Just do what the scientists say

 

Uncle Joe wants to “Just do what the scientists say.”  (concerning COVID) Are those the economic scientists who just want to open the economy?  Or the oncologists who worry that USA had only about half the cancer screenings this year? Or are we talking about psychiatrists who are concerned about the skyrocketing number of addictions, suicides, and marital crimes during the shutdowns?  Or the federal medical bureaucrats who only want to solve a pandemic with quarantines? 

The trouble with the thinking of most people is that they think “Science” is a monolithic body of knowledge that has been decided.  It’s not.  Sometimes a ‘principle’ is equally agreed upon, but more often there is a minority who see the data set differently. Sometimes everybody agrees but most feel there is scant proof, so support for a ‘theory’ is a mile wide but an inch deep.  Or everyone agrees but then an upstart theory upends the comfortable ideas.  Most grievously, the general population things that there is only one pat way to solve a problem or to see the results.  This is due to the fact that they struggled in science class and having simply solved the problem once, threw up hands over any further notions.  Let me illustrate. 

A friend of mine was given a take-home test and the lone question was “How can one, using a barometer, find the height of a tall building?” Well, my buddy knew what the instructor wanted as an answer, but being a scientist, he tried to think of a few alternatives. The professor read his first answer and decided to give him a second chance.

Prof: You say you could attach a string onto the barometer, go to the top on the building and let out the string until it just touches the ground. Pull it back up and measure the length of string.  That will be the height of the building. Well, that would work, but I was wanting an answer that was remote to the building. 

Friend:  Then tie the string to the building’s corner and walk down the street letting it out as you go.  Keep sighting the top of the building with a 45-degree square.  When the top aligns with the sighting, you have just made a 45 degree right triangle and the height of the building is equal to the amount of string you have let out at that point.

Prof: Well, of course, but I want to know how you would do this by something other than triangulation.

Friend: Sure.  Measure out a length of string and attach the barometer at the end like a pendulum.  Swing the pendulum and measure it’s period at the bottom of the building.  Then go to the top of the building and do it again.  The difference of the periods is proportional to 2 X pi X length of string divided by g, the gravitational acceleration.  And g decreases by the gravitational formula depending on the distance from the center of the earth. Difference in distance from earth’s center for each case is the height of the building.

Prof: Yes, but I wanted an easier way.

Friend: Easy peasy.  Just go the janitor’s room in the basement and say, “Janitor, here I have one fine barometer.  It can be yours if you can just tell me the height of this building.”

Prof, no exasperated: I want to know the way to do it using atmospheric pressure!

Friend:Yes, measure pressure at the bottom of the building using the barometer and at the top.  Use pressure proportionate relationship to radial distance from earth center to find two distances and the difference between them is the height of the building.

Prof: Finally!  Why didn’t you say that the first time?

Friend: You method is too damn pat.  Pays to think about different ways to solve a problem.  That’s called Good Analysis.