It is loudest before it boils, and the switch never measures the water. Here are fifteen.
1. The Element Heats the Water, Not the Kettle
In an electric kettle the…
It is the only organ that grows back, and most people cannot name what it does. Here are seventeen.
1. It Grows Back, Which Nothing Else Does
Remove a substantial…
The Name Has Been Misleading People for Two Centuries
Almost everybody believes a lightning rod attracts lightning. It is an easy belief to hold, because the thing is pointed, it…
The Bars Are Not the Code
The intuitive reading of a barcode is that each bar is a symbol, like a letter, and the sequence of bars spells out the…
Almost Everybody Has the Explanation Wrong
The standard account, repeated more or less universally, is that lying on an arm cuts off the blood supply, the limb is starved of…
Try It Before Reading Any Further
Press a finger against one nostril and breathe in through the other. Then swap. For most people, at most moments, the two are noticeably…