counterintuitive examples in science

Fit a 250 ml round-bottom flask with a 2-hole bung carrying a 110oC thermometer, a short glass tube, and a short length of rubber tubing with a sealing clip. Like hot water freezing faster than cold. The drug is the first of its kind and replicates the signaling of two . Students know that melting and boiling involve heating. It must be curtailed! These questions make students aware of the inadequacies of their own thinking by exposing them to situations whose outcomes are inconsistent with what they would expect. So the intuitive in counterintuitive could refer to the intuitions of experts. King Solomon, who could be considered an early scientist because of his powers of observation and analysis of natural phenomena like plants, beasts, birds, reptiles and fish (I Kings 4:33) and of geophysical cycles (Ecclesiastes 1:5-7), urged youth to gain knowledge, but to build it on the foundation of wisdom. Even tuberculosis, the disease that killed Frederic Chopin and Henry David Thoreau, is making a comeback, in part because some strains of the bacterium have developed multi-drug resistance. The initial boiling produces steam, flushing the air from the flask, which is then sealed. Supercooled water can be found in clouds. Thats what makes this discovery such an exciting breakthrough, as it strongly supports the notion that atmospheric and solid earth processes are intimately connected.. You should sit in meditation every day unless you are too busy. Plot temperature against time. I think there is a logic to wanting to call just about anything counterintuitive. The logic goes as follows. Cultures as diverse as the Babylonians, Han Dynasty China, and the Maya each developed sophisticated belief systems and mathematics to divine the purported influence of the planets and stars on people's personalities and events on Earth ( Boxer, 2020 ). Plastic waste is a global shame. Pick one and examine the scientific grounds for the assertion. So let me get this straight: you're writing a report in which you are breaking the news to your clients that their goals have been wrong, and you wish to soften this news with some examples of how other people have been wrong? but it can also be frightening and mind-boggling at times. Here are ten of the biggest threats to our peace of mind. To many people it appears counterintuitive that eating more meals can help trigger weight loss. If so, perhaps general physics would be a place to go. In any science, though, you have areas of inquiry where there is not an existing theory that makes precise predictions. The trigger words exciting breakthrough should signal caution. Are counterintuitive findings more valuable? By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. And besides, researchers are continuously learning new things. But after doing some more research, we realized that sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction. The consequences are already apparent:glaciers are meltingfaster than ever, flowers are blooming earlier (just askHenry David Thoreau), and plants and animals are moving to more extreme latitudes and altitudes to keep cool. 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Get the best of Cracked sent directly to your inbox! It's a macroscopic effect of quantum mechanics. For the general public that have not had the opportunity to be exposed to the process of science, one of the most counterintuitive things is this: Logic and Common Sense are not the same thing. How many (and whose) lives would you bet on yourtheory? It wouldn't be a popular sport. Do you ever feel like the world is against you? These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. A counterintuitive proposition is one that does not seem likely to be true when assessed using intuition or gut feelings.. Scientifically discovered, objective truths are often called counterintuitive when intuition, emotions, and other cognitive processes outside of deductive rationality interpret them to be wrong. Now I wonder what my intuitions are about the meaning of the word counterintuitive, and what sort of information about the way the word is used might contradict those intuitions. I tend to think of intuitions as thoughts that pop into our heads as the result of conditioned reflexes, even if that conditioning is part of scientific training. An oldie but a goodie: the fact that a pendulum's period of oscillation is independent of the mass hanging from it. A heavier object does fall faster. I am writing a report with some counterintuitive and surprising findings, and need some examples to show that our intuitive understanding can be totally wrong (So that they don't feel stupid for having pursued a goal without checking if their assumptions were correct). I would not claim thatthis describes all instances of counterintuitive, but I thinkit describes a lot of them. In a taste test, youre likely to have a strong preference for the first sample you tasteeven if all of the samples are identical. The fascinating story behind many people's favori Can you handle the (barometric) pressure? counterintuitive events is an effective way of engaging students in exploring science; such events motivate and involve students in solving problems with a high degree of creativity and critical thinking. Its kind of deflating, isnt it? Starting Early: The Benefits of Teaching Counterintuitive Concepts in Childhood. He asked Lewis and Clark to keep an eye out for them. Cookie Policy Counterintuitive definition, counter to what intuition would lead one to expect: The direction we had to follow was counterintuitivewe had to go north first before we went south. 11. (Very long termthe study is now enrolling the grandchildren of the original volunteers.) Whatever the cause of this early wave of extinctions, humans are driving modern extinctions by hunting, destroying habitat, introducing invasive species and inadvertently spreading diseases. The temperature drops as expected, but the water unexpectedly boils again for a while. The mass-independent pendulum's period of oscillation is a consequence of the same pull from the force of gravity to every object regardless of its mass. