35 False 'Facts' That You Wrongly Believe (And 1 That You Should)

35. Bulls Are Enraged By The Colour Red

No, they're actually not. In fact cattle vision is dichromatic. This means that they're essentially what would be described as 'colour-blind' in humans, so they don't even see red as a bright colour. They merely perceive it as another variation in tone, like all the other variations. The crew from TV's MythBusters set out to debunk the myth a few years ago and managed to get exactly the same response from a bull when the matador held a red flag, a blue flag and a white flag. First the matador did nothing but hold the flags as motionless as possible - the bull gave a half-hearted attempt at charging each one before losing interest. But when the matador waved the flags, all three inspired the same reaction from the bull: irrespective of colour, when the flag was waved the bull charged at it. So it turns out that next time you go to use the phrase "like a red flag to a bull" (or its alternative "like a red rag to a bull") you could actually just call out any colour at all and your phrase will be just as valid. Why not make it a crimson flag, or a teal one, or even a chartreuse one?

34. Lightning Never Strikes The Same Place Twice

Actually, it can and it does, frequently. There is no physical, meteorological, geographical or geological reason why lightning couldn't strike in the same place twice. These days this one is typically used as a turn of phrase more than a statement of fact, but there's still a sufficient volume of people who believe it. Any time there's an electrical storm, lightning looks for a conductor and the various metallic fixtures atop the tallest buildings in any given area are the obvious candidates. Lightning is said to strike conductors atop buildings and towers such as the Empire State Building in New York City, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Toronto's CN Tower, The Sydney Tower, and Auckland's Sky Tower 50-100 times a year. In fact weather-watchers and storm-chasers the world over will vouch for the fact that lightning frequently strikes twice in the same place. Some even argue that, whether there's a gap of 2 minutes or 2 million years, it's almost inevitable that the same spot will be struck by lightning twice, if not more often.