# Are people really this ignorant of science? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 5, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228 "2006-07-05T01:03:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/21 "2006-07-05T20:16:52Z")
[QUOTE=jeffrice] Um … if there were no gravity whatsoever, how come the astronaut comes down at all? [/QUOTE] You obviously missed the part about the really heavy boots. ---
**Author:** ![TwoTrouts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/22 "2006-07-05T20:39:06Z")
I was talking with a Parks Police officer once, she was out enforcing fishing licenses, etc. Somehow, the subject of moths came up. She was convinced that moths became butterflies. According to her, the life-cycle is: caterpillar, cocoon, moth, pupa, butterfly. I was embarrassed for her, especially after I gently corrected her. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/23 "2006-07-05T20:43:13Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] You obviously missed the part about the really heavy boots. [/QUOTE] Oh, that’s not all I missed. This whole thread has become a nightmare for me! Can a moderator please tone down that stupid Red Forman quote to a manageable size? (Apparently, my idea of 6 point type and SDMB’s idea are worlds apart.) I apologize for screwing up a perfectly good thread. I’ll just go home now and write letters to the editor. With a fountain pen. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/24 "2006-07-05T20:53:47Z")
[QUOTE=Clockwork And Candy] Yes, but aren’t rivers that flow north unusual enough to comment on? 'Cause as I recall, there’s a north flowing river around where I live and people actually vist it for that reason. I think. Maybe… [/QUOTE] North flowing rivers aren’t all that rare. There’s the McKenzie, Red, Nile, Lena, Rhine and those are only the ones I can think of off-hand. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/25 "2006-07-05T21:11:05Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] I don’t think this view does occur in Australia. I heard it being expressed by an American tourist when I was in Kakadu a few years ago. [/QUOTE] That makes more sense. It is an unfortunately widespread belief in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/26 "2006-07-05T21:26:41Z")
The St. John’s River in Jacksonville flows north. But that’s only because Georgia sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/27 "2006-07-05T21:30:17Z")
I was asking this very question last night, when I caught a bit of David Letterman’s show. He’s got a thing now, called “will it float?” where he takes a given object and has it dropped into a pool of water to find out–well, you get the point. Last night it was a big can of evaporated milk, and Dave and Paul were speculating based on the fact that it was a 97 oz. can. I kept wanting to say, “Folks, it doesn’t matter how much it weighs–it’s the density that matters.” Dave and Paul did not seem to grasp that point, but I guess that’s how most people view the thing. Yeah, most people really are that ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![DiggitCamara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/28 "2006-07-05T22:17:01Z")
I remember a really misguided nun, teaching me cathecism. She insisted on the whole “earth is at the center of the universe, the stars are little light-points”-schtick. However she didn’t count on having a really precocious, absolutely logical-minded 7-year-old who, coincidentally, had gotten an astronomy book for his birthday. Man, was I **riled**! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/29 "2006-07-05T22:45:44Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] That makes more sense. It is an unfortunately widespread belief in the U.S. [/QUOTE] Well, in Switzerland, everybody seems to believe that all rivers run downhill! I keep on arguing with people about it but they persist in their preconceived idea. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/30 "2006-07-06T00:26:49Z")
[QUOTE=Not A Tame Lion] I was asking this very question last night, when I caught a bit of David Letterman’s show. He’s got a thing now, called “will it float?” where he takes a given object and has it dropped into a pool of water to find out–well, you get the point. Last night it was a big can of evaporated milk, and Dave and Paul were speculating based on the fact that it was a 97 oz. can. I kept wanting to say, “Folks, it doesn’t matter how much it weighs–it’s the density that matters.” Dave and Paul did not seem to grasp that point, but I guess that’s how most people view the thing. Yeah, most people really are that ignorant. [/QUOTE] I think you’re missing the point of “Will it Float?” It’s _supposed_ to be dumb. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/31 "2006-07-06T00:36:01Z")
[QUOTE=jeffrice] Um … if there were no gravity whatsoever, how come the astronaut comes down at all? I thought I learned in junior high that the moon has about one-sixth of Earth’s gravity. [/QUOTE] Actually, the Moon only has about one eightieth of the Earth’s gravity. However, astronauts on the surface experienced about one sixth the gravitational force of the Earth’s surface, because they were closer to the center of the Moon’s gravity than you would be to the center of Earth’s gravity. I hope that doesn’t seem as garbled to you as it does to me. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/32 "2006-07-06T00:37:30Z")
