For Science Nerds Only

Posted by Harvey on December 15, 2012 3:00 pm

[YouTube direct link] (Viewer #777,156)

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(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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11 Responses to “For Science Nerds Only”

1. Dodsfall says:
   December 15th, 2012 at 3:46 pm

   I set a carpenter’s level on the ground today and verified that the earth is indeed flat.

2. blarg says:
   December 15th, 2012 at 4:23 pm

   that won’t tell if it’s flat, only that it’s level

3. Keln says:
   December 15th, 2012 at 4:28 pm

   Yet, in college we are told to negate “negligible effects”. Because they are negligible…

   So, this video is basically a nitpicker with a dry erase marker.

   It’s funny because the same people who produced this video also made one arguing against the universe having a purpose and used the reasoning that since humans haven’t been around for 99.99999% of the time the universe has been here, then they can be 99.99999% sure that the universe has no purpose, which they state is “almost 100 percent”.

   So in one case, they argue against disregarding negligible differences, and in another they disregard negligible differences.

4. Bob in Feenicks says:
   December 15th, 2012 at 4:56 pm

   I hope I never get behind this guy at the supermarket checkout. I can just see him demanding *exact* change from the cashier… no rounding to the nearest penny.

5. Bob Andweave says:
   December 15th, 2012 at 5:26 pm

   I agree that this is all just word games. The first thing they teach you in science is that no calculated answer can be more accurate than the least accurate measurement used in the calculation. You can not use 2 mph as a variable in a calculation and then present the answer as 3.9999999 because that is not mathematically sound.

6. jack says:
   December 15th, 2012 at 6:14 pm

   Bruce Dickinson: Easy, guys.. I put my pants on just like the rest of you — one leg at a time. Except, once my pants are on, I make gold records. [ the group laughs ] Alright, here we go. “Fear… Don’t Fear the Reaper” — take one. Roll it [ he exits into the control booth ]

   Eric Bloom: Alright! One, two, three, four…

   [ The group starts the song: "All our times have come…Here but now they're gone..." -- Bobby slaps the drums, Eric jams his guitar, and Gene lays down a really loud bass riff. ]

   Eric Bloom: [ distracted by Gene's really loud bass line. ] Okay! Wait! Wait! Stop! [ the group cuts off their instruments ] Um, Bruce, could you come in here for a minute, please?

   Bruce Dickinson: [ stepping out of the booth ] That… that was gonna be a great track. Guys, what’s the deal?

   Eric Bloom: Uh, are you sure that was sounding okay?

   Bruce Dickinson: I’ll be honest.. fellas, it was sounding great. But.. I could’ve used a little more bass. So.. let’s take it again.. and, Gene?

   Gene Frenkle: Yeah?

   Bruce Dickinson: Really explore the studio space this time.

   Gene Frenkle: You got it, Bruce.

7. Harvey says:
   December 16th, 2012 at 12:50 am

   As for negligible effects, I once – out of boredom – calculated (using Newtonian equations) how fast a gerbil would have to be traveling for it to stop the USS Enterprise (carrier, not starship) dead in the water if it were going Ahead Flank (assuming complete energy transfer with no material deformation). Came out, as I recall, to something like 100 times the speed of light.

   Gotta do something to pass the long hours at sea. And remember, this was in the days before sodomy was officially condoned and women weren’t allowed to serve aboard combatant vessels.

   For those wanting to replicate the math, the Enterprise is 90,000 tons, does 40 mph, and assume the gerbil weighs 1 ounce.

   F=mv

8. Keln says:
   December 16th, 2012 at 1:49 am

   Yeah, when I was serving on the USS Louisville (the nuclear fast attack submarine, not the paddle-wheel steamboat), I calculated how much fuel in our reactor at the current EFPH life of our core it would take to run a nuclear powered car continuously (no bathroom breaks) with the equivalent of 25 mpg for one year. The results are classified, but it doesn’t take much.

   So…yeah, we need nuclear cars.

9. Iowa Jim says:
   December 16th, 2012 at 8:50 am

   For that matter, the only way that he can know that the speed of light is exactly 300,000,000 meters per second is to be using a definition of a meter as the distance that light travels in 1/300,000,000 second, which is simply a tautology.

   It has been my fortune to know a fair number of real physicists, by which I mean people with PhDs in physics who work or have worked at a national laboratory as a physicist. They don’t talk like this twit.

10. Harvey says:
    December 16th, 2012 at 11:35 am

    @9 – To be fair, he was trying to dumb it down a bit. A lot of people out there went to public schools.

    (Myself included, but I never paid attention and just read a lot of books)

11. CarolyntheMommy says:
    December 16th, 2012 at 10:04 pm

    Ever see how some grown adults type? Too bad they don’t have one of these for English. I bet half the country doesn’t know two/to/too.

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