Today I Learned

  • Thread starter Greg Bernhardt
  • Start date
In summary: Today I learned that Lagrange was Italian and that he lamented the execution of Lavoisier in France during the French Revolution with the quote:"It took them only an instant to cut off this head and a hundred years might not suffice to reproduce it's...brains."
  • #246
Today I learned that the University of Chicago police will approach you in the bathroom and ask for identification after you've been in a car for 4 hours and really need to use the facilities. As a bonus, I learned why my daughter will be attending graduate school in Westwood.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #247
Today I learned that if I randomly pick 100 men in the US, the probability that I can get 3 - 5 of them as gay or bisexual is about 95%-99%. Is this a normal distribution ?:nb)
I'm glad to see people prefer living the life they like to leading the one unwillingly! :)
 
  • #248
Today I learned that Laplace's http://Méchanique Céleste (1799 - 1825) was used by Sir Isaac Newton.

I learned this from p.240 of "Differential Equations for Dummies" by Steven Holzner, which surely was also used by Sir Isaac Newton.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Likes zoobyshoe, Medicol and OmCheeto
  • #249
Today I learned that crows winter with their parents then help to build the nest and raise their siblings in the spring.
 
  • #250
Yesterday I learned I was probably coming down with flu, despite my flu shot.

Today I learned I'm probably not coming down with the flu.
 
  • Like
Likes davenn and Medicol
  • #251
lisab said:
Yesterday I learned I was probably coming down with flu, despite my flu shot.

Today I learned I'm probably not coming down with the flu.

Had a similar experience minus the flu shot, a semi-good night of sleep sure helps.
 
  • #252
Just found out that photons have a "shape".

This really throws a monkey wrench into my bestest, and unfortunately, the last of my crackpot theories.

I guess, it's time, to wash the dishes.
 
  • #253
Today I learned that euler's identity is abbreviated [itex]cis(x)[/itex]. Now I can make some offensive math joke with ties to trans/cis people.
 
  • #254
Today I learned the first microwave oven was made in 1947.
 
  • #255
Today I learned that the quotient group Z / (i - 2) is isomorphic to Z / 5Z. Pretty neat, eh?
 
  • #256
This is the molecule for propane. I got it wrong at trivia tonight :(
Propane-Atom.gif
 
  • #257
I learned some frogs like tropical islands
 
  • Like
Likes Greg Bernhardt
  • #258
I learned that iron atoms flouresce under illumination with copper K-##\alpha## radiation.
 
  • #259
Greg Bernhardt said:
This is the molecule for propane. I got it wrong at trivia tonight :(
Propane-Atom.gif

I hope you don't expect me to like that post.
 
  • #260
Borek said:
I hope you don't expect me to like that post.
I was wishing I could "phone a friend" :D
 
  • Like
Likes dlgoff, Borg and Borek
  • #261
Today I learned that I really should start listening to my parents as they genuinely do know best.
 
  • Like
Likes dlgoff
  • #262
Today I learned there's a Ford F series truck sold every 43 seconds.
 
  • #263
iDimension said:
Today I learned that I really should start listening to my parents as they genuinely do know best.
once you realize this, you no longer need to heed their advice. It's weird, I know.
 
  • #264
iDimension said:
Today I learned that I really should start listening to my parents as they genuinely do know best.

This lesson is a classical part of a process called "maturing".
 
  • #265
Borek said:
This lesson is a classical part of a process called "maturing".

Another version of maturing is that you realize your parents are uneducated bigots and that you don't need their blessing.
 
  • Like
Likes zoobyshoe
  • #266
Pythagorean said:
Another version of maturing is that you realize your parents are uneducated bigots and that you don't need their blessing.
iDimension said:
Today I learned that I really should start listening to my parents as they genuinely do know best.
It's most likely going to be somewhere in between the two extremes: blinding accepting everything they say, and completely rejecting everything that comes out of their mouths. I bet where you fall on the spectrum between these two situations depend on: How smart your parents are and how you were raised when you were young.
 
  • #267
TheDemx27 said:
How smart your parents are

and how smart you are.
 
  • #268
Borek said:
and how smart you are
The way I see it, the two possible things you can base your intelligence on is heredity and the environment you were raised in at an early age; both are provided by your parents. Of course after you come of some age you start acting for yourself, but the largest influence by far comes from the very early years.
 
  • #269
TheDemx27 said:
The way I see it, the two possible things you can base your intelligence on is heredity and the environment you were raised in at an early age; both are provided by your parents. Of course after you come of some age you start acting for yourself, but the largest influence by far comes from the very early years.

There's actually something called a 50-0-50 rule in psychology that pertains to personality and intelligence. It states that intelligence and personality are 50% genetics, 0% correlated with raising, and 50% with peers. They found this by comparing monozygotic twins raised by their biological parents to twins raised by adopted parents. And, obviously, its's a rough approximation. I believe some studies find a higher balance towards genetics with intelligence (like 64-0-35 or something).
 
  • #270
Today I learned there is something called a 50-0-50 rule in psychology that pertains to personality and intelligence.
 
  • Like
Likes TheDemx27
  • #271
Pythagorean said:
There's actually something called a 50-0-50 rule in psychology that pertains to personality and intelligence. It states that intelligence and personality are 50% genetics, 0% correlated with raising, and 50% with peers. They found this by comparing monozygotic twins raised by their biological parents to twins raised by adopted parents. And, obviously, its's a rough approximation. I believe some studies find a higher balance towards genetics with intelligence (like 64-0-35 or something).
I'm having trouble taking that seriously, but if it's in Psychology Today there must be some validity to it. My sister is a social worker, and I remember her quoting from textbook something like 80% of your intelligence can be attributed to parental bonding in the first few years. Obviously there is some discrepancy in the method of measuring intelligence, the definition of "parenting" in this context, or something else. I'll have to remember this as a talking point for next time I meet with her.
 
