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: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2011 12:35 AM
To: [hidden email]
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.
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