When I was 3 or so, someone gave me a lava rock from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens (which 19 years later, I still have). I thought that if I put it in the microwave, it would become molten again.

Guenevere

When I was young I believed that the windmills found in farmers fields were used to keep the cows cool.

Linda

Way back before I could read, I used to believe that typewriters were telepathic, and people just hit the keys as fast as they could and the typewriter would write out what you were thinking. So one day, my parents were letting me play with the typewriter, and I thought out a bunch of notes to people and pounded out gibberish with the keys. I then gave the notes to my parents and older children I knew, and thought they were just being mean and pretending that they couldn't read them.

Char

i believed that you can send anything thru a fax and used to get puzzled why people only send paper and not other cool stuff.

carlos

I once believed that I could look into photographs, like you would a window, and look "around the edges" by holding them at an angle (also see further into the distance in the photo using binoculars).

Anon

We had a fridge with an unmarked switch inside. After I had flipped the switch a few times (turned off the defrost settings? Turned off the fridge? I dont know...) my sister told me that flipping the switch turns the neighbors house upside down. (!) I believed her until I was about 5, at which point I performed an experiment (flipped the switch and ran outside), and was very, very relieved to find the neighbor's house right-side-up.

Dave J.

When I was about 4, I believed that if you scrub a vinyl record hard enough, long enough, with enough soap, you could erase what was on it and record your own songs there instead. I was never quite able to do this successfully, (this was before recordable CD's, or any CD's actually), but I did render several vinyl records completely unplayable.

Dave J.

My father-in-law, who is his 50's, has recently got himself hooked up to the internet. Every night, before he goes to bed, he unplugs the main power supply and disconnects the modem. The reason? To stop the computer merrily browsing on the web all by itself and running up a huge phone bill. I swear this is true.

Helen Y (UK)

I used to believe anthing that ran on electric or batteries had a self destruct button. Even a simple bread toaster!! I was deathly afraid of pressing the button on accident. To this day every body tells me "Don't press the button to blow it up."

zzz man

when i was 8 my sister and i got our first computer while i was out she popped out some of the buttons on the keyboard and swicthed them around so when i typed out my name it said ''hate'' ...she said god was talking to me

Anon

When I was much younger, I was convinced that if you highlighted text on someone's webpage and hit 'Backspace,' it would delete the entire thing.

I was terrified at the power I had in my hands that no one else seemed to realize...

Lance

When I was young, I thought that the best solution to running out of photocopy paper was to photocopy the last blank sheet a number of times.

Jimbo

In the early days of the internet, the first time my computer gave me the now ubiquitous error message "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" I was honestly scared. I immediately logged off, shut off the machine, and went to the window to see if the cops were coming to arrest me for trying to find help for my math homework.

Anon

I used to believe that when my parents were recording anything on TV, I had to be quiet around the VCR because any sound I make would also be recorded onto it.

Waffo

I use to believe that when you faxed someone something the paper would somehow travel through the machine through some wires and tunnels in the ground where workers would read it and laugh at the sender and into the next machine. The first few times I used a fax machine i would fold the paper I wanted faxed in half so that no one else coud read my message then fax it. It was a few months later, and many blank faxes before someone told me (amid laughter) how a fax machine worked.

Anon

I used to believe an answering machine was a device that answered ANY questions you asked it, through some kind of magic.

Andres Cabezas

My little nine year old cousin (she's ten tomorrow, actually) is currently under the impression, thanks to me, that if you cut a piece of cheese into the shape of a DVD and put it in a DVD player, it will play a short film about cows. And if you do the same with a piece of ham, it will play a short film about pigs.

Katrina

I used to believe that if you photocopied a piece of blank paper, the copy would make a new piece of paper. I thought that I was the first one to come up with this and was convinced my family could save millions of dollars in paper :)

Lauren

I used to believe that records were the power source for record players.

bob

Based on the "experiments" I used to rig up with things like old discarded blenders and other small appliances, I clearly believed as a child that electricity could not hurt me.

I certainly learned that it could blow fuses, though.

Dan