Things you understand but don't accept

Potential-Monke

Bit of pointless conversation of a Tuesday. Having a chat at work, and specifically about flying vs taking a boat. I'm lucky enough to understand how both of these methods of transport work, but I'm far more accepting of planes working, but I don't accept the buoyancy of boats. I understand the theory behind it, but my brain won't let me accept that displacement and buoyancy keep 60000+ tonnes of metal floating!

I'm not denying that's how it works, people way more learned than me researched, conceived and put into practice how they work, but my brain is like nope, can't happen, you can't float 60000 tonnes of metal in water.

Another at work is the opposite, completely understanding of boats but won't accept how planes work.

So, is there anything that you know makes sense but you (your brain) just won't accept it?

Salary Negotiator

Cranes, I understand the physics and the law of the lever but I’m still surprised that they don’t fall over more often.

the beer revolu

The Gulf Stream.
Water is fecking freezing around Ireland.
Gulf Stream me b0llix

Tammy!

The existence of Stonehenge.

careless sherpa

Storybots will explain all of the important stuff

maudgonner

The Monty Hall problem. Feckin' head melter.

vintagecosmos

Schrodinger's Cat...

Water John

Oh, you brought it back to life, again!!!

Salary Negotiator

Salary Negotiator wrote: »

Cranes, I understand the physics and the law of the lever but I’m still surprised that they don’t fall over more often.

I think a crane collapsed on the Kevin Street Library (in town, yaknow?) when it was being refurb'd.

I can't understand that, because an undergraduate engineering student should easily be easily able to calculate capacity etc. It's strange that it happens at all

Salary Negotiator

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I think a crane collapsed on the Kevin Street Library (in town, yaknow?) when it was being refurb'd.

I can't understand that, because an undergraduate engineering student should easily be easily able to calculate capacity etc. It's strange that it happens at all

I remember that, pretty much what I expect to happen with every crane.

the beer revolu

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I think a crane collapsed on the Kevin Street Library (in town, yaknow?) when it was being refurb'd.

I can't understand that, because an undergraduate engineering student should easily be easily able to calculate capacity etc. It's strange that it happens at all

Crane came down in Cork, in a storm some years ago.

Potential-Monke

Tammy! wrote: »

The existence of Stonehenge.

stratowide

vintagecosmos wrote: »

Schrodinger's Cat...

It's still alive or maybe not..

jaxxx

Humanity.

Oh wait that should be the opposite actually, i.e. accept but don't understand.

Arghus

maudgonner wrote: »

The Monty Hall problem. Feckin' head melter.

Jesus, why did you have to bring this into my life.

Sir Osis of Liver.

How we ended up with a gay taoiseach negotiating a backstop.

mickdw

The easiest way I can explain metal floating is this.
Take a piece of wood. Example 1m x 225mm x 75mm
It will float as it's less dense than water. Everyone gets that.
Now take a piece of steel exactly the same dimensions. It will sink straight to the bottom. Now go to work on that piece of steel keeping the bottom and sides intact but hollow it out from the top. Hollow it all out until the piece weighs the same as the timber mentioned earlier. It will now float the same as the timber.
The timber floats cause it displaces more water in terms of weight than it weighs. The steel will m float as it too now displaces more than it weighs.
Alot of people seem to think the whole theory of steel boats floating is down to the shape of the hull.

TheValeyard

Footballers make more than scientists and Doctors

Upforthematch

Potential-Monke wrote: »

So, is there anything that you know makes sense but you (your brain) just won't accept it?

Maths concepts such as infinity, zero, limits, matrices, complex numbers.

Take infinity. Like what is infinity? Why is a finite world understood better using the concept of infinity?

It's really cool that the world can be figured mathematically. No wonder Pythagoras and his buddies treated numbers with awe.

Upforthematch

Potential-Monke wrote: »

So, is there anything that you know makes sense but you (your brain) just won't accept it?

