Ahem.
Thus working in a studio setting.
Don't think I am not observing the clamorous silence
in response to my post inviting you over to experiment with
what you think will happen,
what does happen, and
how you made it happen.
VEH
On Jul 4, 2011, at 9:30 AM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
Dear Peter,
There are three ways to learn something: read, fiddle with things,
and talk to somebody. I think the best learning take place if one
is doing all three at the same time.
Nick
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2011 12:35 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [FRIAM] Experiment and Interpretation
Klowns like me are often misinterpreted, as noted by Yorick. I am
ardently in favor of experiment, carefully observed. It is the
basis of all science. But, but, the interpretation of observed
phenomena must also be dealt with carefully. Voodoo has a
pernicious way of creeping in. After all, for two thousand years we
knew that malaria was caused by the bad air of the low, swampy
places where it was prevalent, and deadly. It was only in 1896,
after the Anopheles mosquitoes started reading the Annals of
Tropical Medicine in the Lancet (not by a Limey, but Dr. Ronald
Ross, an admirable Scots physician) that the little critters
realized that they had the God-given gift of spreading the disease
by biting white people, and thus helped the indigenous populations
by keeping Europeans out of the “White Man’s Grave”.
I love observations, and it is not for me to challenge what people
see. If pious folks observe the image of the Virgin Mary on a half-
baked tortilla, I say, “Let it be”. She certainly has Power to do
that, according to Those in the Know, and it seems to me like a
folksy, open-hearted gesture on Her Part, that our president would
do well to emulate.
But, a little learning is a dangerous thing, and it is injudicious
to draw conclusions from phenomena that one does not understand the
physics of. It is certainly valid for an honest amateur to ask,
“But how can I know if my theory is Voodoo?” Here are some modest
proposals: first, study as much as you can about the subject,
second, understand it well enough to use the professional technical
terms of the discipline and then, third, ask a few knowledgeable
folks privately for their opinions.
So, follows some constructive suggestions. Read. Learn. The
Picasso of irrotational rotating viscous/inviscid flows was an
amiable Top Brit, Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor. He is probably now
sitting on some Tiepolo cloud up there watching with satisfaction
the grand swirling vortical structure of the firmament of the
heavens. I knew him as a lofty figure, and was honored to present
the G I Taylor Memorial Lecture at a university far from here some
20 years ago. There is lotsa stuff on GI on the internet that one
can read and learn from – in particular the Taylor-Proudman theorem
that has a special charm for me, since before his name was
immortalized, I was a lowly scholar in Dr. Proudman’s grad. fluid
mechanics classes at Cambridge. He would not remember, but I
recall him, as I melted silently, respectfully, into the woodwork of
those 17 th century desks. Fer Gawd’s Sake, Newton sat right there!
I held my peace. Dumb questions (which were all I could muster then,
and even now) were not encouraged in the Old Maths Schools at the
University.
As for asking folks, it is my modest guess that, for all their many
fine qualities, not too many Friam correspondents have that much
background in the very esoteric, and charmingly pointless, subject
of pouring fluids outa bottles – unless they be of a good vintage.
But I will answer privately things that folk may ask personally, to
the extent I am capable.
It is nice, and generous, for the blind to lead the blind, but the
truth is seldom approached by that sorta debate. It takes hard work,
intelligence and the learning of new ideas.
Incidentally, with reference to some discussions of high and low
pressures at surfaces: ALL free surfaces for ANY fluid motion with
stationary air as the contiguous external fluid are at the same
CONSTANT pressure. How could they be otherwise?
Peter Lissaman, Da Vinci Ventures
Expertise is not knowing everything, but knowing what to look for.
1454 Miracerros Loop South, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505,USA
tel:(505)983-7728
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
