science: technology

I used to believe…

When I was younger, I used to think that when you faxed a paper, the paper went through the wire to someone's fax maching. I couldn't understand how this happened so quickly because the wires could be far apart.

I used to think when a person had surgery, they put you in this big round machine..and fed you through it, and the machine had all these little apparatuses in it, that 'operated' on you.

I used to believe…

When I was very young, I had a Spectrum 48k computer and I wanted to program in it. There was a program in a book I wanted to play, but I didn't think I had to actually program it, I thought you just had to write the name of the program on a tape and load it, and it would work. I drove myself to tears when it wouldn't work no matter how hard I tried!

I used to believe…

I used to believe money was directly printed inside the ATM. As in, you�d type in 50 dollars and the machine would print the exact amount and give it to you...
hey, it always made such strange sounds!

I never understood how fax machines worked until about 2 years ago. I thought that that actual paper you put into the machine was somehow sent to the other person's fax machine, and it was the actual paper that you had put into yours. I was totally perplexed until my mom explained it to me.

I used to believe…

When I was 5-6 years old, upon reading about the invention of the steam engine and (in history textbooks) the invention of fire by cavemen, I thought the steam engine was invented in the same age as fire.

I used to believe that batteries were filled with gasoline, since the labels always said they were flammable and that gasoline was as well. Now I know they use electricity.

I used to believe…

when i was a kid my mom told me the moon was white because is was afraid of the earth and until i was 7 i would look out my window and taunt the moon

I used to believe…

Once a friend of mine and I tried to figure out scientifically why every time we walked in front of a radio a certain way that it just made static noises. I believe we concluded that we were absorbing the radio waves.

I used to think that when music was playing in our c.d. player the actual band was squashed unto the c.d. and would play when the c.d. got hot. I never wanted to be a musician.

I used to believe…

In the 90s there was a rumor going around at the school I taught in that pressing F12 would cause the computer to explode. Everyone (even some of the other teachers) believed it, so I would scare the class by pressing F12.

I used to believe that rocket ran on gasoline and that in order to save gas, we should end the space program.

I used to believe…

When I was 3 or 4 my parents gave me a toy microscope which projected the magnified images on the wall. The microscope had "20000x magnification" written on it. I actually believed it was true...a few years later (around 4th grade) my mum took me to buy a real scope...
I thought they were trying to cheat me, when they showed me a 100x scope, and actually said that the other one I had at home was 20000x!

I thought that inside the speaker things you order through in fast food places, there was a little midget who asked what you wanted then radioed the orders to the people at the window.

I used to believe that if you have a DNA gun, you could change anything into something else(desks to sand, people to rocks, etc.) and i told all my friends about it all the time. most of them believed me too. i was only in 2nd grade though, so noone else knew that wasnt true.

I used to believe that if you played a record too many times it would wear it out.