McBraniacs will be glad to know…

Myth: You can’t hypnotize a chicken.

Fact: A chicken can be hypnotized by holding its head down against white sheet of paper and continuously drawing a line along the ground with a sharpie, starting at its beak and extending straight outward in front of the chicken.  If the chicken is hypnotized in this manner, it will remain immobile for somewhere between 15 seconds to 30 minutes, continuing to stare at the line.

Myth: Objects float in water because they are lighter than water.

Fact: This has to do with density, which is mass divided by volume. Some objects start out with a density of less than water (1 gram per cubic centimeter), so they float naturally (like wood, oil, etc.). With things like steel boats and so forth we have to cheat. The construction design needs to make the overall volume of the boat big enough so that the craft's resulting effective density is less than that of water. This works real well and there are lots of boats made of high density materials which float, even though the stuff they are constructed from doesn't.

Myth: People on average only pass a small amount of gas each day.

Fact: The amount of gas people pass varies from one cup to one half gallon per day.

Myth: It never “rains” animals.

Fact:  Raining animals is a relatively common meteorological phenomenon.  The animals most likely to drop from the sky in a rainfall are fish, frogs and birds. Sometimes the animals survive the fall, especially fish, suggesting a small time gap between the extraction and the actual drop. Several witnesses of raining frogs describe the animals as startled, though healthy, and exhibiting relatively normal behavior shortly after the event.

Myth: Head lice can live for months while they wait for a host - like your head.

Fact: Head lice can survive for only a few days without a human host.  They can hang onto human hairs with gripping claws, and then bite into the scalp for blood food.

Myth: The pupil is a black object or spot on the surface of the eye.

Fact: The pupil is the opening in the center of the iris. The size of the pupil determines the amount of light that enters the eye.  The pupil size is controlled by the dilator and sphincter muscles of the iris.  Doctors often evaluate the reaction of pupils to light to determine a person's neurological function.

Myth: Batteries have electricity inside of them.

Fact: A battery produces electricity using two different metals in a chemical solution. A chemical reaction between the metals and the chemicals frees more electrons in one metal than in the other. One end of the battery is attached to one of the metals; the other end is attached to the other metal. The end that frees more electrons develops a positive charge and the other end develops a negative charge. If a wire is attached from one end of the battery to the other, electrons flow through the wire to balance the electrical charge. A load is a device that does work or performs a job. If a load––such as a light bulb––is placed along the wire, the electricity can do work as it flows through the wire. The electricity flows through the wire in the light bulb and back to the battery.