Scientific and mathematical inaccuracies, misconceptions and errors that get under your skin

[ProtoChimp]

"Evolution is just your opinion"

>.<

Oh boy, tell me about it. I actually explained to a guy (in slow, easy steps, of course) how natural selection works. His reply was that God made the world perfect, therefore God steps in all the time to stop the process of natural selection. There are some folks who just can't be helped.

1) One of my big ones is photo enhancement as shown on TV. I've done photo enhancement. You can do a lot but you cannot extract detail that is not present in the image. Characters on procedural shows are routinely depicted extracting mugshot-quality portraits from images so grainy and indistinct you can barely tell they are of people. I even saw one episode where they digitally turned a guy's head so they could see his face! His back was to the camera, meaning no image could have been captured in any way, but they got a picture of sufficient quality to issue a warrant!

To a lesser extent, all TV science bugs me: people surviving explosions by leaping away, computer hacking depicted as if it were a video game, adding the word DNA to make things sound complicated, explosions made of slowly rolling blobs of fire, that sort of thing.

2) The idea that science and religion are mutually exclusive and diametrically opposed, like it's a boxing match and only one of them can leave the ring with the title.

Science is about rational facts. Religion is about irrational truth. They've got little if anything to do with each other. Science isn't out to kill God. Science doesn't care whether people believe or not. Religion cannot destroy science because it's awful hard to deny the viability of a system that has proven itself by giving us electricity, cars, jumbo jets, and cable TV.

People like to point to cell phones, modern medicine, and other inventions as representing the triumph of science. Yet the majority of people still believe in a supreme being. The church I drive past every morning on my way to work is packed to capacity on Sundays. Continuing the sports analogy, it's more like science is boxing and religion is, I dunno, water polo or something. There's simply no way they could ever interfere with each other.

3) People who don't know basic units of measurement, e.g. how many pints are in a gallon, bug the shit out of me. I would advocate going metric as a solution, but how could people ever be made to understand another system when they can't handle the system they were raised on?

4) People who can't do simple math. These folks need to die. There is no excuse, none, for not being able to figure out how many times 17 goes into 4913. I have worked around people who could not do basic addition and subtraction. I learned that shit in the first grade and built on it almost daily for the next twelve years. Where was everyone else??

I have an excuse for number 3, I was never taught units of measure ever. Or what verbs and pronouns and the terms of words like that. In fact I've only just learned them. I'm now 18. [sub]I hate my primary school [/sub]

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Gambler's fallacy is one that annoys me quite a bit. We like to call it Role-player's fallacy actually, after those times when you're convinced the universe owes you a natural twenty after an hour of nothing higher than a four, even though you know low rolls are random and owe you nothing.

Oh dear lord, do my gamers ever pull this. It's amazing how quickly they can turn from rational scientific minds to promoters of ritual superstition.

It's complete ridiculous poppycock.

However, keeping your D20s 20 side up so that the weight will slowly shift to the lower side of the die is a completely understandable and logical habit. I will not hear any dismissals of my logic.

OT: People equating energy(science) to energy(woo). The amount of pseudoscience that has been with that is painful to see.

OR, you could melt the die to shift the mass of it to the rear of the 20 side
Assuming your die is meltable

 

[Vivi22]

3) People who don't know basic units of measurement, e.g. how many pints are in a gallon, bug the shit out of me. I would advocate going metric as a solution, but how could people ever be made to understand another system when they can't handle the system they were raised on?

To be fair on this one, the metric system at least follows the same logic as our base ten number system and should be easier to understand by extension. People would still need to remember the names of each unit like anything else, but there's at least a logic to it.

I'm terrible with the imperial system because it seems so haphazardly thrown together. Plus I'm Canadian and was only formally taught the metric system. Despite both of these, I still regularly use pounds for weight, and inches and feet for short distances.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Weird how everyone is saying stuff to do with evolution. I don't think I've ever met someone who's denied evolution's existence.

2) The idea that science and religion are mutually exclusive and diametrically opposed, like it's a boxing match and only one of them can leave the ring with the title.

