I've been calling it 'fool's gold' for years, but a kid at the rock show last weekend corrected me and I feel dumb lol

I volunteer at our town's annual gem and mineral show, and I was showing a bunch of pyrite samples to a group. I kept saying 'and this shiny one is called fool's gold.' This 10-year-old kid just looks at me and goes, 'My book says it's iron sulfide.' He was totally right, I was just using the nickname like it was the real thing. It's pyrite or iron sulfide, not fool's gold. That's just what people call it when they don't know better. Kinda ironic, huh? Has anyone else had a basic geology term they realized they've been saying wrong forever?

3 comments

3 Comments

hall.jenny9d ago

My friend’s geology professor called it “schist” wrong for an entire semester.

richard_young809d ago

That's brutal, but honestly not even the worst I've heard. Had a bio teacher in high school who kept saying "melee-osis" instead of meiosis. Whole class just gave up correcting him after week two.

the_faith8d ago

Wait, he kept saying "melee-osis" like a video game fight? How did he even get through the textbook readings out loud without catching it?