Need some commonly accepted untruths/misconceptions

[Mike Gayner]

Myth: heat rises.

 

[ed21x]

christopher columbus discovered america

 

[Crono]

A colleague at work has some Aerogel. Its very weird stuff; almost transparent (has a 'smokey' look to it), very brittle and obviously very light.

I want an aerogel jacket.

 

[Jeff7]

Right, speed is the same, but the force exterted on the... victim, is greater with a heavier bullet...

Good point.
Then you're pretty much just changing the fluid it's traveling through: Going from air to blood/flesh.

Terminal velocity is a lot slower than normal muzzle velocity, probably a tenth at best...

Due to tumbling of a bullet?
Do you happen to know how long a bullet takes to slow to terminal velocity after being fired?

 

[yh125d]

Good point.
Then you're pretty much just changing the fluid it's traveling through: Going from air to blood/flesh.



Due to tumbling of a bullet?

No, due to how the firing of the cartridge imparts much more energy upon the bullet in that split second than does gravity in the same time. Terminal velocit of a bullet will be MUCH lower than muzzle velocity

 

[gsellis]

No, due to how the firing of the cartridge imparts much more energy upon the bullet in that split second than does gravity in the same time. Terminal velocit of a bullet will be MUCH lower than muzzle velocity

A dropped bullet will tumble. I think I read that a fired one may tumble. Tumbling equals drag, so lower tv. It will still leave a mark... Also remember that a fired bullet will maintain a portion of its initial velocity based on the angle it was fired at plus the velocity based on max altitude to ground - resistance. If spins keeps it stable, it is definitely fatal.

I have seen the pictures of a friends car hit in N.O. on New Years Eve. It was a nice hole in the roof. Add 60mph of the car and she was a Fed finishing 'work', it made it even 'bigger'. Just some numbnut firing in the air with a lucky shot.

 

[l0cke]

Because teachers are as full of shit as anybody else. Especially middle school teachers that have been teaching the same stuff for 20-30 years.

http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teache.../dp/0684818868

Oh damn, its available for free on Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=Et...resnum=5&ved=0CDIQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

See also
http://www.amazon.com/Book-General-I.../dp/0307394913

 

[BoomerD]

Contrary to what your parents told you...you AREN'T all that special.
(unless you ride the short bus...then, maybe you are.)

All unions are bad. The unions that ARE bad give the rest a black eye...(yet another stereotype)

 

[zerocool84]

Johannes Gutenberg didn't invent the printing press. The Chinese did hundreds of years before.

 

[Greenman]

Marconi invented the radio - it was Tesla by almost 8 years.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone - it was Elisha Gray , Bells attorney paid off the patent clerk to view Grays patent application

Thomas Edison invented the light bulb - he bought the patent from Woodward and Evans

dropping a penny off the empire state building will kill somebody below - a penny doesn't have enough mass

Henry Ford invented the automobile - he invented the assembly line to make them cheaper and faster, also created the home charcoal market when he wanted to find a way to use all the scrap wood

I'd like to see the evidence for the Edison and Bell statements.

 

[FoBoT]

i recently realized that something my grandfather always told me , no longer is as wise as it was back in his time

he would tell me , "Don't take any wooden nickels"

back in the 1920's or 1930's , the wood needed to carve a wooden nickel would of course cost much less than a nickel . so taking a wooden nickel in place of a real nickel would clearly be a rip off

now, in 2009, if you were to carve a nickel out of a good quality hard wood, a nice cherry or teak or something, it may very well cost more that $0.05 for that piece of wood

so now, a wooden nickel might well be worth more than a real nickel

 

[Locut0s]

I'd like to see the evidence for the Edison and Bell statements.

