physics

The German word for x-rays is Röntgen-Strahlen, so I used to believe it must be an amazing coincidence that the man who discovered them bore the name of Röntgen.

ke

I believed that if you held up a large enough piece of paper, that if a very fast jet plane flew through it, it wouldn't make a hole in the paper.

Dave E.

When I was around seven years-old, my friend and I put a rock in a microwave and thought it would melt.

Lars

I used to believe that I would be the first person to see air.

Andrea W.

I teach 8th grade. Many of my students have been amazed to learn recently that our Galaxy is called the Milky Way, that this isn't the only galaxy, that our sun is not at the center of our galaxy, and that no people or even space probes have left our galaxy. I especially love to watch their faces when I show them a picture of the Hubble Deep Field North and say that every point of light in the picture is a galaxy, then explain just how small an amount of the sky that the picture covers.

Shelly

I was convinced that hot air sinks. Why else are mountain tops cold, and Death Vally is so hot?

Not-my-wife

When I was little, my parents had a neon sculpture that lit our dining room. They told me that if I touched it, I would get electrocuted.

Fast forward 20 years...
I'm on a first date with my future husband, and we're seated next to a neon beer sign. He reaches out to touch it, and I say, "HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? IF YOU TOUCH THAT, YOU'RE GOING TO GET ELECTROCUTED!"

He just laughed and told me it was fine as long as he didn't touch one of the joints between the neon tubes. I felt pretty dumb.

Schmoopy

I use to believe that if I poked an sufficient amount of holes unto something, I would acutally be able to make that something disapear...example: A cheese full of holes leaves no cheese at all.

Armando

When I was six, I was obsessed with turning out the light and racing it to my bed as I ran and dove on to it.

I thought the after-image in my eyes was the light fading away because it wasn't powered any more by the light bulb.

Andrew

I used to believe that the front of our green family van was the direction north. Whichever way the van was facing was how direction was determined.

Troy

My friend and I were once told my her mother that it was scientifically impossible to jump on a trampoline without smiling. We were determined to prove her wrong. So after a few tries, we finally managed to jump and keep a straight face. After this we turned to her and said, "Ha!" She then told us she made it up, and we were dissapointed.

Colette

My sisters once told me that the Laws of Gravity are all relative, and that the only reason they work is because we are so convinced that they are true. So basically, if you forget about gravity, then you'll float/fly. They told me that to do this you have to trip and become so distracted that you forget all about the falling, the fact that the ground is coming up very quickly, and the fact that its going to hurt.

I decided to test this theory and went to the living room (which is a carpeted floor) and got my sister to throw pillows at me as I tripped. This was so I could become distracted and forget to fall. It didnt work and I became very distressed and finally gave up.

I still believed that I could fly if I was properly disctacted until my Dad, several months later, told me that they had made it up to make me do something stupid so that they could video tape it...

i was gullible

i used to think that if i pour water into a cup and fil it up, it would just keep going up and up on the borders of the cup. to my surprize that the water suddanly began to spill!

:)

When I was in 6th grade I told a classmate that if reflections and shadows didn't exist that we would fall through the floor. And he believed me!

Carrie

i thought if i tied enough balloons to my bedpost the bed would fly away with me in it. unfortunately, i never had more than two balloons at a time, so i never got to test the theory.

santeria