Other things:
Market economics
Why advertising works
Healthy eating, why is all the tasty stuff bad!

jaxxx

Upforthematch wrote: »

Maths concepts such as infinity, zero, limits, matrices, complex numbers.

Take infinity. Like what is infinity? Why is a finite world understood better using the concept of infinity?

It's really cool that the world can be figured mathematically. No wonder Pythagoras and his buddies treated numbers with awe.

Finite: Earth
Infinite: Universe


Exhibit A:

Don't be ashamed if you sh*t yourself. I do everytime I watch that. Trying to comprehend something on such a scale is mind breaking.

Upforthematch

jaxxx wrote: »

Finite: Earth
Infinite: Universe


Exhibit A:

Don't be ashamed if you sh*t yourself. I do everytime I watch that. Trying to comprehend something on such a scale is mind breaking.

That was cool. On that topic, my brain can't accept Pluto is no longer a planet. Mvemjsunp just isn't the same without the P

Your Face

Dying.

riclad

Advertising is very simple,
if you go to a shop with 50 brands you are likely to buy a brand you have heard of ,rather than brand x.
Also many brands are status symbols ,
carrying an apple iphone indicates you can afford to buy a 500 euro phone rather than a 100 euro phone .
Also adverts are aimed at retailers , shops are more likely to stock
a product if they know it exists and it is widely advertised
so consumers will ask for it instead of a cheaper item.
When the ipod was invented ,apple spent millions on ad,s
,heres a device that plays music , its easy to use .
And it,s designed to work with software on pcs and mac,s .
People spend 200 euro on a sneaker cos it has a brand name on it ,
like nike,
a brand that spends millions of euro,s on adverts .
Not all adverts work,
but people at least know the product is avaidable to buy.
new coke , as in coca cola , was heavily advertised , but no one liked it or bought it.

corner of hells

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I think a crane collapsed on the Kevin Street Library (in town, yaknow?) when it was being refurb'd.

I can't understand that, because an undergraduate engineering student should easily be easily able to calculate capacity etc. It's strange that it ha"ppens at all

l was on a building site years ago , when one collapsed.

Pretty certain an Irish 100 metre sprint record was broken by a few of us that morning.

RebelButtMunch

Tammy! wrote: »

The existence of Stonehenge.

It was in bits.
They fixed it right up years ago.

mickdw

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Salary Negotiator wrote: »

Cranes, I understand the physics and the law of the lever but I’m still surprised that they don’t fall over more often.

I think a crane collapsed on the Kevin Street Library (in town, yaknow?) when it was being refurb'd.

I can't understand that, because an undergraduate engineering student should easily be easily able to calculate capacity etc. It's strange that it happens at all

The last one I remember falling over was due to it being locked at a certain position overnight instead of being allowed to freely rotate with the wind. Wind then caught it side on and took it down.

Goodshape

jaxxx wrote: »

Finite: Earth
Infinite: Universe


Exhibit A:
<video>

Don't be ashamed if you sh*t yourself. I do everytime I watch that. Trying to comprehend something on such a scale is mind breaking.

I'm sleep deprived and stressed about a work thing and just seeing that thumbnail has reminded me of that video and how everything I know is tiny and futile and I don't like it.

You bastard.

the14thwarrior

If eating wheat and bran and oats reduces the odds of getting cancer or having a heart attack
and exercising reduces the odds
and not drinking and smoking reduces the odds
and eating five veg and fruit a day reduces the odds
and doing yoga and mindfullness and relaxing and being positive and all that reduces the odds
not to mention wheat grass and the other really really really healthy food that you can put in a smoothie and turns everything green reduces the odds
and not bar b queing and having fresh air
having a pet and don't eat smoked rashers or hot dogs
and doing all this and more reduces the odds

if ya put them together and do it all the time, why do these people get heart attacks and cancer? are they just extremely unlucky?

