Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 22

Thread: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    chris_uk_83's Avatar Physicist
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, England
    Posts
    818

    Default I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    I like science (mainly physics) and explaining related things. But nobody else seems to care much about the Athaneum . This is my plea to you all to wonder about the world you live in and think 'I wonder why that happens'!

    No more 'who made the universe?' threads either, they're not very sciency.

  2. #2
    Giorgos's Avatar Deus Ex Machina
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Larissa/Skiathos Hellas(Greece)
    Posts
    5,557

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Sciency. Now there's a word.


  3. #3
    Syron's Avatar Civitate
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    EUSSR
    Posts
    3,194

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    I sympathize. It’s annoying that in a world that we need science so much, so few people are willing to give the time to understand it. I would post more here if i had the time but I’m doing a physics degree!

    Yeh, these "who made the universe?” threads get on my tits too, since most really belong in EMM as the more artsy among us seem to want to make everything metaphysical instead of using common sense. It’s incredibly depressing.
    Member and acting regent of the House of Kazak Borispavlovgrozny
    Under the patronage of Kazak Borispavlovgrozny
    Freedom from religion is just as much a basic human right as freedom of it.



    Particle Physics Gives Me a Hadron

  4. #4
    vizi's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Misery's the River of the World
    Posts
    11,337

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Quote Originally Posted by Giorgos - Zahos View Post
    Sciency. Now there's a word.
    He said he likes science, not grammar


  5. #5

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    my beef with science is that it requires so much math. Math is not my friend, infact, math raped me throughout my middle and high school years. So we're on the outs.

    Science should be more like writing or history. Meaning, it should involve about as much math as writing and history do.

  6. #6
    turtle's Avatar Ordinarius
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Montana
    Posts
    789

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Yeah, this section of the Thema is quite regularly unvisited. I try to squeeze in a few minutes... or couple of hours, when I'm at work. Otherwise, I usually don't get on the internet at all. I just come in and check it out for a while, a couple of times a week, but when school is goin I don't ever get on here.

    But, yeah, I agree, not too many people pay any heed to the Athenaeum.
    "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." -Socrates
    "To see things in the seed, that is genius" -Lao Tzu
    "What one sees is never the one truth." -Turtle Freeman
    "Self-indulgant betrayal will raise cold walls difficult to scale." -Turtle Freeman
    "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." -Kongzi

  7. #7
    Wild Bill Kelso's Avatar Protist Slayer
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Oil Town, Alberta
    Posts
    5,203

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Quote Originally Posted by RZZZA View Post
    my beef with science is that it requires so much math. Math is not my friend, infact, math raped me throughout my middle and high school years. So we're on the outs.

    Science should be more like writing or history. Meaning, it should involve about as much math as writing and history do.
    Trust me... science involves painful amounts of writting... I just finished a "short" document of 2 and a half pages. Who would think something this short would require around 26 citations.
    Last edited by Wild Bill Kelso; March 20, 2007 at 01:00 PM.
    Still here since December 2002
    At sometime I patronized all these old bums:Necrobrit, Sulla, Scrappy Jenks, eldaran, Oldgamer, Ecthelion,Kagemusha, and adopted these bums: Battle Knight, Obi Wan Asterixand Muizer

  8. #8

    Icon12 Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" Albert Einstein

    Well, it's difficult to talk about these things. But I have another cool (I at least think so) idea: one can post a thread that will be to illuminate each others about science subjects (chemics, physics, biology, medicine, etc. ) for who's a student or is simple interested in learning!
    So, would you agree with me to do such things? chris_uk_83, since you like to explain these things, you'd seriously like to do such a thread, it'd be rentable and full of beneficts for most of us. Making a thread is for free and just needs dedication, not much more things.
    Last edited by empty; March 17, 2007 at 08:39 AM. Reason: Ortographic errors and unintentioned messages.
    emptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyempty
    or not?

