QI

Some time ago at English classes at the University we were talking about a British comedy quiz show QI. The abbreviation QI stands for Quite Interesting. In the programme four people try to answer questions. Most of the questions are not very clear and that's why it's very hard to give the right answer. One section of the programme, which is called General Ignorance, is dedicated to questions which seems to be very obvious, but later it turns out that they're not so easy.

After this lesson I decided to look for some examples of questions which are obscure. I've found tree exapmles of questions which have obviously but wrong answers.

Firstly, it is generally claimed that the only human-made object which is visible from the Moon is the Great Wall of China, but that's not true. Neither the Apollo astronauts nor Earth-orbiting astronauts saw any human-made object from Space. Surprisingly, city lights are quite well visible from the Earth orbit.

Secondly, it is also commonly known that bulls react nervously to the red color. This is false. Bulls, like all cattle, are dichromats and they're unable to percieve the red color.

Thirdly, many people think that swallowed chewing gum is digested by seven years. This is also not true, because chewing gum is indigestible and passes through our digestive system with other food

Frankly, I have to admit that I've never thought that there are so many widespread but false beliefs. It was very interesting experience to get to know how little do we know.