Video Games and the Scientific Method

I think sometimes students wonder why they have to take science courses as part of any major. Part of the reason is to teach the scientific method. No matter whether you are taking biology, chemistry, physics, or some of the other sciences, you should be learning to form hypotheses and conduct experiments to see your ideas hold true ("the scientific method").

What amazes me is that this skill doesn't seem to stick. Politicians and other people toss out ideas that just don't hold up when investigated. For example, video games are for kids (wrong: statistics show that the average age of gamers is 35). Another example, video gamers are men (true, but not as extreme as portrayed: 40% of gamers are women). If you go with the false belief that teenage boys are the only people playing video games, you can draw many poor conclusions. For example, IF most people playing video games were male teenagers, you can draw conclusions about the content that should be available on these systems.

I ran across the article linked below and it just made me think how sometimes it's easier to go with anecdotal knowledge rather than do any research. For example "every time I go in to Game Stop, it's filled with teenagers". Well, this may be true, but this is not the only place that people buy video games. Evidence can be disputed with research. Research may indicate that adults buy their video games online rather than in stores like Game Stop, for the convenience or price or whatever. However, you could draw an incorrect conclusion just by walking in to a few stores and making a generalization.

Anyway, this article is a little bit biased for gamers, but an interesting read nonetheless.

Link to article

Physics for Free!

As an undergraduate in Computer Science, I was required to take a two semester lab science sequence. In addition, I was required to take Calculus I, Calculus II, and Linear Algebra from the math area. With proper manipulation of my free electives, I was able to take a few extra courses and end up with both math and physics minors. Where an ex-girlfriend of mine was taking classes like "Rock and Rap as Cultural Phenomena" (no kidding), I was taking four-credit lab sciences like Electricity and Magnetism and higher level math classes like Linear Algebra to complete requirements. I finished my degree with 130 credits - two more than the minimum - with those two minors.

Physics, in particular, always used to fascinate me. It was always complicated, but very interesting to solve problems using the theories provided. It's an incredibly interesting subject, but it does involve a lot of higher level math, and that usually seems to be a deterrent for people. I think people would get more out of that type of science than, say, Meteorology, but that's just me. Not that there is anything wrong with Meteorology, but I think Physics really was a class that taught me how to think and apply math and science to real world problems, and I am glad I ended up going that route.

If you ever did want to learn a little about it, a professor of Physics has actually taken the time to write a free textbook, and has made it available on the Web. You can find it at the address below:
http://www.physicsforfree.com/

"World Changing Inventions"

There are many things that people think will "change the world" that don't end up doing much or even happening. Sometimes we think "this would be a cool idea", but there are reasons that they don't succeed, or even happen.

I think it's instructive to look back on things and see why.

For example, let's take the idea of videophones. It seemed like a logical progression from phones, right? We started with radio - voice only - and moved to TV - voice with video. Why not start with telephones and move to videophones?

Well, because people don't want to get dressed, or shower, to talk on the phone.

Seems like a great, logical response, but people invested millions of dollars in this technology anyway. Now, though we have cell phones that take video, and we have Web based videoconferencing. Will video phones ever happen? It's kind of doubtful at this point.

Warning: Language as always on cracked.com is a little, um, raw.
Cracked.com article

Look to the skies tonight

Ladies and gentlemen,

Tonight should be a very interesting night in the skies above us.

First of all, the US Government will be shooting down a spy satellite. They'll apparently be taking three shots at it, and I am sure lots of amateur video will be taken of it.

You can track the status on:
this Web site

There will also be a lunar eclipse tonight. These are relatively rare, though not as rare as solar eclipses. The moon should be lighting up soon (around 10 PM).

Link to story

Lemons in soft drinks

A friend and colleague, Anne Loving from PCCC's Science Department, did a study on germs and other icky things. She's a microbiologist, so this is one of the areas she is knowledgeable about. The interesting twist? It's something that applies to many of us who eat at restaurants - are there germs and bacteria in the lemons they put in soft drinks?

The study has gotten her (and PCCC) some recognition - she's been interviewed by a number of radio stations via telephone, and a 90 second video clip was posted on healthinspections.com - it is worth checking out, and it certainly has me thinking differently about asking for lemons at a diner!

http://healthinspections.com/video.cfm?bWVkaWFJRD0yOA==

Robotic Gas Attendant?

A company has developed a robot that is supposed to open the gas tank of a car, unscrew the cap, and insert the nozzle in to the gas tank. The price for each would be somewhere around $111,000 USD. That sounds like a lot, but if you didn't have to pay for any employees, that really would be a savings eventually.

Now, having said that...

I do have a lot of questions about the technology they are discussing, and I really have trouble believing that it would work the way it is described. It's supposed to look up the car in a database and based on that know which side of the car the gas tank is on, as well as where on the vehicle.

It's another one of those things that at the moment seems really hard to believe, but in ten years might be commonplace.

Link to Reuters Article

Not that this is really a big deal for those of us living in New Jersey, since we have full service gas stations...

Planets

How many planets are in the solar system?

Well, everyone knows the answer to that, right? Nine.

Well, we're wrong.

Under new guidelines, Pluto is no longer a planet. In the words of Donald Trump (or Vince McMahon), Pluto, you're fired!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/24/pluto.ap/

I guess the mnemonic device we used to remember planets has to be changed:
I was always taught to remember the planet order with the sentence:
My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us New Peas
(representing the order of the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)

I wonder if some smart company will get in on sponsorship of this:
My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nabisco!
My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nestea!
My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nestle!

Brand recognition at it's finest! Companies pay to sponsor stadiums, why not mnemonic devices!