Silly quotes:

Post by **weemadando** » 2002-07-28 02:01pm

Whats the silliest science related quote you've ever heard? Doesn't have to be a scientist. It can be someone you know, or someone you've seen or heard in the media.

From a TCE (year 12) Physics class: "Why when a baby's born doesn't the mass of the earth go up?" - someone who is somehow now studying second year medicine.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2002-07-28 02:12pm

Submitted for everybody's disapproval:

"How come vaporizing something takes so much energy? When I blow on baby powder it doesn't take me much."

"How long will it take us to get to Andromeda? Do you think I'll be able to go there on vacation, sometime?"

Those were both from a person in a ridiculously moronic college Chemistry class I had. She said some other things, too, but those weren't really science related.

Shadowfyre · Post by **Shadowfyre** » 2002-07-28 02:16pm

I once worked at a facility that pumped and filled metal cylinders with industrial gases. I had an guy there tell me that since helium was so light, I full cylinder would weigh less than an empty one. I suppose his idea was that the helium "floated" around inside of the cylinder in some kind of "anti-weight" state and didn't contribute to the overall weight of the cylinder like air would in it's place once the cylinder was empty. It wasn't until I placed both a full and empty cylinder on the scale that he believed otherwise.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2002-07-28 05:41pm

That guy's a moron. Gases have mass. Of course something that is full of gas will have more mass than an empty one, particularly if it is pressurized (as I assume these were).

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2002-07-28 09:24pm

I heard dumb scientific questions, such as:

When a man and his horse step on the scale, it says they weigh 1000 pounds. When the guy mounts the horse, the scale says 999.9999 pounds.
My question is, what scale is accurate enough the measure the miniscule change in weight by an object being a meter higher off the ground?

Mechwolf · Post by **Mechwolf** » 2002-07-29 01:14am

May favorite silliest quote would be from MST3K:The Movie

"Increase the Flash Gordon noise, & put more science stuff around it."-Mike

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2002-07-29 04:07pm

I saw someone on TV say evolution was false because Jews are not born circumcised after generations of the practice.

drifter god · Post by **drifter god** » 2002-07-29 04:37pm

my 5th grade science teacher tried to convince us that we breath by digesting oxygen, and that it turns into a liquide in your stomach and it enters your blood streams by osmosis. not quite a quote, but i tought it woud fit in

Quid · Post by **Quid** » 2002-07-29 06:38pm

"The Earth can't be 4 billion years old, my minister said it was only 6,000"
- stupid guy in my geology class.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » 2002-07-30 08:15am

Master of Ossus wrote:That guy's a moron. Gases have mass. Of course something that is full of gas will have more mass than an empty one, particularly if it is pressurized (as I assume these were).

You came very close to making a complete fool of yourself there, Ossus. . .

A cylinder containing gas will always have more mass than a cylinder containing a vacuum.

A cylinder containing gas will have more mass than an 'empty' cylinder (i.e. one with the valve completely open) if, and ONLY if, the gas in the filled cylinder is at a pressure higher than one atmosphere.

It all depends on how you define 'empty' - and for most people, talking about a gas cylinder, that means "has the valve completely open".

Additionally, the form of helium people are generally most familiar with is in helium balloons. In a helium ballon, it expands until it reaches a pressure of 1 atmosphere. It will then attempt to rise to the point where the air has the same density as helium at one atmosphere - in other words, it is 'lighter than air' (or at least, the air at ground level). Not recognising the fact that a rigid container changes the rules (i.e. pressure does NOT stabilise at 1 atmosphere, hence the density of the pressurised helium may be greater than the density of air of at 1 atmosphere) does NOT make the guy a moron!

He is merely ignorant of the behaviour of gases - hardly any reason to start throwing insults like 'moron' around. Now, if he'd refused to believe the evidence of the scales, or couldn't at least follow the gist of an explanation using the behaviour of ideal gases, and the difference between a rigid (gas cylinder) and a flexible (balloon) container, THEN you'd have some justification for calling him a moron.

Raxmei · Post by **Raxmei** » 2002-07-30 12:39pm

I remember a student in my high school physics class who insisted that gravitational acceleration stopped at the top of a projectile's trajectory. Even when told the implications if that were true (if you jumped up you would hover instead of falling down), he still thought he was right. This was an honors class.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2002-08-02 08:28am

"It's a Beutiful Day, Everybody do ten Laps"-Gym Coach, during a smog alert.