our senses they're more like a jigsaw
puzzle and a whole bunch of information
comes in
with gaps in it and our brains are
filling in the gaps welcome to watch
mojo and today we're counting down our
picks for the top 10 common science
myths debunked for this list we'll be
going over inaccurate but popular
beliefs about science do you know any
other science myths give us your thesis
in the comments oh my head
the remorse of the sugar junkie oh
number 10 a penny dropped from the
empire state building hey lois give me a
penny you're not gonna throw it over the
edge are you no
yes
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this persistent myth claims that a penny
dropped from the top of the empire state
building in new york city could kill a
hapless pedestrian below the idea is
that because the building is so tall the
penny would pick up considerable speed
however while it is potentially
dangerous to drop even small objects on
someone from high up pennies are so
light and tumble so much when they fall
that they don't reach terminal velocity
it would still hurt you to get hit with
one but it would need much more force
and weight behind it to lead to your
death
yeah i mean the worst thing i can come
up with is if you were looking straight
up in the sky and you got hit in the eye
it probably wouldn't be very good for
you but even then i don't know whether
it take your eye out number nine blood
is blue inside the body
look at the veins on your arm what color
are they blue right if not see a doctor
the site of azure lines on our bodies
has led to the erroneous belief that
blood is blue inside the body some hold
that it becomes red when exposed to
oxygen such as when it reaches our lungs
but this is incorrect it's always red
the blood in our veins appears blue from
the outside because of how light hits
our skin tissue you could say that this
myth is only skin deep number eight
sugar makes children hyper there is i'm
about to drink my first soda better come
stop me
hmm that must be the sugar oh god that's
good rupert suddenly i want to run chase
me parents everywhere have lamented that
giving their children sugar makes them
bounce off the walls with nervous energy
while too much sugar can be bad for
health reasons it doesn't hype kids up
the way people think the myth originated
from a single study published in 1978
multiple studies since have found that
sugar doesn't affect children's behavior
okay we're young rich and full of sugar
what do we do
let's go crazy broadway style in
double-blind studies parents couldn't
tell which kids have been given sugar or
placebos sometimes kids just like to run
around and have fun they're kids they've
got a ton of energy regardless of what
they've eaten
i see right here it says i shouldn't
have given you sugar
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number seven goldfish memories last
three seconds i i suffer from short-term
memory loss
short-term memory loss
i don't believe this no it's true i
forget things almost instantly it runs
in my family according to popular
culture goldfish have memories that only
span three seconds or some other figure
that's incredibly low however while some
fictional fish may have a hard time
remembering what just happened real
goldfish have memories that can last
significantly longer thousands of
studies have been conducted for around
half a century and they all conclude
that despite public reception goldfish
can remember things for months possibly
even years those kept as pets may even
recognize their owners so if we've known
this for decades maybe it's not the fish
with the memory problems
can they remember for three seconds
i'd wager
you bet and a lot more number six wait
30 minutes before swimming after eating
what you're seeing is not a reenactment
this is my real family and they're
actually drowning in my pool i'd like to
save them but i've just eaten and i know
that i have to wait 45 minutes before i
go swimming don't go swimming right
after you've eaten our parents told us
the general idea is that the blood going
to your digestive tract will prevent you
from getting blood to your limbs
potentially leading to drowning however
while your body does send extra blood to
your digestive tract you won't lose so
much blood from your limbs that they'll
just stop working you might get a minor
cramp but that's basically it there's no
need to wait the extra half an hour if
you don't want to take that mom and dad
let's just say the pool boy is going to
have his work cut out for him eating and
swimming don't let it cramp your style
number five water conducts electricity
wait before you do anything crazy it is
extremely dangerous to mix water and
electricity but technically speaking it
isn't the water doing the conducting in
its purest form h2o won't conduct
anything it's the minerals inside the
water that do the conducting most water
has some impurities and minerals within
it so it usually does carry a current
through it
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but if you want to get technical and we
do
water itself isn't the conductor in this
equation in fact on its own water acts
as an insulator against electricity uno
reverse
number four the five human senses your
senses help you navigate the world
around you it's how you know not to
touch something hot but it turns out our
senses might not be as reliable as you
think maybe your eyes are even deceiving
you right now generally most people hold
that human beings have only five senses
sight hearing smell taste and touch with
supernatural abilities often propoted to
be a sixth sense but humans have far
more than five senses depending on how
you define them along with the usual
five there are also the sense of pain
balance temperature and orientation with
some adding even more beyond those the
big five are probably easier to rattle
off simply because they're related to
visible external body parts meanwhile
our internal senses are left unexamined
by most people because they're not right
in front of our faces or on them
number three humans evolved from apes
let's get a few things clear humans are
apes we belong to the same family of
great apes that also includes orangutans
gorillas and chimpanzees and bonobos
however while we share almost all of the
same dna we didn't evolve from chimps
for example we're on different branches
of the evolutionary tree what we do have
are common ape ancestors our own branch
first diverged from that of orangutans
then gorillas then chimps and bonobos
which is why we have the most in common
with the latter but we aren't evolved
from any of the modern apes you see
around us today mr flanders you've sworn
to tell the truth can you say that this
man could not possibly be related to
that ape
number two lightning never strikes the
same place twice imagine being out
that there one sounded really close
don't worry lightning never strikes in
the same place twice
where's rachel
we've all heard the saying while people
often use this phrase to refer to
something unlikely happening multiple
times it's also directly in reference to
the weather however standing where
lightning has already struck is an
incredibly bad idea in some cases
lightning is more likely to hit
somewhere it is already struck
skyscrapers for example are frequent
targets of lightning strikes and can be
hit multiple times in the same storm
while cartoons and other parts of pop
culture often use lightning striking
twice as a comedic impossibility it's a
very real danger
lightning hit the same tree twice
it's a fable
okay
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number one humans only use 10 of their
brains they've identified these
receptors in the brain that activate
specific circuits
and you know how they say that we can
only access 20 of our brain
well what this does
it lets you access all of it for decades
folklore would have us believe that we
only use 10 percent of our brain's full
potential this is not only wrong it's
ridiculous while pop culture suggests
that using more of our brain will
somehow make us smarter more perceptive
or give us psychic powers the truth is
that we use most of our brains all the
time the brain uses 20 percent of a
body's energy it wouldn't be very
efficient if only a tenth of it worked
at once so if you want to think smarter
it's not a matter of brain power you
need
ten percent may not seem like much but
it's a lot if you look at all we've done
with it did you enjoy this video check
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you