The dumb questions thread

[Kharakov]

Ain't that axis thing what we used to kick Nazi ass??!@#

Seriously, the axis is the axis of rotation, not the alignment of the magnetic poles, ehh?

 

[skepticalbip]

Someone told me the other day that the axis of the earth has shifted 2 degrees within his lifetime. I have to think that would have catastrophic effects and we would notice, or if not, I would have heard about it.

True?

Whether what this someone said is true depends on how old this someone is. The Earth's axis completes a precession about once every 26,000 years or about 0.0138 degrees/year. So if this person is about 150 years old then that would be about right.

But they were more likely talking about the shift of the magnetic pole which is rather random and it is quite possible that magnetic north has shifted two degrees as seen from whatever their location is.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

They were saying that the sun was going down further South at the height of Summer than it did when they were a kid.

It went against everything I know, but I hesitate to call anyone an idiot, and I have been wrong before.

Just checkin'

 

[4321lynx]

They were saying that the sun was going down further South at the height of Summer than it did when they were a kid.

It went against everything I know, but I hesitate to call anyone an idiot, and I have been wrong before.

Just checkin'

When he/she was a small kid his/her horizon/ field of view was limited compared to a full grown person? Then the sun would set further south when he grew up? Just thinking.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

 

[Wiploc]

Here is a dumb question. Is the universe rotating?

1. All motion is relative. Therefore, the rest of the universe universe is almost certainly rotating relative to this top I'm spinning, or pretty nearly anything else. Or you can imagine that the universe is stopped, and pretty nearly everything else is spinning. It's a viewpoint question, see, not a truth question.

2. There is no 2. One is tempted to say, "Relative to what?" or "How would you know?" or "In what sense?" but that was all covered in 1.

 

[skepticalbip]

They were saying that the sun was going down further South at the height of Summer than it did when they were a kid.

That part sounds right because of the precession of the equinoxes but the two degrees change during their lifetime is a bit of exaggeration. In another 13,000 years, you Aussies in southern Australia can be experiencing a snowy white Christmas while us yanks will be headed for the beaches to cool off on Christmas and we will be freezing our butts off on our July 4th celebration.

It went against everything I know, but I hesitate to call anyone an idiot, and I have been wrong before.

Please say it ain’t so. That mistake you once made must have been quite a while ago.

 

[4321lynx]

That part sounds right because of the precession of the equinoxes but the two degrees change during their lifetime is a bit of exaggeration. In another 13,000 years, you Aussies in southern Australia can be experiencing a snowy white Christmas while us yanks will be headed for the beaches to cool off on Christmas and we will be freezing our butts off on our July 4th celebration.

It went against everything I know, but I hesitate to call anyone an idiot, and I have been wrong before.

Please say it ain’t so. That mistake you once made must have been quite a while ago.

But precession is only an axial 27000 year 'wobble'. It will be back as now in that time. The seasons will not turn 'upside down' at any time because of precession.

 

[skepticalbip]

That part sounds right because of the precession of the equinoxes but the two degrees change during their lifetime is a bit of exaggeration. In another 13,000 years, you Aussies in southern Australia can be experiencing a snowy white Christmas while us yanks will be headed for the beaches to cool off on Christmas and we will be freezing our butts off on our July 4th celebration.

It went against everything I know, but I hesitate to call anyone an idiot, and I have been wrong before.

Please say it ain’t so. That mistake you once made must have been quite a while ago.

But precession is only an axial 27000 year 'wobble'. It will be back as now in that time. The seasons will not turn 'upside down' at any time because of precession.

My brain fart. You're right. The precession will only mean that sometimes we will experience slightly more intense summers (and winters) and sometimes slightly less intense summers (and winters) on that 26,000 year cycle.

 

[Kharakov]

While the wobble traces out a full circle, the axis itself does not move a full 360 degrees (except through the circle it traces).

