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do you know science?

R

RichD

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have these little quiz problems, intended for Joe Sixpack,
to delve their beliefs about basic science. I've posted some here.

So, "drinking through a straw, how does that work?"
"well, you suck in the liquid, duh!"
"yeah, but what makes the liquid go up the straw?"
"you suck it in, obviously!"
"This sucking thing - is that like a pressure differential,
outside air pressure pushes it?"
"No, air pressure isn't enough, you have tio PULL it!"

They don't get it. They sort of understand respiration -
atmospheric pressure pushes air into your lungs - but
that clearly doesn't explain the straw; water is too
dense, air pressure can't push that!

Similarly with a vacuum cleaner, the machine PULLS the air..

It's an example of the First Law, the Law of Mind Boggle:
if you can't imagine something, it can't be true.

Try it on your friends and business associates -
 
F

Frank

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have these little quiz problems, intended for Joe Sixpack,
to delve their beliefs about basic science. I've posted some here.

So, "drinking through a straw, how does that work?"
"well, you suck in the liquid, duh!"
"yeah, but what makes the liquid go up the straw?"
"you suck it in, obviously!"
"This sucking thing - is that like a pressure differential,
outside air pressure pushes it?"
"No, air pressure isn't enough, you have tio PULL it!"

They don't get it. They sort of understand respiration -
atmospheric pressure pushes air into your lungs - but
that clearly doesn't explain the straw; water is too
dense, air pressure can't push that!

Similarly with a vacuum cleaner, the machine PULLS the air..

It's an example of the First Law, the Law of Mind Boggle:
if you can't imagine something, it can't be true.

Try it on your friends and business associates -

I like to compare with functional illiteracy which can be 20% in the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy

Not sure what term would apply to knowledge of science but would think
scientific illiteracy would be considerably higher.

I get concerned when teachers teach my granddaughter the evils of man
made global warming or advantages of electric cars before she has even
had a basic science course.
 
A

anticlockwise

Jan 1, 1970
0
I like to compare with functional illiteracy which can be 20% in the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy

Sorry, that doesn't even begin to address the real issue. Here's a
web page that does:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

Even the functionally literate are often unskilled and unaware of it.
These newsgroups are well known for that sort.
Not sure what term would apply to knowledge of science but would think
scientific illiteracy would be considerably higher.

Dream on.
I get concerned when teachers teach my granddaughter the evils of man
made global warming or advantages of electric cars before she has even
had a basic science course.

For the past ~50 years educators have thought social sciences to be
far more important than the hard sciences. In fact they've come to
believe that because you can fake the former, you can just as easily
fake the latter. And you can see it in postings here as well. That vile
evil grows as silently as any cancer.
 
D

DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

Jan 1, 1970
0
These newsgroups are well known for that sort.


We can start with you, and your abjectly ignorant Zimmerman Complex
Disorder, which you just made a perfect display of.
 
B

benj

Jan 1, 1970
0
I like to compare with functional illiteracy which can be 20% in the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy

Not sure what term would apply to knowledge of science but would think
scientific illiteracy would be considerably higher.

Sure just look here at all the people who call everyone else "morons" but
when cornered can't handle a simple high school science problem.
I get concerned when teachers teach my granddaughter the evils of man
made global warming or advantages of electric cars before she has even
had a basic science course.

As well you should be concerned given that the schools are substituting
politics and political propaganda for science. I'm sure you know that
"education majors" are the bottom of the barrel in any college in spite
of all the media adulation over how wonderful and dedicated and giving
they all are. No greater admiration and praise in the media is ever found
except when speaking of themselves!

And physical science has always been a major mystery to school teachers
and no wonder. Do they take physics like all the other majors have to?
Nay. They get to take "physics appreciation" which is physics with all
the math stripped out so some of them can pass! I remember when I was a
kid in school wading through our stupid science book learning the names
of flower parts and frog organs. I couldn't wait to get to the back of
that book where the physical science stuff was. Well too bad! When we
finally got there the teacher just skipped it all! At the time I didn't
realize it was because none were competent to understand or teach it. I
learned that later.

So maybe there are Nobel prize winners in your town and maybe they are
even civic minded enough to help with a few science classes. Well,
fergeddaboutit. They are not ALLOWED to teach science because they aren't
"qualified". They haven't been trained on HOW to teach and jumped through
the bureaucratic hoops. But what if some government bureaucrat does his
"duty" by showing up to thump the AGW bible and extol the benefits of
ending civilization as we know it with a huge energy (euphemistically
called "carbon") tax, well, no qualifications needed for brainwashing and
indoctrination of children.

So you might as well get it though your head now, your granddaughter is
NEVER going to get a "science course" in a public school unless it's some
huge big city school. And even then it's a throw of the dice.

And why not? The problem is YOU! Pervert school administrators abuse
children, scare them to death, and ruin their lives over nonsense like
pointing a chicken leg and saying "bang" or eating a pop tart into a gun
shape. They haul them off in handcuffs to meet Bubba in jail and give
them records that make sure they spend their lives flipping burgers. And
yet nobody speaks up for the children. Nobody says these perverts need to
be not only FIRED but also sued and lose their houses RIGHT NOW! Nobody
and that includes YOU ever says a peep.

So until you stand up at a school board meeting and DEMAND thats these
perverts be fired, then just shut up like a good little sheeple.
 
