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Scientific impossibilities in music

This Guy

Master Poster
This Guy
Joined
Mar 24, 2006
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Anyone else bothered by songs that have lyrics that display a total lack of basic science knowledge?

There's a popular song playing on our local stations that has a line that goes - "When you hear the rolling thunder, you turn around before the lightning strikes" or something very close.

I've tried to catch enough of the song to see if there's some explanation in the rest of the song, but haven't understood one. Not sure what the title or who the singer is.

I think what bothers me most is that I generally like the sound of the song, but this glaring impossibility drives me wild (figuratively speaking;-)

Anyone familiar with this song know if the rest of the song offers an artistic reason for the miraculous ability of the person being sung about?

Any other examples out there anyone would like to share?
 
Sheryl Crow's lyric has nothing to do with meteorology, though she is from southern Missouri where violent storms do occur, with continuous thunder and lightning so you can't tell which came first. It's not a good idea to be outdoors then, though.

Then again, she may have used substances that cause confusion between cause and effect and time frames.
 
WildCat said:
Does making a cannon out of an alligator count? :D
Click to expand...

If your talking about Andrew Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, that's fact not fiction! ;)

OK, maybe my Tennessee roots are showing a bit :)

/ETA - I pass his home on the way to and from work 5 times a week :-)
 
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I'm confused. I see nothing wrong with the lyric. I'm not a meterologist (my dad is, so I've grown up around this) and I live in Missouri so I know a bit about thunderstorms here.

Obviously light moves faster than sound so you would expect for a single thunder clap you've already seen the lighting (assuming you were facing the right way). However we get bolt after bolt after bolt.

Most storms in Missouri start a ways off, it isn't unusual (especially here on the Kansas border) to see storms way off. You see lightning but hear nothing.

Once you hear the the thunder rolling in it means the storm is damn close and it's a good time to head inside....

So yes typically you see lightining before you hear it, but hearing it means the lightning is very close and it's a good time to move before you get hit by lightning
 
On the other hand, I've always liked this little song:

NaCl (SODIUM CHLORIDE)
Kate McGarrigle, Garden Court Music ASCAP

Just a little atom of chlorine
Valence minus one
Swimming thru the sea, digging the scene
Just having fun
She's not worried about the shape or size
Of her outside shell
It's fun to ionize
Just a little atom of Cl
With an unfilled shell

But somewhere in that sea lurks
Handsome Sodium
With enough electrons on his outside shell
Plus that extra one
Somewhere in this deep blue sea
There's a negative
For my extra energy yes
Somewhere in this foam
My positive will find a home

Then unsuspecting Chlorine
Felt a magnetic pull
She looked down and her outside
Shell was full
Sodium cried "what a gas be my bride and
I'll change your name from Chlorine to Chloride"

Now the sea evaporates to make the clouds
For the rain and snow
Leaving her chemical compounds in the abscence
Of H2O
But the crystals that wash upon the shore
Are happy ones
So if you never thought before
Think of the love that you eat
When you salt your meat
Think of the love that you eat
When you salt your meat.
 
I can't say it bothered me much, but there is a song by the Swedish songwriter Cornelis Vreesvijk (The ballad of Fredrik Åkare and Cecilia Lind) where it says in the first verse that the moon is full. Thenin the last verse when Fredrik and Cecilia has danced and walked to where Cecilia lives, the moon is new. For the life of me I can't think of a reason that dancing and walking home should take about a fortnight.
 
But Marty Robbins gets the science right

I see the white puff of smoke from the rifle,
I feel the bullet go deep in my chest.

from El Paso
 
Another point: "rolling thunder" can also, I recall, be used (by older folks) to mean "nearly continuous thunder" in which case (Yes, I've seen it in the midwest) the basement can look pretty cozy.
 
to.by said:
I can't say it bothered me much, but there is a song by the Swedish songwriter Cornelis Vreesvijk (The ballad of Fredrik Åkare and Cecilia Lind) where it says in the first verse that the moon is full. Then in the last verse when Fredrik and Cecilia has danced and walked to where Cecilia lives, the moon is new. For the life of me I can't think of a reason that dancing and walking home should take about a fortnight.
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Well, considering that outside the big towns in Sweden (and Norway) population can be -very- thinly spread, I don't see it as that unlikely. :p

By the way, this is the first time I've noticed that error. And now it'll probably annoy me whenever I hear it. Thanks a lot.
 
Shrike said:
Shouldn't that be ten times a week?
Or do you
A) work two-and-half days?
B) go home via a different route?
:)
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OK, I pass his home 10 times a week, but I go to work 5 times in the same period ;-)
 
Outhere said:
Sheryl Crow's lyric has nothing to do with meteorology, though she is from southern Missouri where violent storms do occur, with continuous thunder and lightning so you can't tell which came first. It's not a good idea to be outdoors then, though.

Then again, she may have used substances that cause confusion between cause and effect and time frames.
Click to expand...

I think one reason this error strikes me so strong (no pun intended) is because I learned back when I was like 12 (that was around 1966) that you could judge the distance of a storm by measuring the time between the lightning and the thunder, and multiplying it by what ever the speed of sound in miles/min is (that was the way the article in the science mag I read it in showed it I believe). I remember talking my Mom into buying me a stop watch so I could do that (yes, I've been a geek since the 60's lol).

I also spent a good deal of time trying to explain this fact of nature to my otherwise fairly intelligent ex-wife. I finally had to break out the encyclopedia to prove that's the way it works (no, that had nothing to do with her becoming an Ex).


Just got home from work (yes, I passed Jackson's home on the way;-) and I asked 6 folks at work which came first. 5 knew, the one that didn't is a 68 year old lady who thought the thunder caused the lightning. But when I explained that the lightning basically created a vacuum, that was then rapidly filled with air (with a quick demo using my hands clapping together) she said, OH, that makes sense!
 
This Guy said:
Anyone else bothered by songs that have lyrics that display a total lack of basic science knowledge?

There's a popular song playing on our local stations that has a line that goes - "When you hear the rolling thunder, you turn around before the lightning strikes" or something very close.

I've tried to catch enough of the song to see if there's some explanation in the rest of the song, but haven't understood one. Not sure what the title or who the singer is.

I think what bothers me most is that I generally like the sound of the song, but this glaring impossibility drives me wild (figuratively speaking;-)

Anyone familiar with this song know if the rest of the song offers an artistic reason for the miraculous ability of the person being sung about?

Any other examples out there anyone would like to share?
Click to expand...

As a former music major, I was intrigued by your thread title -- but then I found that what you really meant was "Scientific impossibilities in lyrics".

A scientific impossibility in music would be a high C played by a contrabassoon.

Oh, well.
 
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