Ridiculous things you've only recently realised you've been wrong about your entire life

[Seasidedolly]

I genuinely thought if you pulled the reverse cord on ceiling fans, it would circulate warm air.

My friend thought the yellow average speed cameras on motorways were there to look for missing children.

I had another recent revelation but I can't remember it now

If Jupiter is less dense than the earth, does that dictate its position in the solar system in relation to the sun or am I asking nonsense?

Everything is just electromagnetic force.

Also, Einstein and Hawking will be just going Doh!
Or not...

Gravity is not proportional to mass, but to a combination of momentum and energy, which is why gravity bends light.
At a planetary speed, mass and momentum/energy are proportional, so the mass (Newtonian) equation works, but for smaller particles and at near light speeds, the relationship breaks down so Einstein identified the momentum/energy equation which works for both large and small, fast and slow bodies.

After reading what garlic has posted I can now go "dah ! " too. it's crazy. I only just get bits of if.

My DP just asked how does it help in everyday life. Apparently the time should be spent on work that puts food on the table or ironing. I can't stop laughing. Then he said may the force be with me because he is off to have a bath . I responded by saying 'don't let the gravitational force pull you down while you walk up the stairs.'

It doesn't dictate the planets's position in relation to the Sun. In a way, the reverse.
The inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are all rocky, while the outer planets tend to be more gaseous, and less dense, although huge by Earth's standards

Not sure why that is, possibly to do with solar wind, temperatures, something like that. Would need to read up a bit more on it.

Calculating things accurately in terms of gravity and electromagnetism puts food on people's tables indeed.

Just to clarify on a related issue: Astronauts feeling weightless in orbit. They do have weight because the earth's gravity acts on them just as it does on us (although a it weaker because they are further from the centre of the Earth). In fact, it is their weight which is the very force that bends their path into a circle around the Earth, rather than hurtling off in a straight line into space.

They feel weightless because they are in free fall, just as you would feel weightless inside a falling lift with no brakes. Most of the time, we feel our weight because of the sensation of the floor or chair or whatever pushing up on our body.

*bit weaker

Is it just me, or has this thread gone from a bit of a giggle l to lots of overly intelligent people showing off how clever they are?

The pps asked...

Not just you, nope.

123itsme back to topic. I only recently found out that tunbridge wells was not in Wales but in the East Sussex. I also thought that it was Wales and not wells.

Well, I lurve our scientific brainbox posters ♥ ♥ ♥ so there Where else could I wheel out my 44-year-old flawed understanding of physics and get proper answers?

The positioning of the planets in our solar system- and Jupiter in particular - is very odd compared to other solar systems we know about. Lots of solar systems have several large "super earths" with much shorter orbits than us. They generally don't look at all like ours - we are an oddity.

Scientists are seriously considering whether Jupiter has moved around the solar system.

Some scientists think Jupiter had a massive collision with another planet (the planets didn't actually touch, but came close enough for their gravitational forces to knock each other onto new paths). The other planet would have been knocked out of the solar system, like an interplanetary game of pool, and currently lost in the galaxy somewhere. Link

Other scientists think that there should have been lots of planets nearer to the sun than Mercury, when Jupiter was wandering about the solar system. These planets would have become super-earths, but Jupiter set of a chain reaction of collisions that saw them smashed to bits. Link

btw my previous post was in answer to the question

"If Jupiter is less dense than the earth, does that dictate its position in the solar system in relation to the sun or am I asking nonsense?"

Not an attempt to show off

123itsme we can giggle and talk about space and physics on the same thread - the two don't rule each other out FFS!

testicle I think I might be an in-law, I thought miffed meant mystified well into adulthood, after moving to the Midlands. Maybe it's just not a southern word & sounds like it could be short for mystified -clutches at straws-

Debbrianna Tunbridge Wells is in Kent, not East Sussex.

Miffed! Ha!

For years I though albeit was pronounced 'albight'

.

You know those fire blankets you put on the wall. (They're in a box and you pull it out if something catches fire while cooking)
Well. I was under the impression they were to protect you from setting alight while you ran to safety.
I've absolutely no idea why were discussing them, but dp found it hilarious when I said "are they not for wrapping around you so you don't set on fire?"

Oh my God misstwister me too!

I though (pronunciations):

Albeit was al-bate
Merely was merrily
Wholly was sort of like wally with a bit of an H sound

My excuse is I read a lot

My admiration for Elton John withered in the space of about five minutes when I was told he doesn't write his own lyrics. That was 20 years ago.

Ooh, just time to add to the 'names of God' bit of the thread:

So far we have:
Our Father, Martin Heaven...
Thanks Peter God
Harold be thy name

and dd's contribution, after a Nine Lessons and Carols reading of 'a man sent by god, whose name was John...'
'I didn't know God's name was John!'