More random thoughts on science and stuff
I sometimes wonder why people so often don't understand things that I'm sure they are capable of understanding. Why they know how to solve some problem in an Algebra class, but ask them how to do the same thing in a Computer Science class and they have no idea what you even want them to do. Why they can see and understand a proof and still insist that the thing that has just been proved cannot possibly be true. The answer is here, in this video, in a few words around 2:45. "In real life, and in Physics". That just about sums it up.
A little earlier a bunch of people seem to believe that "in real life" one of the tho objects is heavier so there must be more gravitational force acting on it, but "in physics" the force is the same. This is exactly what is wrong with how people learn. They think of science as something totally unrelated to real life. They know that Mathematics can prove that 0,999...=1 and they understand the proof, because, really, it's pretty damn simple. Most of my class understood it in second grade and they were not all geniuses. But they will still insist that this is somehow not the case "in real life" because "different numbers are not the same number". They vaguely remember someone telling them that (in Physics) the two objects will hit the ground at the same moment and based on that they guess that the force must be the same. The fact that reality obviously contradicts this doesn't matter. It's just reality. And not Physics.
Now, of course our knowledge of Physics is not perfect. There are things we can't explain and there are things we can explain in too many different ways and we don't know which one is right. This is why research is still a thing. But the entire point of Physics is not to blatantly contradict reality. When we find a contradiction, we try to come up with a new model, a new set of rules in which the contradiction does not show up. Physics as we understand it may not be exactly the same as reality, but it tries to model it as closely as possible. It's the whole point.
Basically the whole point of every science is to describe real life and, aside from the new theories we still aren't entirely sure of*, it does a pretty good job. If vitamins are good for you in Medicine, they're just as good for you in real life. If things fall to the ground in Physics, they also do that in reality. If the stars are far away in Astronomy, they aren't any closer in the real world. If something has been proved in Mathematics, it is really true.
For the same reason, if something is true in one branch of science, it must be true in all others. The mass of a proton is the same in Physics as it is in Chemistry. Two plus two still equals four in Economics. The speed of light is the same in Astronomy as in Physics. And so on. It's all connected. In real life.
Maybe I should start a "random thoughts on science" blog?
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* But we're working on it, just give us a little more time.
A little earlier a bunch of people seem to believe that "in real life" one of the tho objects is heavier so there must be more gravitational force acting on it, but "in physics" the force is the same. This is exactly what is wrong with how people learn. They think of science as something totally unrelated to real life. They know that Mathematics can prove that 0,999...=1 and they understand the proof, because, really, it's pretty damn simple. Most of my class understood it in second grade and they were not all geniuses. But they will still insist that this is somehow not the case "in real life" because "different numbers are not the same number". They vaguely remember someone telling them that (in Physics) the two objects will hit the ground at the same moment and based on that they guess that the force must be the same. The fact that reality obviously contradicts this doesn't matter. It's just reality. And not Physics.
Now, of course our knowledge of Physics is not perfect. There are things we can't explain and there are things we can explain in too many different ways and we don't know which one is right. This is why research is still a thing. But the entire point of Physics is not to blatantly contradict reality. When we find a contradiction, we try to come up with a new model, a new set of rules in which the contradiction does not show up. Physics as we understand it may not be exactly the same as reality, but it tries to model it as closely as possible. It's the whole point.
Basically the whole point of every science is to describe real life and, aside from the new theories we still aren't entirely sure of*, it does a pretty good job. If vitamins are good for you in Medicine, they're just as good for you in real life. If things fall to the ground in Physics, they also do that in reality. If the stars are far away in Astronomy, they aren't any closer in the real world. If something has been proved in Mathematics, it is really true.
For the same reason, if something is true in one branch of science, it must be true in all others. The mass of a proton is the same in Physics as it is in Chemistry. Two plus two still equals four in Economics. The speed of light is the same in Astronomy as in Physics. And so on. It's all connected. In real life.
Maybe I should start a "random thoughts on science" blog?
_______________________________________
* But we're working on it, just give us a little more time.