I first saw Star Wars when I was seven. When the characters spoke about making the "jump to light speed" I instead heard them say "jungle light speed" and I assumed that light moved at a faster speed in jungles.

Nicole

My parents used to have plastic plug-socket protectors (i.e. the plug prongs attached to a shield bit) to prevent inquisitive toddlers from electrocuting themselves.

Apparently I was of the belief that they were actually there to prevent the electricity from flowing out!
Pretty sensible, I thought! :)

MarkP

That if two spiders could levitate in the air if they walked on each other's feet in perfect symmetry (similar to how they climb up walls, but using each other's feet for support)

GE

I used to think that if I put small piles of rocks in the road, I could make cars jump through the air like on "The Dukes of Hazzard." Then I tried it and the unsuspecting driver threatened to call the police.

bd

My dad used to get annoyed with me opening the car windows on the motorway, he told me that if we were driving fast and the window was open, the air pressure would make the car lift up of the road and we would flip over. I still have a thing about opening windows in cars.

Paul Rich

When I was 8 my elder brother told me that due to the spin of the Earth, if anyone faced exactly east they would fly off into space, when I questioned this he said very few people had ever done it because it was almost impossible to exactly face east.

John Jakobsson

I was told that diamonds were made out of coal, crushed under the earth. So I put a piece of coal under a brick in the garden, and checked it regularly. I knew I didn't have enough pressure for diamond, but I figured I'd get something good - possibly chocolate.

Chris Davis

At the age of ten, I had a fantastic idea for walking on water. I put inflatable arm-bands around my ankles and stepped 'onto' the swimming pool. Luckily my dad was there to rescue me as I dangled upside-down under water :)

Mark Major

As children, my best friend (who will remain anon because he is now a respected Engineer) tried to convince me that raising the seats on our bicycles actually made them heavier, because there is more metal showing.

Professor Zachary Stenson

I used to believe that if I dug up my garden enough I would discover a completely new colour that no-one else had ever seen before. I tried to imagine what this colour would be, and it was always orange.

Lozza

i used to believe if i dug a whole big enough i could find gravity, i found some polestirine so for years i was convinced gravity was white

nicola

I used to believe that if you shouted into a balloon whilst blowing it up and then tied it up, the same noise would come out later on when you popped it!

James Edward Sheppard

I used to think that if a near-sighted person held a mirror and viewed the reflection of a distant object, they should have no trouble seeing the object in perfect focus. After all, they're looking at the mirror, and it's only a foot or so away.

Scott

I asked my teacher what protons were made of and when he said "quarks" I thought he said "cork" and for a long time after that I thought that cork was the fundemental substance of the universe and that the cork on wine bottles were made of "pure" matter.

Mark Cidade

When i was younger I thought "the speed of light" was the time taken for the lights to come on after you had pressed the switch.

I concluded that is was pretty quick, and that flourescent tubes were slower than ordinary bulbs

Malik Man

When I was 11 I went to the doctors for my headaches, and he gave me some little balls to put in my ears. When i asked how they would get out, he started explaining that very small objects could be transported into space, by a mini black hole. I was amazed and told everyone that if they lost something, don't worry, because its near Jupiter.

I still believed that at 13....

Alice UK

I remember being swung across the backseat of a car when my dad made a sharp turn. I asked my dad why it happened, and he told me, "It's something called enersha". So I believed that there was an invisible girl named "Enersha" who would occaisonally push me from time to time. I apparently got in trouble at school many times for blaming Enersha when I dropped something.

Scott

when i was very young i asked my dad how a radio works. he explained the principle of radio waves to me, and how they were invisible. he said that you couldn't hear them or see them or even taste them, but i never fully beleived that you couldn't taste them for some reason. i remember getting his transistor radio and putting my mouth on the antenna in hopes of tasting radio waves.
weird kid.

Kate

When I as little I used to think gravity could be turned off. Never having grasped the concept of gravity completely, I used to think that there was a big switch in the middle of the Earth which could be shut down at any moment and we would all fall off. Everytime I looked at pictures of the Earth (such as in school or in the movies) I used to close my eyes and I was horrified. I remember pleading my mom to move to the North Pole since according to my theory, this was the only safe place where we would be unable to fall from.

Coral Celeste

When I was a boy, my dad took a test drive in a Volkswagen bus, just so that I could have the reward of a lunchpail in the shape of a VW bus. The prize included a small thermos bottle. I'd take the pail and thermos to school, the thermos filled with iced juice. I convinced myself that when the ice melted in the thermos, the resultant water would fill the thermos beyond its capacity and it would explode, sending VW bus shrapnel throughout the classroom, killing me and anyone else in its path. Each day, I was anxious for lunch to come so that I could drink the juice and defuse the ticking time bomb. After weeks of such dread, I confessed my concerns to my dad. He explained that water expands during freezing and contracts during thawing. To this day, I believe that his explanation was the inspiration for my career in science.

Stuart