Agreed.
but,

3) People who don't know basic units of measurement, e.g. how many pints are in a gallon, bug the shit out of me. I would advocate going metric as a solution, but how could people ever be made to understand another system when they can't handle the system they were raised on?

4) People who can't do simple math. These folks need to die. There is no excuse, none, for not being able to figure out how many times 17 goes into 4913. I have worked around people who could not do basic addition and subtraction. I learned that shit in the first grade and built on it almost daily for the next twelve years. Where was everyone else??

Really? I live in the UK and I don't know how many pints are in a gallon. I've probably been told but I'll always forgot a system that needlessly complicated. Metric triumphs all, that's what I always try to use if I can.
As for the maths thing. Wow, chill out. Actually, I'm doing A Level maths but not properly learning how to do division like that was always one of my secret shames. I kinda understand your point there, but with languages. Pisses me off how stubborn people in this country can be about not learning other languages. In some ways it's almost arrogant because they expect everyone they meet to be able to speak their language. Maybe they would if they never wanted to go out and discover the world. This is not really relevant to the topic though.

Global Warming is completely man made and IS KILLING THE ENVIRONMENT AND WE ARE ALL HORRIBLE PEOPLE FOR PRODUCING CARBON DIOXIDE AND SUFFOCATING MOTHER EARTH!

Except Global Warming is a natural process that's been going on for millions of years

This really really bugs me too. I also really hate the idea that people have that the Earth is screwed and that it's all our fault. I'm trying to read a book called "The Sceptical Environmentalist" which talks about something along these lines, although I haven't gotten far.

People incorrectly giving the definition of schizophrenia is a minor annoyance.

 

[Iron Criterion]

I dislike the whole notion of "Planet X cannot sustain carbon or silicon based life, therefore life can not conceivably exist here."

That seems stupid to me, because evolution shows us that life can flourish almost everywhere and anywhere, even in hostile environments lacking basic requirements.

Anyway this debate is of course dependent on whether aliens exist. Which leads me to my other pet hate - The Fermi Paradox.

 

[C. Cain]

OK, what the fuck? Thermodynamics and evolution? Where the fuck do you find someone who manage to mix those two? I hope that was a troll.

Well, someone else already answered this, but I feel compelled to say something anyway.
It is indeed a common argument among creationists. And for their standards it's not even far fetched. It boggles the mind.

 

[MasterJuice]

In space, when the engine stops the ships stops for some reason... This makes me RAGE. I mean, when a freaking video game series with the worst ending ever is telling people off about this, you know you suck at science! I don't have the video but it is the ME2 one with the drill instructor telling people about sir Isaac Newton.

This does depend on how the ship is moving in the first place. In Firefly, for example, they have a technobabble that makes the ship and everything on it appear to have no mass to the rest of the universe, allowing them to move at great speeds with very little force. When the technobabble engine dies (as in Out of Gas), the ship regains all its mass relative to the rest of the universe, and the tiny amount of force that had been pushing it is suddenly insufficient.

This "works" *cough* because, for a mass-less object, F=ma breaks down if m = 0, but, if the mass returns, something something and you stop.

Actually, this is still a bad explanation for a ship to stop moving in space. The technobabble may work to explain how they get the ship to start and stop without using much force, but once the ship is moving at a constant speed, force and acceleration become zero. Changing the mass no longer matters, because anything multiplied by zero is still zero.

 

[dvd_72]

In space, when the engine stops the ships stops for some reason... This makes me RAGE. I mean, when a freaking video game series with the worst ending ever is telling people off about this, you know you suck at science! I don't have the video but it is the ME2 one with the drill instructor telling people about sir Isaac Newton.

This does depend on how the ship is moving in the first place. In Firefly, for example, they have a technobabble that makes the ship and everything on it appear to have no mass to the rest of the universe, allowing them to move at great speeds with very little force. When the technobabble engine dies (as in Out of Gas), the ship regains all its mass relative to the rest of the universe, and the tiny amount of force that had been pushing it is suddenly insufficient.

