Well, the good news for you is that the slope is virtually flat. A pity about the intercept. There may, however, be some deep philosophical questions about which value of infinity it is.
"Any scientist who can't explain to an eight-year old what he is doing is a charlatan."
- Dr. Felix Hoenikker, Cat's Cradle
In Vonnegut's fiction, that may be the case. In reality they try too hard to explain exactly what they are doing in their current research, often stuff that only a few others are familiar with. The traditional way is to 'tell lies to children' -- offer an explanation that is misleading, but accurate enough for someone who isn't competent to understand what is being done.
When my ex was getting ready to write his diss, his advisor told him: "Write it so your mother could understand it. Wait a minute.... Your mother's a chemist, right?"
"Right."
The prof pointed to me and said, "OK, write it so her mother [a high-scool grad] could understand it."
I'm not making this up. I was there. And all three of us LOLd for the next 5 minutes.
"Any scientist who can't explain to an eight-year old what he is doing is a charlatan."
The context to that quote is terribly important because the secretary that's unlocking doors for the characters in that scene immediately responds (although I don' have the exact quote):
"That's fine, but I have no idea what a 'charlatan' is."
I once quoted that to a girl I was dating once and she responded, "What's a charlatan?" That's when I knew it wasn't going to work.
Saw in a comic strip, the statement, "If you can't explain it to your grandmother, you don't really understand it." This is, of course, the challenge in teaching introductory courses. That's when you may find out you don't really understand it after all.
Hrmmm...My niece understands better what I am doing and why than most people, sometimes more than I do...Is that a by-product specific only to paleontology? I do sometimes feel like I am doing the science whose main consumer bracket is 5-10 years old.
I dont think it needs just be my family, because my grandmother smiled at me, when I was showing her some illustrations of sauropods, and said
"Yes, I suppose they would have ridden them back then"
Well, the good news for you is that the slope is virtually flat. A pity about the intercept. There may, however, be some deep philosophical questions about which value of infinity it is.
"Any scientist who can't explain to an eight-year old what he is doing is a charlatan."
- Dr. Felix Hoenikker, Cat's Cradle
But I have to explain both the science and the philosophy, so I can't explain what I do to anyone less than a 16 year old (2 x 8 year olds).
And philosophers are by definition charlatans.
In Vonnegut's fiction, that may be the case. In reality they try too hard to explain exactly what they are doing in their current research, often stuff that only a few others are familiar with. The traditional way is to 'tell lies to children' -- offer an explanation that is misleading, but accurate enough for someone who isn't competent to understand what is being done.
=LOL=
When my ex was getting ready to write his diss, his advisor told him: "Write it so your mother could understand it. Wait a minute.... Your mother's a chemist, right?"
"Right."
The prof pointed to me and said, "OK, write it so her mother [a high-scool grad] could understand it."
I'm not making this up. I was there. And all three of us LOLd for the next 5 minutes.
"Any scientist who can't explain to an eight-year old what he is doing is a charlatan."
The context to that quote is terribly important because the secretary that's unlocking doors for the characters in that scene immediately responds (although I don' have the exact quote):
"That's fine, but I have no idea what a 'charlatan' is."
I once quoted that to a girl I was dating once and she responded, "What's a charlatan?" That's when I knew it wasn't going to work.
Saw in a comic strip, the statement, "If you can't explain it to your grandmother, you don't really understand it." This is, of course, the challenge in teaching introductory courses. That's when you may find out you don't really understand it after all.
Hrmmm...My niece understands better what I am doing and why than most people, sometimes more than I do...Is that a by-product specific only to paleontology? I do sometimes feel like I am doing the science whose main consumer bracket is 5-10 years old.
I dont think it needs just be my family, because my grandmother smiled at me, when I was showing her some illustrations of sauropods, and said
"Yes, I suppose they would have ridden them back then"
And philosophers are by definition charlatans.
So that explains why I like philosophy.