Not proof of the exact statements but proof that other people either did much if not most of the work prior to said inventor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_bulb

"
In addressing the question "Who invented the incandescent lamp?" historians Robert Friedel and Paul Israel [3] list 22 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas Edison. They conclude that Edison's version was able to outstrip the others because of a combination of three factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve (by use of the Sprengel pump) and a high resistance lamp that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.
"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone

"
Credit for the invention of the electric telephone is frequently disputed, and new controversies over the issue have arisen from time-to-time. As with other great inventions such as radio, television, light bulb, and computer, there were several inventors who did pioneering experimental work on voice transmission over a wire and improved on each other's ideas. Innocenzo Manzetti, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Elisha Gray, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison, among others, have all been credited with pioneering work on the telephone. An undisputed fact is that Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for the electric telephone by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in March 1876.[1] That first patent by Bell was the master patent of the telephone, from which all other patents for electric telephone devices and features flowed.
"

 

[SirStev0]

Columbus discovered America, Washington and the cherry tree, The American Revolution being a Revolution.

 

[SonnyDaze]

Jesus saves.

 

[FoBoT]

The American Revolution being a Revolution.

you talking it was really a War of Independence or something else

 

[Modelworks]

I'd like to see the evidence for the Edison and Bell statements.

For Bell here is the report of the affidavit given in court from the patent examiner that he told Bell all about the details in how Grays patent application worked before Bell filed the final patent because he was in debt and Bell paid him $100
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Zenas-fisk-wilber-affidavit.png

For Edison, the original patent registered and later sold to Edison.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=yN...gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

[misle]

No two snowflakes are alike.

 

[SirStev0]

you talking it was really a War of Independence or something else

Yeah War of Independence not a war of Revolution. As it was explained to me, since a revolution requires a class war and exchange of power the "American Revolution" doesn't qualify as the rich and elite class stayed the same and stayed in power. They merely lead the masses in a war to separate themselves and their governorship from that of England. It wasn't an uprising or revolt in a strict definition.

 

[mugs]

i recently realized that something my grandfather always told me , no longer is as wise as it was back in his time

he would tell me , "Don't take any wooden nickels"

back in the 1920's or 1930's , the wood needed to carve a wooden nickel would of course cost much less than a nickel . so taking a wooden nickel in place of a real nickel would clearly be a rip off

now, in 2009, if you were to carve a nickel out of a good quality hard wood, a nice cherry or teak or something, it may very well cost more that $0.05 for that piece of wood

so now, a wooden nickel might well be worth more than a real nickel

Even a nickel nickel is worth more than a nickel (what is, more than $.05)

 

[DuffmanOhYeah]

Anthropogenic global warming.

 

[angminas]

That evolution generates species of ever greater adaptability or greatness. We humans are not necessarily any better adapted to our environment than slime molds nor are we really any "greater".

Can you recommend some light reading which substantiates this? I'd like to look into this subject more.

 

[SirStev0]

Can you recommend some light reading which substantiates this? I'd like to look into this subject more.

He is just twisting words. Yes slime mold can survive, but we have developed a much more complex and advanced system of survival. And we are more fit for our environment.

Need proof? Aim a stampeding rhino at me and a slime mold and see which gets out of the way faster.

 

[Arkaign]

The first digital computer was built in America (ENIAC). False; it was Colossus.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000984.htm
http://www.picotech.com/applications/colossus.html

I could be wrong, but I think your links clearly conclude that indeed it was not Colossus that was the first 'digital computer'.

From link one above :

"Short for Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the ABC started being developed by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry in 1937 and continued to be developed until 1942 at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State University). On October 19, 1973, US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed his decision that the ENIAC patent by Eckert and Mauchly was invalid and named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer."

From link two above :

"Design of Colossus started in March 1943 and the first unit was operational at Bletchley Park in January 1944."

 

[TheVrolok]

Yeah War of Independence not a war of Revolution. As it was explained to me, since a revolution requires a class war and exchange of power the "American Revolution" doesn't qualify as the rich and elite class stayed the same and stayed in power. They merely lead the masses in a war to separate themselves and their governorship from that of England. It wasn't an uprising or revolt in a strict definition.

Put down the Howard Zinn!

 

[TheVrolok]

btw...why not just browse snopes?

I came here to link www.snopes.com