List of Common Misconceptions

List of common misconceptions This incomplete list is not intended to be exhaustive. examples include the metallized surfaces used in browning sleeves and pizza-cooking platforms.*[7] This list of common misconceptions corrects erroneous • The functional principle of a microwave oven is beliefs that are currently widely held about notable top- dielectric heating rather than resonance frequencies ics. Each misconception and the corresponding facts have of water, and microwave ovens can therefore op- been discussed in published literature. Note that each en- erate at many frequencies. Water molecules are try is formatted as a correction; the misconceptions them- exposed to intense electromagnetic fields in strong selves are implied rather than stated. non-resonant microwaves to create heat. The 22 GHz resonant frequency of isolated water molecules has a wavelength too short to penetrate common 1 Arts and culture foodstuffs to useful depths. The typical oven frequency of 2.45 GHz was chosen partly due to its 1.1 Food and cooking ability to penetrate a food object of reasonable size, and partly to avoid interference with communication • Searing meat may cause it to lose moisture in com- frequencies in use when microwave ovens became * parison to an equivalent amount of cooking with- commercially available. [8] out searing. Generally, the value in searing meat is • Twinkies have a shelf life of approximately 45 that it creates a brown crust with a rich flavor via the days*[9] (25 in their original formulation) ̶far Maillard reaction.*[1]*[2] shorter than some people believe.*[10] They gen- • Food items cooked with wine or liquor retain alcohol erally remain on a store shelf for only 7 to 10 according to a study which found that some of the days.*[11] alcohol remains: 25 percent after one hour of bak- • ing or simmering, and 10 percent after two hours; Fortune cookies, despite being associated with Chinese cuisine in the United States, were invented in either case, however, the amount consumed while * eating a dish prepared with alcohol will rarely if ever and brought to the U.S. by the Japanese. [12] The cookies are extremely rare in China, where they are contain sufficient alcohol to cause even low levels of * intoxication.*[3]*[4] seen as symbols of American cuisine. [13] • • There is no consistent data supporting monosodium A standard cup of brewed coffee has more caffeine glutamate (MSG) as triggering migraine headache than a single shot of espresso. The belief that the exacerbation or other symptoms of so-called reverse is true results from espresso having a higher Chinese restaurant syndrome. Although there have concentration of caffeine, which is offset by the been reports of an MSG-sensitive subset of the pop- much larger volume overall of a regular cup of cof- * ulation, this has not been demonstrated in placebo- fee. [14] controlled trials.*[5]*[6] • Microwave ovens do not cook food from the inside 1.2 Legislation and crime out. Penetration depth of microwaves is dependent on food composition and the frequency, with lower • It is rarely necessary to wait 24 hours before filing microwave frequencies (longer wavelengths) pene- a missing person report. In instances where there trating further. is evidence of violence or of an unusual absence, law enforcement agencies in the United States of- • Placing metal inside a microwave oven does not ten stress the importance of beginning an investi- damage the oven's electronics. There are, however, gation promptly.*[15] The UK government website other safety-related issues: electrical arcing may oc- says explicitly in large type,“You don't have to wait cur on pieces of metal not designed for use in a 24 hours before contacting the police”.*[16] microwave oven, and metal objects may become hot enough to damage food, skin, or the interior of • Entrapment law in the United States does not require the oven. Metallic objects designed for microwave police officers to identify themselves as police in the use can be used in a microwave with no danger; case of a sting or other undercover work, and police 1 2 1 ARTS AND CULTURE officers may lie in doing such work.*[17] The law is will become a Buddha to restore Buddhism after the instead specifically concerned with enticing people teachings of the historical Buddha, Siddhārtha Gau- to commit crimes they would not have considered in tama, have been forgotten.*[25] the normal course of events.*[18] • The Buddha is not a god. In early Buddhism, Sid- • No one ever claimed in court that Twinkies made dhārtha Gautama possessed no salvific powers and them commit a crime. In the murder trial of Dan strongly encouraged “self-reliance, self-discipline White, the defense attorneys successfully argued and individual striving.”