'Skydiving' is a pastime and while the main event is 'jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane' it also includes the bit where you and some friends sit around on the ground and decide to charter that very plane. Be wary of scientific "facts" that are untrue (unlike the very real 34 on just this list). Frequency: The definition of counterintuitive is something that goes against what you believe would be logical, or something that goes against common sense. Delivered to your inbox! This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Intuitive version: If the good were free, consumers would want a lot, but producers wouldn't feel like making much. There are many other examples of counterintuitive occurrences in nature and science. Laura Helmuth is the science and health editor at Slate. Concubines were sacrificed in China to be eternal companions; certain Indian sects required human sacrifices. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Counterintuitive definition: Contrary to what intuition or common sense would indicate. Starting Early: The Benefits of Teaching Counterintuitive Concepts in Childhood. Learn something new, even if it's stressful. It seems intuitive to me that causal relationships rapidly weaken as the distance (both spatial and temporal) between two events increases. Most students, and probably most adults, assume that the interaction of salt and ice somehow causes a temperature rise, melting the ice. Explanations may be beyond most at age 1114, but the experiments can still be fun. But you set it up in such a way that you can throw away the information about which slit the photon went through. I know what I'd choose. Which includes ourselves, since social and personality psychologists are all human beings too. I think there is a logic to wanting to call just about anything counterintuitive. The logic goes as follows. Einsteins famous equation is certainly one of the most brilliant and beautiful scientific discoveriesbut its also one of the most disturbing. The basic premise is this. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. King Solomon, who could be considered an early scientist because of his powers of observation and analysis of natural phenomena like plants, beasts, birds, reptiles and fish (I Kings 4:33) and of geophysical cycles (Ecclesiastes 1:5-7), urged youth to gain knowledge, but to build it on the foundation of wisdom. I am writing a report with some counterintuitive and surprising findings, and need some examples to show that our intuitive understanding can be totally wrong (So that they don't feel stupid for having pursued a goal without checking if their assumptions were correct). Our feeble minds can barely scratch the surface of existence, the cosmos, and . These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'counterintuitive.' Ask a student to pour a little cold water over the flask and read the resulting temperature. A connection to everyday lived experience is almost definitional to our field, whether you think it is something that we should actively pursue or just inevitably creeps in. What are examples of counterintuitive? Beyond a certain threshold of intelligence and skill, the efficacy bottlenecks quickly become your ability to communicate, get along with others, prioritize, focus, structure your thinking in advance, manage your time well, etc. What possible sources of error can you identify? Example: "What do you eggheads mean this wall is mostly empty space at a molecular level. Science is amazing but it can also be frightening and mind-boggling at times. 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Its an adaptation of the traditional dual slit experiment (which in itself is a serious mindfuck) that really drives home just how messed up quantum entanglement really is. Our universe's spacetime is flat, not the universe itself. But some microbes are evolving faster than we can find ways to fight them. Thomas Jefferson saw mastodon bones from Kentucky, for example, and concluded that the giant animals must still be living somewhere in the interior of the continent. Know that a sense of humor can be just as essential as understanding; you should also check out all these pretty funny science jokes--we we were not expecting these punchlines. For example, with 1,000 variables, there are almost half a million (1,000x999/2) potential pairs of variables that might appear correlated by pure chance alone. Are you able to include anything visual? We are often fooled by the appearance and we miss the essence. Supercooled water can be found in clouds. If you detect which slit the photons go through, you dont get any interference pattern. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. More dangerous than defying common sense, though, was Galileos defiance of the Catholic Church. Yet many psychological studies have reported findings that are absolutely counterintuitive and that seem illogical. Counterintuitive behavior means that actions intended to produce a desired outcome may generate opposite results. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. 4. Counterintuitive definition: (of an idea, proposal , etc) seemingly contrary to common sense | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples It's a macroscopic effect of quantum mechanics. But if, after the experiment, you go back and erase the information about which slit each photon went through, then the interference pattern magically appears on the screen. I would not claim thatthis describes all instances of counterintuitive, but I thinkit describes a lot of them. Even though the photos are already detected by the screen. As Simine points out, many people in psychology say that counterintuitive findings are more valuable so clearly there is an incentive to frame things that way. Many interesting behind-the-scenes bits have happened during the 20 years of telling tales about our favorite trailer-park residents. 1. Cooling with cold water condenses the steam, lowering the pressure inside the flask. What is the life expectancy of a tea cup pig? Clamp the funnel above a beaker. Record the temperature. counterintuitive counterintuitive Add to list Share. For example, let's say a company invested in IoT systems to gain an edge in data-driven insights. But our love affair comes at a cost. It can be loosely stated that the particle that looped around and came back is not the "same particle" that left, since they have different topological character. In this study, a counterintuitive dynamics test (CIDT) is . Don't be surprised if none of them want the spotl One goose, two geese. Are counterintuitive findings more valuable? But as an expert on memory, and, in particular, on the malleability of memory, he knows better than to fully trust his recollections As clear and detailed as these memories feel, psychologists find they are surprisingly inaccurate. I think it's one of those funny little things about the universe that one of the most ubiquitous substancesso much so that you sort of ignore it and take it for granted.is actually in some way one of the most complicated and oddly-behaving substances we know of. Papers from physics journals (free or otherwise) are encouraged. Brokers love to use this one to their advantage. Since these researchers are moyboys, readers should take that into account. