Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
I get occasional rolled eyes because it takes a bit for me to answer a question. It's not a matter of finding the answer. It's a matter of giving the background so the person will understand the answer. I usually don't know how much the questioner knows about the topic, and err on the side of assuming not much.
I don't recall ever not knowing Physics was math based. I'd love to know how you managed to miss it.
I got accosted on my block a while back by a tween boy and girl with an interesting question: My choices were English, Math, and Science. Which two would I pick as musts to know?
I said "That's easy. English and math. Whatever you wind up doing, you'll be working with other people, and need to communicate at a high level verbally and in writing. So you must speak, read, and write English very well.
And math is a requirement for science. If you have math, you'll understand science. If you don't have math, you won't understand science. Every science uses math somewhere, even if it's something like Sociology where the math is statistics."
The girl said to the boy "You see? I told you!" I was tickled at having the conversation. I felt more optimistic about current kids as a result.
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Dennis
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I tend to err on the side of giving background too.
Funniest one I ever got into was when I needed to reinstall a game on a computer.
The couple had been playing this game during a lightning storm.
Their kids said we can fix this. We are computer experts.
Well when it wasn't done in 10 minutes, the guy called his neighbor who really was an expert (taught computers and computer repair at the college). Neighbor said well I could fix it but my rate is $75 an hour but if you call Cindy, she is only $25 an hour.
I went over and the guy made his grown kids get away from his computer.
I started with the basics. Scan for errors. His kids are all what are you doing to dad's computer? Are you sure you know what you are doing and assorted other insulting questions. I told the dad well since your kids don't trust me I can leave. He ran his kids out of that room.
Then he asked politely what are you doing? I explained that I was looking for errors.
Got that all done, then reinstalled the program and put the icon on the desktop so they could find it easily.
He asked his kids why hadn't they put the icon there. They had to admit they didn't know how.
Oh and on physics, I don't think they offered it at my high school.
I figured it was like chemistry.
Off topic but on things I didn't know: I didn't know Liberace was gay until I read Behind the Candelabra. I just thought he was flamboyant.