Well there are deepening levels of understanding depending on the learner’s pre-existing understanding of the world (e.g. matter > atoms > protons/neutrons/electrons > fermions), and there are things that are just plain incorrect, that were assumed to be correct, because science advances (e.g. Pluto is a grey ball of boring nothingness very similar to Mercury).
I recall liking it well enough at the time but Lies to Children is honestly the only concept in it that was new to me. It’s a decent enough Unseen University side story but that’s just the framing for talking about real world physics.
Where else are you going to find another Discworld fix though?
Never been a big fan of children, but they fucking love me, even if I’m clearly annoyed at the time. I was asking my ex-wife about this mystery. “You don’t talk to them like kids, you talk to them like little adults and they respect that.”
She was right! I talk to them like adults that simply don’t know as much as I do.
Feel like a lot of the “myths” are also just because you’re not going to teach a 16-year-old about quantum mechanics to explain why table salt exists
Well there are deepening levels of understanding depending on the learner’s pre-existing understanding of the world (e.g. matter > atoms > protons/neutrons/electrons > fermions), and there are things that are just plain incorrect, that were assumed to be correct, because science advances (e.g. Pluto is a grey ball of boring nothingness very similar to Mercury).
It isn’t?!
You have to be shitting me… Pluto is a fucking Care Bear planet:
Nobody told me that in the seventies…
Care Bear dwarf planet…
I hate you so much right now 🙂
That’s really cool! (Because the average temperature on Pluto is apparently -387°F, or -232°C.)
Relevant xkcd
Relevant Pratchett
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie-to-children
Been through Discworld three times but hadn’t read The Science of Discworld. Know if it’s any good?
I recall liking it well enough at the time but Lies to Children is honestly the only concept in it that was new to me. It’s a decent enough Unseen University side story but that’s just the framing for talking about real world physics.
Where else are you going to find another Discworld fix though?
so what you’re saying is that this is ageism. And we are infantilizing individuals irrespective of their experience and actual understanding.
Never been a big fan of children, but they fucking love me, even if I’m clearly annoyed at the time. I was asking my ex-wife about this mystery. “You don’t talk to them like kids, you talk to them like little adults and they respect that.”
She was right! I talk to them like adults that simply don’t know as much as I do.