science: technology

I thought a Walkman (tape-version of the Discman) only worked if you were walking and when you stopped it would go off automatically. I always begged my brother to let me try it, but he said that if little kids used them then they'd go deaf and end up like those people who walked around carrying boomboxes on their shoulders. That was the only way they heard music. It was like some punishment- you used a walkman too early so you're partialy deaf and you have to carry a bigger radio. What a dork I was.

I used to believe that elevators were magical boxes that, when you pushed a button for a floor, all the intervening floors of the building collapsed upon themselves while the elevator stayed put. The floors were then magically rebuilt when you pressed the button for your original floor. Strangely, I didn't worry about what happened to all the people on those floors that collapsed.

I thought tranquilizing animals put them to sleep instantly and didn’t realize it takes several minutes for an animal to fall asleep after being tranquilized. I also thought automatic tranquilizers existed and you could harmlessly put people to sleep by tranquilizing them multiple times in rapid succession, like in action movies and comedies.

One of my very first memories is of the time my mother took me to have my picture taken at JC Pennys. I was two years old. There were all these pictures of children all over the walls and I thought that when my picture was taken I would be forever stuck in that picture. I couldn't understand why my mother would leave me there in that picture. She didn't end up leaving me so I thought she changed her mind. It seemed like it was a long time before I understood what having my picture taken really meant.

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 little, about 3 or 4, I believed that if you started taping a TV show on the VCR, it didn't matter where you started recording it, you could always rewind it back to the beginning.
Whenever I missed the start of a program I wanted to watch I would ask my Dad to tape it and he would say 'there's no point, you've already missed some of it' and I would reply 'no Daddy, tape it and then wind it back to the start!'. Then he would say I couldn't, and I would shout 'YES DADDY, WIND IT!'
I was an odd child. Mind you, I haven't really changed, but now I am quite good with computer, DVD players etc.!

in the early 1970's my parents had a digital clock radio. the numbers flipped over to change. i thought there was a very tiny monkey inside who painted each number. it took him exactly 60 seconds to paint each number, except when the hour changed and he had to rush to paint all the new numbers in time.

'Mole machines' is what me and my brother used to call them. You see them in Thunderbirds, any film about Victorians tunnelling trying to find the core of the Earth, and lots of cartoons. They're basically cylinders with giant screws on the front and they burrow through soil, rock, or the white-hot core of the planet at about fifteen miles an hour.

I knew not everything you saw on TV existed in real life, but I saw these things on too many different shows and films for it to be a coincidence. So Mole Machines must be real, I deduced, and I hoped fervently to ride in one when I was a grown up. Big disappointment.

I was delighted to see a Mole Machine pop up in The Incredibles. Maybe a whole new generation of kids will see them as a viable transport option.

I used to seeing modem used for internet connection in my home early from my days of childhood.I used to believe(nope I should correct it as "I used to wonder)how my dad used to browse the web by simply connecting the modem a "white bulky box" ... n' to add to it he was able to do this even when there was no power supply!!!

This one is about my sister. She is 22 and I am 20. Last year I started working at an office so I had access to all the cool office things like copiers and fax machines. My sister had never used a fax machine before since we never had access to one. One day she needed to fill out paper work for her job and send it to them. My mom suggested she fax it instead of sending it so she came to my work so I could fax it for her. Before I faxed it I mentioned that since it was an important document they might need the real copy. My sister looked at me blankly and said,

"Why won't they get the real copy."

That's when I realised that my sister was under the impression that a fax machine was like a transporter. I couldn't stop laughing as I explained to her how they really worked. I think she was dissapointed.

You know that sort of windy noise in the telephone, like if you had a bad connection, or you'd hear it after you hung up? I used to think it was caused by the wind blowing through the telephone wires.

I used to believe that if you splashed water on an electrical outlet or on a light switch sparks would fly out. I got this idea from being told never to turn on or off a light switch with wet hands. I used to shake my hands off in the direction of the light switch anyway before drying them with a towel, because I thought it would be cool if sparks did come out.

I used to believe that if you peeled the white border off of a Polaroid picture, the people inside would come out to visit with you.

when i was little i used to belive that all photographs had infinite detail and that if u got a microscope u could look in windows and that kind of stuff.

I used to believe that photocopy machines contained special rubber stamps with every possible text or image they might ever need to reproduce, so it was just a simple matter of the machine picking the right stamp.

My dad had a very strong flashlight and he told me if I switched it on and opened the window when it was dark outside and dark in the room, the neighbors on other streets could see it - which was probably true. However, what I understood from it was that I could see them too. Until I was 9 or so I thought the flashlight was magic and I only didn't see these people on other streets because I wasn't doing it right.