A

anticlockwise

Jan 1, 1970
0
On 5/24/2013 7:44 PM, anticlockwise wrote:
On 5/24/2013 7:44 PM, anticlockwise wrote:

For the past ~5000 years governments need loyal people more then skilled
people. Indoctrination is and always was #1 task of education.

That depends on who was paying for the education.
What are you protesting against?

I made some statements of fact. Where did the "protest" question
come from?
 
B

benj

Jan 1, 1970
0
Here's one for you...

How does the sap get to the top of trees taller than about thirty two
feet (the height of a column of "sap" supported by normal atmospheric
pressure)? Does something "suck" it up? :)

Yeah trees have to "suck it up" these days!

This is a question I bet few here know the answer to let alone how sap is
pumped ANY vertical distance let alone more than 32 feet. Hint. It's
electrical.
 
R

Robert Baer

Jan 1, 1970
0
Frank said:
I like to compare with functional illiteracy which can be 20% in the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy

Not sure what term would apply to knowledge of science but would think
scientific illiteracy would be considerably higher.

I get concerned when teachers teach my granddaughter the evils of man
made global warming or advantages of electric cars before she has even
had a basic science course.
Advantage(s) of electric cars: they plainly increase air and thermal
pollution (a) requires more coal to be burned for the extra electrical
power guzzled (b) adds extra energy wasting step to move that hunk of iron.
 
B

benj

Jan 1, 1970
0
Frank wrote:

Obviously "GREEN" illiteracy is the highest of all!

Advantage(s) of electric cars: they plainly increase air and thermal
pollution (a) requires more coal to be burned for the extra electrical
power guzzled (b) adds extra energy wasting step to move that hunk of
iron.

Advantage of electric cars is that they move CO2 production from
individual autos (harder to measure and tax) to several central CO2
belching locations making taxation much easier to compute.

It makes no difference if that produces more CO2 than the other way or if
burning coal belches out heavy metals and all manner of other dire
pollutions because the goal isn't clean air but trillions of dollars. Get
the picture?
 
B

benj

Jan 1, 1970
0
The process is called "capillary", which all by itself has that
theoretical limit.
Remember, bees theoretically cannot fly.

Actually capillarity is only a small part of the picture. The basic tree
question, however has a very simple answer not dependent upon pumping
methodology.

Actually it's "bumble bees" not "bees" and that simply shows that theory
that doesn't agree with reality is bullshit. Math is NOT more real than
reality.

Where are all those mensa brains? They know everything. How does sap get
up those trees?
 
F

Frank

Jan 1, 1970
0
Obviously "GREEN" illiteracy is the highest of all!

Advantage(s) of electric cars: they plainly increase air and thermal

Advantage of electric cars is that they move CO2 production from
individual autos (harder to measure and tax) to several central CO2
belching locations making taxation much easier to compute.

It makes no difference if that produces more CO2 than the other way or if
burning coal belches out heavy metals and all manner of other dire
pollutions because the goal isn't clean air but trillions of dollars. Get
the picture?

Could be a whole new thread. There are scientists, particularly in
academia, that push the green thing without factoring in the unintended
consequences.

Nice thing about spending most of my career in industry was having to
know all of the consequences of manufacturing a new invention. Profit
was the bottom line and you had to consider everything including cost of
producing a clean product and its environmental effect. If there was no
good bottom line, you would not make the product.

The political scientists running everything these days should stick to
politics. They sure ain't scientists.
 
R

Robert Baer

Jan 1, 1970
0
benj said:
Yeah trees have to "suck it up" these days!

This is a question I bet few here know the answer to let alone how sap is
pumped ANY vertical distance let alone more than 32 feet. Hint. It's
electrical.
The process is called "capillary", wich all by itself has that
theoretical limit.
Remember, bees theoretically cannot fly.
 
M

Mahipal

Jan 1, 1970
0
Venturi Tube fluid mechanics...

I cannot imagine having read that true law.

No one can even spell Usenet let alone pronounce it. So, not well
known at all.

Interesting dilemma you have there with your grandkids. Any advice?

"I fight Stupidity and Stupidity always wins." John Cougar Mellencamp
born October 7, 1951 and he might have used the string "Authority" in
the audio realm.
This problem is everywhere.  Most people live seem to live in a
fantasy-world in which their unknown unknowns are of precisely zero
importance, and therefore obviously cannot affect their competence,
reasoning, or decision-making ability in any way whatsoever.  The
problem is masked somewhat by the phenomenon of Orwellian stopthink,
and also by the mutual reinforcement of memes and values within
insular populations.

Pop culture has a lot to answer for.

Regards,

Uncle Steve

--
There should be a special word in the English language to identify
people who create problems and then turn around and offer up their own
tailor-made bogus non-solutions designed to completely avoid the root
causes of the situation under consideration.  'Traitor' might be a
good choice, but lacks the requisite specificity.  One of the problems
with contemporary English is it lacks many such words that would
otherwise categorically identify certain kinds of person, place, or
thing -- making it difficult or impossible to think analytically about
such objects.  These shortcomings of the English lexicon are
representative of Orwellian linguistics at work in the real world.

What is the longest word or the longest human name in Gaelic?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup since "The Sap also rises"
but only in feet, never in meters, and only this high.

-- Mahipal
 
D

DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

Jan 1, 1970
0
That all depends on the rope's state of mind. If frozen...


If frozen, one is "pushing" a composite structure, not merely "a rope".
 
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