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

[SciMal]

'No offense, but' is a big red flag for a douchey post, so I nearly didn't respond to that.

Most of the time, yes, but that wasn't one of those times. It was just a case of misinformation, and I honestly meant no offense since the issue could be summed up with the introduction of easily verifiable facts.

Are you completely unaware of irony?

The use of words for something other than their literal intention. Now THAT is irony! ;-)

OF COURSE Mercury is poisonous! It's a heavy metal! Even if you don't die, you soon will, of course I know that! Christ.

What I took issue with was your assertion that our ancestors drank it like Coke.

Ah, but I didn't. I implied they took it to cure or treat something, like herbal supplements and homeopathic "medicine" are used today.

From your off hand dismissal of 'our ancestors' it seemed like it was time to start fighting back against what I perceived to be a gross misrepresentation of the past. Your post didn't qualify the above historical examples, which fair play, sound reasonable, though I would like you to post your sources on that.
There's a LOT of graffitti in Pompeii- most of giving valuable insights into the Roman city's underbelly.

Etymology of the phrase "Mad as a Hatter" is easy enough to look up, as is the abortefact use ("quicksilver" was even included in recipes for Chinese "Divine Elixirs": http://www.goldenelixir.com/jindan/texts_taiqing_methods.html ). While there is a lot of graffitti in Pompeii (most of it hilariously similar to modern graffitti), a portion of it is pretty much "I took a dump on this wall" and "Curse anyone who takes a dump on this wall."

Anyway, I've made my point that you misunderstood my post completely, it happens.

Actually, I think you misunderstood my post. As you said though, no worries - it happens.

 

[Boba Frag]

'No offense, but' is a big red flag for a douchey post, so I nearly didn't respond to that.

Most of the time, yes, but that wasn't one of those times. It was just a case of misinformation, and I honestly meant no offense since the issue could be summed up with the introduction of easily verifiable facts.

Are you completely unaware of irony?

The use of words for something other than their literal intention. Now THAT is irony! ;-)

OF COURSE Mercury is poisonous! It's a heavy metal! Even if you don't die, you soon will, of course I know that! Christ.

What I took issue with was your assertion that our ancestors drank it like Coke.

Ah, but I didn't. I implied they took it to cure or treat something, like herbal supplements and homeopathic "medicine" are used today.

From your off hand dismissal of 'our ancestors' it seemed like it was time to start fighting back against what I perceived to be a gross misrepresentation of the past. Your post didn't qualify the above historical examples, which fair play, sound reasonable, though I would like you to post your sources on that.
There's a LOT of graffitti in Pompeii- most of giving valuable insights into the Roman city's underbelly.

Etymology of the phrase "Mad as a Hatter" is easy enough to look up, as is the abortefact use ("quicksilver" was even included in recipes for Chinese "Divine Elixirs": http://www.goldenelixir.com/jindan/texts_taiqing_methods.html ). While there is a lot of graffitti in Pompeii (most of it hilariously similar to modern graffitti), a portion of it is pretty much "I took a dump on this wall" and "Curse anyone who takes a dump on this wall."

Anyway, I've made my point that you misunderstood my post completely, it happens.

Actually, I think you misunderstood my post. As you said though, no worries - it happens.

Well, that was far more fun than I was expecting.
I'm sort of crazy when it comes to history-- hence my less than measured and more than a little grouchy (antibiotics are great!) response.
My apologies.

Referencing Futurama!! Hats off to you. You had me at the bit with the monocle.

Pompeii is fantastic- I wasn't saying that the graffitti wasn't hilariously rude, though most of it certainly is, such the nature of graffitti!
My personal favourite is 'Philibius spado' = Philibius is a eunach!!

I actually chuckled out loud when I saw that you'd flung in a few links. Fair play to you- we must cross swords again!

 

[Legion]

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...)

"Human beings only use 10% of their brains."

This one really bugs the crap out of me. I usually hear it said by 'experts' on late night tv who are trying to sell books to expand our memory or unlock our psychic potential or some such rubbish.

Human beings don't only use 10% of our brains, we only use 10% of our brains at any one time. The parts of our brains that are active while we are for instance, reading a book, are inactive or less active when we are listening to someone talk, singing a song, playing jump rope, etc.

These two annoy me greatly.

Oh, and another one:

People who use modern statistics to say X, Y or Z has increased/decreased in the last however many years, despite the fact that there are no accurate statistics to compare them to in the past.

Like how people assume that there more crimes of a particular nature in more recent years where there are countless other things that could contribute to the statistics such as people being more willing to come forward with certain crimes, better technology to record said crimes, higher levels of media to report said crimes, and so on.

Obviously in some cases, it is still possible to be accurate, but I am referring to the cases where there are clearly other factors that could contribute to the current statistics.

 

[FEichinger]

I don't have a "favorite" on this topic ... I do however realize those faults quite often when they pop up in television most notably ... A raised eyebrow and a "what the ...?" is my only reaction, though.

SNIP

You mean this one?

