How do you guys view other people

[Tom McCurdy]

I was wondering how people who are into math and physics in general view the public who perfers to avoid these subjects

 

[Kacper]

I never did think about that. Hum...I dunno...no different.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I was wondering how people who are into math and physics in general view the public who perfers to avoid these subjects

It took me years to understand that most people REALLY don't want to hear about it. I always thought that if I could just present the information correctly, anyone would HAVE to be interested. How could they not?

Now I understand and respect that what drives many of us is not what drives most people. I try to see the world from both perspectives. My little brother sees the world about as differently from me as anyone could. Still, his point of view can be quite insightful at times. He drives me completely nuts about ninety nine percent of the time, but on rare occasion he makes some good sense.

I worked for a company that required that we all had personality profiles done and the color coded graphical results posted on our desks. This way, in theory an engineer can walk into a budget manager’s office, for example, and better understand the brain on the other side of the desk. A common [stereotypical] distinction was that engineers had a lot of green and blue, which to a manager means that this person will think and think from now until dooms day and never arrive at an answer. Likewise, the engineer sees all that red on the manager’s chart and he knows that this person will jump to conclusions without considering the consequences. .

 

[Janitor]

I sometimes chat with a man who teaches band and choir at a public school. Years ago he made the statement that the force of gravity we feel is actually the same thing as magnetism. I politely pointed out some differences between the two phenomena. But when the topic came up again much later, there he was making the same claim that he had made the first time around. He has no more than a mild interest in science.

I can't resist adding: the last time I talked to him, he said he was reading Genesis in the King James Bible, with the intention of going all the way to the Book of Revelation. He added that he was surprised that so much of Genesis is about sex!

 

[einsteinian77]

I view the people who aren't interested in physics and math necessary I love having a society where everyone has different skills and interests.

 

[quantumdude]

I was wondering how people who are into math and physics in general view the public who perfers to avoid these subjects

Most of my friends prefer to avoid math, science, and philosophy. I think they're really missing out on something great, but it doesn't bother them because they don't know what they're missing.

What I really wonder is how do they view me. A lot of people I know look at me like I'm not normal, when I really am just another guy trying to get along in the world. Along those same lines, Chroot wrote a piece called "Knowledge is Power" that really hit home with me (I'll see if I can find it).

edit:

here it is:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=15491

 

[Janitor]

Probably because of my upbringing, I am fascinated by people who are heavily into whatever religion they have chosen. Many of them have skills which put me to shame when it comes to things like singing, dancing, playing a musical instrument, or writing poetry. But they would feel zero motivation to read even a popularization-type book on relativity, for instance. I often wonder whether there would be any religion if everybody in the world had a consuming interest in science and in rational thinking in general.

I will quote from a biogaphy of Richard Feynman that I am reading: “When he was a small child, our parents [this is his sister talking] sent him to Sunday school… He thought all this business about God and Creation was literal fact--truth… Richard began to wonder, and he realized that all the things he had been learning as if they were literal truth were merely opinion. It was devastating for him. And I think it was the reason why, for the rest of his life, he was so intense about not believing any of these things… He just did not believe the universe was put together by any supernatural being, governing anything.” Richard himself is quoted: “If there are all these different theories, different religions about the thing, then you begin to wonder… Start out understanding religion by saying, ‘Everything is possibly wrong--let’s see.’ As soon as you do that, you start sliding down an edge which is hard to recover from… Once you start doubting, which I think is a very fundamental part of my soul, it gets a little harder to believe.”

 

[meteor]

Well, I see the people that is not interested in physics like the intermediate link between me and an animal

 

[quantumdude]

Well, I see the people that is not interested in physics like the intermediate link between me and an animal

That's not very scientific of you, meteor. We are animals, too.

 

[meteor]

i meant a savage animal

 

[Math Is Hard]

I worked for a company that required that we all had personality profiles done and the color coded graphical results posted on our desks. This way, in theory an engineer can walk into a budget manager’s office, for example, and better understand the brain on the other side of the desk.

That's hilarious, Ivan! How long ago was this? I am curious. It sounds like a 1970's thing, but were you even in the workforce then?

 

[jcsd]

I think my interest in physics and maths makes me like a benevolent god, showering manna on my people, but occasionally smiting the odd one or two (for example I wrote to the local council and ordered them to construct a 20ft statue of me, when this order wasn't carried out I smited them by ridiculing their knowledge of complex variables).

 

[Imparcticle]

Well personally I have a hard time understanding why people don't like math or physics. I really can't grasp why. It's wierd.
IvanSeeking: it never occurred to me that people in general wouldn't even care if the science being discussed is accurate or not. Even more mystifying!

I am always like to consider the lack of interest as one of the greatest mysteries of [my] life.

