The truth about centipedes & millipedes - I only just found out (last week)

I seriously did think that centipedes had 100 legs and millipedes had 1,000,000 legs.
And I only found out last week w/c 30th April 2012, that this was not true, and I was very disappointed.

• Why didn't I know this until last week?

• Why didn't anyone tell me?

Millipedes and centipedes were mentioned because there's a few knocking around the allotment, I don't touch them, they make me cringe.

Even wikipedia says a millipede doesn't have 1,000 legs...Hang on, 1,000 legs? That's not right, the clue's in the name, millipede = million.  And the stuff about centipedes says they have between 20-300, so why call them a centipede??

Millipede information on wikipedia
Centipede information on wikipedia

How old were you when you found out?