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Re: [Phys-l] scientists are wimps



We elderly wimps have survived to giggle at such adolescent pomposities.
Regards,
Jack
"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley




On Sun, 1 Apr 2012, Isaac Bickerstaff wrote:

Scientists are wimps.

Scientists are always talking about theories. I don't
want theories; I want certainty.

Last year, my grandfather had one extra ticket to the
ballgame. He wanted to give it to one or the other of
his two sons. They decided to settle it by playing
scissors-paper-stone. My older uncle, who is a real
manly man, always chooses ``stone'' because stones are
tough and steadfast. Everybody knows that. My other
uncle, who is an ivy-league quiche-eater, chose
``paper'' and won the ticket, but that's not important.
The important thing is to always show people how tough
you are.

Real men don't admit error, even when they are wrong.
For example, Donald Rumsfeld said ``We know where the
WMDs are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad
and east, west, south and north somewhat.'' Some
people think he was wrong about the WMDs, but that's
not important. He was right about the important thing,
which is to project absolute confidence. That's what
leadership is. To say the same thing the other way, if
you are not absolutely certain, it doesn't matter what
the facts are, because people won't trust what you're
saying, and you will fail as a leader.

Scientists are always talking about error bars. That's
foolish, because real men never admit error. It's
ridiculous to write a number in the form 3.45±0.12.
Either the answer is 3.45 or it's not. If you're not
sure whether the answer is 3 point 4 something or 3
point 5 something, you should round it off to 3. That
way everybody gets the same answer. I don't care
whether or not 3 is the right answer. That's a nuance.
Nuance is for wimps. Getting the right answer is not
important. Conformity and certainty are what's
important.

That's the beauty of the ``significant digits'' method.
It means that everybody will get the same answer.
Obviously, writing down insignificant digits would be
useless. Actually it would be worse than useless,
because it would make people doubt your toughness and
steadfastness. Only a wimp would let that happen.
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Forum for Physics Educators
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_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l