 

[Chrono]

I didn't really start liking physics and math until I started going to college. I kind of see it as knowing something all powerful. Something that not everybody who you come across realizes is true. I mean, it's not every person you meet who knows how to integrate or about power series. I know a couple of girls that call me a geek pretty much just because I'm good at math (it's so cool saying that). Of course, they still get me to tutor them from time to time (what else would you expect for a couple of 13 year old girls?).

 

[Ivan Seeking]

That's hilarious, Ivan! How long ago was this? I am curious. It sounds like a 1970's thing...

Oh no! This was quite the "in thing" in the 1997, Portland Oregon Corporate world.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I was wondering how people who are into math and physics in general view the public who perfers to avoid these subjects

I think that most people have an intuitive grasp of as much physics as they'll ever need to get through life. Some people, like successful atheletes, have a superior intuitive grasp. In a similar vein, a good chef is really a good intuitive chemist. Understanding the rate at which an iron ball floating in space aborbs and releases energy, is really of no use to most people. I don't think there's anything at all wrong with being disinterested in physics.

 

[i_wish_i_was_smart]

i view them as just another person walking the street, but i am terrified to enter conversation in these subjects, because they really frustrate me, i have almost no patience(which is why i am never going to teach) and most of them just plain don't want to know, i question their ignorance, but its really no use, they are who they are, and we are who we are, without ous there would be no pyramids, no bridges, no spacecraft s. without them there would be no pyramids, no bridges, no spacecraft s. we go hand in hand, we think of it, they build it, we coexist, we have to, we need to, for our survival

never argue with a dumber person, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

 

[Janitor]

we think of it, they build it- i_wish

And some of us clean it.

 

[i_wish_i_was_smart]

And some of us clean it.

hehehe, we all got to start somewhere, i clean many things that we thought of, pretty soon i'll be the one doing the thinking

 

[Math Is Hard]

Oh no! This was quite the "in thing" in the 1997, Portland Oregon Corporate world.

Ahhhh... I remember this. This was the early beginnings of the much-touted "Corporate Culture" when CEOs whizzed around on roller skates and everyone brought their dog to work and the office had to be Feng-Shui'd on a monthly basis.

But I can relate to the card-system a little bit, as I am bi-lingual, and speak both "tech" and "marketing". I worked like a U.N. translator between the two departments and the work could get pretty grueling at times.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Really I did find it helpful. It acted as a constant reminder of the differing perspectives found throughout the company. A scientific, analytic approach to the world works well to a point. In many areas this approach fails.

In my line of work, engineers are famously bad business people. After hanging out my shingle I quickly learned that there are some really smart business people who are well versed in "handling" the engineering mind. Logic often plays no obvious role in what happens next. It is all a big game. I spend half of my time trying to figure out how I'm getting screwed this month.

I would advise that one should never underestimate just how smart non-science people can be. Remember, budget managers run the world not engineers and scientists.

 

[mooberrymarz]

Unity in diversity. I love maths and that freaks out some of my friends, but it doesn't really make me look at them differently. One of my friends does drama and she is as nutty as you get and is wicked funny.. she's the one on campus who walks around beating a drum and chanting stuff, ...the world would be a boring place if just had mathematicians, so I embrace people like that. being with people with diffrent interests broadens your own view of the world.

 

[Dissident Dan]

It annoys me when people tell me of their disdain for math. "But math 'runs' everything!" I tell them. I cannot understand their viewpoints, but I accept them.

I think that if people were more interested in math and physics, we'd have less religion.

 

[Tom McCurdy]

I find myself frustrated by so many peoples strong beliefs in religon without being able to first look at all other religions and question their faith, and secondly to perfer to be ignornant to physics. It drives me crazy when people say something like the world is 10,000 years old, I just want to say prove it. Wait you can't, but I can prove you wrong. Also in general I am find people's lack of interest in the way the world works hard to understand. I am new to the world of physics, having my first course this year, but when I try to talk my friends about say SR or GR or just physics in general they say things like "Shut Up... Just go Home" in a sarcastic voice, or just repeat "no" every time I try to start a conversation. They would perfer to talk about what body kit they can get for their car. The worst part is that these are fellow math and science center students. I know that they aren't dumb, they do very well in things like math and science they just perfer to stay out of things. It will take me some time to acept this, although I see the rational behind it, it will just take me some time. (for example I compare it to my interest in subjects such as english and learning about the great authors of the past, although I am mildly interested in it, I find myself becomming bored quickly while others could talk about Poe for years making up symbolism along the way)

 

[Tom McCurdy]

I think that if people were more interested in math and physics, we'd have less religion.