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Privacy Statement This is correct for most substances, but due to the nature of the water molecule it is different and actually expands. Why do you get my tax dollars to be stupid?". If intuitions vary widely and so do results, across contexts and populations then we run the riskthat placing too much valueon counterintuitive findings will do more to incentiverhetorical flash than substantive discoveries. In the stock market, if you buy and stock for $50 and it goes up to $75 you make 50%. If something is counterintuitive it means it's the opposite of "intuitive" in other words, it's not easily understood in an instinctive, unconscious way. Third year of physics, and the first time I heard that, it boggled my mind, still kinda does, but I'm more used to it now. The definition of counterintuitive is something that goes against what you believe would be logical, or something that goes against common sense. Scientists, like other people, are tempted to fall into the trap of assumption and conformity to expectations. Anyone can plainly see that the Sun and stars rise in the east, sweep across the sky and set in the west; the Earth feels stable and stationary. Don't ever get too comfortable with the status quo, always be willing to blow it up and start . The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical model for the use of counterintuitive examples in the introductory non-calculus-based statistics course at the college level. Water will trickle into the beaker as ice melts. Our universe's spacetime is flat, not the universe itself. A red light for "go" and a . The paper in the Journal of Dairy Science says that Research was supported by Dairy Management Inc. (Rosemont, IL) and asserts that The authors have not stated any conflicts of interest. What does that mean? Counterintuitive means contrary to what seems intuitively right or correct. By: Shea September 09, 2020. . Perhaps the best example is quantum physics where many scientists believe that some quantum processes do not have any cause whatsoever. "Parachutes make skydiving more dangerous.". When the Coen Brothers needed someone to show The Dude how to really roll, they could turn to only one man: Hall of Fame professional bowler Barry Asher, Below you, an entire other world operates. Since water expands when it freezes, bodies of water freeze from the top-down, not bottom-up, allowing for life to survive and flourish under the ice. The time between two objects colliding due to gravity is inversely proportional to the sum of the two masses. If the good cost trillions of dollars, producers would want to make a lot, but consumers wouldn't want to buy any. Steam pushes a piston upwards. While intuition and misconceptions continue to be of great interest to mathematics and science educators, there has been little research, much less consensus or even internal consistency, in statistics curriculum . As Simine points out, many people in psychology say that counterintuitive findings are more valuable so clearly there is an incentive to frame things that way. Bad news that cult recovery group just might be a cult, Theres a little bit of The Dude in a lot of Jeff Bridges performances, The English actor found the good side of being bad. undergraduate science education course with their teaching practice experience in local classrooms. This is a "necessary evil" that is not considered controversial in the . But as an expert on memory, and, in particular, on the malleability of memory, he knows better than to fully trust his recollections As clear and detailed as these memories feel, psychologists find they are surprisingly inaccurate. For example, you probably wouldnt say that the double-slit experiment was counterintuitive; youd say it falsified classical mechanics. In this study, a counterintuitive dynamics test (CIDT) is . The mechanics of climate change arent that complex: we burn fossil fuels; a byproduct of that burning is carbon dioxide; it enters the atmosphere and traps heat, warming the surface of the planet. The counterintuitive has its place. show them that the results went the other way. University of Chicago cosmologist Michael S. Turner ranks dark energy as the most profound mystery in all of science.. Here are just a few of those craziest facts out there! I know what I'd choose. Logic is generally used to reach a conclusion using the most accurate and testable route. Thinning and prescribed fire treatments reduce tree mortality (Phys.org). It leaves little room in the public consciousness for social scientific work that is incremental, for work that shores up and teases apart, for work that complicates, for work on the boundary conditionsthose fragile social and mental habitats upon which decisions turn. Coke was originally supposed to make you smarter or something. Beyond the reach of formal theory, scientists develop educated guesses, hunches, and speculations based on their knowledge and experience. Science is amazing but it can also be frightening and mind-boggling at times. Know that a sense of humor can be just as essential as understanding; you should also check out all these pretty funny science jokes--we we were not expecting these punchlines. Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection can be inspiring: perhaps youre awed by the vastness of geologic time or marvel at the variety of Earths creatures. These ideas, be it physics or biology . The basic premise is this. Why does salt cause the ice to melt? In fact, there are a lot of things that people do every day that defy all logic. NTU Singapore scientists report that plastic bags could be eco-friendlier than paper and cotton bags in cities like Singapore, Removal of dairy cows may reduce essential nutrient supply with little effect on greenhouse gas emissions, Thinning and prescribed fire treatments reduce tree mortality, Protective effect of mandatory face masks in the publicrelevant variables with likely impact on outcome were not considered, Ground-breaking discovery finally proves rain really can move mountains, The Bible gives a good general principle: Test all things; hold fast what is good (. It does not store any personal data. Read the temperature; a little below 100oC, so the water has stopped boiling. Ever since the late 19th century, physicists have known about a counterintuitive property of some electric circuits called negative resistance.