This is a myth from 1940s Britain
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
301 points (88.7% liked)
Funny
9181 readers
1445 users here now
General rules:
- Be kind.
- All posts must make an attempt to be funny.
- Obey the general sh.itjust.works instance rules.
- No politics or political figures. There are plenty of other politics communities to choose from.
- Don't post anything grotesque or potentially illegal. Examples include pornography, gore, animal cruelty, inappropriate jokes involving kids, etc.
Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
"How is the RAF so incredibly good at spotting German planes at night and in the fog?"
don't say radar don't say radar don't say radar "ummm yes... its carrots. Carrots, lots of carrots, that's it! Its because they... um... improve eyesight."
It's funny that for an 'average' person at that time a carrot theory was satisfying enough to stop looking for other explanation, ie technology based.
It's not that it was a satisfying theory, it's that it was misinformation spread by the propaganda machine at the time.
Nutrition was and remains to be poorly understood
RADAR was one of those inventions that they thought was completely revolutionary, and it was, but was far less "unique" than the creators originally believed.
The large air and naval search arrays all over southern England had been spotted by the Germans even before the war and they accurately worked out what they were for and reverse engineered them purely from reconnaissance photographs.
The special thing about the RAF at the time was that they'd managed to make units small enough to fit on board planed which was the big advantage they hid as being carrots.
Funny story, so convinced were the British that the concept of RADAR couldn't have been copied by Germany that when they surveyed the Graf Spee while in dock at Montevideo, with the RADAR antennas, identical to those on British and American ships clearly visible they still didn't believe the Germans could develop the technology.
Good Lord, what is happening in there?
Uh... Carrots?
Carrots? At this time of night?
In this fog?
At this distance?
Localized entirely around the island of England?
...yes
May I try some?
..no
The most effective piece of propaganda in history.
Nah, that's either a whole bunch of what Rome had to say about their neighbors or the Catherine the Great is a Horse Fucker slander.
This is stupidity from 2020s realityβ¦
ohh is that why I never see rabbits with glasses?
Fun fact: carrots were invented before glasses, so the first person to eat a carrot would not have been wearing glasses
So contacts then
Super tangential but this fucks with my head so much. How people would just navigate a blurry ass world until, historically speaking, very recently.
If you're into anime look up Doctor Stone, they touch on just this early on.
And most of the first carrots would be purple
Also the first Canadian to eat a carrot
Only at night time though. He would still need his glasses during the day.
This is actually a common myth. Carrots do not affect night sight.
The reason why rabbits see so well during night is because they have radar.
Is that why their ears are so big?
Yup. One ear for search, the other is for tracking. If you boop their snoot you activate pulse doppler mode and track-while-scan.
I'm unreasonably annoyed that the carrot isn't purple
The first carrot was purple
Fellow Zeducation viewer
Sounds like big carrot agenda.
Yeah i always misplace my glasses when eating a carrot.
You know you bit into a good carrot when the crunch knocks the glasses off your head.
"+2 Perception and improved night sight? Nice !"