Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-l] "Ask Marilyn"

While it is true that the deer question is extremely inane, it also reveals
the same mindset the buys into creationism. A simple explanation that the
signs are put where there are deer trails or a high probability of deer
crossing would be OK. We can all laugh at some of these questions, but
students ask comparable questions.

I think the list is actually a sign of Marilyn's stupidity. She has no clue
about how people have scientific and other misconceptions. It also shows
arrogance. Many people in other countries would laugh at American
misconceptions, while not realizing they have similar problems.

If you analyze this list in terms of common student misconceptions, it would
seem that a number of the questions are actually reasonable. Even the
musket question is based on dictionary definitions and reasonable etymology.

As to stupid things, I asked students to examine a computer screen using a
magnifying glass, so a large number of them put the glass flat on the
screen. They had to figure out whether the picture was produced on the
screen or behind it, and they had to see the RGB dots. I was dumbfounded by
their behavior. I would see this as just as ignorant as some of Marilyn's
questions, but students had not really had enough experience with magnifying
glasses. So I modified the glasses so there was a spacer which kept it at
the best difference.

Marilyn needs to be in a typical classroom for a couple of weeks, so maybe
some of her paradigms would change. I wonder what the people who wrote the
questions thought? Some of them may have been tongue in cheek, but others
may have been serious. Did they feel put down? A classroom teacher could
be fired for such behavior. So maybe she should answer those questions in a
simple fashion, and not make fun of the authors.

So maybe there is a real question? Why don't we have somebody who is really
intelligent and sensitive answering questions in popular magazines? And why
can't we have better education in the US which generates better questioners?

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


I think all of you are being too analytical with this column.
Marilyn is a self-described "savant". Her column is something to be read
or glanced at weekly and quickly discarded. In this case, she doesn't
mean "unanswerable" in the scientific sense. Not at all! It was meant
to be a humorous column with questions she received from people that are
so silly they don't have, nor do they deserve any answers.

So, why is every getting all bent out of shape over questions like,
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.

I think she chose these strictly for their inanity. They were
probably real, typically stupid, questions actually sent in by readers who
read this column in Parade magazine and typify the average person in this
country. That's what she meant by "unanswerable."

What we should be worried about is the average person who reads this
column and the whole magazine... that person we have often discussed here
who knows little or no science, never paid attention in class (whether it
was history, geography, or science), who couldn't care less about
academics, and who can watch as they act stupidly on the many "judge
shows" that air daily on cable tv. These are the same people who can
discuss the merits of Bret Farve vs Michael Vick, but who can't name a
single Justice on the Supreme Court.

Most of her weekly questions are from readers which usually contain
some sort of actual query about some phenomenon which might have real
answers. Sometimes she poses an old-fashioned brain-twister and
challenges the readers to give an answer (answers shown upside down or on
a separate page.) These often include lists of words which have some
common thread, lists of numbers with some common formula, or questions
about consumer math where you have to figure out the cost of some items in
the supermarket.

By the way, Parade magazine is a "feel-good" parakeet-cage filler
that comes with almost every Sunday paper in America. The usual stories
contain such thought-provoking tales such as "Oprah's 50 ways to lose
weight." or "Why I believe in Santa Claus." Once in a while they have a
decent recipe that I cut out and try-out for dinner. Otherwise, it is not
very informative at all. (Sort of on the order of a slightly less weighty
version of USA Today.)

Marty



On Jan 2, 2011, at 3:48 PM, Hugh Haskell wrote:

Sorry to all the non-newspaper readers out there. It never occurred
to me that there were some who didn't see Parade Magazine every week.
I've never been near a newspaper that doesn't carry Parade, so it
just wasn't on my radar that everyone wouldn't be able to see it.

Unfortunately, they don't include her current column on the Parade
web site so I couldn't get a link to the column, but Pete Lohstreter
has posted the questions, most of which I would have taken as a joke,
if the had not been introduced by this rather inane paragraph:

"Some of my reader's questions would confound the Oracle of Delphi!
Here's a selection of recent unanswerable ones worth pondering
anyway."

Look at the questions that Pete posted and tell me why the "world's
smartest person" should find any of them unanswerable. Inane? Maybe.
Ignorant? Probably. But unanswerable? Not likely.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
mailto:hugh@ieer.org
mailto:haskellh@verizon.net

It isn't easy being green.

--Kermit Lagrenouille
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l

_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l