Does it really take seven years for gum to pass through your digestive tract? Do you really lose 40 per cent of your body heat through your head? Does a red sky at night really predict good weather?
All of us can recite lists of folk wisdom as long as your arm. But is any of it true? More than that, is any of it useful?
The actual truth is, we aren’t always as smart as we think, which is a point these old nuggets drive home with full force. Consider, for example, the old proverb:
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Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.
For centuries, farmers, sailors and others whose livelihoods depended on the weather relied on weather observation to keep body and soul together. Creating rhymes and sayings helped them to structure and remember those observations and pass them down from one generation to the next. The sayings became part of the culture and hopped ship to the new world with the waves of immigration.
Most of us already know that the red-sky proverb is true… kind of… says David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada. In our latitudes, weather usually moves from west to east, blown by the westerly trade winds. This means storm systems generally move in from the west. During sunrise and sunset, the sun is low in the sky, and the sun’s light has to travel through more miles of atmosphere to reach us. We see the red wavelengths because they are the longest in the color spectrum and are therefore better at sur- viving the tip. The shorter wavelengths of the other colours get scattered and broken up by airborne particles along the way.
When we see a fiery red sky at night it means the setting sun’s rays are travelling through a high concentration of dust particles, which in turn generally means high pressure and stable air coming in from the west. Basically, good weather is coming.
If the sky is red in the east at sunrise, then the high pressure region has most likely already passed from west to east, and an area of low pressure may follow. Low pressure usually brings clouds, rain and storms, hence a warning for sailors.
Observing animal behaviour can be helpful in predicting if bad weather is on the way. “Humans are often the last to know,” says Phillips. “Animals are more sensitive to air ions, wind direction, and air pressure changes,” he explains. Hence the expression:
Swallows flying high, clear blue sky, Swallows flying low, rain we shall know.
What about some of the other weather lore we hear frequently repeated?
Dew on the grass; Good weather comes to pass.
This one is right about 80 per cent of the time, says Phillips. If there is dew it means there is no cloud cover and the winds are light so we can expect good weather.
When the ditch and pond offend the nose,
Look out for rain and stormy blows.
With fair weather and high pressure we don’t smell the manure pile but once a low-pressure cell arrives, we’ll smell it, says Phillips. Also, when odour-causing molecules are hydrated, they tend to smell more.
Sayings that predict what will happen in the next hours may have some accuracy. Phillips however draws the line at long-range folklore forecasts, such as:
Onion skins very thin, Mild weather coming in; Onion skins thick and tough, Coming winter cold and rough
Such sayings have no predictive value, says Phillips. And if there’s been a heavy crop of nuts or fruit, it tells us about the past weather, he says. It means that there were good growing conditions. It doesn’t predict anything at all about the winter to come.
Many of these sayings came from Europe with the settlers. The saying: “In like a lion, out like a lamb” when referring to March’s weather comes to us from Scotland and has no statistical validity here, points out Phillips. The same for Groundhog Day, which comes from Germany.
Of course, sometimes these sayings are right just by coincidence. While Phillips encourages people to be more observant of clouds and weather patterns he does point out that we don’t need to rely on these sayings the way our ancestors did. “We have the weather forecasting service now,” he says.
What about other bits of folk wisdom? For instance, if you swallow gum, does it really take seven years to break down?
According to the award-winning myth-busting websitewww.snopes.com, there’s nothing to support this rumour. Operated by Barbara and David Mikkelson,www.snopes.com is an excellent resource for checking the validity of the latest hoaxes, urban legends and email forwards. “Although the gum resists the body’s efforts to break it down, it does not linger in the stomach. Gum is eliminated in the same way — and at the same rate — as any other swallowed matter,” says the Snopes site.
Does shaving cause hair to grow back darker and thicker after it has been shaved?
Not according to Snopes. “Cutting does not stimulate new growth. The part of the hair we style is already dead. The living sections lie below the surface of the scalp. Cutting or shaving… isn’t going to have an impact on the parts that are alive.”
Also on the hair front, does wearing a hat cause baldness?
Snopes has concluded that wearing a hat, tight or otherwise, does not cause hair loss.
Batteries should be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.
Both Eveready and Duracell websites state that batteries should be stored at room temperature.
Two researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Dr. Rachel Vreeman and Dr. Aaron Carroll, set out to determine if there was any truth behind several oft-repeated medical myths.
People should drink at least eight glasses of water per day.
The two doctors searched medical databases for any research that could support this recommendation but could not find any. In a British Medical Journal article, Vreeman and Carroll report that “existing studies show that adequate fluid intake is usually met through typical daily consumption of juice, milk and even caffeinated drinks.”
We use only 10 per cent of our brains.
The belief that we use only a small fraction of our brains has persisted for over a century, say Vreeman and Carroll, even though numerous brain imaging studies show that no part of the brain is inactive.
Sugar causes hyperactivity in children.
Despite what many parents believe, sugar does not cause “hyperactive behaviour.” Studies found no difference in the behaviour of children who had consumed sugar and those who had not, including children who had attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and those who were considered sensitive to sugar, say Vreeman and Carroll.
We lose 40 per cent of our body heat through our heads.
This, too, is false. “A recent study shows that any uncovered body part loses heat and will reduce the core body temperature proportionately,” conclude Vreeman and Carroll.
It’s amazing in this era of instant access to information how much misinformation is still being repeated. Which only goes to show how imperfect we humans are and how important it is to get the right story out in the first placeCG
