There are some things so socially accepted as to be indisputable and yet, I dispute.
Here are two widely propagated myths that need dispelling:
Fact or Myth?
Myth: Pregnancy is nine months.
Fact: Pregnancy is actually ten months.
Fact or Myth?
Myth: Seattle gets more rain than any other city in the U.S.
Fact: Seattle receives a mere 37.1 inches of rain annually on average. Knoxville, Tennessee, on the other hand, receives 47.29 inches of rain annually on average. That's more than ten inches over Seattle.
Why are these fallacies continually reinforced? I'm thinking about looking into the origins of hot dogs. Maybe they're really quite good for us and made of vegetables.
3 comments:
fill me in on the ten month pregnancy thing as I am not sure I'm with ya on that one....BLynn
Pregnancy is 40 weeks, which is four weeks more than nine months. As of next Thursday, I'll begin my ninth month, then I have four weeks to go from there. That's ten months, not nine.
I have asked and asked and received no satisfactory answer as to why the nine-month myth continues. I only know I serve the purpose of dispelling it.
Four weeks is not a month, at least not in our calendar. With twelve months in a year, the average length of a month is about 30.5 days, not 28. So if a pregnancy were 40 weeks (280 days), that would make it 280/30.5 = about 9.2 months. But actually, a pregnancy is 266 days from conception to birth, which is 266/30.5 = about 8.7 months. So if anything, nine months is a slight overstatement. (The 280-day figure is calculated from the last menstrual period, for convenience.)
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