UW Madison student speaks out

[spiral97]

At least some of them are capable of seeing the turds in the stream being fed to them

http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~det/phy2060/heavyboots.html

Heavy Boots

About 6-7 years ago, I was in a philosophy class at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (good science/engineering school) and the teaching assistant was explaining Descartes.

He was trying to show how things don't always happen the way we think they will and explained that, while a pen always falls when you drop it on Earth, it would just float away if you let go of it on the Moon. My jaw dropped a little. I blurted "What?!" Looking around the room, I saw that only my friend Mark and one other student looked confused by the TA's statement. The other 17 people just looked at me like "What's your problem?" "But a pen would fall if you dropped it on the Moon, just more slowly." I protested.

"No it wouldn't." the TA explained calmly, "because you're too far away from the Earth's gravity." Think. Think. Aha! "You saw the APOLLO astronauts walking around on the Moon, didn't you?"

I countered, "why didn't they float away?"

"Because they were wearing heavy boots." he responded, as if this made perfect sense (remember, this is a Philosophy TA who's had plenty of logic classes). By then I realized that we were each living in totally different worlds, and did not speak each others language, so I gave up.

As we left the room, my friend Mark was raging. "My God! How can all those people be so stupid?" I tried to be understanding. "Mark, they knew this stuff at one time, but it's not part of their basic view of the world, so they've forgotten it. Most people could probably make the same mistake."

To prove my point, we went back to our dorm room and began randomly selecting names from the campus phone book. We called about 30 people and asked each this question: 1

1. If you're standing on the Moon holding a pen, and you let go, will it
a) float away,
b) float where it is,
or c) fall to the ground?

About 47 percent got this question correct. Of the ones who got it wrong, we asked the obvious follow-up question:

2. You've seen films of the APOLLO astronauts walking around on the Moon, why didn't they fall off?

About 20 percent of the people changed their answer to the first question when they heard this one! But the most amazing part was that about half of them confidently answered, "Because they were wearing heavy boots."


MORE ON THE BURNING QUESTION OF HEAVY BOOTS

I decided to settle this question once and for all. Therefore, I put two multiple choice questions on my Physics 111 test, after the study of elementary mechanics and gravity.

13. If you are standing on the Moon, and holding a rock, and you let it go, it will:
(a) float away
(b) float where it is
(c) move sideways
(d) fall to the ground
(e) none of the above

25. When the Apollo astronauts wre on the Moon, they did not fall off because:
(a) the Earth's gravity extends to the Moon
(b) the Moon has gravity
(c) they wore heavy boots
(d) they had safety ropes
(e) they had spiked shoes

The response showed some interesting patterns! The first question was generally of average difficulty, compared with the rest of the test: 57% got it right. The second question was easier: 73% got it right. So, we need more research to explain the people who got #25 right but did not get #13 right!

The second interesting point is that these questions proved to be excellent discriminators: that is, success on these two questions proved to be an extremely good predictor of overall success on the test. On the first question, 92% of those in the upper quarter of the test score got it right; only 20% of those in the bottom quarter did. They generally chose answers (a) or (b). On the second question, 97% in the upper quarter got it right and 33% in the lower quarter did. The big popular choice of this group was (c)...33% chose heavy boots, followed closely by safety ropes at 27%.

A telling comment on the issue of fairness in teaching elementary physics: Two students asked if I was going to continue asking them about things they had never studied in the class.

[Hards Alumni]

wait, so you are saying that some people are dumb?

amazing!

[willie warrior]

Some people are dumb? Come on, if that was the case, then ... never mind ....

Rocky's edit: no politics means... no politics.

[ATWizJr]

... many people are dumb.

Rocky's edit: no politics means... no politics.

[WellsstreetWanderer]

SAFETY BOOTS?

[StillAWarrior]

wait, so you are saying that some people are dumb?

amazing!

One of my favorite quotes (I'm paraphrasing and some internet sources say it's a George Carlin quote, but I don't know):  Whenever you're surprised about how stupid someone is, just think how stupid the average person is and remember that half of them are even stupider.

[Hards Alumni]

exactly... and I didn't read the politicized comments, but I can assume (seeing who they came from) what they probably said.

stupidity doesn't have political boundaries, guys.

[MU Chi_IL]

The moons landing was faked, so really the question is flawed...

[ZiggysFryBoy]

The moons landing was faked, so really the question is flawed...

not so, mythbusters did a show debunking the conspiracy theories.

[The Man in Gold]

not so, mythbusters did a show debunking the conspiracy theories.

Mythbusters is part of the propaganda machine controlled by "The Powers that Be."

[rugbydrummer]

maybe he got the moon and the space shuttle confused. 


"that's right, folks, the moon, though it has mass, has nooooo gravity!" . . . . surely you jest.

that's just what happens when people with authority speak to the masses ... few people fully evaluate statements and fewer stand up to them.  it's like that classic psychology murder case with all the neighbors watching and no body ringing the alarm. 

this happened to me the other day, we were talking about HIV medication and how the viral load will decrease to undetectable levels after 6 months of therapy, and then what does the discussion leader say but that the CD4 count will be <50 at that time  (i.e., your white blood cells).  that left me scratching my head and i had to double check with my residents to make sure i wasn't going crazy!


Pretty crazy story, though.

[Steak]

this happened to me the other day, we were talking about HIV medication and how the viral load will decrease to undetectable levels after 6 months of therapy, and then what does the discussion leader say but that the CD4 count will be <50 at that time  (i.e., your white blood cells).  that left me scratching my head and i had to double check with my residents to make sure i wasn't going crazy!

Except this story is completely boring and unintelligible to those not in health care majors/careers.

[muhoosier260]

not so, mythbusters did a show debunking the conspiracy theories.

ya, and jfk was the one who landed on the moon

[WellsstreetWanderer]

The whole moon landing was debunked by the guy in Africa who ,at the time, looked at the Moon with his binoculars and saw nothing

[augoman]

I always liked it when the 'space travelers' wore magnetic boots, and walked w/ great effort to pull them from the surface of whatever they were walking on.  Flash Gordon, where are you when we need you?

[rugbydrummer]

Except this story is completely boring and unintelligible to those not in health care majors/careers.

it wouldn't be if you had HIV, don't hate!