Yahoo Answers: Bastion of Stupidity

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the low quality of answers found on Yahoo Answers, particularly in the physics section, where intelligent responses are rare. Users highlight the prevalence of nonsensical and incorrect answers to complex questions, such as the nature of the universe and time travel. The conversation underscores the issue of uninformed individuals providing answers without understanding, leading to misinformation for those seeking knowledge.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of basic physics concepts, such as the universe's size and time travel theories.
  • Familiarity with online Q&A platforms and their dynamics.
  • Knowledge of critical thinking and evaluating sources of information.
  • Awareness of the limitations of personal knowledge in scientific discussions.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the scientific principles behind the Big Bang Theory and the expansion of the universe.
  • Learn about the Twin Paradox and its implications for time travel in physics.
  • Explore the concept of polarization in physics and its real-world applications.
  • Investigate the role of online forums in disseminating information and the impact of misinformation.
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for educators, students in physics, online community moderators, and anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of knowledge sharing on platforms like Yahoo Answers.

Pengwuino
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No I'm not talking about yomamma's threads, I'm talking about this place on yahoo called "Yahoo Answers". You basically ask questions to people and people answer. So far I can see in the physics section... 1 intelligent answer for every 40 stupid as hell answers.

For example, one person asked if there's a limit to the size of the universe and how did life form on earth. Heres some juicy nuggets that i see as responses...

"Yes---and---The Word {Prime theoritics / all that is is finite when compared to all else)--and by way of many ancient views and texts The Word (original Greek has this as first thought) relays that --with first cognition beginings were."

"think of it as numbers
they start from nothing 0
and never end"

"Space...being the lack of anything...extends forever.
Life was created by God who set things in motion to evolve."

Even i feel smart around there...
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Anytime you ask the general population a question that would be difficult for a professional physicist, who has devoted his/her entire life to the subject, you're going to get totally nonsense responses.

- Warren
 
Makes you want to weep doesn't it?

~H
 
chroot said:
Anytime you ask the general population a question that would be difficult for a professional physicist, who has devoted his/her entire life to the subject, you're going to get totally nonsense responses.

- Warren

Well a lot of the questions are simple ones. I just happened to be reading that one at the time.

One here is... "what is polarization". That got some funky answers.

I don't understand the ego of people. They think they can just give answers to questions they have no idea about? I feel sorry for the people receiving these answers...
 
Pengwuino said:
I don't understand the ego of people. They think they can just give answers to questions they have no idea about? I feel sorry for the people receiving these answers...

Many people (maybe even most) are frighteningly unaware of the limits of their own knowledge. Really, scientists and those in technical professions are the only people who really must come to grips with their own limitations to be successful. Real-estate brokers, hairdressers, truck drivers, etc. can pretty much think they're Einstein, yet actually be total ignoramuses, and still get their work done just fine. Then they come home and publish absolutely moronic things on the internet.

- Warren
 
  • #10
Sorry, Penguin. I know you're offended, but I found this particular question very revealing in the way that people responded to it.
 
  • #11
The Pregnancy and Parenting and Singles & Dating forums are just trainwrecks.

IF YOU ARE 27/M/KY AND A 12 YEAR OLD GlRL WANTS TO SEE YOU NAKED, IS IT LEGAL TO EXPOSE URSELF?

I SAW IT ON MILK MONEY

-you do realize ******* that you icp address will be traced,with all the pedo **** you post,and the feds will be at your house one day

He said loves me but not during weekend with me, what happened?

We are always happy chating on net, actually we are net lovers.. the questions is I believed that we said " love " for real, at least I am real... but, he is not always online to chat with me, the fact is I only know that he is busy in work, even I don't really know that is true or not... shold I trusting him in this case? or better to asking why not during weekend with me?

-MAY BE HE IS MARRIED AND DURING THE WEEKEND HE IS WITH HIS WIFE... DO NOT ALLOW HIM TO DO THIS TO YOU BE WITH SOME ONE ELSE...A MAN SOMEONE WHO WILL TREAT YOU WELL LOVE YOU BACK TAKE YOU OUT ON THE WEEKENDS HOME TO SEE HIS MOTHER... JUST PLAIN OLE' LOVE YOU... GO OUT ON A DATE...GOOD LUCK... GOD BLESS...
 
  • #12
haha i love it..."What is black holes?" answer: "A single force of gravity so strong that light does not have the kinetic energy needed to escape its pull."
 
  • #13
dav2008 said:
The Pregnancy and Parenting and Singles & Dating forums are just trainwrecks.

That is uterlly discusting, I feel physically sick now . Whether or not it is an actual question or it is just some attention seeking weirdo is a matter for debate.

~H
 
  • #14
Black holes and time travel seem to be crowd favorites over there.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmtVZMTER1VtfQcriXlIVjnzy6IX?qid=1006053006889

what is time machine ? is it possible to make it ...?
-----It is an open question of physics, whether it is possible to travel backwards in time. No one knows yet.

But it is known now that it is possible to travel forward in time faster than normal, you just should move around very quickly, close to the speed of light. That is called the Twin Paradox.

----- It is possible to travel foward in time 2 ways. Naturally and by going really fast, near the speed of light. You will experience less time than people who are stationary if you are moving really fast. This has even been measured on jets that fly cross country, maybe a second difference per year but that is still time travel.

