You were “today years old” when you learned… what?
You learn something new every day, even if you don’t believe it – but when you realize that you have learned something that you really should have known, then you are truly aware of it.
At the same time, you think: How could no one have told me this? Could I have just made this up out of thin air?
u/Lawvamat asked:
What did you just learn that “everyone knows”?
Here were some of those answers.
Deceived
I was in Venice with my school and a group of girls told me that they eat their tampons when they don’t need them anymore. It was for some stupid reason, like to restore their iron levels or something. I believed it and even the teachers played along. I went back home to the UK and still believed this lie about six months after the trip. It wasn’t until I asked my mum if she had eaten her tampon.
She was HORRIFIED. Then she burst out laughing. I can’t believe my whole class tricked me for so long.
bruverjack
A nest is not a home
Birds do not live in their nests.
My wife will never let me forget that this was an overwhelming revelation for me.
Bass tracer
From Earth to the Stars
The North Star is unique not because of its brightness, but because it does not move and always stays in the north while the others orbit around it.
mjt9119
For additional travel: the North Star Changes over time. The ancients had a different one than we do. The point in the sky that points north moves over time, making a complete circle every 26,000 years.
ETA: the corresponding Wikipedia article.
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To extend where no pencil has been extended yet
I don’t think everyone knows, but I just discovered that pencil extenders exist. I was just complaining on social media about having a bunch of unusable pencils that have worn down to 2 inches, and when I pressed send I thought, “there must be something for that.” I’m 41 and have been drawing my whole life and never knew they existed.
Portsherry – The Great Adventure
Very good
Dandelion (the weed with yellow flowers) and dandelion (the fluffy white weed) are the same plant.
I’m 29 and my stupid @$$ didn’t realize they have the same name.
ali_whi
No curved arrow
Oh man, for a long time I thought the phrase “straight and narrow” meant “straightened arrow,” that is, when someone is going through a rough patch but is now on the “straightened arrow,” because, as you know, a straightened arrow flies straight and accurate, while a bent arrow is completely wild and uncontrolled. Ugh.
And I don’t even want to start on my misunderstanding regarding an alternative word for “intersection.”
Bashful_Tuba
Bones in your face
That babies are born with a full set of baby and permanent teeth. Their teeth don’t form when it’s time to get them, they just push out from the gums because they’ve always been there.
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It was really a farm
When I was a kid, we had a huge dog that attacked a girl (because she threw rocks at him), so we had to get rid of him. My parents told me that they took him to a farm where he would be happy and free because they thought he was dead.
Six months later, a farmer came to our house and wanted to return the dog because he had chewed the cab of his truck.
AdeptLength
Be S-Pacific
Not me, but a friend of mine graduated from high school and that same summer we discovered that he did not know which ocean was the Atlantic or the Pacific.
MangoBrando
How does a candle work?
I found out about this a few months ago and shared it on Reddit, which was apparently the first time a lot of people heard about it.
The wax in a candle actually provides energy to the flame. The heat from the flame melts the wax around it. The wick then draws the liquid wax up toward the flame. As the wax gets closer to the candle and is heated even more, it changes from liquid to gas, and then the vapors burn off to keep the flame alive. Everyone seemed to think that the wax was just there to hold the wick up, but no, the wax actually provides energy to the flame.
Master of Flames
