Once again, it's been a while since I posted a "general knowledge" thread that wasn't tied to any particular subject area . So, here's another one, devoted to all the things that are widely-believed, but not actually true. All you need to do is say what these things are, and then set the record straight!
In order to prevent this thread from being overrun by notorious arguments, please adhere to the following:
So, here's one to start off with:
1. The glass in medieval windows hasn't flowed to the bottom over hundreds of years. A lot of people have heard that glass is a highly viscous liquid, and they think they see evidence of this in Medieval windows, where the glass is thicker at the bottom than at the top. However, this is not what has happened: glass is simply too viscous to have reached the bottom of the window by now, as this page explains. (It is true that many Medieval windows are thicker at the bottom than at the top; however, that's because they didn't have uniform thickness when they were made, and they were placed with the thicker bit at the bottom because that was more stable!)
So, do you have any more to add?
In order to prevent this thread from being overrun by notorious arguments, please adhere to the following:
- Nothing related to present-day religious issues. This means, for example, nothing related to evolution vs creationism, and nothing related to the content of any religious scripture or holy book.
- Nothing related to current or recent politics. This means nothing related to any national political figure of the past 10 years (e.g. Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Boris Johnson, Kim Jong-un), and nothing related to any world events from the past 20 years (e.g. the Iraq War, the Arab Spring, the COVID-19 pandemic). This is to be consistent with the policy previously established for 'Alternate History' vs. 'Current politics'.
- Nothing related to any current news story - even a non-political one. Information about these changes so fast that something seemingly true today may be found untrue by tomorrow. Besides, it's better to discuss these events in their own thread .
- Keep all posts fact-based in nature. This isn't an "Unpopular opinions" thread: it's for things that are widely-believed but demonstrably untrue, rather than widely-held opinions that you disagree with.
So, here's one to start off with:
1. The glass in medieval windows hasn't flowed to the bottom over hundreds of years. A lot of people have heard that glass is a highly viscous liquid, and they think they see evidence of this in Medieval windows, where the glass is thicker at the bottom than at the top. However, this is not what has happened: glass is simply too viscous to have reached the bottom of the window by now, as this page explains. (It is true that many Medieval windows are thicker at the bottom than at the top; however, that's because they didn't have uniform thickness when they were made, and they were placed with the thicker bit at the bottom because that was more stable!)
So, do you have any more to add?
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