I'm sure that you don't seriously think I would tell you how to destroy all of the science community - do you?

Anyway, what I wanted to explain in simple terms to you is the four things that everybody seems to get wrong and drive scientists mad in the process. These are:

The Light year is a distance not a time

It makes sense that someone may think that: as it has the word year in it.

But, the light year is a measure of the distance light travels in one year. It is not a long period of time as it is often used in colloquial conversation. Understand?

If so; how many years are in a light year? None of course.

The dodgy foot pound

When you think foot pound you are obviously going to be inclined to think that it is a pressure or force. However it is not.

A foot pound is actually a measure of work done (or energy expended) when carrying out a task. This is worked out by multiplying the force applied by the distance moved.

 Vanishing Energy

POWERSTATIONS NEVER MAKE ENERGY AND YOU NEVER USE ENERGY, EVER! If you think I am crazy fine. But let me explain.

There are multiple forms of energy:

  • Light
  • Chemical
  • Sound
  • Heat
  • Kinetic (movement)
  • Strain Potential (i.e. in a spring)
  • Electrical

When for example you are walking all you are doing is converting the chemical energy in food into kinetic energy. Thus you have not used up energy you just have converted energy from one form into another.

Scientists use a rule called the conservation of energy law that states that energy can never be created or destroyed. So when talking about energy keep this in mind.

Weight or Mass

As you may know weight and mass are totally different and for very good reasons. Weight and mass are represented by this little formula:

W(weight) = m(mass) X g (gravitational field strength)   

So m(mass) = W(weight)/ g (gravitational field strength)  

This means that mass is a measure of how much matter is in something and is a constant – if you are on earth the ISS (international space station) or the moon it does not automatically change. Whereas weight will change depending on gravity. For example if you had a truck of weight 10000N (weight is measured in Newtons) it would weigh 260000N on Jupiter.

I would advise you to follow these around scientists as most of them have a knowledge sharing "problem" and will have to explain it to you.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to neuroscientists for depriving them of brains to study or at least the resultant "goop".