Things you are too embarrassed to admit you don't understand

[ClassicStripe]

I don't think I really understand what a fascist is.

Like many others, anything to do with finance. I did do both Commerce and economics at school ( early 80s) but had no idea what they were on about. Although anything financial wasn't discussed at home in front of me. In one of the lessons we were asked,'What is interest?"' I enthusiastically put my hand up and said ' how willing you are to learn, as in I'm interested in learning' everyone laughed at me.

The concept of interest I really struggled with. I honestly thought monthly payments for a car or mortgage were the cost split by months/ years as people couldn't afford to buy it otherwise, and it was in the shops 'interest' to split the cost so people could buy. The concept of a mathematically determined charge to buy something you can not afford made no sense to me. I still don't understand mortgages, I rent! Pensions are a mystery, I'm in my late 50s!

Planes do not require 'wind' to remain airborne. What creates lift is the cambered airfoil cross-section of the wing, and how air interacts with it. The upper surface area of the wing is larger than the lower surface area. The air on top passes over the wing more slowly than the air underneath because it has a further distance to travel between the leading edge and the trailing edge of the wing. This creates lower pressure above the wing as compared to beneath it, and creates 'lift'.

Provided there is air travelling across the wing at sufficient speed the wing will continually generate lift. When the speed of the air across the wing is insufficient, there is not sufficient lift being generated to keep the plane in the air. This is a 'stall', the plane will drop from the air.

Aeroplanes typically force the movement of air over the wing by moving the plane forward via thrust from the engines. They don't rely on the air moving itself, which is why they can fly in perfectly calm conditions, and they can also 'glide' to various degrees if they lose engine power because they can angle down and sacrifice altitude for forward momentum, and somewhat keep the generation of lift going.

Planes operate in the earth's atmosphere and that rotates at the same speed as the earth itself. If it didn't then when you put your head out your front door there would be a wind of about 1000mph. So when a plane (or balloon or whatever) is put into the atmosphere above say the UK then it gets dragged around by the atmosphere above the UK.
Someone years ago did try shipping cargo to foreign countries by putting it in balloons and waiting for the earth to rotate... it didn't work so your patent would be thrown out I am afraid. Nice idea though.

Is gravity only on earth or is is other places too?

There is a gravitational force of attraction between any two objects that is proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

So a very large, heavy object (like a planet) will exert a strong gravitational pull on any other object. The closer the other object is, the stronger the gravitational pull will be. But also, the more massive the other object is, the stronger the pull will be. That's why a star (like the sun) can exert a strong gravitational pull on a planet that is millions of miles away (like earth), so the earth continues to orbit the sun rather than flying away into space.

I don't get embarrassed at anything these days. If I don't understand, I just ask.....and it's surprising the number of times others can't exlpain it either. I had a huge audit at work a few weeks ago and the senior team that did it couldn't explain a couple of the questions I was asked😂

@RoseslnTheHospital Bloody hell! That video was alarming.
@Daftasabroom you'd feel loads of air rushing towards you. So the engines create the effect of air?

I can do affect and effect fine, just not planes. Or any sort of Science.

Yep, me too! Absolutely ashamed to admit it

I still struggle with left and right. It's not automatic for me and takes me 10 secs to think about it. I have no idea why.

I don't understand cryptocurrency. But I saw a finance director and chartered accountant on here once say she didn't understand it either, so I felt a bit better.

Apologies if you already know this and for whatever reason it doesn't work for you, but try holding up your thumbs and forefingers open at right angles. The L is on the left.

Who discovered how to make bread - I will never understand it. It's too odd that someone accidentally chucked some yeast and flour in a bowl and made BREAD.

Why the royal family exists. All that coronation absolute nonsense with golden carriages and people in ridiculous outfits really laid bare their complete and utter pointlessness. All that bowing and scraping to people who deserve it no more than anyone else absolutely baffles me.

All objects have their own gravity. The larger the mass and more dense, the more noticeable the effect becomes. Our Moon is much smaller than the Earth, has nowhere near the mass, and correspondingly has a much lower gravitational effect, roughly one sixth of Earth's, but it is still significant enough that it causes tides in our oceans. Jupiter is enormous by comparison to Earth, but is not as dense, so gravity on Jupiter is roughly 2.4x that of Earth.

Gravity is a universal. It's present everywhere in the universe and effects everything. You and I both have a gravitational effect, it's just not significant enough to be noticeable because humans are not large or dense enough.

Stars have huge gravities, and maintain them even after they collapse, because they still contain an enormous amount of matter, it's just condensed into a tiny space.

@drinkuptheezider mortgages are just a big loan that you pay back over 25 years or so. It's the same as if you get a loan of £500 to buy a TV paid back in 12 monthly instalments as it is to get a loan of £500,000 to buy a house, paid back in 300 monthly instalments. The only difference is the TV monthly instalments will be with a fixed interest rate. A mortgage will only have fixed payments for a few years, if you choose to do that, otherwise the interest rate will change every now and then and your monthly payments may go up or down.

Love this as I’m the same!🙃

Anything to do with science and maths. I understand English and history.

@ Inextremis re insidious and invidious

insidious means advancing craftily to betray
e.g. The politician’s insidious manoeuvring led to the dismissal of several colleagues.
It has the idea of setting a trap, Latin root ambush, and waiting for an opportunity to ensnare.

invidious means likely to cause ill will
e.g. The teacher adopted the invidious practice of showing favour to his/her child in class.
When used to describe the differences between people there is a suggestion of resentment - the Latin root means envy.

I’m self employed, 39, but have never set up a pension because I just don’t understand it or where to start☹️ Every time I try and research it I get overwhelmed with all the options. It’s the only thing that never comes off my to-do list 😭

It’s everywhere otherwise how would the atoms in the sun stick together. How would the other planets stick together and orbit the sun?

I never know when to use affect/affected or effect/effected when writing, and so I use different words. I've read and tried to understand, but it just doesn't sink in.

I think of it as what’s left after it’s been through an actual net, filtered through. tax, NI ,pension etc.

Politics. Labour, Conservative etc. They all morph into one and just baffle my tiny brain so I've never voted.

The strength of the steel/concrete they are made of means the buildings and bridges can resist gravity/ their own weight plus other loads such as wind, traffic, people , earthquakes etc. They are all individually designed. Structural engineers do this, not architects. Also they have foundations sunk deep enough in the ground to avoid any subsidence.

There are specific pensions available for self employed people, just search online for "self employed pension plan" and choose one of the big name companies that offer them. These days it should be simple to set up, a matter of minutes.