Stupidity or ignorance? You decide!

The BBQ Pit
1

A bit lame for the Pit, but here goes anyway…

There was a big power blackout in parts of Sweden last week. I was in one of the computer rooms at the University of Lund at the time, working on an assignment. Screens black out. We go outside, trying to reach our teacher to work out what to do now. One female student, approximately 40 years of age, has an idea.

“If we all just believe that the power will come back, I’m sure it will”, she says.

I gently opine that I don’t think it will work.

“Yes, it will”, she says. “After all, that’s how airplanes fly.”

My interest piqued, I eloquently say “Huh?”.

“They can fly because all the passengers really believe they can”, she says. “Otherwise, how could these big, heavy things fly?”

“The Bernoulli Principle”, I reply as dead-pan as I can.

“The what?”

“Bernoulli Principle.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, the wing is shaped like this (descriptive hand gestures). The air above the wing travels faster than the air below the wing, which, according to the Bernoulli Principle, means the pressure of the air below the wing is higher than the pressure of the air above the wing. This creates an upward force that keeps the plane in the air.”

She contemplates this.

“So that’s how a plane flies?”, she says.

“Yep”, I answer. “It only works if the wing is moving forward really fast, which is why they have to drive the plane so fast on the ground when they take off.”

“And this is called?”

“The Bernoulli Principle. B-E-R-N-O-U-L-L-I.”

“Oh. I thought it was the faith of the passengers.”

“Well then you learnt something today, didn’t you?”

Now, is this woman stupid or just ignorant? On the one hand, she was eager to learn, which points to mere ignorance, soon eradicated. On the other hand, how can you possibly go through life believing that the commonly accepted explanation for airplane flight is the faith of the passengers? How did the first airplane fly then?

[sub]And yes I know my explanation of flight was simplified. You go in depth with someone like that when you’re already annoyed for a thousand different reasons. And besides, that’s not the point.[/sub]

2

Um…wow… :confused:

3

Going on your description alone, I’d say she was playing a game with you, however, I suspect some hitherto unmentioned details and gestural contexts etc may rule this out.

4

That was my thought at the time as well, so I “played my part” ambiguously in order to avoid losing face. But when she was totally dead-pan and genuinely interested in what I had to say, my conclusion had to be that she was serious.

She also happens to fit the stereotype of someone who would believe airplanes are operated by faith…

5

Bernoul… who???

This is total bullshit. You are just plain stupid to be believing in “principles”.

Everyone knows planes fly because of the faith of the passengers. And to prove my point, on my flight this weekend to Dallas, I will not have any faith and the plane will crash and I’ll show you damnit!

Brunelly principles… Yeah right. :rolleyes:

6

The Bernouilli effect’s only part of the solution. The main reason a plane flies is that the wing deflects air downwards. Point the nose higher, you increase the angle of attack, more air is deflected. Then Newton’s Third Law kicks in: the force deflecting the air downwards is equalled by the opposite force pushing the plane upwards.

If it was all down to the aerofoil section of the wing, you wouldn’t be able to climb, dive or fly upside down. Mind you, getting a non-turbulent airflow over the wing is important.

A flying carpet however is purely a faith-based device :slight_smile:

7

Hey Malacandra…

8

I had no idea how a plane actually got airborne. That’s ignorance on my part.

But believing it was because of the faith of the passengers…well that’s just plain stooooopid!!

9

Now if only I could find 3 dozen like-minded people to believe that my truck was actually made out of solid gold, I could be rich…

10

[a chorus of windchimes]

“Yes.”

[fades to silence]

11

I think she was taking the piss out of you big time, Priceguy.

You had a major league whoosing.

12

I wouldn’t be so sure. I recently found out that my step-daughter (a woman in her early 30s, for heaven’s sake!) really, genuinely believed that David Copperfield and Michael Jackson had mystic abilities that allowed them to fly.

Really. Fly. Like Peter Pan. She‘d seen them on TV.

It’s sad but true that for some people, science is a closed book. Written in a foreign language. Kept locked in a steel safe in the fogotten dungeon of an impregnable castle in a land far, far away.

13

< snicker >

Thanks for the early Monday morning giggle.

I love how people think sometimes and it’s even funnier to hear it second party and their reflection on the encounter, it makes ya wonder…

14

Ask her how she thinks cargo planes fly :smiley:

I vote for the “stupidity” option.

15

Let me know if she signs up as a poster here…I’ll give her a unique member status, the infamous “2stupid2live”.

16

did the power come on?

17

Ummmm Can I ask what is the color of this woman’s hair?

18

[R. Kelly]

I belieeeeeeve I can fly!

[/R. Kelly]

19

I have to vote for the “pulling your chain” option, myself. Sure she sounded completely deadpan and serious. That’s what makes it fun. I have an uncle who does shit like that to people who don’t know him well, and he can keep up the act for hours. I once saw him get a guy to explain to explain some principle of trigonometry to him, and by the end the guy was talking to him like a retarded five year old. Harold’s been a pipefitter for almost forty years, and he can use the angles of one joint to extrapolate the angle something three walls away will have to be cut at…in his head.

20

Everyone who says she put me on: I understand why you’re saying that. As I said, it was my first thought as well. But you weren’t there. You didn’t see the bottomless confusion in her eyes when I offered an alternative explanation of the mystery of flight. You didn’t hear the genuine interest in her voice when I started explaining the Bernoulli Principle. You didn’t see her world being turned upside down when she realized how much isn’t powered by faith.

I’m not convincing you, I know. I’m barely convincing myself. Still a good story, though.