I fully agree, although I am not suggesting that a knowledge of physics would make everyone atheists I am simply stating that I hope it would make them at least question certain beliefs. Such as the beginning of the universe and evolution.

 

[Janitor]

I am find people's lack of interest in the way the world works hard to understand.- Tom

I can't remember for sure whether I have ever heard a believer ever express it this way, but one reason for a hardcore believer-in-the-afterlife to be lazy about learning science (or history, or most anything I guess) is that All Will Be Revealed To Them when they get to go inside Heaven's pearly gates. So why knock yourself out trying to learn and figure things out in your finite time here on Earth, when all that earthly knowledge and more is going to be poured into your head free of charge, free of effort, once you get Up There.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I know enough people whose disinterest in physics is completely unrelated to religious beliefs to know that if you subtracted all religion from the world the percentage of people interested in physics would be about the same.

The truth is, physics takes a lot of concentration and effort to learn. A body at rest, stays at rest...

I don't think it would necessarily be a good idea to strip fervently religious people of their religion and give them physics. The translation of religious impulses to physics is what causes crackpots and cranks, inventors of free-energy machines, and the strange guy I ran into once who began to lecture me about the ethics of electrons.

 

[Janitor]

You are probably right about that, Z.

 

[meteor]

the problem is:
Maths and Physics are the key for the understanding of the universe.
Since the human race got out of the caves, there're been two kind of peoples: science oriented and non science oriented. Science oriented invented the radio, the TV, internet, learned about how cure heart diseases, transplanting organs, etc. They were benevolent, and i can say that the major part of the science people i have found are of good heart.
Non science people just roamed through the world eating, drinking, robbing , sleeping and raping. They made wars just for the greed of richness, or in the name of some ancient book (bible, koran,etc). And the fraction of the non science people that acted politely, I think that their dislike for science was seeded in their heads by their parents, perhaps just punishing them if they didn't went to mass, or if htey found them reading some science book. The case of the scarce participation, of women in science is also clear for me. There are families that prefer that their sons do the studies and the girls do the home tasks. So the girl don't have any opportunity to get an education. Though this is changing in the more developed countries
So, it's true that we need non-scientist persons? Is this good for them? Is this good for us?
What can do non scientist persons to save the humanity from the burning out of the sun in about 4'5 billion of years?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Neither science nor scientists can be considered benevolent as a matter of course. Science has contributed heavily to the persuit of war. Einstein was the one who was asked by Leo Slizzard to use his fame to get to President Roosevelt and tell him it was very possible the Germans were working on a terrible weapon based on radioactive elements, and that it might be a good idea for him to take counter measures. And, of course, all the teams that worked on the bomb were physicists.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I don't think Mother Teresa was particularly interested in physics or science, but her contributions to humanity were immense nonetheless.

 

[Tom McCurdy]

Of course people who don't study physics can make impacts on the world for good. All that takes is the want to do good, however I still feel that she could have benefited from a good watch of the Elegant Universe.

 

[Math Is Hard]

LOL! I am sure she would have enjoyed it very much!

 

[Chi Meson]

never argue with a dumber person, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Brilliant! That explains those moments of "Oh my God! I can't believe I'm having this argument!"

I also don't mind it if people have no interest in Physics, but what gets me are those who feel that it is some sort of democratic process where any cracked idea is just as valid as centuries of scientific development.

I have a notion that there are some who found science so difficult in school that they have created, in defense, an impermeable membrane that filters out any incidental scientific knowledge that floats by for the rest fo their life.

e.g. How could my 48 year old neighbor still not know that caterpillars will later become butterflies? How could she have missed that? It makes me want to disregard anything she ever says ever again because her sensory input must be faulty!

And when I get a student in high school who argues with me over the Earth going around the Sun (and this is not the fault of the schools, I assure you), I think "Oh no, in two years this guy is going to be allowed to vote."

 

[Tom McCurdy]

And when I get a student in high school who argues with me over the Earth going around the Sun (and this is not the fault of the schools, I assure you), I think "Oh no, in two years this guy is going to be allowed to vote."

haha exactly how I feel...

 

[motai]

And when I get a student in high school who argues with me over the Earth going around the Sun (and this is not the fault of the schools, I assure you), I think "Oh no, in two years this guy is going to be allowed to vote."

There are still people who don't know this?

Then again, the Flat-Earth society is still around... http://www.flat-earth.org/. BTW, they believe that Idaho or North Dakota does not exist.

 

[TALewis]

I also don't mind it if people have no interest in Physics, but what gets me are those who feel that it is some sort of democratic process where any cracked idea is just as valid as centuries of scientific development.

Exactly. The conversation usually begins with, "Oh, I have a theory..." No, you have a grossly uninformed hypothesis with no basis in reality whatsoever. The word "theory" is reserved for something that's well tested by experiment and can make useful predictions about natural phenomena.