  • #272
TheDemx27 said:
I'm having trouble taking that seriously, but if it's in Psychology Today there must be some validity to it. My sister is a social worker, and I remember her quoting from textbook something like 80% of your intelligence can be attributed to parental bonding in the first few years. Obviously there is some discrepancy in the method of measuring intelligence, the definition of "parenting" in this context, or something else. I'll have to remember this as a talking point for next time I meet with her.

I'd be interested to see the research where that 80% comes from. I don't think the 50-0-50 rule is supposed to be hard and fast, but a generalization of how much impact each of the categories has. Here's the review article that it came from (published in Psychological Review):

http://faculty.weber.edu/eamsel/Classes/Child 3000/Lectures/3 Childhood/SE development/JudithHarris.html

The above covers a few experiments and their results.
 
  • #273
Pythagorean said:
I'd be interested to see the research where that 80% comes from. I don't think the 50-0-50 rule is supposed to be hard and fast, but a generalization of how much impact each of the categories has. Here's the review article that it came from (published in Psychological Review):

http://faculty.weber.edu/eamsel/Classes/Child 3000/Lectures/3 Childhood/SE development/JudithHarris.html

The above covers a few experiments and their results.

Parental bonding maybe referring to physical contact. I've always thought of it as "common knowledge". Lack of physical contact leads to increased levels of stress, and vice versa. I can't find it but have seen something about monkeys having dramatic personality(social) disorders from lack of mothering, surely the brain develops poorly under those conditions.

below is a silly short excerpt from a S.A. Q&A.
We have known for a long time that skin-to-skin contact with babies is important for their development. In what ways does it help them?
Particularly in the newborn period, it helps calm babies: they cry less and it helps them sleep better. There are some studies that show their brain development is facilitated—probably because they are calmer and sleep better.
 
  • #274
Kallman and Grillo present a method for ethical decision making and part of their method involves the use of five tests: the mom test, would you tell your mother what you did; the TV test, would you tell a national TV audience what you did; the smell test, does what you did have a bad smell to it; the other person's shoes test, would you like what you did to be done to you, and the market test, would your action be a good sales pitch?
https://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/risks/safety/killer_robot/killer_news9.html
Today I learned that taking a dump might be ethically suspect.
 
  • Like
Likes zoobyshoe and collinsmark
  • #275
nitsuj said:
Parental bonding maybe referring to physical contact. I've always thought of it as "common knowledge". Lack of physical contact leads to increased levels of stress, and vice versa. I can't find it but have seen something about monkeys having dramatic personality(social) disorders from lack of mothering, surely the brain develops poorly under those conditions.

below is a silly short excerpt from a S.A. Q&A.
We have known for a long time that skin-to-skin contact with babies is important for their development. In what ways does it help them?
Particularly in the newborn period, it helps calm babies: they cry less and it helps them sleep better. There are some studies that show their brain development is facilitated—probably because they are calmer and sleep better.

I agree with this. In fact, my wife and I went the attachment parenting route with our children (skint to skin, long-term breastfeeding, co-sleeping). Though, I think this has more to do with emotional intelligence and mental health. What the 50-0-50 rule applies to is generalized intelligence. More specifically, though, I think what the study really says is that the intelligence (and personality) of the parent doesn't "rub off" on children, but peer intelligence (and personalities) do (or, maybe there is no actual causation in peers, only correlation: children seek out peers of equal intelligence). Anecdotally, I've seen causation with my own daughter. It takes about 10x more effort for me to teach her something then for her friend that's a grade above her too because when I do it "it's boooorring". But then, when she's challenged by her friend and loses, she will come to me for help. And if I wasn't capable, she would go to her school teachers for help. It's her resourcefulness and her motivation (driven by her peers and her perception of herself compared to them) that drive her acquisition of knowledge, not my intelligence (of course, I can't argue that I didn't contribute genetically :P)

When it comes to pathological objections though, of course abuse and lack of care is going to cause pathological problems, but this is not normal physiology. I didn't think the 50-0-50 rule was commenting on the complexity of pathological conditions or undermining the importance of a parent in the child's health and happiness (which is generally more important than their intelligence or personality anyway).
 
  • #276
Today I learned that to join my local gym will cost me £550 a year!
 
  • #277
a lot about myself and that some people, who I thought were stupid, are actually much smarter than me! :)
 
  • #278
Today I learned that when you are a responsible and good employee, your boss gives you more responsibilities and tasks to do and you are less likely to get a promotion because your boss doesn't want to lose you!:oldlaugh:
 
Last edited:
  • #279
Lisa! said:
Today I learned that when you are a responsible and good employee, your boss gives you more responsibilities and tasks to do and you are less likely to get a promotion because your boss doesn't want to lose you!:oldlaugh:
You will learn soon that when you extend a finger, your arm will be bitten off :D
 
  • #280
Lisa! said:
Today I learned that when you are a responsible and good employee, your boss gives you more responsibilities and tasks to do and you are less likely to get a promotion because your boss doesn't want to lose you!:oldlaugh:

Today I learned Lisa! is still a teenager, learning the most obvious things about adults the hard way ;)
 
  • Like
Likes OmCheeto
Back
Top