Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
re you ignorant too?	paraclete	07/26/08
It seems some of us just don't know what it is all about. Now this is completely unacceptable in a society with something a little short of 100% education. (the short is those who don't go to school, a compulsory exercise for the young) http://www.smh.com.au/news/richard-glover/the-devils-in-the-detail/2008/07/25/1216492732872.html thing is I know the answers but it seems some are just plain ignorant
Clarification/Follow-up by labman on 07/27/08 6:11 pm: OK, I got cut off by ''Answer too long''. Science has taken a real beating. I ran across this in discussion about dogs recently, ''Kawczynska likens the Millan cult of personality and popularity to the anti-science, anti-academic sentiment she sees prevalent in American culture and politics. '', http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/15/CMGPHL9D1N1.DTL I think science has shot itself in the foot lending its credibility to dubious political agendas such as global warning and evolution. Thus people tend to favor their own limited experience over the results of careful, controlled studies. Another dog example: This from a Q&A site I won't name, '' My dog is 8 months old. I need some advice!! How to train my dog not to gnaws he nit picks and driving me crazy? Any tips!! Please help!!'' Any idea what she needs? While many dogs are over fed leading to being picky eaters, nit picking usually is what will happen to my answer here. Perhaps the dog has lice? Clarification/Follow-up by labman on 07/28/08 2:41 pm: ''actually the answer is 2.438 metres, millimetres are a much better measure'' I rounded which is often appropriate. Where I said 8 feet, I suggested a integer. Quite often lengths are a measurement with a limited degree of accuracy. In any science course, people are taught to only use the number of significant figures justified by the original data. Millimeters are a better measurement, for what? Unless you started with a length known to in this case 0.001 feet, in millimeters the answer would need be rounded off and reported as perhaps 2.44 x 10^3 millimeters. Although proper use of measurements are taught in science class, many people misuse them. Clarification/Follow-up by paraclete on 07/28/08 10:44 pm: a much better measure to work with in carpentary or metalwork when fitting parts together because you can accurately determine the dimentions of a saw cut. If you come from the US where imperial measurements are used it is unlikely you would observe this since working in .001 inch is impractical from most people Clarification/Follow-up by labman on 07/29/08 1:34 pm: And an American machinist will explain how well a micrometer calibrated in thousandths works on his job. Don't ask a surveyor or astronomer to work in millimetres. So in wood working how much difference is it using a scale with the slightly finer 1/32 markings compared to millimeters that are 1/25.4 of an inch? The scales on the commonly used combination squares here usually include 1/8'', 1/16''. and 1/32'' allowing you to chose accuracy, or ease of reading.
Answered By		Answered On
labman		07/27/08
I think the problem is like an onion, layers and layers. Likely this should have been posted in the discussion area. Certainly the problem starts in America with our failed eduction system. It is no wonder as little of the system seems to have the best education the taxpayer can afford as a goal. The teachers' union is more concerned with their jobs, pay, and benefits. (Our schools problem is not a lack of money.) Many in the establishment are more interested in political indoctrination than learning. After all, how could our liberal elite control the masses and ever have a chance of winning an election if the people had the facts and were trained in critical thinking? A good example is the one test my wife brought home from work. They have reshuffled some responsibilities and she will be teaching more social studies. I forget what the one question was, but all of the multiple choice answers on an economic question were wrong. It is really sad when those trained to teach economics don't understand the fundamentals of how an economy works or choose to dispense disinformation. Another layer of the question is who defines what is worth knowing. Nobody knows everything, and many tend to see what they know as what is important. I don't remember the conversion factor for feet to metres or some of those other answers. I do remember there are 2,54 centimeters in a inch. So say I needed to convert 8' to metres. 8 feet x 12 in/foot x 2.54 cm/in x 0.01 metres/cm = 2.44 meters. Notice how I included the proper units with each number and how meters I wanted only appear in the numerator and how all the other units were in both the numerator and denominator canceling each other out. That proves my answer is right. Of course I can apply common sense to check it too, a badly neglected technique.

Additional Options and ratings are only visible when you login!