[Weekly Discussion Thread] Scientists, what are the biggest misconceptions in your field?

fastparticles · 2012-05-24T18:41:48.583544+00:00

Imaginary numbers are mysterious, arcane, or otherwise problematic.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I've thought this for a long time, until I realized that negative numbers are similar in this regard. You can't have -5 apples. It's just something we've defined because it gives a nice pattern. Negative numbers are just "regular numbers" multiplied by -1, and it's the same with imaginary numbers, they're "regular numbers" multiplied by i.

Is this the correct way of thinking about it? I have (sadly) yet to encounter imaginary numbers in school, so this is just how I made sense of it.

Senor_Rager · 2012-05-24T07:18:25.708705+00:00

How does stopping masturbating help build confidence?

hajder · 1 day

Ah, that makes sense, I was of the impression that window command line programs use slashes instead of dashes to denote parameters :)

hajder · 1 day

Noedel · 1 day

Ah, now I see what you're getting at, and I absolutely understand your point of view. Still, I think it's a relevant suggestion, if not an absolutely appropriate one.

And regarding my username, you might be disappointed, as I chose it before I knew about ASOIAF :)

Noedel · 1 day

I know, but it excludes a minority on reddit. It's still helpful for the most, so it does deserve to be in this thread.

Noedel · 1 day

Similarly, you could say that "staying in" isn't cheap because you need to buy a house to do that. Of course, the number of redditors who have a house is probably higher than those who own a smartphone, but both are a reasonable assumption, given the demographics.

Noedel · 1 day

You don't need an app to go to a coordinate...

eltommonator · 1 day

...and now you've piqued my interest. I actually have yet to play either of those two games, I've only read about them so far, and up to now, I've always thought of The Void as the more interesting game of these two. Well, guess that's not the case, I'll get to it as soon as I can :)

eltommonator · 1 day

Since Pathologic has been already noted, I'd add The Void:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Void_%28video_game%29

gLovejoy · 2 days

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."

Doublethink?

youshallnotpass1234 · 3 days

Not if the universe is discrete.

youshallnotpass1234 · 3 days

Lauren, I wanna know you.

What does it mean, know me? Know me? Nobody knows anyone else, ever!

(from a Rules of Attraction, but I know it from In Another Life When We Are Both Cats by Maybeshewill.

cecikierk · 3 days

Finally, I was getting a bit sick of the Tesla-worshipping around here.

bfelix · 4 days

Yes! That's what I meant, thanks :)

chefranden · 5 days

Me too, it had potential as a philosophical dialog. Well, it was wonderful nevertheless.

bfelix · 5 days

In Czech it's "Němec", and it's because they didn't understand our language, hence "němý" ("mute").

It might be similar in Croatian.

bfelix · 5 days

I think there was a thread about how there's a different name for Turkey in almost every language, and nobody knows where does the damn bird come from.

micro4004 · 6 days

I recall a scene in End of Evangelion, when while the NERV headquarters is being stormed by soldiers, there's a sobbing figure which drags an inanimate bloodied body behind a corner, only to be seen by a soldier running by, who shoots him, and goes on his merry way.

Retold it doesn't really have the punch, but seeing it back then, it really made the point of "yeah, they are professionals, and they are there to kill people". It also gave depth to the nameless personnel, suddenly they were more than a kill count.

mandjari · 6 days

You might also note that /r/comics has a sidebar :)

Thedarkfallenone · 7 days

Yeah, also for something that beautiful, they could have used less KKK and Nazi shots. I know it's relevant to the speech, but still.

Thedarkfallenone · 7 days

Made up entirely of schwas.

IsUpTooLate · 7 days

His complaint wasn't about the answer, but about the question. There's nothing that needs simplifying about it. It would be more appropriate at /r/answers, not at /r/explainlikeimfive.

IsUpTooLate · 8 days

Because that has worked so well in /r/atheism or /r/politics.

Theon

TROPHY CASE

Theon

TROPHY CASE

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