OMFG. Those assholes. When I was a kid, I remember the popular thought "we'll never use this stuff we're taught for anything, let's do something fun!" And now, as an adult, I do the stuff that a bunch of kids said we would never use for fun. Hehe... interesting.

Anyone else have a similar psychological insight?

 

[gmbteach]

While the wobble traces out a full circle, the axis itself does not move a full 360 degrees (except through the circle it traces).

OMFG. Those assholes. When I was a kid, I remember the popular thought "we'll never use this stuff we're taught for anything, let's do something fun!" And now, as an adult, I do the stuff that a bunch of kids said we would never use for fun. Hehe... interesting.

Anyone else have a similar psychological insight?

As a teacher I explicitly explain to my students why we are learning something. My favourite answer when kids say 'can't we do this algorithm on a calculator?' Nope, because what if the batteries were dead?

There is always a time when we will use most of what we learned in school.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

While the wobble traces out a full circle, the axis itself does not move a full 360 degrees (except through the circle it traces).

OMFG. Those assholes. When I was a kid, I remember the popular thought "we'll never use this stuff we're taught for anything, let's do something fun!" And now, as an adult, I do the stuff that a bunch of kids said we would never use for fun. Hehe... interesting.

Anyone else have a similar psychological insight?

As a teacher I explicitly explain to my students why we are learning something. My favourite answer when kids say 'can't we do this algorithm on a calculator?' Nope, because what if the batteries were dead?

There is always a time when we will use most of what we learned in school.

I disagree. I would say the majority of what I've learned in breadth-type classes has gone unused and by now mostly forgotten.

 

[spikepipsqueak]

Those classes are designed to broaden our vision and understanding, and teach us how to learn the things that we will need to acquire by ourselves, in later life.

You can't say you haven't used them unless you want to admit to being rigid. They're not about learning facts, they're about learning processes.

 

[gmbteach]

While the wobble traces out a full circle, the axis itself does not move a full 360 degrees (except through the circle it traces).

OMFG. Those assholes. When I was a kid, I remember the popular thought "we'll never use this stuff we're taught for anything, let's do something fun!" And now, as an adult, I do the stuff that a bunch of kids said we would never use for fun. Hehe... interesting.

Anyone else have a similar psychological insight?

As a teacher I explicitly explain to my students why we are learning something. My favourite answer when kids say 'can't we do this algorithm on a calculator?' Nope, because what if the batteries were dead?

There is always a time when we will use most of what we learned in school.

I disagree. I would say the majority of what I've learned in breadth-type classes has gone unused and by now mostly forgotten.

Than your teachers failed to explain the purpose of the lessons.

 

[Kharakov]

Those classes are designed to broaden our vision and understanding, and teach us how to learn the things that we will need to acquire by ourselves, in later life.

You can't say you haven't used them unless you want to admit to being rigid. They're not about learning facts, they're about learning processes.

Did you mean "vapid"... hehe...

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Those classes are designed to broaden our vision and understanding, and teach us how to learn the things that we will need to acquire by ourselves, in later life.

You can't say you haven't used them unless you want to admit to being rigid. They're not about learning facts, they're about learning processes.

You can learn processes from any class.

 

[James Brown]

How did hotcakes become the standard unit of measurement for aggressive sales?

 

[Shadowy Man]

They were saying that the sun was going down further South at the height of Summer than it did when they were a kid.

It went against everything I know, but I hesitate to call anyone an idiot, and I have been wrong before.

Just checkin'

Well, if he's basing his statement on human memory, one of the most fallible recording systems we know of, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. Now, if he pulls out photographs and charts with measurements to back it up, then maybe it's worth examining.

 

[Wiploc]

How did hotcakes become the standard unit of measurement for aggressive sales?

As the country filled up, homesteads and gold claims became so infrequent that "doing a land office business" became, for most people, less evocative than the hotcake standard.

 

[Coleman Smith]

Now he insults my mother'