`d get electric shock and die. to this day I still avoid holding a bulb at the end.
Caroline
I used to think that GLASS and GRASS was the same thing. I always wondered why windows weren't green...
Alex
Once my dad told me that sometimes glass bottles in the bush start bushfires when the sun shines through them (true). I spent months shining torches on glass bottles stuffed with paper to see if this was true, no such luck.
Steve
once when i was very young i thought anything you wanted to kill or get rid of should be thrown in the fire. well lets just say big metal objects dont burn very well
william howard
I used to believe, in fact I think I still do, that you can cut a pane of glass into any shape you want with a pair of kitchen scissors if you hold the glass underwater. I seem to remember trying this and it working but that may have been a dream
chris
My cousin once told me that glass was made from ground up beetles, and I believed her!
benjymous
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