Scientific falsehoods heard from adults during my childhood

In 4th grade I was taught that the upper atmosphere was really hot, in order of hundreds of degrees, and that is why the shuttle glows red when it comes in for a landing, it's going through the hot upper layer of the atmosphere.

Even at 10 when I heard that I was like:

 

Speaking of that, I often hear that "friction" is the reason for heating up on reentry, when in fact the compression is more of a factor in that heat than the friction is.

 

I was taught that in 5th grade.

Of course the most ridiculous claim heard in the USA is the biblical account of "Creation." It is an assertion that can be tested and disproven so it is well within the purview of science. And a large number of people believe it. Nothing more ridiculous than that!

 

Might have confused it with the thermosphere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermosphere

But it's the compression/friction, actually.

 

Some of these misconceptions listed here were taught to me in high school!

J.

 

IIRC, the thermosphere is very, very sparse that the particles in are so spread out that special insturments are needed to measure the temperature of it. Seems to me saying that it's very hot is like saying a cold oven is very hot because there's still some hot pieces of crumbs laying around in it.

 

Heck if i remember my Mr. Wizard right. The earth is closer to the sun in winter.

 

Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, or winter in the Southern Hemisphere?

And I just want to point out, my education must have been VERY good (poor Arizona public schools in which over half the students in my classes didn't even speak English) because I have never, ever heard of any of these "misconceptions" before.

I'm astonished, to be honest.

 

Temperature is defined by particle velocity. It may not be intuitive to refer to the upper atmosphere as "hot", and it's certainly not what makes the air around the shuttle glow, but it's scientifically correct.

Incidentally, the shuttle itself doesn't get nearly as hot as the air around it. Aerodynamics create a cushion of cooler air just over the surface. That's part of why a broken or missing tile is such a big deal----if the airflow becomes turbulent due to an imperfection in the hull, that superhot air comes in much closer contact with the ship, which is bad.

 

Northern winter.

 

Norman coordinate.

 

northern of course

 

Some things I remember hearing:

My ninth grade science teacher told the class there is no gravity on the moon.

One teacher in high school told the class that Mars is red because it is the hottest planet (in his defense, he was not a science teacher).

In college, one of my computer science teachers was showing the class a graph that showed the growth of transistor counts in CPUs, demonstrating Moore's Law. The teacher remarked that it is a linear growth, but the Y axis on the graph was logarithmic, meaning that it is actually an exponential growth.

These events stand out in my mind because I was annoyed by them, but overall I think that most of the science teachers I had where pretty knowledgeable.

 

I'd never teach my future students those stuff. I'm studying to be a high school biology teacher...

 

I had a science teacher in high school argue with me that horses sleep standing up because their ribcage would break under their enormous weight. I told her that was not true, and naturally she said I was being incorrigible. Classmates told me to shut up because, "She's the science teacher and she knows". I asked everyone, teacher and the class, who else, aside from me, had two ponies and have watched them either sleeping while lying down or laying flat on their sides sunning themselves in the winter. Nothing but guffaws and rolling eyes.

She's still teaching at that school, and I would love to go back and tell her how wrong she is, especially since several neighbors have horses and I've owned a few. They LOVE to lie down and sun themselves on cool days.

 

Slightly off topic maybe, but this thread made me think of this...

 

^ If I were the parent, I'd be tempted to go round and kick that teacher up the arse.

 

I'd be right down at the school, chewing out both the teacher and the principal after which I'd tell the teacher to shove that nose up his/her ass. I'd also go into what a dunderhead and ignoramus the teacher is, demand to know how he/she is certified to teach, and conclude with how I'd be filing a complaint against both of them with the school board.

 

Overall I agree, but I have to admit that shouting "You're lying to the class!" at the teacher will not go over big.