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9

Explanation:
The Pythagorean theorem

was misattributed to Pythagoras

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Countless teachers claim that Pythagoras proved the hypotenuse theorem. This claim became widespread because Galileo said it in his famous book of 1632. Yet 340 years later, historian Walter Burkert raised questions about whether ancient sources show that Pythagoras contributed to geometry. Regardless, most writers, such as Eli Maor and Leonid Zhumd, continued to credit Pythagoras.

 

In 2012, I proved that Pythagoras did not contribute to geometry. Ancient Greek commentators on mathematics, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, and Apollonius, did not attribute anything in geometry to Pythagoras. Writers in antiquity did not link the hypotenuse theorem to Pythagoras until half a millennium after he died. The earliest instance I found of anyone claiming that Pythagoras “proved” it is from 1557, two thousand years after he died.
 

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10

Explanation: 
Myth: that the discoverer

of irrational numbers was murdered

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At least since the 1890s, writers and math teachers claim that the ancient Pythagoreans murdered their fellow cult member Hippasus for discovering irrationality in mathematics: that certain lines are incommensurable. Versions of this story have been echoed by historians of mathematics, such as Morris Kline and Amir Alexander, and by bestselling writers such as Stephen Hawking and Mario Livio. 

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However, I found that it didn’t happen: ancient sources do not claim that the Pythagoreans murdered Hippasus. Instead, seven centuries after Hippasus lived, Iamblichus commented that some people claimed that the person who revealed incommensurability was hated and banished, while others claimed that he died at sea. Thus, a vague story about a guy dying at sea became a story about a murdering cult.
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11

Explanation:
Galileo didn’t drop things
from the Leaning Tower of Pisa

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For centuries, since the 1650s, many writers have claimed that Galileo dropped objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, publicly proving that Aristotle’s theory of falling bodies was false. This story was started by Galileo’s first biographer, Vincenzio Viviani, and it has been echoed by countless many physicists, such as Leon Lederman, and by authoritative historians, such as Antonio Favaro, Stillman Drake, and Domenico Bertoloni Meli. 

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Yet, in 1935 the story was critiqued by Lane Cooper, who wasn’t a historian or a physicist, but just a professor of English. In 2011, I proved that Galileo didn’t do it. His writings do not claim that he dropped anything from the Leaning Tower. Nobody claimed to have seen Galileo do it either. Viviani’s claim that Galileo wrote it in The Two New Sciences is false, and objects dropped from the Leaning Tower do not land at the same instant, contrary to Viviani’s mistaken claim.

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12

Explanation:
The myth about Einstein
and the Swiss clock towers

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For half a century, since 1973, multiple writers claim that Einstein’s relativity of time originated because of thoughts he allegedly had about clock towers in Switzerland. Such stories have been voiced by prominent Harvard professors, such as Steven Pinker and Peter Galison, well-known physicists such as Michio Kaku and Hans Ohanian, and bestselling biographers such as Walter Isaacson. 
 
When I sought and analyzed the many primary sources I found that all such stories are false. In his writings, Einstein never claimed that clock towers inspired him to think of the relativity of time. None of his friends, relatives, coworkers, or acquaintances claimed that he was inspired by Swiss clocks or towers either.
 

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13

Proof:
How the myths

about Mileva Maric developed

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Since the 1960s, a dramatic story has arisen: that Mileva Maric was Einstein’s secret collaborator, and especially, that she helped him create the theory of relativity. Such claims gained popularity after 1989, when letters between Einstein and Maric were published. In those surprising letters, Einstein himself wrote to Maric about “our work,” and remarkably, “our work on the relative motion.” And so, many writers tried to credit or discredit Mileva Maric, with interpretations and guesswork. 

 

Instead, I analyzed the mystery by identifying what the sentences meant. For example, I found that when Einstein wrote “our work on the relative motion,” it didn't refer to his theory of relativity. Because, back then he believed in the existence of the ether and was trying to detect its motion relative to the Earth, like other physicists. Thus I proved that he shared that early aspiration with Mileva Maric, in 1901, but that years later, after he formulated relativity, Maric herself gave him the credit for his physics papers.
 

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14

Discovery:
True origins of The Eyes of Texas

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In 1903, John Lang Sinclair wrote “The Eyes of Texas” song. Decades later, it became the song of the University of Texas, one of the most beloved songs in the state. However, for 95 years, since 1929, there have been conflicts and questions about how the song originated. In 2020, an official UT Report claimed that the song was not written for the 1903 minstrel show in which UT students mocked Black people by painting their faces black. And allegedly, its origin was not linked to words by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. 

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However, by inspecting the primary sources I proved that the song was written for the blackface minstrel show, based on words about General Lee. The author himself, John Lang Sinclair, and other witnesses admitted that the song was written for the minstrel show of 1903. And, I proved that the song’s title and chorus were based on words by and about General Lee in the Civil War. Sinclair stated that the song was not meant to be a university hymn, contrary to the whitewash of a fellow alumnus who he wanted to sue for lying about it.
 

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15

Proof:
Fiction in political news

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In their 1988 book, Manufacturing Consent, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky argued that mass media in the U.S. distorts the news into political propaganda. Having analyzed the evolution of historical myths, I decided to likewise analyze “the first draft of history.” How much fiction is intermixed in political news? I examined news stories that millions of persons accepted as true. During the U.S. Presidential election of 2016, did the news misrepresent the statements of the contentious candidate Donald Trump? 

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It was controversial: countless Americans were convinced that Trump was a reckless individual and that his statements were evidently malicious and deranged. I meticulously analyzed twenty news stories from 2015 to 2016, all involving Trump and the media. I found that in every single one of those twenty controversies many prominent reporters, columnists, and television pundits grossly misrepresented the news. No other book has analyzed news stories in any presidential campaign with such thoroughness. It clearly shows that American corporate media grossly distorts political news.
 

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16
Discovery:
How many people died in Puerto Rico

because of Hurricane Maria?

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In early 2018, researchers at Harvard estimated that Hurricane Maria caused the deaths of roughly 4,645 persons in Puerto Rico. They also wrote that the deaths might exceed eight thousand. Later, researchers at George Washington University claimed instead that Hurricane Maria caused the deaths of roughly 2,975 persons in Puerto Rico.

 

But there were serious errors in both of those studies. When obtaining official mortality data, I found that the Harvard team had not requested or used mortality data from Puerto Rico’s Demographic Registry. They confected excessive estimates based on random interviews. Plus, I found that the GWU group based their estimate on a miscalculation of how many people “would have died” if the hurricane had not struck. By analyzing annual and monthly mortality rates, migrations, and certified deaths, I calculated excess deaths, thus showing that the researchers at Harvard and GWU published grossly high estimates.   

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