The Technicalities of Technical Terms

EDIT:  NEW WORDS ADDED FOR THIS WEEK MARKED WITH "*".

In this post, I'm going to go over some technical terms that I find are commonly misunderstood or misused.  I decided to write this post because of a teacher in one of my classes.  Now, it's not really because of the teacher that I'm writing this, but more because he made me realize that the media commonly uses words incorrectly and then this carries on to the people who learn the terms that way.

The class I'm talking about is History of Science.  The class is done from a literary and historical perspective and not a technical one.  And, therefore, is taught by someone educated in literature.  And he does a great job in that respect.  However, he sometimes gets his science-y things wrong.  And I know this isn't because he's stupid, it just comes from hearing the terms used incorrectly all the time.

When Science Goes Right... For the Most Part Anyway

stargate.blogvie.com/

Stargate SG-1 is a science fiction television show.  In the show, the US military acquires a device that allows them to connect to other planets via wormholes.

In the episode "A Matter of Time," one of the military groups begins to explore a planet before they realize that it is being drawn into a black hole.  When the earth facility attempts to get in contact with the the group on the foreign planet, the gravitational effects of the black hole are transfered through the wormhole.  This causes the facility on earth to experience time dilation.

For a more complete synopsis go here.  And to watch the episode go here.

Common Movie Misconceptions

Last night I found this website.  The website touches on a few misconceptions that are so popularised in the entertainment world that some people believe that they are true. For example, that people "fly" back when they are shot.  I highly recommend reading though all their explanations.  They are short but offer a lot of insight.

Interviewing & Evaluating Myself

xkcd.com/833/

This is the first of three personal evaluations with a personal survey included!  This is for the class, but I will try to make it easy to read for those you who want to just skim through it.

You Know You're Nerdy When...

If any of you have seen The Big Bang Theory, then you will know that Sheldon takes nerdy to a whole new level. He's so nerdy that he has his own nerdy planet, with a nerdy alien race that normal people can't even communicate with.  Well, it turns out that I live on his nerdy planet too.  He finds the science in fiction hard not to think about, as well.

Here is Sheldon discussing the scientific inaccuracies  and of Superman:

I find this video better, but upon user request I cannot embed it.

And here he is trying to reason out the science of Superman doing his laundry.

Trusting in Scientists

nasa.gov

In my Communicating Science class, we were talking about the deficit model of relaying information to the general public. The deficit model is, basically, when someone just dumps information on you and then it's in your hands on what to do about the information. Let me give you a scenario I think we've all seen before to explain this.