Which of the following statements about virtual functions is false? They allow the program to select the correct implementation at execution time. They do not remain virtual down the inheritance hierarchy. They can be called using the dot operator. They can use either static or dynamic binding, depending on the handles on which the functions are called.

Virtual functions are a cornerstone of polymorphism in object-oriented programming, allowing methods to be overridden in derived classes for dynamic binding at runtime. This means the actual method that gets executed is determined by the object's type, not the type of reference or pointer. One common misconception is regarding their behavior down the inheritance hierarchy; once a function is declared as virtual in a base class, it remains virtual regardless of how deep you go in the inheritance tree. This means you can always expect dynamic dispatch for that function when called on derived class instances!