Franz Von Peppercorn II

the14thwarrior wrote: »

If eating wheat and bran and oats reduces the odds of getting cancer or having a heart attack
and exercising reduces the odds
and not drinking and smoking reduces the odds
and eating five veg and fruit a day reduces the odds
and doing yoga and mindfullness and relaxing and being positive and all that reduces the odds
not to mention wheat grass and the other really really really healthy food that you can put in a smoothie and turns everything green reduces the odds
and not bar b queing and having fresh air
having a pet and don't eat smoked rashers or hot dogs
and doing all this and more reduces the odds

if ya put them together and do it all the time, why do these people get heart attacks and cancer? are they just extremely unlucky?

Genetics. Of course a bad lifestyle can overcome good genetics and a good one compensate for it.

Franz Von Peppercorn II

I kinda want to explain monty Hall now.

uck51js9zml2yt

vintagecosmos wrote: »

Schrodinger's Cat...

You never watched StarGate..explains it all. Series 1:17

Say my name

Life.


Life makes life.
But it's amazing how from only minerals and elements and heat and water how life started.
Does a part of the life from one generation pass into the next generation? Probably ....?

Does our gestation hint back to the very first life starting out underwater at those hydrothermal vents fed with warm water from the centre of the earth?

branie2

Racism
Homophobia
Transphobia

Fourier

vintagecosmos wrote: »

Schrodinger's Cat...

There's calculations you can do in quantum theory for an atom that might decay that end up with something like:
0.5 undecayed + 0.5 decayed

There was debate in the 1930s about what the plus in the middle meant, with some thinking it meant "and", i.e. the atom is somehow decayed and undecayed at the same time until you look at it.

Schrodinger pointed out that this was nonsense because if you applied the same idea to a cat in a box that the atomic decay could kill, you'd have to say the cat was dead and alive until you looked. However as he said there are no such things as dead and alive cats in real life. So the plus can't mean "and".

He then pointed out that what it really means is "or", i.e. the cat could be dead or alive and you don't learn which one is true until you check.

Also he actually got the whole idea from Einstein who described it to him in a letter. Einstein used an explosive keg instead of a cat.

mickdw

mickdw wrote: »

The easiest way I can explain metal floating is this.
Take a piece of wood. Example 1m x 225mm x 75mm
It will float as it's less dense than water. Everyone gets that.
Now take a piece of steel exactly the same dimensions. It will sink straight to the bottom. Now go to work on that piece of steel keeping the bottom and sides intact but hollow it out from the top. Hollow it all out until the piece weighs the same as the timber mentioned earlier. It will now float the same as the timber.
The timber floats cause it displaces more water in terms of weight than it weighs. The steel will m float as it too now displaces more than it weighs.
Alot of people seem to think the whole theory of steel boats floating is down to the shape of the hull.

Mick i think the theory behind this is fairly straightforward, the OP was referring to somehow rejecting a concept even though you can understand and entirely accept it in principle.

For example, I know that under the PR STV system, I should attribute my electoral preferences right down to the last candidate. But I cannot do it. There will always be three sullen, greedy-looking Fine Gaelers at the end of the list whom I cannot bring myself to vote for. It makes no logical sense. Just can't do it.

Moomoomacshoe

Your Face wrote: »

Dying.

And why dogs have such short lives!

I think I get the Monty Hall problem now, though it took me a while. However the Birthday Paradox still blows my mind. Like I can see why it does make sense mathematically, but intuitively I still just can't get over it.

Reisers

General Relativity - can't see the point of it

Reisers

Special Relativity


What's special about it anyway?

Reisers

The Dirac Equation


Who needs it?

Odyssey 2005

It's their fault. Now,put the whiskey away and go to bed.!?

ToddyDoody

The charges put down against me, past, present and future.

It BeeMee

Supertramp

I know it's a bloke singing
I've watched YouTube with Roger Hodgson doing the vocals

But if I listen to a song, I'm convinced it's a woman singing