Every trivia writer eventually repeats a “fact” that isn’t true. These fifteen are the ones that turn up most in trivia lists and fact-of-the-day posts, so this page is set up as a true-or-false round you can read aloud: the statement first, then the ruling. We leave them out of our fun facts and question sets, or include them only to correct them.
How to use this as a round
Read each statement and give teams ten seconds to mark T or F. Then read the ruling, which is the part people remember. Mix in five true statements that sound unbelievable, such as “octopuses have three hearts” or “Saturn is less dense than water” (both are true; more in our fun facts). The round ideas guide has other formats.
Statements 1–5: space and science
“The Great Wall of China is visible from the Moon.” False. The wall is long but only a few meters wide, and similar in color to the land around it. NASA notes that it is hard to see with the naked eye even from low Earth orbit, let alone from the Moon, about 384,000 km away.
“Lightning never strikes the same place twice.” False. Tall structures are hit again and again; the Empire State Building is struck about 20 times a year, according to the National Weather Service.
“Glass is a slow-moving liquid, which is why old windows are thicker at the bottom.” False. Glass is an amorphous solid. Old panes are uneven because of how they were made, and glaziers often set the thicker edge at the bottom.
“Mercury is the hottest planet because it’s closest to the Sun.” False. Venus is hotter, because its thick atmosphere traps heat. This one appears in our science trivia.
“We only use 10 percent of our brains.” False. Brain imaging shows activity across virtually the whole brain over the course of a day.
Statements 6–9: animals
“Goldfish have a three-second memory.” False. Experiments have trained goldfish to respond to sounds and lights and to remember them for months.
“Bulls are angered by the color red.” False. Cattle are red-green colorblind; it is the movement of the cape that provokes the bull.
“Bats are blind.” False. All bats can see, and many species see well. Many also use echolocation to hunt in the dark.
“Ostriches bury their heads in the sand.” False. They lower their heads to turn their eggs in nests dug in the ground, which from a distance can look like burying.
Statements 10–13: history
“Napoleon was very short.” Not really. He was about 5 feet 7 inches (around 1.70 m), about average for a Frenchman of his time. The myth comes partly from the difference between French and English inches, and partly from British cartoons.
“Vikings wore horned helmets.” False. No horned helmet has been found from a Viking-age warrior’s grave. The image was popularized by 19th-century art and costume design, especially for Wagner’s operas.
“Columbus proved the Earth was round.” False. Educated Europeans had known the Earth was round since ancient Greece. The argument in 1492 was about how big the Earth was; Columbus underestimated it.
“Medieval people thought the Earth was flat.” Also false, for the same reason. The flat-Earth Middle Ages is largely a 19th-century myth.
Statements 14–15: food and everyday life
“Sugar makes children hyperactive.” Controlled studies have generally not found that sugar changes children’s behavior, though parents who believe their child has had sugar tend to rate them as more hyperactive.
“It takes seven years to digest swallowed gum.” False. Gum base isn’t fully digested, but it passes through the digestive system like other indigestible material, in days, not years.
Why the false ones spread
They are simple, surprising and easy to repeat, and they get copied from list to list without anyone checking the source. Before any “fact” goes into a quiz, check it against a primary source, not another trivia list.