8 Things That Don't Work Out Like We Think

Sometimes, we find ourselves living by little rules that, upon closer inspection, we really don't need to. Whether it's waiting for an hour before swimming after you eat or avoiding sitting too close to the TV, it turns out that these rules were based on myths. 

Once you know the truth behind these things that "everyone knows," it can be pretty liberating. In some cases, it can even keep us from doing something dangerous that we once tricked ourselves into thinking was helping us.

However these myths persist, sometimes they can really slow you down so having the right knowledge can put you way ahead of the curve. Of course, the tricky part is remembering and applying that knowledge but baby steps, right?

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1. Cow tipping isn't really done because it's almost impossible.

Cows are pretty wary of strangers, so you're going to have a very tough time pushing such a large animal over while it's struggling against you. And if you wait until they're asleep, you'll probably find that there's nothing to tip over because cows don't actually sleep standing up either.

At best, cow tipping is a whole lot of effort and risk (you don't want to anger a cow, after all) for no reward whatsoever.

2. Halloween candy tampering is much rarer than people tend to believe.

For as long as we've celebrated Halloween with trick-or-treating, there's been exactly one confirmed case of someone poisoning Halloween candy and that person was convicted of murdering his own son for insurance money. 

While there have been cases of sharp objects found in Halloween loot, we're only talking about 10 incidents where people were hurt in almost 60 years and the worst of them only required a few stitches.

3. Twinkies don't stay edible forever.

We'll have to find something else to eat during the zombie apocalypse because Twinkies only have a shelf life of about 45 days. While it's true that one school in Maine has kept one intact for 40 years, eating it would be a terrible idea.

Even sitting around for just one year can make them turn as hard as a rock, which doesn't sound very appetizing.

4. You don't have to wait 24 hours before reporting someone missing.

Technically, this can vary by the police department, since New York and Connecticut law enforcers agree that these reports should be made as early as possible while some departments in Michigan do have this rule of thumb in place.

However, this rule isn't supposed to be valid anywhere if your report concerns a missing minor, a missing elder, a missing person made vulnerable by a physical or mental illness, or suspected foul play.  

Of course, that's not the only thing we often get wrong about police procedures.

5. A police officer doesn't have to answer "yes" when asked "are you a cop?" 

People often believe that lying when asked this question is entrapment, but it's not against the law for police to lie in the course of their duties. After all, undercover operations would be all but impossible if this myth was actually true.

Entrapment actually occurs when a cop leads someone to commit a crime that they otherwise wouldn't have. If someone is taking part in illegal business and one of their customers happens to be a cop in disguise, the entrapment defense isn't going to work.

6. The iron maiden was not a real medieval torture device.

It's commonly believed that people were punished by being thrown in a coffin full of spikes, but the device didn't actually exist until the 1800s. It was created by Matthew Peacock to demonstrate how brutal people were in the Middle Ages and his information came from a 1793 hoax by Johann Siebenkees. 

It still makes for an awesome band name, though.

7. Fortune cookies don't actually come from China.

They were invented in pre-World War I San Francisco but were likely inspired by a similar treat found in Kyoto, Japan. These "fortune crackers" came from a few family-owned bakeries in the area and used to have their fortunes on the outside.

The cookies became a part of Chinese-American cuisine after the Japanese internment in World War II forced existing cookie factories to close, which were then replaced by Chinese business owners. 

8. Albert Einstein didn't have bad grades in high school.

This belief emerged thanks to some confusion about his school's grading system since students there were once graded on a scale of one to six, with one being the best. By the time Einstein got a grade of six, that grading scale was turned on its head and six became the highest grade.

While it's true that he failed his first entrance exam for the Federal Technical Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, it's worth noting that he took it at the age of 16 and was only defeated by his poor grade in French.

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