Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
27
Physics is a complicated topic. There's no shame in not completely understanding the black hole information paradox, for example, or the nature of dark energy and dark matter. Physicists don't fully understand these topics either.
But sometimes the misunderstandings of non-scientists can be painful to scientists, as demonstrated in a recent Reddit thread that asked "What is the worst physics take you ever heard?" Below are a few of the best/worst/most painful takes from the thread.
While introducing children to simpler models and then telling them later that's not what's really going on fundamentally is a staple of the sciences, telling children that gravity is caused by the Earth's spin is just incorrect. The spin of the Earth actually creates a centrifugal force, a slightly outwards force that causes the Earth to bulge at the equator, and you to weigh slightly less while standing there.
While if the Earth was further from the Sun it would definitely be cooler, it is not the reason why it is cooler at higher latitudes than lower ones.
"In general, the farther from the equator an area is, the colder and snowier it will be," NASA explains. "This is because higher-latitude regions receive less light and energy from the Sun than low-latitude, tropical areas."
Please somebody inform a science journal that NASCAR drivers are breaking the speed of light, it feels useful to know.
In fact, the Higgs Boson gained the nickname "the God particle" as a contraction of the "goddamn particle”, out of frustration of how darn elusive it was before its discovery.
Hollow Earth was disproved in 1774, while Aristotle realized the Earth wasn't flat in the 4th Century BCE, even setting aside how complicated it is to believe both.
Long story short, but you only feel when a force is acting upon you, not when you are in a state of inertia. Unfortunately, according to the Internet, professors are not immune.
Frightening.
