The Academics Thread

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Pariah]

That feeling when a student in your class has the same name as the secret ID of a Champions character you created 30+ years ago.

[Bazza]

Is the feeling pride or deja vu? 

[Old Man]

I'm thinking Danger Sense.

[Bazza]

3 hours ago, Pariah said:

That feeling when a student in your class has the same name as the secret ID of a Champions character you created 30+ years ago.

Freddy Foswell, Jr? 

[Pariah]

I had a kid in my third period class today tell me that when I'm talking, it makes him think of Neil deGrasse Tyson.

 

I must be doing something right.

[Bazza]

 

[Pariah]

[Starlord]

[Bazza]

Who really needs education anyway? True knowledge is found a priori. 

[Pariah]

For the first time in my 15-year teaching career, we had a lockdown (not a drill) at my school. From what I've heard, they took one kid out in cuffs and are now searching at least some of the other classrooms in the building with dogs.

 

I've been in the school's lecture hall with two other teachers and ~75 students for about an hour and a half. No word yet on how much longer we're going to be holed up together. 

 

Edit: They just lifted the lockdown. All is clear.

Edited September 5, 2023 by Pariah

[Bazza]

Teacher, accusing two students of plagiarism: “Why do you have the same answers?”

Student 1: “Because we have the same questions.” 

[Pariah]

Sadly, those assessments aren't going to grade themselves.

[Pariah]

I was recently reminded of a story of malicious compliance from my childhood. 

 

By high school, I had to become settled in the habit of writing with green pen. I had a high school English teacher who did not like green pen, and told me to use something else. So I did what any smart alec kid whose Mom was a teacher would do: I "borrowed" one of her red pens and started using it. 

 

My English teacher was not impressed . . . but she didn't complain about green pen after that.

[Cancer]

I used a green pen when I was copyeditor for the school paper, but that was about the extent of me using them.  I found that the intensity and density of green pens varied rather more than other colors, and that annoyed me.

[Pariah]

"Whenever you drive cattle through town, there's gonna be a lot of s*** to clean up."

~ Texas Bix Bender

 

The same is true if you're a teacher and you have to get a substitute.

[Pariah]

The first rule of Dunning-Kruger club is that you don't know you're a member of Dunning-Kruger club.

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

The first rule of Dunning-Kruger club is that you don't know you're a member of Dunning-Kruger club.

 

Either you think you might be a member of that club, or you're definitely a member of that club.

[Bazza]

That explains so much about government.. 

[Pariah]

The Sun is 400 times as big as the Moon. But it's also 400 times as far away. Because of this, the Sun and the Moon appear to be about the same size in our sky. Without this little coincidence, solar eclipses wouldn't happen.

 

Now imagine growing up on a world without this geometry. You would spend your entire life not knowing that eclipses are a thing.

[Cancer]

I don't think anyone realized that transits of Venus (which are naked-eye observable, but very rare: sort of a pair of 'em separated by 8 years, then a ~120-year gap until the next one) existed until Halley, IIRC, predicted them in the 1600s.  Transits of Mercury are rather more common, but it takes a telescope to see those.

 

Transits of Earth as seen from Mars do occur, but those are separated in time by multiple centuries.  Assuming you can see the Moon from Mars (more on this below), the Earth & Moon are far enough apart that it would be obvious that Earth has a companion. 

 

Earth's disk is bigger than that of the Moon by a factor of 7.35 (comparing areas of circles there), and Earth's albedo is about 2.5 times larger, but clouds are brighest, land next brightest, and ocean darkest, so its apparent brightness would depend on weather and what part of Earth was facing you at the time.  The Moon is smaller and darker but its surface is much closer to uniform in its reflection properties.  I could find a reference stating that Earth gets about as bright as apparent magnitude -2.5 as seen from Mars, but wasn't able to find a statement about the Moon's apparent magnitude; depending on how all that gangs together the Moon may or may not be naked-eye bright from Mars.  I think details are going to matter, and I was being very fast and sloppy in this estimating.  Another influence is whether the Moon is at elongation or not at the time the Martians were looking; I think maximum elongation would put the separation of Earth and Moon at about 0.08 degrees, which you can see if your eyes are good.  Whether you could make out faint Moon that close to bright Earth is more a visual perception question, and I can't answer that one.

 

(I gave all this some thought last time I was building a FRPG world and thinking about making astrological influences matter.)

[Cancer]

On 10/6/2023 at 8:43 PM, Pariah said:

The first rule of Dunning-Kruger club is that you don't know you're a member of Dunning-Kruger club.

 

On 10/6/2023 at 9:55 PM, Old Man said:

 

Either you think you might be a member of that club, or you're definitely a member of that club.

 

Hmm.  The next RPG character I have may need to be named Dunning Kruger.  He might look too much like Groo, though.

[Pariah]

Dunning Grooger...? 

[Starlord]

How about Diane Kruger?

[Cancer]

Had two different people today tell me they'd been in one of my physics classes, and met one of my former pre-med interviewees.  I am beginning to be appalled at all the lives I've peed ontouched.