'Obvious' theorems that are actually false
It's one of my real analysis professor's favourite sayings that "being obvious does not imply that it's true".
Now, I know a fair few examples of things that are obviously true and that can be proved to be true (like the Jordan curve theorem).
But what are some theorems (preferably short ones) which, when put into layman's terms, the average person would claim to be true, but, which, actually, are false (i.e. counter-intuitively-false theorems)?
The only ones that spring to my mind are the Monty Hall problem and the divergence of $\sum\limits_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{n}$ (counter-intuitive for me, at least, since $\frac{1}{n} \to 0$ ).
I suppose, also, that $$\lim\limits_{n \to \infty}\left(1+\frac{1}{n}\right)^n = e=\sum\limits_{n=0}^{\infty}\frac{1}{n!}$$ is not obvious, since one 'expects' that $\left(1+\frac{1}{n}\right)^n \to (1+0)^n=1$.
I'm looking just for theorems and not their (dis)proof -- I'm happy to research that myself.
Thanks!
Theorem (false):
One can arbitrarily rearrange the terms in a convergent series without changing its value.
A shape with finite volume must have finite surface area.
I wish I'd thought of this yesterday, when the question was fresh, because it's astounding. Suppose $A$ and $B$ are playing the following game: $A$ chooses two different numbers, via some method not known to $B$, writes them on slips of paper, and puts the slips in a hat.
$B$ draws one of the slips at random and examines its number. She then predicts whether it is the larger of the two numbers.
If $B$ simply flips a coin to decide her prediction, she will be correct half the time.
Obviously, there is no method that can do better than the coin flip.
But there is such a method, described in Thomas M. Cover “Pick the largest number”Open Problems in Communication and Computation Springer-Verlag, 1987, p152.
which I described briefly here, and in detail here.