@maxdancona,
maxdancona wrote:
Excellent Lava! You are giving a superb example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
LivingLava is claiming that his expertise in Physics is due to the fact that he doesn't understand high school Physics. He claims that his insight in to the topic are better for the fact that he doesn't understand the basics.
LivingLava is funny, but he also perfectly illustrates the point.
I've explained to you several times how momentum/inertia is a form of propulsion even though it's technically passive locomotion instead of active locomotion; yet still you disregard the value of what I've said to condescend toward me instead.
You should understand that making sense of this basic difference/similarity between active and passive locomotion is also crucial for understanding how energy efficiency works in something like a train, which transports more cargo/passengers than trucks/buses/cars that use more energy to overcome rolling resistance and wind drag.
Yes, you can quantify and calculate these things, but those are ultimately just ways of reasoning. If you don't calculate exactly how much wind-drag is overcome by a train compared with a convoy of trucks/buses on the highway, it doesn't prevent you from reasoning that the trucks/buses have more air-space between them than the train cars.
You don't need exact measurements, calculations, and equations to apply scientific concepts. In fact, if you do use exact equations and calculations, they will never perfectly reflect/predict reality because there are always more complexities in reality than can be accounted for mathematically. Still, doing the math can help your reasoning process.
The really important thing, however, is understanding concepts in order to apply them to the task of analyzing various aspects of reality. E.g. first you understand how inertia and momentum are passive forms of propulsion, then you apply that to analyzing how a train is more energy-efficient than trucks/buses/cars.
Science is really about analyzing and modeling reality in order to better understand how it works, but mathematical modeling and calculation, equations, etc. can be powerful tools in the process, depending on how you use them.
Math can also lead people astray from good reasoning and logic, as I've explained in other posts, but there is mathematical hubris that prevents many people from seeing and/or acknowledging that math has a dark side; probably because it is the way that they gained the good grades and test scores that weeded away lots of other students while they ascended through the ranks of academic privilege.