Talk:2501: Average Familiarity

I've never even heard of olivine. I think most people have heard of quartz (it's the crystal in most electronic watches, and it's pretty), and I suspect feldspar is somewhere in between. Barmar (talk) 05:21, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

If you find a hard white rock, it's probably quartz; very common where I live. Decorative white pebbles? Quartz. Clear, pretty crystals might be the same compound, but they had to be pure to start with and they had to cool really slowly. (Unsigned by 162.158.167.245)

Well, it helps if you play Dwarf Fortress. Olivine is one of the green stones (that only really has use as building material/decoration, but makes an impressive megaconstruction mayerial if you find enough of it to make that worthwhile), unlike quartz which features as raw 'gem clusters' more typically cut for decoration of mugs, crossbow bolts, etc. Of course, IRL, quartzes are so ever-present that they are very easy to forget except as fancy crystals (either for timekeeping in watches or timewasting in crystal healing) and as such you can actually find them almost anywhere (if you're not stuck on a desert island). 162.158.111.20 12:37, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

I resemble this comic ... I specialize in probability. Does everyone know that probability=1 means 'certain'? ... I'm not certain ... (Unsigned by 162.158.167.245)

In a general probability distribution, a probability of 1 means an event happens "almost surely" rather than "certainly" (see definition here). I know the distinction isn't important if one considers only finite sample spaces, but I think it's a cool enough concept that the nitpicking might be interesting to someone.172.69.63.14 05:02, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

People who went through at least the first half of the math undergraduate program will most likely understand. In the general population, I guess, saying '100 % probability' would work much better than 'probability 1', but still people can get quite upset when something with 99 % probability of success fails, not understanding that 99 % (or even 85 %) does not mean guaranteed success (see for example 14:46 of this video about randomness in video-game design https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwI5b-wRLic). CryptoNut1269 (talk) 11:08, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

As a chemist, I heard of all of them but, fun fact, there is a mnemonic in the german language known by at least all of the elderly generation: "Feldspat, Quarz und Glimmer - die drei vergess´ ich nimmer!" thats "feldspar quartz and mica - i will never forget the three". These three are the main compunds of granite and obviously this was stuff they had to learn at school. If, in a group of silverheads, start the phrase "Feldspat Quarz und Glimmer ..." and there will always be someone to finish the sentence. --Pauliprinzip (talk) 05:45, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

and may not even know the definition of "feldspar" beyond "a rock". Ironically, I think the person writing this may have overstated the "average Joe"'s familiarity with the word "feldspar", since I couldn't have defined it if you'd asked me. --Enchantedsleeper (talk) 08:11, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

I got the idea that both Cueball and Ponytail were geochemists, rather than Cueball being just an average adult. OblateSpheroid (talk) 20:02, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

Seconded. Danish (talk) 20:12, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

Seemed like the examples of substances the average person might reasonably know the chemical formula for should include a mineral. Halite seems likely (though that name is probably less familiar than table salt). Diamond and graphite were the only other minerals that I could think of that many would know the formulas for (C). Chalk (calcite) seems possible, but less likely. Any other suggestions (or even better, any citations to research)? 108.162.245.5 21:30, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

technically water in the form of ice is a mineral. But including salt is a good idea. And I'll look for citations. Curiouscat (talk) 21:44, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

I would expect lot of people would be able to name "formula" for more than several elements, along with having some idea how they look OR where they are used. Not as common knowledge as water and salt, but assuming they had SOME chemistry in school, this would be more likely to be remembered than compounds. Also, speaking about diamond, I suppose average people would claim that formula for coal is C, although I suspect that chemists would say that's not correct. -- Hkmaly (talk) 02:16, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

I probably wouldn't have been able to tell you the chemical formula for salt off the top of my head, unless you prompted me with "sodium chloride" (but even then, it's a toss-up as to whether I'd get the elements right). I studied chemistry for five years at secondary school and got good grades, but you'd be amazed at how little sticks when you have absolutely no need for it in day-to-day life. --enchantedsleeper (talk) 08:56, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

Friendly local geologist here, I made some changes especially to the third paragraph because a lot of the science was confusingly written and not really correct (desert islands tend to be made up of primarily silicates? Even volcanic ones. Basaltic rocks have silica in them too, that's what olivine is) I wasn't sure what to do with the second paragraph. It seems a bit unnecessary to talk about quartz so much, since it isn't that relevant to the comic. I was thinking it might be good to have an explanation of the difference between silicon the element, silica the mineral structure, and what all these minerals actually are might be more relevant? Or at least we could put up what some of the chemical formulas are for quartz and olivine and maybe like albite, anorthite, microcline to represent the feldspars. Curiouscat (talk) 21:40, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

I thought (in a prior edit, by someone, may have lost its clarity in subsequent edits by others but I don't have the patience to cross-compare it all) the point was that coral-sands are not silicates, so your classic "lump of 'sand' poking out of the sea" is sparse of the stuff you might want to thrown your rock at. And any suitable rocks, unless you go diving down in the surrounding oceon to rumage beyond the living coral to the seamount/extinct-and-eroded-volcano it has been growing upon. That said, there's a lot of variation out there, so maybe I'm thinking of a too-narrow subset of examples. 162.158.158.250 00:14, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

Replaced "average Joe" with "average person"

Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terms_related_to_an_average_person this term is specific to the US, and introduces specificity unrelated to the comic. 141.101.76.239 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It's pretty common on this wiki for explanations to throw English expressions like this at the reader and expect the, ah, average Joe to understand.

Also, how does one use Template:Unsigned? I've definitely misused it once or twice, but reading documentations for it isn't helping (and unfortunately this is not a script; reading the src doesn't help either). bubblegum-talk|contribs 05:33, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't know, but can I say how cool your signature is??

Also, thanks to the person at the top who replaced "average Joe", as that did bother me too. --enchantedsleeper (talk) 08:44, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

The unsigned template should used like this: {{unsigned ip|141.101.76.239}}, see above for result, except if by a known user, then {{unsigned|Kynde}} should be used, which would produce this (which I leave as my signature now) -- Kynde (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

You can also add the time/date: {{unsigned|Lupo|13:27, 13 August 2021}} for this result: -- Lupo (talk) 13:27, 13 August 2021 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I knew quartz (SiO2) and I recognize the other two, all from having an interest in rocks (and having a little kids-oriented geology book decades ago when I was a wee lass). But beyond quartz, water, and salt, the only other chemical formula that come to mind are acids: H2SO4 and HCl. Mostly from the old rhyme: Jonny was a chemist's son / but Jonny is no more / What Jonny thought was H2O / was H2SO4. :p

Oh, also FOOF ( https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_difluoride ) 172.70.130.109 12:39, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

The explanation mentions carbonates as a notable exception to silicates, but sulfate minerals are widespread and economically important (and therefore ubiquitous in their finished forms -- e.g., gypsum -> plaster or drywall). Might deserve a mention? 108.162.221.133 17:20, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

If somebody can run perl scripts, there is a bot linked from User:DgbrtBOT that could resume autocreation of comic pages. While we're mentioning such things, are comics also published on twitter? would it be good to link the twitter discussions? sometimes an expert comments.

When somebody does the necessary to create the page for 2502: The answer is the double-dagger. (Then the silcrow, double-danda and pilcrow, in turn.) HTH, HAND. 162.158.158.118 23:19, 13 August 2021 (UTC)