If you were writing, say, a book on basic life shortcuts, you might be inclined to do a little research online.
And you would discover thousands of amazing-sounding “life hacks.” How could so much magic be lurking right under your nose? “Cool! I didn’t know that!” They’re so juicy! We want to believe that they’re real, so we keep passing them around.
But if you were writing that book on life shortcuts, you would, of course, have to try out those hacks to make sure they worked. And you’d quickly discover that a lot of them don’t. They’re snake oil. They’re frauds.
Here, for your time-saving reference, are a few of the bogus ones that you can safely ignore—along with the number of times they appear on the Web, according to a Google search.
To test a battery, see if it bounces (1,060,000 results)
Drop a battery from a height of 6 inches. If it falls right over, it’s good. If it bounces a couple of times first, it’s dead.
Wouldn’t that be great? Sure. But it doesn’t work. (You’ll notice that in the YouTube videos of this trick, they’re using different brands of batteries—that accounts for the difference in bounciness, not the health of the battery.)
Rinse bacon in cold water before cooking (533,000 results)
According to this particular myth, if you rinse your bacon in cold water before frying it, the bacon will shrink 50 percent less.
It actually works—in your dreams.
Buy your plane ticket in your browser’s Private mode (54,800,000 results)
You’ll save money, because airline Web sites know if you’re a return visitor. (They put a cookie—a small preferences file—on your computer to identify you.) So if you use your browser’s Private or Incognito mode, the Web site won’t be able to consult the cookie, and will assume that you’re a new customer, worthy of favorable fares.
Only one problem: If you try this out, you’ll discover there are no fare differences.
To prevent a soda can from foaming over, tap the top a few times (525,000 results)
If you’ve shaken a carbonated can too much, the only thing that will calm it down is time. Try it yourself: Shake up two cans, tap one of them, and open them both. You’ll discover that the tapping does absolutely nothing.
To chill soda faster in the freezer, wrap it in wet paper towel (381,000 results)
Why would that make any difference? If anything, the soda will take longer to get cold, because the water (which is above freezing temperature) is a barrier between the cold air in the freezer and the can’s surface.
You can empty liquid faster if you hold the jug upside-down and swirl it (2,180,000 results)
Sounds like fun, but science is not on your side. A 1 gallon milk jug takes 13 seconds to dump out, whether you swirl it or just stand there and let it flow.
Candles will burn longer if you keep them in the freezer for at least 3 hours before burning (365,000 results)
Nope. Makes absolutely no difference—and you risk cracking the candle.