I just bought a radiometer. I\u2019ve wanted one for years but couldn\u2019t remember the name, so I\u2019ve looked in vain in toy stores. Today, we went to a 60th birthday party at Explora!, an interactive museum intended to stimulate scientific curiosity in kids. In doing so, Explora! provides no information at all, so those kids had better be mightily stimulated and capable of seeking reliable sources of information outside the exhibits.<\/p>\n
I mentioned my search for a whatchamacallit (wow, spell check indicates I got that right) to the gift store cashier and she said, \u201coh, that\u2019s a radiometer; we have them over here.\u201d I\u2019d walked right past the boxes looking for one out in the sunlight. I bought it and it is spinning away in the bright kitchen.<\/p>\n
So, when I read the back of the box at home, I was flummoxed that it claimed the radiometer worked because of \u201cheated air molecules\u201d (not 100% complete). But I\u2019ll be damned: I thought the radiometer proved photons have mass because they move the vanes. D\u2019oh! On closer inspection (see How does a light-mill work?<\/a>; I love the name \u2018light-mill\u2019), I was in the good company of Maxwell himself, but how did my head hold a \u201cfact\u201d that had been discredited over 100 years ago? I had a similar \u2026 \u201crude awakening\u201d (everything you know is wrong) not long ago when a friend question my confident assertion that rabbits are rodents. Not since the early 1900s (it took her one second with a search engine to confound a 47<\/a> year old certainty). When did I go to school? I\u2019m open to learning new stuff but not too keen on learning I\u2019m wrong.<\/p>\n Sometimes, I feel I\u2019ve slipped between universes. I learned this stuff over there. But the food is better here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I just bought a radiometer. I\u2019ve wanted one for years but couldn\u2019t remember the name, so I\u2019ve looked in vain in toy stores. Today, we went to a 60th birthday party at Explora!, an interactive museum intended to stimulate scientific curiosity in kids. In doing so, Explora! provides no information at all, so those kids … Continue reading Don’t believe everything you think<\/span>