This "works" *cough* because, for a mass-less object, F=ma breaks down if m = 0, but, if the mass returns, something something and you stop.

Actually, this is still a bad explanation for a ship to stop moving in space. The technobabble may work to explain how they get the ship to start and stop without using much force, but once the ship is moving at a constant speed, force and acceleration become zero. Changing the mass no longer matters, because anything multiplied by zero is still zero.

Yes, but the ships kinetic energy is dependent on its mass. E(kinetic) = (1/2)mv^2 With near 0 mass something with a moderate velocity has a high kinetic energy, but something with the same kinetic energy and a larger mass would have a much lower velocity.

This is all assuming that by reducing the mass you're not... reducing the mass? science fiction mumbo jumbo!

 

[SciMal]

11) "Ancient" or natural cures for anything (especially herbal supplements). Yeah, sometimes people stumbled upon stuff. That's how we discovered aspirin. However, our ancestors also drank Mercury and shit on the walls of their buildings.

An entire thread devoted to inaccuracies, broad, sweeping generalisations, myths, misconceptions and general ignorance....

And you post that.

Cue me disregarding an otherwise decent argument.

Drinking Mercury generally precludes people from having descendants, as does poor personal hygiene.

No offense, but you're wrong.

Mercury isn't safe, and can cause sterility, but it's not instantly deadly. Hatters were, in part, driven mad because of chronic Mercury exposure in their craft and helped coin the term "Mad as a Hatter". Chinese women sometimes drank it as an abortifact. This is also assuming that the person didn't start drinking after they had kids.

And poor personal hygiene doesn't prevent you from having kids. It does, however, severely reduce your life expectancy. If it outright resulted in death and the preclusion of the next generation, all of the graffitti we've found in Pompeii where people marked where they shit on the walls was apparently a suicide note.

 

[LetalisK]

Misconception due to lack of science, or even logic: many common sense sayings are not only false, but have another common sense saying that directly contradicts it.

For one specifically, "Opposites attract", usually in reference to relationships. Not only does it have a contradiction with "Birds of a feather flock together", but it's just fucking wrong. You're more likely to be attracted to someone who has similar traits than not.

For nutrition, it's always bugged me about the myth that you need a ridiculous amount of protein the moment after working out. No, you need around 9 grams initially, because that's all your body is capable of processing in an hour, so chugging down 50 grams of whey right after a workout isn't really doing anything extra. Spreading it out is fine. Maybe this is why you see so many more efficient whey/casein blend proteins popping up nowadays.

 

[BOOM headshot65]

Global Warming is completely man made and IS KILLING THE ENVIRONMENT AND WE ARE ALL HORRIBLE PEOPLE FOR PRODUCING CARBON DIOXIDE AND SUFFOCATING MOTHER EARTH!

Except Global Warming is a natural process that's been going on for millions of years (it's actually a cycle - Ice Age, global warming melts the ice, Earth begins to warm, Earth get's too hot from global warming, Ice caps melt dumping cold water into the Undersea Currents, Earth begins to cooldown, Ice Age, Global warming melts ice, etc, etc...); yes, humans are adding to Global Warming with the bi-product of our industries, but we'll probably only end up making the next Ice Age occur 50ish years quicker then normal (remember, these things are 50,000+ years between one another). Human Contribution to global warming is... piss all, really.

Another thing is that 'Humans are killing the world' - no. Even if we did our best (short of burning off the atmosphere - as in ALL OF IT -, Destroying the magnetic field or stopping the planet from spinning/orbiting) to kill the planet, the tough mother-fucker will just bounce back. This is a planet that turns into a giant fucking ice-cube on occasion, people! A little pollution means jack shit to it! IT'S A BIG PLANET, IT CAN HANDLE ITSELF (hell, the biggest worry about Radioactive waste isn't if it'll harm the environment, but how we can label it correctly so that future generations don't think it's filled with liquid gold or angel farts or some bullshit).

