Make Your Teacher Proud: Stop Believing These 8 Embarrassing Myths

Happy World Teacher's Day! Let's celebrate by looking at a few myths that your old schoolteachers really, really wish had never seen the light of day.

1. The Underground Railroad Was an Actual Railroad

Via learnnc.org

This isn't a completely weird or uncommon belief: Steve Gonsalves of SyFy's Ghost Hunters fame thought it might be possible to see the remains of the actual iron railroad. More famously, the daughter of civil rights activist Hosea Williams suffered from similar confusion during her stint on the Real Housewives of Atlanta.

2. Solar Panels Drain the Sun's Energy

Via static1.squarespace.com

With a nationwide move toward green energy, solar panels are springing up on rooftops everywhere. And while solar panels have been adopted for everything from US military use to municipal streetlights, some people still aren't clear on the science of it all, which leaves them open for a bit of Internet trickery.

Cue an article by the National Report, a self-described "political satire web publication" whose recent works include "Texas Moves to Outlaw Man Buns" and "Pope Francis Leaves Negative Review of Congress on Yelp." The article in question drew quotes from "experts" who said that solar panels were physically drawing energy from the sun. And naturally, it was being widely circulated on social media by the following day.

3. The Great Wall of China Can Be Seen From Space

Via upload.wikimedia.org

There's a longstanding belief that it's possible to see the Great Wall of China from the moon—or from space, at the very least. The myth often claims that the wall is the only manmade structure large enough to be seen, and since it stretches over 5,500 miles and reaches a width of 30 feet in some places, it sounds almost believable. Unfortunately, this myth has been busted: astronauts have confirmed that this structure is impossible to see with the naked eye, even from low earth orbit. Not that this has stopped people from repeating the belief as fact.

4. There Are More People Alive Today Than Have Ever Died

Via ecointernet.org

This myth rears its head every few years, especially with every new announcement about the rising worldwide population. But while experts debate the exact figure (especially considering that we have little data for most of the tens of thousands of years homo sapiens have walked the earth), estimates say that there are about 15 people dead for every one person currently living.

5. According to the Laws of Physics, Bumblebees Shouldn't Be Able to Fly

Via upload.wikimedia.org

Often repeated as fact, this myth has been around since the early 1900s, when French zoologist Antoine Magnan claimed that insect flight in general was impossible because it disobeyed the laws of physics. Since that time, many scientists have gone to great lengths to disprove this theory. But it's notoriously difficult to erase a commonly held belief from public consciousness, and so the "bumblebee argument" continues to this day.

6. We Use Only 10% of Our Brains

Via nerdist.com

If you weren't aware before, congratulations: if you're reading this sentence, more than 10% of your brain is active.

Originating sometime in the 1800s, this myth is now so widespread that it's earned its own page on Wikipedia and was tackled (and disproven) by the Mythbusters. Despite the mounting evidence refuting it, the idea has earned a place for itself in pop culture, with films like Limitless and Lucy helping to spread it even further into the American subconscious.

7. The Average American Swallows Eight Spiders Per Year While Sleeping

Via spiders.us

According to snopes.com, this statistic was completely made up by the author of a 1993 PC Professional article in order to illustrate how willing Internet users are to believe absurd facts. Naturally, this fact has been repeated as truth across the Web since it was first mentioned—even though Scientific American and other sources have described the myth as "ridiculous" from a biological standpoint. (After all, spiders, like most living animals, probably have some attachment to their spidery lives and would rather not go spelunking in the mouth of a creature that could eat them in its sleep.)

8. The Sun Orbits the Earth

Discovery News / Via static.ddmcdn.com

No, really, this is a thing people still believe.

Since we've come a long way since Galileo, it seems like it should be obvious that this myth is wrong. And if you ask your grade school science teachers, it really should be. But it still doesn't change the fact that a 2014 study found that 25% of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth, not the other way around. And it doesn't seem to be getting much better: this year's study by Pew Research Center found that only 6% of Americans passed a quiz composed of basic science questions.