science: technology

When you put a letter in the post box, it goes to an underground conveyor belt that takes it all the way to the house of the nearest postman to the destination. Is that not true? (!)

Yay, I am so delighted to find out that I am not the only idiot that thought a piece of paper went in to the fax, de-materialised (like on Star Trek) and re formed again at the other end. Mind you, this was back in the 60's when I first saw a fax on a TV show. The cops were sending an identikit picture of a criminal to another state - I was convinced that it was only a matter of time before people would travel this way!!

My family lived next to an electric company right of way when I was growing up. I got the idea that not only were the power lines dangerously electified, but that touching the big, metal high-tension towers would mean instant death. Birds seemed to be ok when they perched on the towers, but I decided that that had something to do with them having no blood in their feet.

I used to believe that when you went into an elevator, it was the floors that moved, not the elevator. As a five year old, I couldn't understand what the point of going into the 'box' was and concluded that the floors must have moved, or that there was some sort of magic involved.

My grandfather told all kids that when the lights blinked, it was because "a fish went through the dam". We believed if, not sure for how long. I do know my Mom was in college before she found out otherwise!

When I was young I used to fear that when somebody takes a photo of me I would go inside the camera and cannot see my parents forever. For this reason I used to cry when anybody tries to take a snap of me

I couldn't figure out how bombs worked. First I believed that planes could drop giant stones crushing whole cities. But I soon realised planes couldn't carry stones that size, and then thought they could drop a big fireball in the middle of a city, and then divide in to smaller fireballs rolling through all streets and burning everything up on its way. I must have been around 4

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.

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.

My father had me beleving that in every electronic device, such as televisions and keypads. Lived a little Japanese man who controlled everything in that particular device. And made things happen depending on what button you pressed.

When I was young I thought that I you put something in a copying machine it would puplicate any object. For example my toys or my money. I thought I was really smart, because noone else seemed to have realised this! I would be the ruler of the world or somethinf if I could only get to one of these machines. Finnally, I got really dissapointed when I tried it at my mothers work...

I used to believe (because a relative told me) that if you didn't jump off an escalator or moving walkway when you got to the end, you would get sucked underneath and chewed up by the mechanism.

I used to believe…

for quite sometime as a kid (when I had numerous battery operated toys) I used to believe that empty batteries were lighter than full ones: it took me quite sometime to get my head around the concept that electricity could not be weighed!

When I was a kid, I used to think that NASA couldnt send up a rocket into outer space unless it was night-time! I seem to remember believing that it had to be night so it looked like outer space.

I used to believe that tape recorders had to be rewound on both sides. I would sit for hours and rewind my Micky Mouse tape on one side, flip it to the other and rewind that side, flip it back over and think "guess I didn't rewind it all the way!"

When I was about 12 I had an inept orthodontist who kept losing my x-rays, and after the third set or so my mom fired him, saying something about the cumulative cancerous effect of all that radiation. When I was 17 I hurt my neck skiing and she didn't want me to have a head x-ray because I'd already had my lifetime allowance. Fifteen years later, I still decline dental x-rays because my mom had me convinced I'd get brain cancer if I got any more head x-rays.