Dr Adequate
Banned
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2004
- Messages
- 17,766
Psychologists have done studies on people's concepts of physics. Here are some results:
Show people a helter-sketler apparatus that you can roll a marble down, with a completely flat base at the bottom.
Ask them what will happen when the marble reaches the bottom, and starts rolling on the flat surface beneath --- and most people will tell you that it keeps going in a spiral path. These people are unaware of physics, and will tell you that it continues travelling in a spiral path. There goes Newton's Second Law of Motion.
But if you show these same people animated cartoons of:
(1) The marble continuing to follow a spiral path on the plane surface;
(2) The marble following a straight line in accordance with the laws of motion;
--- then most of them will burst out laughing when they see the first animation, because whereas the naive ideas that they have about physics will tell them that the marble will go on moving in a spiral, yet they have seen how things actually move, and they know that this doesn't happen.
But there is a hard core who, even having seen both animations, will insist that after coming off the helter-skelter, the marble will continue to move in a spiral path.
These are the CTs.
---
These are the people who can neither learn about physics by learning physics, and who also can't learn about physics by watching what actually happens in the real world.
These are the CTs.
---
I posted this 'cos of juryjones' excellent post about what happens when one bit of building impacts another. I'm a mathematician who's did some basic physics as an undergraduate, which put me way ahead of any CT on this forum. I know what will happen.
Now perhaps most people, being unaware of physics, couldn't guess what would happen. But they know what's right when they see it : the top of the building, in falling down will exert force in the direction in which gravity pulls it: i.e. downwards.
If the CT's would like to produce images of the top of the building flipping over, then we could all have a good hearty laugh. Juryjones did just that, to show the CTs up, and yes, it looks bleedin' ridiculous.
But there is a small percentage of people who have watched the actual video of the collapse of the Towers, and who don't believe it would happen like that, and then we explain the very very simple physics, and they still don't believe it happened like that. These are the same people who believe that the marble would travel in a spiral path after coming off the helter-skelter even after being told the Second Law of Motion.
These are the CTs.
---
They know nothing of physics, and they cannnot grasp that "common sense" about gravity which is indeeed both common and sense.
These are the people who will tell you that if one part of a building impacts another, then it would be temporarily halted in its fall by doing so. Imagine an animation of that.
If you didn't burst out laughing, you're a CT.
These are the CTs.
---
These are the people who will use the phrase "faster than free fall" as if it had meaning. Now, as I said, I've studied the physics of gravity at university, but forget that, let me also say that I've studied physics at high school. So I know that the phrase "faster than free fall" is meaningless drivel.
But for most people, I wouldn't have to go into the maths, because if they were shown an animated cartoon in which "free fall" was a velocity rather than an acceleration, they would burst out laughing, just like they'd burst out laughing at the cartoon of the marble going in a spiral.
And then there is the tiny percentage of people who neither know the physics nor have any learned instincts about motion; and who will talk as though "free fall" is a velocity; as though falling was like going down in an elevator.
These are the CTs.
---
I should like to close my post by expressing my gratitude to juryjones: because, as I mentioned in the first part of my post, although most people get physics wrong, they laugh out loud when they see physics simulated wrong, and juryjones has presented just that. The CTs are too stupid and incompetent to figure out the consequences of their own made-up laws of physics, but juryjones has made a brave stab at doing it for them.
If they think he's done it wrong, then let them have their own try at simulating their own magical world of physics in which free fall is a velocity rather than an acceleration, and see what their pictures look like.
But they won't, because they can't, because they don't have the technical competence to simulate their own magic imaginary world of made-up physics.
These are the CTs.
Show people a helter-sketler apparatus that you can roll a marble down, with a completely flat base at the bottom.
Ask them what will happen when the marble reaches the bottom, and starts rolling on the flat surface beneath --- and most people will tell you that it keeps going in a spiral path. These people are unaware of physics, and will tell you that it continues travelling in a spiral path. There goes Newton's Second Law of Motion.
But if you show these same people animated cartoons of:
(1) The marble continuing to follow a spiral path on the plane surface;
(2) The marble following a straight line in accordance with the laws of motion;
--- then most of them will burst out laughing when they see the first animation, because whereas the naive ideas that they have about physics will tell them that the marble will go on moving in a spiral, yet they have seen how things actually move, and they know that this doesn't happen.
But there is a hard core who, even having seen both animations, will insist that after coming off the helter-skelter, the marble will continue to move in a spiral path.
These are the CTs.
---
These are the people who can neither learn about physics by learning physics, and who also can't learn about physics by watching what actually happens in the real world.
These are the CTs.
---
I posted this 'cos of juryjones' excellent post about what happens when one bit of building impacts another. I'm a mathematician who's did some basic physics as an undergraduate, which put me way ahead of any CT on this forum. I know what will happen.
Now perhaps most people, being unaware of physics, couldn't guess what would happen. But they know what's right when they see it : the top of the building, in falling down will exert force in the direction in which gravity pulls it: i.e. downwards.
If the CT's would like to produce images of the top of the building flipping over, then we could all have a good hearty laugh. Juryjones did just that, to show the CTs up, and yes, it looks bleedin' ridiculous.
But there is a small percentage of people who have watched the actual video of the collapse of the Towers, and who don't believe it would happen like that, and then we explain the very very simple physics, and they still don't believe it happened like that. These are the same people who believe that the marble would travel in a spiral path after coming off the helter-skelter even after being told the Second Law of Motion.
These are the CTs.
---
They know nothing of physics, and they cannnot grasp that "common sense" about gravity which is indeeed both common and sense.
These are the people who will tell you that if one part of a building impacts another, then it would be temporarily halted in its fall by doing so. Imagine an animation of that.
If you didn't burst out laughing, you're a CT.
These are the CTs.
---
These are the people who will use the phrase "faster than free fall" as if it had meaning. Now, as I said, I've studied the physics of gravity at university, but forget that, let me also say that I've studied physics at high school. So I know that the phrase "faster than free fall" is meaningless drivel.
But for most people, I wouldn't have to go into the maths, because if they were shown an animated cartoon in which "free fall" was a velocity rather than an acceleration, they would burst out laughing, just like they'd burst out laughing at the cartoon of the marble going in a spiral.
And then there is the tiny percentage of people who neither know the physics nor have any learned instincts about motion; and who will talk as though "free fall" is a velocity; as though falling was like going down in an elevator.
These are the CTs.
---
I should like to close my post by expressing my gratitude to juryjones: because, as I mentioned in the first part of my post, although most people get physics wrong, they laugh out loud when they see physics simulated wrong, and juryjones has presented just that. The CTs are too stupid and incompetent to figure out the consequences of their own made-up laws of physics, but juryjones has made a brave stab at doing it for them.
If they think he's done it wrong, then let them have their own try at simulating their own magical world of physics in which free fall is a velocity rather than an acceleration, and see what their pictures look like.
But they won't, because they can't, because they don't have the technical competence to simulate their own magic imaginary world of made-up physics.
These are the CTs.
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