We start off believing everything our parents tell us is true, then we think we know everything, and finally we believe everything we learn at school.
But it turns out that much of what you learnt at school, and have probably been telling your own children, is actually wrong.
The teachers aren’t always to blame. They’re often just passing on what was accepted wisdom back then, or in some cases teaching us things which were actually true at the time but are no longer.
Below are 11 ‘facts’ you were probably taught at school which were either never true in the first place or are no longer correct.
How many of these do you remember being taught at school and are there any others which you remember learning before finding out years later that they are wrong?
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5. You have taste zones on your tongue
We all remember the diagram in biology lessons showing the different zones on your tongue, which could supposedly register sweet, salty, sour and bitter tastes. While some parts of the tongue are more sensitive than others, there are not specific areas which are better at identifying certain tastes. This widely taught myth is understood to have stemmed from the misinterpretation of a 1901 dissertation. As well as being able to sense sweet, salty, sour and bitter, each taste bud on our tongue can also identify umami, which was only recognised as the fifth basic taste in 1990. | ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images Photo: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images
6. I before e, except after c
This spelling mantra trips off the tongue and was taught to generations of schoolchildren, but in the late noughties the government decided it was no longer worth teaching as there were simply too many exceptions, like neighbour, height, weird and science. | Keystone View/FPG/Getty Images Photo: Keystone View/FPG/Getty Images
7. There are only three states of matter
Most of us remember being taught at school how matter can only exist in three states - solid, liquid or gas. But there are now believed to be five states, including plasma, which is found in lightning and neon bulbs, and Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs), which NASA says are 'formed when particles are cooled to near absolute zero, causing them to coalesce into a single quantum object that acts as a wave in a relatively large packet'. | HERBERT NEUBAUER/APA/AFP via Getty Images Photo: HERBERT NEUBAUER/APA/AFP via Getty Images
8. Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain
This is one pub quiz fact everybody surely knows, but it's only partially true. Measured by height above sea level, Everest is indeed the world's tallest mountain, soaring 8,849 metres. But if you measure from base to peak, the tallest mountain is Mauna Kea, a long-dormant volcano in Hawaii, USA, which is around 10,205m high, including the 6,000 or so metres below sea level. | Mailee Osten-Tan/Getty Images Photo: Mailee Osten-Tan/Getty Images