User:S Marshall/Sandbox/List of common misconceptions demo

Each entry on this list of common misconceptions is worded as a correction; the misconceptions themselves are implied rather than stated. These entries are concise summaries; the main subject articles can be consulted for more detail.

Common misconceptions are viewpoints or factoids that are often accepted as true, but which are actually false. They generally arise from conventional wisdom (such as old wives' tales), stereotypes, superstitions, fallacies, a misunderstanding of science, or the popularization of pseudoscience. Some common misconceptions are also considered to be urban legends, and they are sometimes involved in moral panics.

Arts and culture

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Business

• Federal legal tender laws in the United States do not require that private businesses, persons, or organizations accept cash for payment, though it must be treated as valid payment for debts when tendered to a creditor.

A photo of Adolf Dassler, the namesake for Adidas (c. 1915)

• Adidas is not an acronym for "All day I dream about sports", "All day I dream about soccer", or "All day I dream about sex". The company was named after its founder Adolf "Adi" Dassler in 1949. The earliest publication found of the latter backronym was in 1978, as a joke.
• The letters "AR" in AR-15 stand for "ArmaLite Rifle", reflecting the company (ArmaLite) that originally manufactured the weapon. They do not stand for "assault rifle".

(etc.)

History

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Ancient

• The Pyramids of Egypt were not constructed with slave labor. Archaeological evidence shows that the laborers were a combination of skilled workers and poor farmers working in the off-season with the participants paid in high-quality food and tax exemptions.
• Galleys in ancient times were not commonly operated by chained slaves or prisoners, as depicted in films such as Ben Hur, but by paid laborers or soldiers, with slaves used only in times of crisis, in some cases even gaining freedom after the crisis was averted. Ptolemaic Egypt was a possible exception.

(etc.)

Science, technology and mathematics

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Astronomy and spaceflight

• There is no scientific evidence that the motion of stars, planets, and other celestial bodies influences the fates of humans, and astrology has repeatedly been shown to have no explanatory power in predicting future events.
• Astronauts in orbit are weightless because they are in free fall around the Earth, not because they are so far away from the Earth that its gravitational pull is negligible. For example, on the International Space Station the Earth's gravity is nearly 90% as strong as at the surface. Objects orbiting in space would not remain in orbit if not for the gravitational force, and gravitational fields extend even into the depths of intergalactic space.

The dark side of the Moon, photographed by Apollo 16 in 1972, clearly illuminated by the Sun. It is much more crater-ridden than the near side of the Moon.

• The "dark side of the Moon" receives about the same amount of light from the Sun as the near side of the Moon. Describing the far side of the Moon as "dark" does not mean that it never receives light, but rather that it had never been seen until humans sent spacecraft around the Moon, since the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth due to tidal locking.

(etc.)