"I have a theory" is best translated as, "I have made something up." It might be fun, but it's not science -- yet. It takes a lifetime's work to turn a funny idea (such as Newton's apple falling from a tree == the moon falling around the earth) into a scientific theory. Most of the cranks you see aren't interested in the scientific method.

 

[jimmy p]

I am the only person who takes Physics to full A-level in college. It gets very lonely. When I tell people fascinating facts they just have the "bunny in headlights" look on their face, but I'm used to that, I'm unfazed, because sometimes the knowledge does go through, and if I can interest one person, then that is good enough for me. However I'm not smart enough to be truly segregated from everyone else, so I don't feel that different. Sometimes it helps to be as dumb as toast.

 

[Chi Meson]

... When I tell people fascinating facts they just have the "bunny in headlights" look on their face...

Oh, I know that look. I learned my first year in college that one way to NOT get invited to parties is to try to actually answer people when they say things like "I've always wondered how flourescent lights work."

Turns out they don't care how they work, and they really don't want to know!

 

[zoobyshoe]

Oh, I know that look. I learned my first year in college that one way to NOT get invited to parties is to try to actually answer people when they say things like "I've always wondered how flourescent lights work."

Turns out they don't care how they work, and they really don't want to know!

Be fair, now! The glaze in their eyes is really their way of saying "Whoops! I didn't realize the minimum answer was book-length! What have I gotten myself into?"

 

[Math Is Hard]

I just explain how physicists collect the magic lightning gas from rays of starlight and then use it to fill up each tube and make it glow.
That's not so long is it?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Turns out they don't care how they work, and they really don't want to know!

Funny this comes as a big surprise isn't it?

During my senior hear I had the same Professor for the entire QM series. If we were starting into some really interesting material, he would sometimes start by saying that "if you want to ruin a party, bring up the subject of ..."

i.e. How effectively a topic might ruin a party is a measure of how interesting the subject is to us.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Be fair, now! The glaze in their eyes is really their way of saying "Whoops! I didn't realize the minimum answer was book-length! What have I gotten myself into?"

I don't agree Zooby. In some cases this is true I'm sure, but I find that the glaze reaction is mostly word, or even concept dependent. Depending on the person of course, I might spontaneously trigger the glaze by accidentally citing a specific unit of measure such as Newtons, ohms, or even amps. Cite a famous scientist like Einstein or Heisenberg, glaze. Cite a “scientific” study, theory, law, or other reference, glaze. Cite anything mathematical, glaze. You can’t carry on a conversation like that. It is like walking through a mine field. Let’s be safe: Let’s talk about the Trailblazers.

 

[TALewis]

Try explaining the difference between energy and power. Complete glaze.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I think my brother in law still thinks I made up Special Relativity. He simply did not believe me.

I got the same reaction when I forgot myself at a family reunion near St. Louis. I mentioned that trees come as male and female. Whoops. Should have never said that one.

Got the old elbow in the rib years ago when, before it was more generally konwn, I mentioned the connection between influenza, and chickens and pigs in China. Whoops. Should have never said that one.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I don't agree Zooby. In some cases this is true I'm sure, but I find that the glaze reaction is mostly word, or even concept dependent.

Yes, I see what you're saying now. (However, being long of wind, myself, I get the glaze more often from that than anything else.)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Yes, I see what you're saying now. (However, being long of wind, myself, I get the glaze more often from that than anything else.)

Well, okay. I also had to learn to shut up. Hopefully one day I will.

 

[DarkAnt]

wow, this is the exact opposite of what I experience. People ask me to tell them something interesting (doesn't have to be anything related to science, but almost always does) all the time, mostly when they are bored. Maybe you all just hang around the wrong crowd. Besides all you have to do is post something on the pf and lots of people will be interested in it, like me.

 

[DarkAnt]

Actually, now that I think about it I have recently had a run in like this. Remember when the Hubble took the deepest picture of space that has ever been seen? well my english teacher brought it up and for some reason he thought this meant that the galaxy was much larger than what was previously thought. So he concluded that the big bang and all that had just been proven to be untrue. I just sat there stunned, I didn't even try to tell the guy he was wrong.

 

[Janitor]

I just sat there stunned, I didn't even try to tell the guy he was wrong.- DarkAnt

In my churchgoing days as a kid, I remember that during a sermon, to illustrate some point he was making, the minister said (and this is an exact quote, I'm sure of that): "Did you know that sound and light are the same thing, just at different frequencies?"

Had he said, "Sound and light both have some wave properties," then I would not have had a problem. But I've got all sorts of problems with the thing he actually did say.