In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a high-school student presented his science fair project to 50 of his classmates. Nathan presented “Di-hydrogen Monoxide: The Unrecognized Killer”.

Throughout his presentation, Zohner provided his audience scientifically correct evidence as to why this chemical should be banned:

• In gaseous form, it can cause severe burns.
• accelerates the corrosion and rusting of many metals.
• major component of acid rain, and has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.
• for those who have developed a dependency on this chemical, complete withdrawal means certain death.

He then asked his classmates, if they actually wanted to ban di-hydrogen monoxide (DHMO).

And so, 43 out of the 50 children present voted to ban this clearly toxic chemical.

Seems like an open-and-shut case — until you realize that this chemical compound is plain Water.

All of the points that Zohner used to convey his point were 100% factually correct; he just skewed all of the information in his favour by omitting certain facts.

Since then the term “Zohnerism” refers to “the use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion”.