The one that really gets me is my sister in law. She convinces that side of the family into all kinds of crazy stuff including a 20 vitamin a day regime to treat my FIL’s prostate cancer. She recently talked my pregnant wife into buying whole cases of “ultra-purified” water made with “medical grade oxygen”. The stuff costs $3 a bottle but my SIL assured my wife it was the only way that her cells could stay properly hydrated late in pregnancy. It took me hours to undo that damage. I shouldn’t be too hard on my SIL though. She retired from Chemical Engineering a few years ago and now works as a lowly professor of Health Psychology. She just doesn’t know any better. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/33 "2006-07-06T02:01:43Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] Well, in Switzerland, everybody seems to believe that all rivers run downhill! I keep on arguing with people about it but they persist in their preconceived idea. [/QUOTE] Technically the Mississippi runs uphill. Because of the equatorial bulge its mouth is further from the center of the earth than is its source. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/34 "2006-07-06T02:20:21Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Don’t answer the question in the thread title – we know for a fact that people have some very strange ideas about how things work. … I spent a good part of the afternoon debating this with them, and I don’t think I convinced a single one of them. [/QUOTE] This pretty much sums up a day at work for me in my last job. Being the resident “smart guy” I was regualrly asked for advice on things like computer purchases. Cow-orker: Drach, what kind of computer should I buy Me: Well whats the most important thing to you, speed, storage, ability to burn CD’s? Cow-orker: I needs to be black! Me: :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/35 "2006-07-06T02:23:07Z")
Yes, they really are. How many times do I have to explain the concept of a uterus to a woman who has just given birth? A c/section is not a hysterectomy. You will have lochia. (That reddish stuff you’re leaking.) No, the baby doesn’t _really_ grow in your stomach. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/36 "2006-07-06T02:26:56Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] Well, in Switzerland, everybody seems to believe that all rivers run downhill! I keep on arguing with people about it but they persist in their preconceived idea. [/QUOTE] In the Southern Hemisphere, of course, they run uphill. ---
**Author:** ![Carlyjay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Carlyjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carlyjay)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/37 "2006-07-06T02:46:11Z")
I once spent an entire afternoon arguing with an ex-boyfriend who _insisted_ that if you could fly a plane around the world over the International Date Line enough times, you could go back in time. I’m talking _time-travel_. I could not convince him otherwise. Also, the mother of my best friend in high school insisted that dinosaurs never existed. She claimed that “dinosaur bones” are really “just big horse bones”. She was dead serious. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/38 "2006-07-06T02:48:21Z")
[QUOTE=Case Sensitive] In the Southern Hemisphere, of course, they run uphill. [/QUOTE] And clockwise! ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/39 "2006-07-06T02:56:24Z")
[QUOTE=Cyn] Yes, they really are. How many times do I have to explain the concept of a uterus to a woman who has just given birth? A c/section is not a hysterectomy. You will have lochia. (That reddish stuff you’re leaking.) No, the baby doesn’t _really_ grow in your stomach. [/QUOTE] Along similar lines, my sister had a hysterectomy for excessive bleeding–they took the uterus but left the ovaries as she’s only 43 and there’s nothing wrong with them. She was absolutely astounded to discover that she still has PMS even though she doesn’t have periods any more. :rolleyes: I told her that technically what she has now is UMS (Ugly Mood Swings.) Oh, and next time I cross over the Willamette I’ll give it a stern lecture about going the wrong way. I’m sure that will have a sudden and noticeable effect… ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228/40 "2006-07-06T03:00:01Z")
Oh, and while we’re on the subject of medical ignorance, can we give a big ol’ bitchslap to all the morons who equate vasectomy with orchidectomy, or who insist that they either won’t ejaculate at all or that volume will be drastically decreased? Sperm is just the tiniest little part of semen guys, and the boys will be right where you left 'em the last time you scratched, okay? :smack: :wally [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-really-this-ignorant-of-science/363228.md?page=3)