Gunnery Chief: [as the character enters the Citadel] This, recruits, is a 20-kilo ferris slug, feel the weight. Every five seconds, the main gun of an everest class dreadnought accelerates one to 1.3% of light-speed. It impacts with the force of a 38-kiloton bomb. That is three times the yield of the city-buster dropped on Hiroshima back on Earth. That means- Sir Issac Newton is the deadliest son-of-a-***** in space. Now! Serviceman Burnside! What is Newton's first law?
Serviceman Burnside: Sir! An object in motion stays in motion, sir!
Gunnery Chief: No credit for partial answers, maggot!
Serviceman Burnside: Sir! Unless acted on by an outside force, sir!
Gunnery Chief: Damn straight! I dare to assume you ignorant jackasses know that space is empty. Once you fire this hunk of metal, it keeps going til it hits something. That can be a ship. Or the planet behind that ship. It might go off into deep space and hit somebody else in ten thousand years. If you pull the trigger on this, you are ruining someones day, somewhere and sometime. That is why you check your targets. That is why you wait for the computer to give you a damn firing solution. That is why, Serviceman Chung, we do not "eyeball it". This is a weapon of mass destruction. You are not a cowboy shooting from the hip!
Serviceman Chung: Sir, yes sir!

Yes indeed, Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a ***** in space!
Also: Captcha "we go forwards" Yes, yes we do.

 

[Jonluw]

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.

Thought I should mention that the industrial era is the last hundred or so years, not 1000.

Also: You'd probably do good to watch this:

Spoiler

Human contribution to climate change is very much cause for concern.

 

[Naeras]

First and foremost I get ticked off by people that don't understand the difference between a theory and a scientific theory. I want to punch them for not being capable of attaining basic middle school knowledge.

Then there's people who don't understand basic numbers, be it statistics or otherwise. Also middle school knowledge that everyone should have. I want to punch them as well.

Also...

Being a Biomedical sciences student the thing that grinds me the most are insane "diet" claims by nutritionists. Gillian McKeith with her "eat loads of green plants, the chlorophyll in the plants will oxygenate your blood through photosynthesis ".

..I want to punch this lady.
In the face.
Because she's dumb.

 

[Johnny Impact]

a few points in the last 2, 1st long live the metric system its so easy to use just add or take away 0.
on the other one, really 17 in 4913? i understand if you complain about people not knowing the
1 to 9 tables, or what e and pi means, but really? 17 in 4913? really? i mean really?

A number of people were upset by this one. I can't decide whether to be pleased or disgusted.

Guess what? It's basic long division, bub. Elementary school math. Stuff every child of twelve is expected to understand -- or was expected to understand when I was twelve. Judging by the number of "WTF why do I need to know that math are hard" responses, there has been a rather sharp dropoff in standards.

Also, most people seem to have assumed I meant doing it in your head. I never said you couldn't use pencil and paper if you had to. I can't divide 17 into 4913 in my head (well actually I can, but it takes a minute or two). Yes, I know every cell phone has a calculator function. Are you willing to be totally, embarrassingly helpless if your battery dies?

I don't expect everyone to be civil engineers, but anyone who cannot balance his own checkbook, calculate the fuel efficiency of his car, figure out a 15% tip at a restaurant, or perform other basic math tasks without electronic aid is a person the world doesn't need. Everyone needs a basic grasp of mathematics. Anyone who doesn't have such a grasp upon reaching adulthood should be ashamed of himself. It's equivalent to being illiterate.

I stand by what I said.

 

[Ken Sapp]

higgs boson discovery:

1. Ha! Finally! Science proved/disproved God!

I had to slap so many people over that.

Most of my hates have been said already but I'll say this one again.
"Evolution's a theory"...
I kill people who say this.

Well it is a Theory. The problem is that most people using that argument don't understand the scientific method and what a "Theory" actually is in that context.

They think that a theory is equivalent to an idea as opposed to an observation which has already endured rigorous testing and so far proven to be accurate.

 

[Johnny Impact]

It's really annoying to hear people say that it's impossible to divide by zero.
It's entirely possible, it just opens up rifts in the space-time--similar to black holes. Some astronomers and scientists hypothesize that many of the universes black holes are the result of alien civilizations mass acceptance of the possibility of division by zero.

You, sir, win the thread.

 

[Naeras]

Oh, and I forgot one thing in my last post.

Radiation hysterics. God damn they're annoying.

I know radioactivity is some scary shit after we saw what nuclear physics was capable of in 1945, and the years before that also officially established that it's a bad idea to drink radium. So being careful with radioactive stuff is obviously not a bad idea. However, there's so many misconceptions around this topic that I want to cry.

How bad is the hysteria? Well, let's just say that even the accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima are blown ridiculously out of proportions in terms of how much damage these accidents caused(especially Fukushima. Chernobyl was definitely pretty bad, but not for the reasons people think). If anyone want me to elaborate on this, tell me, there are some myths that need to be killed.

