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Bad Science
One of the first things I found on the Web were
Alistair B. Fraser's Bad
Science pages. He starts with
It is better to communicate good information
than to offer misinformation
in the name of good communication.
and
Be very, very careful what you put into that head,
because you will never, ever get it out.
Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1530)
and goes from there, showing that much of what
is told about things scientific and technical,
such as the shape of a raindrop (it's closer to
a hamburger than a teardrop) simple ain't so.
Visit
those pages!
Bad Science: Bad Hydrostatics
Ever see
a picture in a physics textbook like the diagram at the
left? (If you have, please let me know! I
put off making this page for two years because I never found
that diagram, even though I know I've seen it in the distance
past.)
The reality is not so.
While it's true that water comes out of the lower holes
faster than it comes out of the upper holes, as it has
more pressure behind it (directly proportional to the
depth of the column of water above it) it's not true
that the streams necessarily cross as neatly as in
the diagram. Depending on the relative heights,
while water from the upper stream is travelling more
slowly, it also has a longer time to travel before
it hits the table, and the lower stream may not have
"caught up" by then. (Discount the middle
stream in the photo: it's obvious that a bur or something
in the design of the hole is causing the water to
leave the cylinder with some upward velocity.)
For a related problem, in which there is a trade-off
between velocity and time in which that velocity is
useful, see my Swimming
Hole (Tarzan) problem.
Note: The cylinder shown was constructed from a one
quart can containing baby formula. The garden hose
was adjusted to keep the level in the cylinder
consistent. Photographed October 1996.
Bad Social Science
John Lott's book,
More Guns, Less Crime
refutes many myths about guns, gun control, crime, and self-defense.
Bad Lawyer-bashing
The Association of Trial
Lawyers of America's
Civil Justice Facts page, includes their Fact
Sheet on McDonald's Scalding Coffee Case. Read this and you will stop using
McDonald's and a suit over a burn caused by hot coffee as a metaphor for over-litigiousness.
Bad Software Labor Shortage Claim
Professor Norm Matloff Debunks
the myth of a desperate software labor shortage. The only thing in short
supply is engineers who are willing to work as cheaply as the employers would
like to be able to pay them.
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