Are You Sure? Misconceptions and Fallacies! Quiz

Answer: Mohandas

Gandhi's full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Educated in law in England, Gandhi was a principle proponent of non-violent civil disobedience as a way of overthrowing tyranny. He was assassinated in 1948 by Hindu extremists upset that he was prepared to deal with Pakistan. Most biographical works regarding Gandhi paint him as something of a saint. For a less hagiographic treatment, see "Freedom at Midnight" (1975) by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. Collins was American and Lapierre French so neither has the inherent bias often demonstrated by British and Indian writers.

"Mahatma" is a title bestowed on Gandhi. It comes from the Sanskrit words "maha" meaning "great" and "atma" meaning "soul".

Indira Gandhi was India's first female Prime Minister and was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India. The surname Gandhi came from her marriage to Feroze Gandhi who was not related to Mohandas. Indira was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 in retaliation for army operations against Sikhs occupying the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Rajiv Gandhi was Indira's oldest son and became PM of India on Indira's death. He was assassinated in 1991 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (a Tamil liberation army in Sri Lanka) for sending Indian peacekeepers to Sri Lanka.

Answer: Depends on the animal

According Genesis, Jehovah said to Noah: "And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female" (Genesis 6:19).

However, Jehovah went on to say "You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth" (Genesis 7:2-3).

The Bible contains extensive lists of which animals are clean and which are unclean. Unfortunately the lists are somewhat contradictory and are the subject of much heated debate amongst biblical scholars.

(Source: apologeticspress.org/articles/525)

Answer: Cat

The hyena (Crocuta crocuta) has a family of its own, Hyaenidae. They are more closely related to cats than any other domestic pet notwithstanding their canine appearance. In fact, their closest animal relatives are the Herpestidae (mongooses, meerkats, etc). The plural of "mongoose" is not "mongeese" because the word "mongoose" comes from the Marathi name mangus (मंगूस), which has nothing to do with geese. Two misconceptions blown for the price of one here, folks.

Hyenas live in a matriarchy with one dominant female. It has been said that hyenas change sex but this is a misconception (three for the price of one; you sure get your money's worth with ole LillianRock, doncha?). What is true is that the dominant female hyena's genitals look just like the male's. It's also said that a hyena will not bite a politician. Something to do with professional courtesy.

Answer: Ecuador

According to Wikipedia, Panama hats were originally made in Ecuador but were shipped to Europe, Asia and other places from Panama. They thus became associated with their embarkation point. Panama hats are made from the straw plant Carludovica palmata.

Famous wearers of Panama hats include Dr Who. The First Doctor (Willian Hartnell) wore them occasionally, the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) in a rolled up style, and the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) wore one almost exclusively.

Brobdingnag is a fictional land of giants invented by Jonathan Swift in "Gulliver's Travels". Swift quoted a longitude and latitude just before Gulliver's shipwreck which points to Brobdingnag covering Alaska, the Bering Sea and parts of Eastern Russia. An almost famous US Vice-Presidential contender might have said "I can see Brobdingnag from my house" and been accurate (for once). These days, the term brobdingnagian is used to describe a big thing.

An Ancient Greek would not have been seen dead in a Panama hat. They just do not go with a toga. Before you write - yes I know that the toga was a Roman article of apparel, I just thought I'd reinforce a misconception for a change.

Answer: 5 feet 6.5 inches

There have been many theses written that blame Napoleon's megalomania on his short stature (small man's syndrome, etc). However, the fact of the matter was that the French used different inches to the British and the French measurement of 5'2" equates to 5'6.5" in British (Imperial) feet and inches. This puts him at being a little taller than the average Frenchman of his day. For those of us who measure using 21st century units, he was 1.69 metres.

I guess he had no real excuse for being a nutter who laid waste to most of Europe and seriously misjudged both the British and the Russians (just like another head case in the following century).

Answer: Adolf Hitler

Contrary to popular opinion, Hitler was a Christian. Born a Roman Catholic, he held strong Christian views for his whole life. In fact he used these views to support his actions against the Jews.

"I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so."
("Adolf Hitler", from John Toland [Pulitzer Prize winner], New York: Anchor Publishing, 1992, p. 507).

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
("Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf", Ralph Mannheim, ed., New York: Mariner Books, 1999, p. 65).

Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao were both atheists, but ascribing their behaviour to their atheism is just as stupid as blaming Hitler's on his Christianity.

Answer: None

Traditionally people celebrating Christmas talk of the "Three Kings" or the "Three Magi" following a star to bring gifts to Jesus. In fact, there is only a single mention in the Bible (Matthew 2:7-11) and the reference is to an unknown number of "wise men". So they weren't kings and there weren't three of them.

The reference to three probably comes from the number of gifts they were supposed to have bought.

Answer: There is no permanently dark side of the moon

The moon only shows one face to Earth due to tidal locking. However, it revolves around Earth and orbits the sun as well. This means that it presents a different face to the sun as it revolves which means that all parts of the moon experience light at some time.

In fact, you can see this happen. When the moon is "new" we only see part of it as the rest of the face that we are looking at is in shadow (the sun is shining on the far side of the moon).

Answer: We use our entire brain

We've all heard the one that goes "human beings only use 10% of their brains. Imagine how smart you could be if you could use the other 90%". If you read most self-help books of the past 20 years, you'll read this. It is also used by various charlatans to support the idea of paranormal powers. In fact, we use all of our brain at one time or another. We may not use 100% of our brain cells at any given time but the whole thing gets used. MRI scans prove this.

If you still don't believe me, pop around and let me remove 90% of your brain. I promise I'll wash my hands and be careful not to remove too much.

(Source: www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp)

Answer: False

The Coriolis Effect has no effect on how water drains. The surface speed of Earth is greater at the equator than at other latitudes, and this can have an effect over large distances causing cyclones to spin clockwise north of the Equator and anticlockwise south of the equator. This is due to the differential in surface speed across the width of the cyclone.

However, water flowing down a drain is not impacted by the variation in Earth's surface speed due the extremely small speed differential across the drain.

Water will flow down a drain as a result of a number of factors, including any swirl imparted as the water flows into the drain (e.g. from a toilet cistern), the placement of taps filling the pool of water and the shape of the pool itself.

(Source: www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.asp)