There's also another retarded theory I heard about how the tectonic plates were moving... up and down. And not just at the edges either - like literally lifting up and down, the entire plate moving as a single, solid object instead of the uneven 'up/down' sections can occasionally have (I think it's called 'crumpling' or something - kinda how you get hills and mountains in areas without any contact zones). The geologist within me cried a horrible, broken cry after hearing that theory. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LEARN HOW THE FUCKING EARTH WORKS BEFORE THEY START SAYING SHIT ABOUT IT???? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????????????????

So very much this. I have no problem with going green for the sake of going green, but it pisses me off to no end when people are like "ZOMG, IF WE DONT START DRIVING ELECTRIC CARS, THE WORLD IS GOING TO CATCH ON FIRE!!" I have no problem with changing our ways, but I think alot of what people are trying to get us to do right now are ineffective or in some cases may actually be MORE damage to the enviornment (there is one of the latter that people are trying to do in my state). I know of one peice of tech that is still about 5 years from being done that when completed will convert CO2 into Gasoline/diesel/jet fuel using hydrogen and solar energy. When that gets done, I say we can effectively kiss gas problems AND pollution problems goodby.

 

[Ascarus]

1)
3) Evolution is just a "theory". Ya know, like Gravity.

Basically one of the highest compliments you can give something in this field is to call it a theory. that means its widely acknowledged and accepted and can help further our knowledge of the world because it gives us a place to start.

Did that make any sense? He worded it alot better but it was a few weeks ago and I was laughing too hard to really remember what he said in specifics

yep. we call it a theory because it is testable.

for example, while general relativity provides robust evidence for gravity, relativity breaks down at the extremes (the very, very small, the very, very fast, etc.). as such, until we can describe gravity at all levels it is "only" a theory. same can be said for evolution. yes there is a mountain of evidence supporting it and there aren't any better explanations, but we call it a theory because we can continue to test it.

 

[Wintermoot]

"Evolution is just your opinion"

>.<

"evolution is just a theory"
also
"you only use X% of your brain"

 

[Ascarus]

yes, humans are adding to Global Warming with the bi-product of our industries, but we'll probably only end up making the next Ice Age occur 50ish years quicker then normal (remember, these things are 50,000+ years between one another). Human Contribution to global warming is... piss all, really.

source?

So very much this. I have no problem with going green for the sake of going green, but it pisses me off to no end when people are like "ZOMG, IF WE DONT START DRIVING ELECTRIC CARS, THE WORLD IS GOING TO CATCH ON FIRE!!" I have no problem with changing our ways, but I think alot of what people are trying to get us to do right now are ineffective or in some cases may actually be MORE damage to the enviornment (there is one of the latter that people are trying to do in my state).

i have to ask that if the only result of our actions to green the planet in the end only makes the planet healthier for future generations, is that really a bad thing?

I know of one peice of tech that is still about 5 years from being done that when completed will convert CO2 into Gasoline/diesel/jet fuel using hydrogen and solar energy. When that gets done, I say we can effectively kiss gas problems AND pollution problems goodby.

source?

 

[Shifty]

Engineering - Working with my American colleagues from here (I'm Irish) and having to switch units of measurement from metric to imperial and back. Nothing against the Americans just the fact that there are two units of measurement for the same fucking thing. Can we not just pick a unit and stick with it.
Actually generally the engineers and designers are cool on both sides, its the management who refuse to try and understand anything that they were not taught when they were six..again on both sides. Please please please older stuck in your ways people, try and get your head around a slightly different way of thinking about the same thing.

Turns out the results are the same anyway. If shit is going to go bust its going to go bust no matter how you quantify it.

 

[TwiZtah]

Calories in minus calories out = change in body mass.

Aside from never actually predicting weight gain or loss with any degree of accuracy, it ignores little things like the mechanisms by which the body actually stores or burns body fat. Just an oversimplification of a complex biological process and one with no basis in good science.

Not to mention the formula is inherently ridiculous. A change in energy equals a change in mass? Seriously now?

Is there any other way to change your body mass? If i eat more calories than what I use in a day, I will gain weight, if I eat less, I will lose weight. Are you contradicting this?