A worrisome trend in attitudes towards physics?

[pgardn]

5. In a normal discussion setting, coffee (insert alternate beverage here) is available, and one can take a moment or two for contemplation of bits and pieces of the conversation to tailor a response to the apparent understanding of the other party. That same setting is conducive to participation by several people more or less simultaneously, and that interaction is more than the sum of the parts.

All good points.
1 Beer please...

 

[HeLiXe]

I don't think there was anything condescending there. I think it was more of "a picture is worth a thousand words" approach, trying to convey the scale on easily understandable terms.

^^I could see this until 'the moon doesn't bounce around every time a fly lands on it' comment...so I guess we'll just have to disagree there.

Believe it or not, scientists are (fairly) normal people too. I think there's a tendency of the general public to shove us all up on some pedestal and then that leads to people getting intimidated about talking to us when there just isn't any reason for it. I don't know anything about you beyond this thread, so is it possible you were in any way insecure about asking a question here, and therefore already predisposed to interpreting any response you got as a put down rather than someone trying to be helpful? That can happen.

I'm glad you put the "fairly" there :)

I do not think anyone who answered me was putting me down. Even those who had a condescending tone, I do not think it was personal against me. I've also acknowledged those who answered me in a helpful way. It just so happened the first response was condescending. I'm not intimidated by scientists or anyone else, I'm wired a bit differently that way. There is one prejudice I had when I asked and that is I thought someone who knew the answer would either tell me how to get it or point me in the right direction. Some did!

Another thing to keep in mind is that it's just hard for people to know what level to answer a question on when someone is new here. I think more often than not, they miss the mark, but they can miss in either direction. I've seen threads started where I'm pretty sure the person asking the question is still in high school, and they get a reply that you'd give someone in graduate school that probably just makes the student feel terrible that maybe they should actually understand all that and don't. And, I've seen someone with a professional background in a field come in with what seems like a simple question, but really was looking for a more in-depth response who gets the simplistic high-school-level explanation that irritates them to no end. A lot of the time, we're guessing who is on the other end of the keyboard asking the question and we miss.

^^This is something I have not considered so thank you for taking the time to write this. And thanks for spending so much time to clear up things and show me another perspective/make me feel better about it. I appreciate you for that!