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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete|Created by THE EIFFEL TOWER TAKING A TYLENOL - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | |
− | It's likely that this comic was at least partially inspired by writing the | + | This comic uses a table to compare the perceived difficulty of various questions with how easily they're answered in real life. [[Randall]] has a long history of comics with similar themes, comparing perceptions to reality. In this case, both the perception and the reality are divided into three levels of difficulty, giving a total of nine categories. Accordingly three of the problems listed are effectively as difficult as one would expect, and the remaining six are not. |
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+ | It's likely that this comic was at least partially inspired by writing the book "How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems". This book involves answering very elaborate questions from a scientific point of view. This process likely emphasized that some really strange questions are actually difficult to answer, while some questions that seem simple continue to confound scientific knowledge. | ||
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! Question !! Perceived Difficulty !! Real Difficulty !! Explanation | ! Question !! Perceived Difficulty !! Real Difficulty !! Explanation | ||
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− | |How | + | |How much does the Eiffel Tower's gravity deflect baseballs in Boston?||Near Impossible||Easy||This problem sounds extremely specific and esoteric, concerning an effect far too small for direct experimentation. But in theory, it's actually a very simple physics problem. Gravitational force is determined entirely by mass and distance. Since the mass of the Eiffel Tower, the mass of a baseball and the distance from Paris to Boston are easy to look up, the calculation is quite simple. |
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− | | | + | |What time of year did the cretaceous impact happen?||Near Impossible||Difficult||The cretaceous impact happened approximately 65 million ago. The margins of error on calculating something that ancient are necessarily thousands of years wide at least, the notion of determining the time of year seems impossible. In fact, the problem is a difficult one, but many of the animals killed in the impact were fossilized, and comparing those fossils to seasonal growth cycles [https://www.science.org/content/article/springtime-was-season-dinosaurs-died-ancient-fish-fossils-suggest has led to the suggestion that the impact happened in spring in the northern hemisphere.] |
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− | |How | + | |How can relativity be reconciled with quantum mechanics?||Near Impossible||Near Impossible||This remains one of the great unsolved questions in physics. The problem sounds almost unsolvable to laypeople, and remains unsolved even to experts in the field. |
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− | | | + | |Where was Mars in the sky from Paris on the day the Eiffel Tower opened?||Difficult||Easy||The date of the opening of the tower is well known (March 31, 1889). Since the motions of the planets are predictable, one would expect that the position of Mars in the Paris sky on that date could be calculated, but that it would take a lot of work. |
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|How many ants are there?||Difficult||Difficult||While the existence of ants is a mundane part of life for many people, there are so many of them that coming up with a total number of ants in the whole world sounds exceedingly difficult. It is, in fact, a difficult problem, but experts have done a significant amount of work and have come up with well-founded estimates [https://phys.org/news/2022-09-ants-earth-quadrillion.html in the range of 20 quadrillion ants on earth]. | |How many ants are there?||Difficult||Difficult||While the existence of ants is a mundane part of life for many people, there are so many of them that coming up with a total number of ants in the whole world sounds exceedingly difficult. It is, in fact, a difficult problem, but experts have done a significant amount of work and have come up with well-founded estimates [https://phys.org/news/2022-09-ants-earth-quadrillion.html in the range of 20 quadrillion ants on earth]. | ||
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− | | | + | |How does Tylenol work?||Difficult||Near Impossible||Tylenol is a brand name for paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, a drug commonly sold without prescription for pain relief and fever reduction. This drug has been widely used since 1950, and has been well established as being both effective and safe when used properly. One would expect the biological mechanism for any drug to be complicated, but most people would assume that a drug that's been widely used and studied for so long would have well-understood effects. Surprisingly, however, the precise action still isn't fully understood. Scientists have concluded that the drug does work, but don't know exactly how. |
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− | | | + | |How tall is the Eiffel Tower?||Easy||Easy||The height of any structure that can be easily observed can be calculated without much difficulty. The Eiffel Tower was constructed to be the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest man-made structure on earth, which meant that its height was widely publicized since it was first constructed (330 meters, or 1083 feet). This number is widely published, and easily confirmed. |
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− | |How does | + | |How does general anesthesia work?||Easy||Difficult||While biology is always complex, inducing unconsciousness seems relatively simple. In fact, keeping a person unconscious and insensate without causing permanent damage or death is a difficult proposition, requiring a medical specialist. Despite this field being well-established, it might surprise people to know that the mechanism of general anesthesia is still the subject of research, and recent studies have revealed things that we didn't previously understand. |
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− | | | + | |Why does your hair get a static charge when you rub it with a balloon?||Easy||Near Impossible||Inducing a static charge by rubbing together two materials is a method that's been known since ancient times. Since human hair has a marked tendency to develop a positive charge, and the latex commonly used in balloons tends to develop a negative charge, rubbing the two together is a very simple way to create an electric field. This process is so simple that it's used for both party tricks and as a fun demonstration of electrical phenomena. Because of this simplicity, most people would assume that the phenomenon is well understood. So it's surprising that the actual mechanism remains an unsolved problem in physics. The title text quotes a paper explaining that, as common as this phenomenon is, there's still no theory that can adequately explain what we observe. |
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==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
+ | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
[[Category:Charts]] | [[Category:Charts]] | ||
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