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What Are Things You've Heard That Made You Facepalm?


michaelsteele3

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"Two of the examples come from the Apollo program... One of the objects tested at White Sands was the launch escape system for the Jupiter V rocket which would send the men into space. ...The Jupiter rockets were expensive..." From a book on spaceflight.

*Facepalm*

Ouch. That one hurt.

Mine came from an argument I had yesterday with one of my fellow students in physics class. We were building a egg drop. Simple, first project of the year. I noted that since ours was filled with pillow stuffing, was very lightweight, and not very dense, that it would not fall as fast as some of the others due to air resistance.

Here's how it went from there:

Other student: Dude, I already told you, everything falls at the same speed. It doesn't matter if it's lighter.

Me: They would fall at the same speed if there was no air. But there is air, which causes air resistance, or drag, which will cause it to fall slower than say if we filled it with lead or something.

Him: No, everything falls at the same speed. Look *picks up the project and a roll of duct tape and drops them from roughly the same height in his hands* *they hit relatively close together, but there was a small separation* See! They hit at the same time!

Me: That's because you dropped them from five feet, so they wouldn't have had time to reach a speed where the air resistance would make a difference. and because you couldn't have dropped them at the exact same time. Here, let me ask our physics teacher. Mrs. H, do all objects fall at the same speed on earth, where we have air?

Student: Don't ask her specific like that, just ask her regularly. Do things fall at the same speed?

Teacher: In a perfect environment with no air, yes.

student: See! I told you!

Me: ...She just proved me right....

Student: Alright let me look this up to prove it to you again. *looks it up* ok, this is what it says. A feather and a ball will not fall at the same speed, but a bowling ball and a pen will fall at the same speed.

(facepalm at this article in not explaining anything at all)

Student: See?

Me: That was a very vague and confusing way to put that, but it still proves me right. The pen and bowling ball will have somewhat similar drag-mass ratios if the pen falls point first. But the feather falls slower because of air resistance.

Another student who everyone knows is one of the smartest kids in the class (besides me :P ) : Yeah, he's right, the air slows down less dense objects.

Student: No, it doesn't. All objects fall at the same speed. I'm done arguing.

*facepalm* *facepalm* *facedesk*

Not trying to be mean to him, but this guy isn't the smartest in the class, everyone knows that. He struggled in math and science classes before. I don't doubt he can do well in this class if he tries hard. Yet he was certain that he was right, and that two of the smarter people in the class were wrong. And he was also certain that the teacher proving me right was actually proving him right.

I gave up because I knew there was no way to convince him, plus I know I'm right so. Yeah. *facepalm*

Edited by Endersmens
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Ok, google was stupid, it gave me the distance of an AU when I asked for pluto. :confused:

Well, since pluto is actually 8 times farther away then Jupiter is, I don't even need to get into math about why it appears smaller.

Edited by Endersmens
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My coworker was arguing with me about the Mars One program a few months ago, and she said "Well why don't we just fly everyone out to a planet that has an atmosphere like Earth?!" She literally had no clue what planets are in our solar system and that there is no other "Earth" we can go to. She's over forty years old with (I believe) a college education.

Another unrelated moment. I work at a pet store and we were babysitting a couple of lizards for some folks - so we wrote that on the glass with paint markers - so nobody would accidentally sell the lizards. A teenage kid came up and asked me why those two lizards were named "Babysitting."

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Literally just 20 seconds ago as of me starting to type this, on the local news they said:

Interstellar produce! Astronauts on the ISS are eating the first food grown in space!
Interstellar produce.
Interstellar produce.

*facepalms 300 billion times in a row*

Because food grown in orbit is totally interstellar, right? Well, according to my local news station, it is...

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Literally just 20 seconds ago as of me starting to type this, on the local news they said:
Interstellar produce! Astronauts on the ISS are eating the first food grown in space!

*facepalms 300 billion times in a row*

Because food grown in orbit is totally interstellar, right? Well, according to my local news station, it is...

Also, food that has been grown in space doesn't count, because it wasn't eaten.

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People That Type Like This And Capitalize Every Word And Even Some Random SyllaBles And You Ask Them Why They Type Like This And Say It's Hard To Read And They Simply Insult You And Keep Doing It.

oH gOSH pLEASE sTOP nOW iTS sO hARD tO rEAD

In other news, my band teacher asked us what 10+9 was, and almost every student said "21"

Of course it was a movie reference, and not actual stupidity, but it was still hilarious and facepalm worthy. Our director just walked out of the room for a while. XD

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CmLnZDL.jpg?1

"Hey, I made this American Locomotives Abroad album, why not stick a picture from the USA in there?" - What I think the person who posted the photo on railpictures.net was thinking.

EDIT: What's more, I've just noticed more pictures taken in the USA of American locomotives that are in the album. Someone needs to speak to that person about what "abroad" or "overseas" means...

Edited by UnionPacific1983WP
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People That Type Like This And Capitalize Every Word And Even Some Random SyllaBles And You Ask Them Why They Type Like This And Say It's Hard To Read And They Simply Insult You And Keep Doing It.
i THINK OF IT AS "fINE CONTROL." yOUR TYPING IS JUST MORE PRECISE.

I cAlL iT tYpOgRaPhIcAl YoDeLiNgâ„¢. A dIfFiCuLt TeChNiQuE.

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http://i.imgur.com/CmLnZDL.jpg?1

"Hey, I made this American Locomotives Abroad album, why not stick a picture from the USA in there?" - What I think the person who posted the photo on railpictures.net was thinking.

EDIT: What's more, I've just noticed more pictures taken in the USA of American locomotives that are in the album. Someone needs to speak to that person about what "abroad" or "overseas" means...

Yes my hunt for fellow train drivers are progressing!

Someone saying Pacific Union describing Union Pacific and a kid saying that the Arch in st louis was "Made in China"

- - - Updated - - -

HAHA, Context?
Yes my hunt for fellow train drivers are progressing!

Someone saying Pacific Union describing Union Pacific and a kid saying that the Arch in st louis was "Made in China"

Yes two already! Oh and pepole describing a Steam Loco working as Powered by an engine.

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