Why Worry....the No Worries! Way Quiz

Answer: Galileo Galilei

By Galileo's time most educated people accepted the fact that Earth was a sphere, although there was little concrete evidence. Although Galileo did not invent the telescope he is referred to as "father of observational astronomy" as he was the first to make detailed observations of the "spheres". He discovered the first moons belonging to other planets. Galileo's strong belief in science, particularly a heliocentric or sun-centred Solar System, caused him to clash with the Catholic Church and the Inquisition. He was found to be "vehemently suspected of heresy", and this saved him from corporal punishment. He was sentenced to prison, which was commuted to house arrest, and stayed in place until his death.

Submitted by Brian Breese, No Worries

Answer: Swallowing chewing gum will block your intestines

While rare, you can block up your system if large amounts of chewing gum are swallowed. If you crack your knuckles, you have probably been told that this will cause arthritis. Not so! Scientists have not found a link to prove this, so this "medical advice" is just another old wives tale!

Besides being unsafe - walking under a ladder is a superstition that dates back to early Christianity. A ladder with three sides was associated with the Holy Trinity and the sacred number three. To walk through the triangle was considered to be breaking the the Trinity, and being in league with the Devil. Crossing your fingers while passing under the ladder was supposed to counteract this!

A lot of people believe that if you pull out one grey hair, several more will grow. Luckily this isn't the case, what you do to one follicle doesn't affect its neighbors!

Submitted by Fifiscot - No Worries!

Answer: Halley's Comet

Since the dawn of humankind comets have been believed to be bringers of omens, and indeed the years in which Halley's Comet visited the Solar System have often been marked by momentous events. The passage of Halley's Comet in April 1910 was no exception, as it was the first time the approach of the comet was captured on camera; the very close approach made the event particularly spectacular. Earth passed through the comet's tail on 19 May, an event that caused a vast amount of anxiety due to the discovery of cyanogen (a toxic gas generated by cyanide compounds) in the comet's tail. In fact, French astronomer Camille Flammarion claimed that the gas would impregnate the Earth's atmosphere, and possibly snuff out all life on the planet. Though the gas proved to be so diffuse as to cause no negative effects whatsoever, Flammarion's statement caused widespread panic, with people buying gas masks, as well as highly ineffective "anti-comet pills" and "anti-comet umbrellas" sold by unscrupulous businessmen.

Of the three incorrect answers, the Oort Cloud is a theoretical cloud surrounding the Sun; the Magellanic Stream is a large nebula, while the Kuiper Belt is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System,

Submitted by LadyNym - No Worries!

Answer: On the border between France and Switzerland

CERN's Large Hadron Collider has an approximate circumference of 26.7 km or 16.6 miles circling from Switzerland into neighboring France and back. The bill for its decade-long construction was about 4.75 billion dollars. Prior to its startup in 2008, rumors floated that the planned experiments could create a black hole that would eventually swallow our planet. While CERN scientists were able to discover the Higgs boson particle four years later, fears about the earth-eating black hole proved to be unfounded.

According to Ethan Siegel, an American theoretical astrophysicist and science writer who studies Big Bang theory, even had a small black hole been created, it would have taken the hole three trillion years to reach the size of one kilogram.

Submitted by pitegny - No Worries!

Answer: Y2K Bug

The Y2K Bug, also called the Year 2000 Bug or Millennium Bug, caused a global panic when it was predicted that all computers would fail as many programs represented four-digit years with only the final two digits - making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. Of course, while there was fact behind this rumour, it was not true. Computers could be re-formatted for storage of calendar data for dates beginning in the year 2000. I remember the panic; some people celebrated the year 2000 a little too well, thinking there would be no consequences.

Submitted by em1958 - No Worries!

Answer: Grigori Rasputin

It is reported that secret KGB documents included predictions by the 'Mad Monk' Rasputin including the date of his own death, the end of the Romanov dynasty, the rise and fall of Communism and Doomsday on 23 August 2013 when all living things would be destroyed by fire. From a safe distance we can happily say it just wasn't worth worrying about!


Submitted by Baldricksmum - No Worries!

Answer: Alan Sugar

There was no need for Apple to worry. Like many heads of industry, Sir Alan Sugar's prediction about the future of technology was wrong. According to the website Business Insider, the sales of iPods continued to grow until they peaked at 54.8 million units sold in 2008. Other incorrect predictions include Bill Gates' assertion that a computer will never need more than 640KB of memory, and the president of the Lewyt Corp vacuum company who believed that nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners would be in our homes by the 1960s. I'm quite glad that one didn't pan out!

Submitted by AcrylicInk - No Worries!

Answer: The US Postmaster General

Arthur Summerfield was the US Postmaster General from 1953 to 1961. He oversaw some modernising of mail sorting and distribution systems. One of his attempted innovations involved supporting rocket propelled mail. Only one flight was made with a rocket filled with mail being launched from the submarine USS Barbero in 1959.

He is quoted thus, "Before man reaches the moon your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India or to Australia by guided missiles.... We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."

Question submitted by windrush- No Worries!

Answer: John Philip Sousa

Sousa warned that mechanical music was moving across the country way too fast and that it was becoming a substitute for human skill and soul. He was referring to both mechanical instruments (like player pianos) as well as recorded music. He feared it would cause social decline as people would stop making music together and, as a military composer, that soldiers would be led into battle by machines rather than marching bands!

What is ironic is that recorded music is what made Sousa famous. At the end of the 19th century, over 400 of his titles were for sale, making his marches among the most popular recorded pieces.


Question submitted by Fifiscot- No Worries!

Answer: China

Chinese citizens were afraid that radiation, from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, would begin to injure them. The rumour that salt had enough iodine to protect humans from radiation spread quickly on social media. People rushed shops, fighting over salt containers and when salt ran out, soy sauce bottles! Finally the country's largest salt maker, China National Salt Industry Corp, issued a statement saying ample reserves were in place and that "panic-buying and hoarding is unnecessary." Just so you know, salt does not have enough iodine to form any sort of protection against nuclear radiation.

Submitted by em1958 - No Worries!