  9. #9
    chris_uk_83's Avatar Physicist
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, England
    Posts
    818

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    @ RZZZA

    Science doesn't actually have to be all about maths. Granted, you do need a quite high level of maths to be able to prove to yourself that theories are correct, but you can quite easily grasp the underlying concepts of science with analogies and words alone and very little maths.

    @Empty

    That's a great idea. I have loads of free time at work so I can start off with a few topics that interest me. But I'd love to answer questions anyone has too. So if you see something cool, or just don't quite get why something works the way it does ask the question. I'm sure there are others like me who can give an answer (and who would thoroughly enjoy doing so).

    Don't ask me about chemistry and biology though, I've only got GCSEs in them so I'm a little rusty. Physics is my forte!

  10. #10

    Icon12 Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Quote Originally Posted by chris_uk_83 View Post
    @Empty

    That's a great idea. I have loads of free time at work so I can start off with a few topics that interest me. But I'd love to answer questions anyone has too. So if you see something cool, or just don't quite get why something works the way it does ask the question. I'm sure there are others like me who can give an answer (and who would thoroughly enjoy doing so).

    Don't ask me about chemistry and biology though, I've only got GCSEs in them so I'm a little rusty. Physics is my forte!
    I'm you understood it. We should start a special thread for these ocasions, like for members of TWC who are students and like to discuss physics, for example.
    A thread sort of similar to the ones on Language you know, that people use really frequently.
    We should also speak to a moderator about this, it'll be cool and I think it has no problem at all.
    emptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyemptyempty
    or not?

  11. #11

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Quote Originally Posted by chris_uk_83 View Post
    @ RZZZA

    Science doesn't actually have to be all about maths. Granted, you do need a quite high level of maths to be able to prove to yourself that theories are correct, but you can quite easily grasp the underlying concepts of science with analogies and words alone and very little maths.
    Thats why I liked Carl Sagan, he kept it simple for us stupids.

  12. #12
    Vicarius
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Trondheim, Norway
    Posts
    2,752

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    I agree, more science discussions are needed. And I love physics too and just to prove it I have the definition of c (of the latin word celeritas, meaning swiftness) in physics memorized: 299 792.458 km/s
    Im not really so very good in physics, but when I say what c is, people rarely dare to doubt I am.
    Member of S.I.N.

  13. #13

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Science should be more like writing or history. Meaning, it should involve about as much math as writing and history do.
    But science is USELESS with out math to back it up. Without math, you can't make predictions with any sort of inaccuracy, and you can't ever know if what you are doing is right or not. And I agree that science should have as much math as history do; they need to put more math in history. If historians would use math in their research, then the things that they come up with would be a lot more realistic. For example, historians have thought for a long time that many, many battles were much bigger then they really are simply because no one bother to calculate out the amount of logistics that they have. And if we force sci-fi writers to crunch the numbers on their own creation once in a while, maybe we won't have such silly sci-fi.

    As for the question why we don't have more scientific discussions here, it is simply because it is nearly impossible to discuss science. There are few unknowns, but the fact that they are means that there is little that we can really talk about them with out turning it into a "is no" "is" "is not" debate. Everything else can be settled with a quick web link to the right reference.

  14. #14
    MaximiIian's Avatar Comes Limitis
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Louisville, Kentucky
    Posts
    12,890

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Quote Originally Posted by vizigothe View Post
    He said he likes science, not grammar
    Who says it's not grammatically correct? Just because it's a new word doesn't mean it automatically is of bad grammar. All words started out as new things that some guy just thought of.
    Personally, I think "Sciencey" is a good word to describe all things scientific and things similarly related, but not themselves scientific.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lee1026 View Post
    But science is USELESS without math to back it up.
    Not really. You can understand science through metaphors and demonstrative pictures. Math is necessary for scientists, but not laymen, which make up the majority of people. If you want to bring science and scientific education to the masses, you have to put it in layman's terms.

