science! – Delicious Fish

socialjusticebard:

mr-muppetface:

darlos9d:

zedrin-maybe:

fencehopping:

Physics.

Mythbusters fire a soccer ball at 50mph out of a cannon on a truck driving at 50mph in the opposite direction.

while this looks cool and all, what, were people expecting something different?

Velocities are vectors. They’re cumulative. If you are moving at 50 mph and toss something 50mph relative to your speed in the opposite direction, of course they’re gonna cancel out.

I’m not going to be able to beat that image response, but I do want to speak to the “how do you people not know this?” attitude that I see a fair bit, especially on Tumblr. I tried to get at this a little in my recent post about black holes.

Knowledge isn’t, and shouldn’t ever be, an insiders-only club. Everyone starts in a place of not knowing how things work. It might be obvious to someone who’s taken a physics class or two that velocity is a vector, but not everyone has had that opportunity. Hell, not everyone knows what a vector is. Looking down your nose at people who don’t (yet) understand something is elitist and discouraging, not welcoming.

Every time you post an all-caps rant at people who don’t understand physics, every time you call people names for not understanding something, every time you cock your eyebrow and say, “How do you not know this already?” or “Of course it’s like this, duh,” you’re saying there’s something wrong or mockable about a state of ignorance, when it’s a state we all experience. I have a degree in sociology and could probably excitedly talk theory for hours—but there was a time when I didn’t even know what sociology was.

What might seem utterly obvious for you is not for other people. Rather than mocking, ridiculing, or just being snarky, seize that opportunity. Nurture that sense of wonder and discovery around you instead of crushing it underfoot.

As someone who majored in rocket science, I will personally come to your house and track mud into it and eat all your food and spill coffee on your couches if you mock someone for not knowing physics. Im convinced you don’t really know or care about physics until you’re excited to help others learn it. Or at least excited to see someone else learning something new. If physics knowledge is just a way for you to one-up someone, you’re not putting that knowledge to good use anyway and you should just stop and get out. Don’t do that.

Passions are for sharing!

I’m a nuclear chemist and even though I’m pretty dregged after doing my PhD, if someone doesn’t know something in my area of expertise? Damn right their getting an impromptu seminar.

And also, audience is a key thing.

Mythbusters is great cos they teach and challenge what “everyone knows” and they do it in a way that’s accessible for me, with loads of scientific knowledge (but I’ve never done much on vectors tbh!) to someone who’s last science experience was a boring school lesson.