The knowledge about the world surrounding us is not so important for our daily routine and the tasks of the majority of jobs. Undeniably, some professions require really deep knowledge, but it happens not so frequently, especially considering all the possible vacancies existing in the world. Unfortunately, this leads to many delusions about the world. Just look through this article and we bet you will find out some popular false idea which you regard as true as well!
Petroleum is produced from dinosaurs
Those people who have at least the vaguest idea about petroleum, are definitely aware of the fact this substance has organic origin. Of course, organic means petroleum evolved from organisms which once were present on the Earth. This is the truth. Yet, many people connect the fact that dinosaurs lived on our planet some 65 million years ago and, since they were so large, they could have been a major source of carbon for petroleum.
There are no doubts that such a belief is not true at all. First of all, the majority of the petroleum layers started evolving even before the occurrence of dinosaurs on earth. Because of this important fact, dinosaurs didn’t have an opportunity to get into those layers.
Another crucial factor which speaks against the theory that dinosaurs could be a source of carbon for petroleum is the ratio of the biomass on the Earth. Although our planet appears to be home for millions of specious of absolutely different animals as well as millions of people themselves, in the reality no more than 15% of the biosphere belongs to the animal kingdom. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the greatest fraction of it are plants – approximately 80% of all living organisms on the Earth are plants. Interestingly, 13% of the biomass on earth are bacteria.
This statistics tells us that even if there had been any chance of dinosaurs getting into the petroleum layers, their impact on the creation of this substance would have been unnoticeable.
It is quite possible that some people started believing into the connection between petroleum and dinosaurs because of the oil company called Sinclair Oil since it was using a logo with a dinosaur. Yet, the idea behind such a logo was not a claim that the oil evolved from the remains of dinosaurs. The idea of the company was to tell their clients that the best oil was originated from the period of the life of dinosaurs.
Glass is a liquid
Have you ever heard about a rather widespread belief that glass is a liquid? For people who have any idea about physics such a claim sounds rather extraordinary, however many people are completely sure of its truth. Their favourite proof of this claim is that the glass used in the midlevel windows in the constructions originated during that epoch have a thicker lower part compared to the upper part.
According to these people, the only explanation for such a phenomenon is that glass is actually a liquid and it is constantly flowing. Of course, glass is not the same as water so it takes it more time to flow, however, within hundreds of years we can finally see the effects of this flow.
Such an opinion is totally untrue. There are no doubts that glass is a totally solid body. Of course, just like any other solid body, glass can be melted and turned into a liquid, however, you will need to heat it up to nearly 1500 °C. Otherwise, glass remains solid even in the windows of the medieval churches.
The reason for the differences of thickness of glass in the windows is very simple and far from being an unresolved mystery. The thing is the medieval people didn’t have any technology for creating absolutely plain glass. It was always somewhat thicker from one side. In order to set it into its optimum position, the people from that epoch located the glass with the thickest side underneath.
One can get drowned in quicksand
Another amazing false belief about our world concerns quicksand. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, many people are frightened by this phenomenon so much because of the scenes from many popular movies in which a person trapped in quicksand was totally eaten up by the sand getting down without leaving a trace.
Fortunately, quicksand is not thus dangerous at all. In the reality, quicksand is too thick to be able to absorb an entire human body. The maximum level it can get you in is up to your waist. At the same time, it is also not true that you can get out of it by taking a hand of another person. Again, because of its thickness, quicksand can keep a body rather tightly so your friend will rather tear your hand out of your body than get you out of the quicksand.
Yet, it doesn’t mean that you can’t escape such a trap. You just need to move slowly and not panic. In such a way, you will able to get out even without any help from the outside.
Don’t forget to take off any heavy objects such as a rucksack which will make you get into the quicksand quicker. It is advised to lie on your back which will allow you to release your legs gradually. If there is no chance for doing it, you can try to lie on your stomach and swim in the sand.