 

[A3sir]

I don't know if it has been said, but the amount of people that don't understand the simple order of operations dumbfounds me.

 

[Frission]

For me it's "Climate Change" is just a theory.

They don't even understand what's the scientific method.

 

[Frission]

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??????????????????

As someone who actually knows about earth sciences and geology, because it's my field the correct term is climate change, and um yes we are having an effect. The amount is debatable, but there is an effect.

I mean have you heard about CFC's? Chlorofluorocarbon's and it's effect on O3?
What about the dangers of irresponsible mining on ground water? Or the longterm consequences of our actions. Here's a good example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease
I think if everyone read about Minamata, they wouldn't be so apathetic about pollutants.

Even if it's a tough planet, we could have detrimental effects on the environment. Besides the worry is not we will completely destroy the lithosphere, hydrosphere or atmosphere, but whether we will completely destroy the biosphere.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/age-of-man/kolbert-text
Heck I think we just named the Anthropocene, to talk about our effect on the environment.

Where did you get your geology degree?
EDIT: Unless you're saying the earth will get along without us. In which case you're right, but it's not good for us human beings.

 

[Maeta]

2) The notion that the second law of thermodynamics somehow conflicts with evolution. It only shows that the person stating said argument is misinterpreting both thermodynamics and evolution. They are also unable to define order and entropy properly. I usually point out what happens when you try to mix oil and water and then ask them how the seemingly perceived increase in order is even possible according to their simplistic definitions.

Dave Gorman did something about that in Googlewhack Adventure...

OT: The basic model of the atom and how it looks like a lot of little things orbitting a big thing in a perfectly regular circular arrangement, homeopathy and everything in that, some of the stuff to do with time-travel (then again, that's more in how nobody agrees with how it works in FICTION and dear god I shouldn't have brought it up), a lot of these horseshit diet myths, and anyone who makes basic chemistry mistakes. One dude said to me that I couldn't make salt in the lab, I had to get it from the sea...
Oh, and why the fuck do those laser thingies in movies like laser cannons or whatever travel slower than a bullet, and make noises to go with it?

There are probably many more... Just can't think right now...

 

[Frission]

"Science has disproven all religions and I am right because its science which cannot be disproven!"

"Oh your catholic? So you must be a cave man who hates gays, technological advancements, science,and just about anything logical in our universe!"

That's not science or pseudo science. The first is from a rather annoyingly smug atheist who is ignorant of science and the second is the opinion of someone on the Catholic church.

P.S: You forgot to add the dig on pedophilia. I though that was how everyone thought of the Catholics.

 

[Jamous]

Many many things. My choice favourites are:
Evolution is Guided,
Science is just a different kind of Fundamentalism,
People calling the Higgs Bosun the 'God Particle' without really having a clue what they're talking about,
AND FINALLY! The people who really don't understand anything about cosmological theories and so dismiss them as nonsense.

 

[Maeta]

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 worked that out mentally, and to be honest, if you look at it, it's not so difficult. Even if you struggle with the maths, just think about the magnitudes of the numbers and think about square and cube roots. 4913 is 17 cubed, so therefore 4913/17 = 17 x 17 = 289. There's always a trick to it. Though my dad (a former maths teacher) knew the square of 17, used a calculator to do the original presented sum.

Captcha: run farther - The Escapist knows I've put on weight, sad times...

 

[Keneth]

1. Magnet Motors
2. Recycling Generators
3. Closed Loop Brown Gas engines
4. Zero Point Energy
5. The ten million other Perpetual Motion Machines people are building in their basements.

These things will NEVER work! The universe has this thing called "The Laws of Thermodynamics." It governs pretty much EVERYTHING IN EXISTENCE.

 

[WoW Killer]

Gambler's Fallacy is an amazing thing really as it's so self-evidently false and yet it's so widespread. I worked in gambling for a number of years, and I had some of the weirdest conversations with customers on what they believed was going on behind the scenes of a pseudo-random number generator. Well I knew it was a pseudo-random number generator, but try convincing a gambler of it. I've come to realise though that the Gambler's Fallacy isn't anything to do with probability directly. It's about pattern recognition in random strings. Gamblers will try to find a pattern, and then bet against it. If you get a sequence like Black, Red, Black, Red, then a gambler will usually see Red as more likely to come next, as the sequence BRBRB is more "obvious" than BRBRR. I imagine there's a similar technical statement you can make using Kolmogorov complexity. It's not quite as simple a belief as many people realise.

Ummm, mathematical mistakes that annoy me... you don't honestly get a great many mathematical statements made in every day life. Usually it's more statistical misrepresentations. I guess it's funny when people say "sphere" and they mean "ball", but it doesn't annoy me as such. Maybe when people say "assume" and they mean "presume". Actually I hate that one.

 

[Autumnflame]

People that use the concept of scientific theories as scientific facts and laws. to disprove other theories facts and laws.

when thats all it is just a theory and any mad man with a tin foil hat can make up a theory it doesn't mean its right. until proven right