*[26] However, in later de- diminished capacity as a result of severe depression. velopments of Mahāyāna Buddhism, notably in the While eating Twinkies was given as evidence of de- Pure Land (Jìngtǔ) school of Chinese Buddhism, pression, it was never claimed to be the cause of the Amitābha Buddha was thought to be a savior. the murders. Despite this, people often claim that Through faith in the Amitābha Buddha, one could be White's attorneys argued that Twinkies made him reborn in the western Pure Land. Although in Pure commit the murders.*[19] Land Buddhism the Buddha is considered a savior, he is still not considered a god in the common un- • The Geneva Convention permits the use of the M2 derstanding of the term.*[27] Browning .50-caliber machine gun against enemy personnel. The belief to the contrary may have arisen from restrictions imposed by the U.S. mili- 1.5.2 Christianity and Judaism tary during the Korean or Vietnam Wars because of • ammunition shortages; a similar tactically-based re- The forbidden fruit mentioned in the Book of Gen- * striction on the use of the M40 recoilless rifle's .50- esis is never identified as an apple, [28] a miscon- caliber spotting rifle may also have been erroneously ception widely depicted in Western art. The origi- applied to all weapons of that caliber under a belief nal Hebrew texts mention only tree and fruit. Early that it was legally mandated.*[20]*[21]*[22] Latin translations use the word mali, which can be taken to mean both “evil”and “apple”. In early Germanic languages the word“apple”and its cog- 1.3 Literature nates usually meant simply “fruit”. German and French artists commonly depict the fruit as an apple See also: Wikiquote: List of misquotations from the 12th century onwards, and John Milton's Areopagitica from 1644 explicitly mentions the fruit as an apple.*[29] Jewish scholars have suggested that the fruit could have been a grape, a fig, wheat, an 1.4 Music apricot, or an etrog.*[30] • See also: Mondegreen § In songs There is no evidence that Jesus was born on Decem- ber 25.*[31] The Bible never claims a date of De- cember 25, but may imply a date closer to Septem- * • The Austrian national anthem is "Land der Berge, ber. [31] The fixed date is attributed to Pope Julius Land am Strome"(“Land of the Mountains, Land the First because in the year 350 CE he declared the ” * twenty-fifth of December the official date of cele- on the River ). [23] "Edelweiss" is not the national * * anthem of Austria, but an original composition cre- bration. [32] [33] The date may have initially been ated for the musical The Sound of Music. chosen to correspond with either the day exactly nine months after Christians believe Jesus to have been • "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" was not composed by conceived,*[34]*[35] the date of the Roman winter Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was 5 years old; solstice,*[36] or one of various ancient winter festi- he only composed variations on the tune, which orig- vals.*[34]*[37] inated from a French folk song, and at the age of 25 • The Bible does not say that exactly three magi came or 26.*[24] to visit the baby Jesus, nor that they were kings, or rode on camels, or that their names were Casper, 1.5 Religion Melchior, and Balthazar. Matthew 2 has tradition- ally been combined with Isaiah 60:1–3. 1.5.1 Buddhism Arise, shine, for your light has • The historical Buddha was not obese. The“chubby come, and the glory of the Lord has Buddha”or “laughing Buddha”is a 10th-century risen upon you. 2For behold, dark- Chinese folk hero by the name of Budai. In Chi- ness shall cover the earth, and thick nese Buddhist culture, Budai came to be revered darkness the peoples; but the Lord as an incarnation of Maitreya, the Bodhisattva who will arise upon you, and his glory 1.5 Religion 3 will be seen upon you. 3And na- prostitution) immediately before the story introduc- tions shall come to your light, and ing Mary Magdalene for the first time. The Catholic kings to the brightness of your ris- Church, since Pope Gregory I's time in the 6th cen- ing. tury if not before, had historically assumed that the two accounts refer to the same woman, meaning that Three magi are supposed because three gifts before her encounter with Jesus, Mary Magdalene are described, and artistic depictions of the na- was a prostitute. But there is no direct evidence tivity have almost always depicted three magi from the Bible over such a link, most modern schol- since the 3rd century.*[38] The Bible specifies ars assert that she was most likely not a prostitute, no interval between the birth and the visit, and and even the Catholic Church no longer suggests that the two passages from Luke refer to the same per- artistic depictions and the closeness of the tra- * * * ditional dates of December 25 and January 6 son.

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