Adamant in ignorance

"Oh sure! Water can explode!" I exclaimed after hearing that water which was taken out from a microwave oven after heating, exploded on some one's face. I might not have even gone and searched it on the web. Then one day it happened to me. I heated the water in a beer mug in the microwave. After I opened the door, while I was just about to take the mug out, my phone rang. I went and got the phone and was walking towards the oven while answering the call, the water burst out from the mug drenching in and around the microwave. I just stood there shocked and reported it to my friend who was at the other end of the call. This was a very humbling experience and made me look at 'knowledge' in a completely new light.

I remembered about this incident when I was talking about 'Tuberculoid leprosy' to someone very close to me. His immediate reaction was there can't be anything like that, as tuberculosis is a lung disease. May be the fact that I was talking to him on April 1st also had an effect as in the previous one hour I had heard 'April fool' at least 13 times. He might have thought that I was also trying to pull a fast one on him. Then I realised may be he has never had a 'water explosion' moment in his life to think that anything is possible.

That was a mild reaction when compared to how two of my colleagues from Singapore reacted to the pins on the power plug of my laptop, when I reached their office for a meeting. They almost rolled on the floor laughing and telling 'round, round, round plugs'. In Singapore the plug pins were rectangular. I was amused by their reaction as I had seen various shapes, sizes and pin alignments on power plugs by then.

I have won money, play station games and whiskey bottles (for friends of course) by telling 'bet' at the right time with some of these people. Then last week while discussing cars with a friend, we were talking about Volkswagen Beetle and he commented that it is bigger than the Volkswagen Vento which we have just passed by. I argued for a few minutes and left it thinking he will figure it out or may be I am wrong. He indeed figured it out and told me a day or 2 later that I was correct. Then I realised that after my 'water explosion' incident I am not even sure about things I am sure about, my being adamant in my knowledge is diminished so much that I have stopped telling 'bet' any more. May be it is a good thing, may be it is not.

Refer Hoax Slayer for more details on microwave water explosion.

Read about different types of power plugs in Wikipedia.