When we are children, we go to school to get educated and we learn a lot of things when we are there. We learn about the society, nature and its various laws, mathematics, history and a ton of other things.
These days we also learn a lot from the internet and I think this is making today’s kids much smarter. When we were in school, we took everything we learnt at face value and assumed that everything was correct. But today, people can research more on the topics taught at school and therefore this allows them to verify the things they learn at school.
There are many such things that you were probably taught in school that you still might believe to this day but it may surprise you that some of those information is either totally incorrect or misleading at best. Let me tell you about some of those today.
1. Einstein Never Flunked Algebra
I think you have probably heard about this before that Einstein failed in Mathematics several times and he really struggled with it, although he was a genius at other subjects. This is a total myth. Einstein was a genius even at Mathematics.
When he came to know about this myth about himself, he stated laughingly that, he had already mastered differential and integral calculus by the age of 15. In fact, his school records show that he was gifted at Maths along with other subjects, especially Physics.
The myth probably started when Einstein started showing more interest in Physics and started to skip Maths classes as he thought he would only require simple Maths for Physics work. He still passed his Maths classes though and never failed in it.
2. Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb
This might surprise you as almost everyone would say that it was Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb. This is not true as he was not the one to invent it but rather develop it. If you look at history, it will be clear to you that Edison had a habit of ‘borrowing’ ideas from other inventors.
The light bulb was being pursed by many inventors at the time and it was the combination of all those ideas of different people that led to the invention of it. Edison was not the sole inventor but he was rather the combiner of the many different ideas into one that worked best.
3. Alexander Graham Bill didn't invent the telephone
This is another one that might shock you greatly. Just like the light bulb, several people were working on the idea of a telephone at the same time. Alexander Graham Bell was the first one to patent such a technology in 1976 and thus he has been credited for being the inventor of the telephone.
However, in 2002, the US Congress stated that a man named Antonia Meucci should be realised as the father of the modern communications as he demonstrated his “teletrofona” in 1860, some 16 years before Bell took out a patent for his telephone. Therefore the House of Representatives agreed that his acknowledgements should be recognised in this area.
4. The Titanic didn't sink because it hit an iceberg
So, we have all watched the movie and we have all read about it too. You must be believing that it was due to hitting an iceberg that the Titanic sank, but that might not be true after all.
According to recent analysis of the photos of the ship, electrical engineers have concluded that a fire that had been burning for three weeks in the ship’s hull led to its sinking and not just the collision with the iceberg.
The burning led to the weakening of the ship’s structure and the collision just put a final nail in the coffin which led to 1500 people losing their lives.