    Without math, you can't make predictions with any sort of inaccuracy
    You mean 'with any sort of accuracy'.

    maybe we won't have such silly sci-fi.
    What a terrible world that would be. Silliness and exaggerated **** is what makes science fiction entertaining. Remember, the purpose of fiction, at its core, is to entertain, no matter if it's science fiction, historical fiction, suspense, mystery, or fantasy.

  15. #15

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    What a terrible world that would be. Silliness and exaggerated **** is what makes science fiction entertaining. Remember, the purpose of fiction, at its core, is to entertain, no matter if it's science fiction, historical fiction, suspense, mystery, or fantasy.
    But then again, historical fiction is only fun if it is not as inaccurate as say, Alexander's heavy cavalry simply tearing though modern tanks. That is how bad most modern science fiction is.

    Not really. You can understand science through metaphors and demonstrative pictures. Math is necessary for scientists, but not laymen, which make up the majority of people. If you want to bring science and scientific education to the masses, you have to put it in layman's terms.
    But that will be understanding trivia that science produced. Not science itself.

    You mean 'with any sort of accuracy'.
    Sorry about that. Zoned out for a second.

  16. #16
    chris_uk_83's Avatar Physicist
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, England
    Posts
    818

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    But that will be understanding trivia that science produced. Not science itself.
    This depends entirely on your definition of science. It's entirely possible to grasp the concepts of science by being told about them by someone who has done the maths. You can then take those concepts further yourself and come up with new concepts by using logic, which most non-scientists can think about and theorise. Many scientific breakthroughs have come about this way.

    The maths comes in when you need to prove things. Then it is essential. It can also be used to make predictions. In fact these days maths makes most scientific predictions becasue the cutting edge of science is so complicated compared to the earlier days.

    Maths should not be relied upon solely though. Predictions that maths makes are absolutely nothing without experimental evidence to back them up. Maths can prove that 1 + 1 = 3 and that you can fly by running backwards and drinking lemonade, but I've never managed either!

    @Lee
    I assume you're a physicist like me, but you took the dark side and went the way of theoretical physics! I'm an experimentalist in case you hadn't guessed.

  17. #17

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Maths should not be relied upon solely though. Predictions that maths makes are absolutely nothing without experimental evidence to back them up. Maths can prove that 1 + 1 = 3 and that you can fly by running backwards and drinking lemonade, but I've never managed either!
    You can't prove that 1+1=3 or that you can fly by running backwards. You can prove that you can take a round, solid ball and then transform it into 2 round solid balls of the same size by cutting it and rotating the pieces.

    I assume you're a physicist like me, but you took the dark side and went the way of theoretical physics! I'm an experimentalist in case you hadn't guessed.
    The opposite, I fear. I am an engineer, which is even more experimentalistic.

  18. #18
    Darkragnar's Avatar Member of Ordo Malleus
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    India
    Posts
    3,958

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    @:I wish more people discussed sciencey things
    Well lets see how people like sciencey things,http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=89177 This should answer your question on why people dont post sciencey things.
    Member of the House of Marenostrum
    They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say ****, it's raining!

  19. #19

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    math gives people headaches, its just a fact.


    Now if that post was full of awe and wonderment, like pretty galaxies and fantastical black holes...it would have gotten more attention.


    Or cyborgs. Cyborgs are always interesting.

  20. #20
    Darkragnar's Avatar Member of Ordo Malleus
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    India
    Posts
    3,958

    Default Re: I wish more people discussed sciencey things

    Quote Originally Posted by RZZZA View Post
    math gives people headaches, its just a fact.


    Now if that post was full of awe and wonderment, like pretty galaxies and fantastical black holes...it would have gotten more attention.


    Or cyborgs. Cyborgs are always interesting.
    point proven. may this question R.I.P now.
    Member of the House of Marenostrum
    They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say ****, it's raining!

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •