22 Fun Facts That are Completely Wrong

1. Sharks can't get cancer. Yes they can.

2. That the Mayan calendar ended in 2012. No, it didn't. All that happened was that the Fifth Great Cycle of that calendar ended. The current piktun, however, will not end before 4772.

3. People still believe the 10% of your brain gag.

4. The medieval torture device “The Iron Maiden” is completely fake and made up in the 1800’s.

5. People believed that the Romans would eat to excess and then purge their food in a 'Vomitorium'. This isn't true, the latin root of the word vomit means "to spew forth" and a Vomitorium was really a large passage where large crowds could exit an amphitheater.

6. Duck quacks do echo.

7. People say you’re supposed to run zig zag from an alligator, but that'll only slow you down and there's no way in hell it's gonna run in the zig zag with you. They can run up to 25mph, so your best bet is to turn around and run straight as fast as you can, sooner or later it'll give up.

8. Punching a shark in the nose isn't as effective as you'd think, if you really thought you were in danger jab it in the eyes or pull on the fin.

9. That NASA spent several thousand dollars each on pens that could work in space, while the Soviets just used a pencil. In reality NASA bought the pens at about $7 a piece. And using pencils in a zero gravity contained vessel will leave the pencil shavings and graphite crumbs floating as you try to work and breathe, so the Soviets wound up making similar pens too.

10. Not all cacti hold drinkable water, so don't rely on them to supply you water when traveling in the desserts. In fact, many cacti hold liquids that will do a nasty number on you if consumed.

11. Gold fish actually have pretty good memories.

12. That Elephants see us the way that we see dogs. They absolutely do not. They approach humans with caution at best and aggression at worst and will not hesitate to flatten you if even the tiniest thought that you might be a threat comes across their minds.

13. A dog’s mouth is cleaner than a human’s. They have similar bacteria levels.

14. You need 8 glasses of water a day. We need a certain amount of water but we can get water from all sorts of sources. Fruits and vegetables are full of water.

15. That Albert Einstein failed high school math. He didn't. Einstein was a brilliant mathematician and was doing graduate level math when he was a young teen.

16. Lightning never strikes the same spot twice.

17. Contrary to popular belief, not one person accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials was burned at the stake.

18. That Michael Jordan didn't make his high school basketball team. He did. However he was put on the Jr. varsity team, which is quite common for new players.

19. That you taste different tastes on separate places of your tongue.

20. That deoxygenated blood is blue.

21. That bulls get angry with the color red. No they don't. Bulls are colorblind. They get angry from an idiot waving a flag in their face just to get the bulls to charge.

22. Shaving hair makes your hair thicker. It just makes the end of the hair all jagged and harder to push out of the pore it stays in. If you pull the hair out completely then it comes out as a new hair follicle so it’s less irritating on the way out.