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Re: [Phys-l] "Ask Marilyn"



Maybe her unanswerable phrase was tongue in cheek, meaning they are so dumb
that they are not worth answering.

A few of them actually are pretty good observations. The dome light going
on may be because the switch was flipped off so as to maintain the illusion
of darkness, or more likely the shot was made in broad daylight but filtered
to look like night, so the dome light would not be obvious. This latter
explanation is not really obvious to many people.

The eyes following question has actually been the subject of articles on
art, and is a bit subtle.

The city of Toledo question is interesting because obviously it is a gross
misconception involving science.

As to eggs tasting like chicken, different cultures have different taste
descriptions, so I wonder if there is a culture where they think eggs taste
like chicken.

The bubble gum one also seems to betray a lack of understanding of science.
When you breathe how much of the surrounding air do you take in? Also there
seems to be a misunderstanding of relative orders of magnitude of risk. The
poles reversing question is likewise a misconception about the speed of the
reversal, and the strength of the magnetic fields involved. So it is
actually not all that bad as a science question.

So some are obviously dumb, but even the TV camera question has an
interesting paradigm at work. The distinction between geometrical optics
and how TV works is obviously misconcepted. It reveals how poorly students
have been taught science.

So while many of these are very dumb to us, some do have interesting lines
of thought which we see in students all the time. They are all answerable,
except for possibly the 3 Musketeers, as that is trying to divine the
thoughts inside the artists heads. We can come up with conjectures, but
unless we asked the artistic creators, we really can never know why they did
it that way. Even then subconscious things may be at work.

My best example of how it is not possible to guess the actual reasons behind
art is the Balanchine choreography of "Serenade". People have written
papers on the mystical significance of the 17 women dancing one movement.
But the real reason was, as he said, that he choreographed each movement
separately with only the people who came to rehearsal. That day only 17
came, so he made do with what he had. The great artistry was how he could
be inspired to work with an odd number, not the number.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX




The city of Toledo, Ohio, is urging its residents to lose weight to the
tune of one million pounds. With that much weight exiting our planet from
such a small location, could it alter the Earth's orbit around the
Sun?—Swanton, Ohio

In movies, when someone gets out of a car at night, why doesn't the dome
light ever go on?          —Sebring, Fla.

I notice that global warming increased after daylight saving time started
in 1974. Well, duh! More daylight is going to make the world hotter, isn't
it?—Pasadena, Calif.

If a person on television held up a mirror facing a camera, could someone
at home see his reflection in it? —Colorado Springs, Colo.

As I travel the highways, I notice signs that read "Deer Crossing." How do
the deer know to cross at those signs?—Ovilla, Tex.

Why are the Three Musketeers always depicted with swords? Why not
muskets?—Burbank, Calif.

Why do the eyes of life-size cardboard figures of people appear to watch
and fellow you as you pass by?    —Tyler, Tex.

I've heard that the Earth's magnetic poles are reversing. Will the strip
in my credit card still work? Will my refrigerator repel my
magnets?—Portland. Maine

Why don't eggs taste like chicken?    —St Louis, Mo.

Do I have more of a chance of catching a cold if I am chewing gum and
blowing bubbles? In other words, can airborne germs be caught by my bubble
and then ingested after it has deflated and the gum is back in my
mouth?—Saddle Brook, NJ.




Pete Lohstreter "Happy is he who gets to know
The Hockaday School the reasons for things. "
11600 Welch Rd Virgil (70-19 BCE) Roman poet.
Dallas, TX 75229

214-360-6389

plohstreter@mail.hockaday.org

See what our students are doing......
http://home.hockaday.org/physics/index.html


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