Ridiculous things you've only recently realised you've been wrong about your entire life

[Seasidedolly]

I genuinely thought if you pulled the reverse cord on ceiling fans, it would circulate warm air.

My friend thought the yellow average speed cameras on motorways were there to look for missing children.

I had another recent revelation but I can't remember it now

I didn't know there is someone called the Presenter in a cathedral

There isn't. It's a Precentor.

He's in charge of the music.

Ohhhhhhh

Thanks, Ralph

(That's edging a bit close to Dementor though...)

I only found out very recently (I'm 46) that the Earth doesn't move further towards the sun in summer and further away in winter. I had absolutely no idea we were tilted on an axis and that's what gave us seasons.

(If I'm being totally honest I'm not sure I fully understand it all, but I know the Earth doesn't have different pathways round the sun depending on which season it is)

I also thought that gravity was in the ground and pulled us downwards. Again though, I'm not completely sure where it is.

Nobody knows why gravity.

SirChenjin, gravity is "in" everything.

Everything that has mass, has gravity, it's the nature of the universe - matter attracts.

So, everything you see about you has a very weak gravitational force, including you! But we're not very big so the gravitational force from us - or the objects around us - is negligible.

The earth on the other hand is frigging ginormous, and we are small, so we are affected by its gravitational pull.

The sun, in turn is huge, much, much bigger than earth (when you see pictures of the earth and sun on the same page, the sun is not to scale, it is gigantic!) and so because the sun is so much bigger, the Earth is affected by the pull of the sun.

I didn't understand this till someone explained it to me about 15 years ago. Before that it was one of those things I thought I knew about, until I thought about it and realised I didn't have a clue really!

But where does the gravity come from?

SirChenjin so you were right!

PigletJohn I described how gravity works. But why is another question entirely. I suspect you're right, no one knows why!

Cross post!

As for Astrology, the gravitational pull of Jupiter, Saturn or any other planet, on you at the moment of birth, is less than the gravitation pull of the midwife in the same room (even if she is quite a petite lady).

SirChenjin it depends what you mean by your question.

If you're asking where is the gravity, it is in every atom of everything that exists. The cumulative effect of having lots of atoms together is that when you have enough stuff, together it can great a pull strong enough to effect other objects.

If you're asking how it does that, I have no idea.

*that should say create not great!

Only found out recently that RAP stands for Rhythm and poetry

Also my friend thought the meaning of melancholy was positive/happy because it sounds like melody is in the word

I had no idea Gibraltar isn't an island!

Until far too recently I thought Rochester was in Yorkshire rather than Kent. I maintain it sounds like it should be in Yorkshire. I blame Jane Eyre.

I did not know that CelesriaLuna!! I just thought it was rap!!

Omg bubbly I just googled it thinking that can't be right...

Reading rest of thread with bated breath (,hope that's right!)

Leaning - I wondered how it does that. Also - if gravity is in every atom, can it be seen under a microscope? Does gravity have atoms?

RAP

I thought 'rap' referred to the quick speech (that being one of the actual dictionary definitions of rap)

Gravity doesn't have atoms.

Atoms have gravity.

If i've understood correctly, gravity is a force, like if you push a door, you are exerting a force on that door. You couldn't see the force no matter how strong your telescope.

To understand what gravity is fundamentally is probably as futile as trying to understand what mass is, or energy is, or indeed what are time and space? Of course, exactly 100 years ago (to the month), Einstein showed how all those things are intimately related. The very nature of mass is to bend space and time around it in a way that we experience as gravity.

Ahhh....I see (I think). It's all very complicated - no wonder I failed my O grade physics, my brain just doesn't get this sort of stuff at all

Atoms have gravity.

And yet atom level physics (quantum physics) can't really explain gravity.

There's macroscopic and microscopic physics (general relativity (GR) and quantum field theory (QFT)) and the holy grail is trying to unify them in a unified theory of everything.