However, it is impossible to travel BACKWARD in time, because it would produce too many paradoxes. The result of someone traveling back in time would mean that all of everything is predetermined, there is no choice, in thought or action, nothing. And that is just rediculus.
Source(s):

Physics in college, and an active imagination

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AqvDQ3jGqcwcTmIzWvtGDbMjzKIX?qid=1006041407113
Time Travel?

Do you think that time travel will ever be possible?
What is you time travel theory?
It's fun to play the "is it possible" game.

-There is no question in my mind but what time travel will be possible.. IF IT IS NOT ALREADY happening.. with the black holes/white hole, worm holes,etc I am certain of it.

Remember...Albert Einstein showed that space is curved, time is relative, and time travel is theoretically possible. Here, do a simple thought experiment and learn to think like the century's greatest scientist

One only has to take a look at TIME itself.What is time? Is time travel possible? For centuries, these questions have intrigued mystics, philosophers, and scientists. Much of ancient Greek philosophy was concerned with understanding the concept of eternity, and the subject of time is central to all the world's religions and cultures. Can the flow of time be stopped? Certainly some mystics thought so. Angelus Silesius, a sixth-century philosopher and poet, thought the flow of time could be suspended by mental powers:
Time is of your own making;
its clock ticks in your head.
The moment you stop thought
time too stops dead.
The line between science and mysticism sometimes grows thin. Today physicists would agree that time is one of the strangest properties of our universe. In fact, there is a story circulating among scientists of an immigrant to America who has lost his watch. He walks up to a man on a New York street and asks, "Please, Sir, what is time?" The scientist replies, "I'm sorry, you'll have to ask a philosopher. I'm just a physicist."

---1. Computers will be able to deduce the past and the future. Virtual worlds via computers can be created, which give the possibility of 'intellectual' time travel.

2. Once we master space teleportation, we will master time teleporation. Space teleportation involves recreating your body, mind, and personality in another place in space, and destroying the originial. Time teleportation will involve the recreated of yourself at different times. For example, you can recreate yourself in another time in the future, and it will appear that you teleported, or skipped through the normal passage of time, since you have no memory of it.

3. Perceptual time travel will involve seeing into the past or future longer distances than the human mind-brain, rather than calculated, which will involve the warping of space time.

4. Relative environmental time travel can involve the slowing of the time of ones surroundings, which can cause the time of the person when he's in the time travel machine to move much slower or faster than the environment around them.

5. Mental time travel. Many of already do this via precognitive dreams and deja vu experiences, and/or astral travel. We can learn to master and travel through time that way as well.

6. Time travel can also be achieved by the altering of memory. This is where the person memories of give parts of there past is removed, and it will 'appear' that from the last memory, they've teleported through time to their 'future' memory.
 
  • #15
Wow if my imagination was a "source", i'd show these astronomists that the Earth was 5 miles across.
 
  • #16
It all is sad and funny, but I'd be quite glad to have an explanation of this in a logical English. I'm serious about having an explanation, for I can't understand a sentence.

Pengwuino said:
"Yes---and---The Word {Prime theoritics / all that is is finite when compared to all else)--and by way of many ancient views and texts The Word (original Greek has this as first thought) relays that --with first cognition beginings were."

Thanks,
 
  • #17
Well... "Yes" is defined as "An affirmative or consenting reply". That's all i can explain.
 
  • #18
I think the rest means "God did it"
 
  • #19
dav2008 said:
I think the rest means "God did it"

I didn't see anything that could have meant "did" :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:
 
  • #20
Pengwuino said:
Well... "Yes" is defined as "An affirmative or consenting reply". That's all i can explain.
:smile: That's as far as I got.

It's hard to tell how many of the blatantly wrong/bizarre/nonsense answers are written out of pure ignorance, and how many are some "kid's" idea of a joke. Some people will post anything just because they can. More sad than the answers are that people are actually trying to ask questions and might not have the sense to know these are not correct answers. They might look at that nonsense and just think, "Geez, that physics stuff is just way over my head; I don't understand any of it."
 
  • #21
Pengwuino said:
No I'm not talking about yomamma's threads\
look who's talking...your threads suck and my threads get more posts than yours...this 2 pages is amazing for you

THREAD LOCKED
 
  • #22
I think yomamma left this one

"what is 14 hz converted into lbs?"

I give up...
 
  • #23
Pengwuino said:
"what is 14 hz converted into lbs?"

I give up...
That's easy! They both have units of energy. It's just a matter of looking up various conversion factors on wikipedia:

\begin{align*}14 \, s^{-1} & = 4.670 \times 10^{-8} \, m^{-1} \\ &= 9.215 \times 10^{-15} \, eV\\ &= 1.476 \times 10^{-35} \, J\\ &= 1.643 \times 10^{-52} \, kg\\ &= 3.618 \times 10^{-52} \, lb \end{align}
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #24
Rach3 said:
That's easy! They both have units of energy.
Doesn't everything?
 
  • #25
Um, no? :confused:
 
  • #26
Oh so you have to just assume this guy meant the frequency of a photon (which is an assumption i find very hard to make).
 
  • #27
What to photons have to do with it? I use natural units. It's all-natural. That means no added artifical flavors or pesticides.
 
  • #28
Incidentally, c is a universal constant that is usually defined independently of the speed of light... it just happens light prefers to travel at that speed.
 
  • #29
"Yahoo Answers"=Bread & Circuses for yahoos
 
  • #30
On second thought, I suspect "14 hz" was meant to be "14 oz." ... in which case, 7/8=0.875#.
 

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