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. The experiments below illustrate counter-intuitive temperature changes in interesting ways for 1416 year olds. The thermometer scale from about 20oC upwards must be visible above the bung, so a long thermometer may be better. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". First of all, you need to understand what does counterintuitive mean. Information about your use of this website will be shared with Google and other third parties. Is this theoretical or can one make an experiment to show this effect? The more familiar I get with special relativity the less strange it seems; I'm not sure if quantum intuition is attainable, but grasping why relativity is true is, I think, possible. Students who participated in the project reported that the access-on-demand online resource materials on counterintuitive demonstrations resulted in prolonged enquiry exploring science concepts, and were welcomed by participating classroom teachers. Our finding highlights the mathematical inexactness of ZT . The gauge shift comes from the particle looping around a topological defect (the magnetic field threading the plane, effectively making the space into a punctured plane), in effect changes the topological quantum number (electric/magnetic charge) of the particle, since the punctured plane is not homotopically trivial. But astronomers do know that, thanks to these dark parts, the universe is expanding. Because chances are very good that they did. Our ape ancestry conflicts with every cultures creation myth and isnt particularly intuitive, buteverything weve learnedsince thenin biology, geology, genetics, paleontology, even chemistry and physicssupports his great insight. After all, we are the field that specializes in measuring and explaining peoples intuitions. show them that the results went the other way. Once all the liquid has frozen, no more energy is released, so continued cooling with iced water causes the temperature to start falling again. Technically it's small things act according to an equation that is very wavelike in this instance and very particle like in this other instance, but the first sentence is close enough. A number of experimental psychology studies have found support for Boyer's hypothesis. Gender Identity Is More Nature Than Nurture. The Role of Counterintuitive Examples in Statistics Education . All the good ones! Sure, some tasty things are healthyblueberries, snow peas, nuts and maybe even (oh, please) red wine. Another good example of a counterintuitive fact is the Banach-Tarski paradox stating that a ball can be decomposed in a finite number of pieces which can be glued together to build up two balls identical to the first one (I say that this is a paradox because the axiom of choice is clearly true:D). A counterintuitive proposition is one that does not seem likely to be true when assessed using intuition, common sense, or gut feelings.. Scientifically discovered, objective truths are often called counterintuitive when intuition, emotions, and other cognitive processes outside of deductive rationality interpret them to be wrong. Special relativity, then, is a perfectly reasonable and elegent way to formalize this notion. You need some fancy equipment, like a thing that makes a cohesive beam of photons and a thing that splits a cohesive beam of photons, but other than that its not impossible to do in your home lab. Counterintuitive definition, counter to what intuition would lead one to expect: The direction we had to follow was counterintuitivewe had to go north first before we went south. Animal Testing Is Necessary. Answer (1 of 2): Counterintuitive scientific theories? Here are ten of the biggest threats to our peace of mind. This doesn't really belong in this thread with the hard science examples, but I think it's a nice little verbal/logic trick to drop on people at a dinner party. An aircraft can trigger freezing, causing potentially hazardous icing-up of aircraft surfaces. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Lead author Dr Byron Adams, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow at the universitys Cabot Institute for the Environment, said: It may seem intuitive that more rain can shape mountains by making rivers cut down into rocks faster. Seeing your assumptions of physical reactions are wrong by watching a golf ball hit a wall at 1000 frames per second and watching it compress and ripple is powerful. Anyone can plainly see that the Sun and stars rise in the east, sweep across the sky and set in the west; the Earth feels stable and stationary. 3. The fascinating story behind many people's favori Can you handle the (barometric) pressure? It's genuinely remarkable, and chances are you're only aware of a small portion of the fascinating and bizarre facts discovered by scientists thus far. Galileo got more grief for the idea than Copernicus did. Without parachutes the sport of skydiving would consist entirely of people sitting around on the ground and deciding that jumping out a perfectly good aeroplane would kill them all and therefore changing the subject. What I suspect that means is that counterintuitive is often justa rhetorical strategyfor writing introduction sections and marketing our work. When thats your multiplier, you dont need much massa smidgen of plutonium is plentyto create enough energy to destroy a city. Steak, salty French fries, eggs Benedict, triple-fudge brownies with whipped creamturns out theyre killers. But other human foiblesthe desire to be accepted, time pressure, conflicts of interest (e.g., expectations of funding sources), interfere and can compromise that ideal. It leaves little room in the public consciousness for social scientific work that is incremental, for work that shores up and teases apart, for work that complicates, for work on the boundary conditionsthose fragile social and mental habitats upon which decisions turn. Water sprayed into the cylinder condenses the steam, creating a vacuum. This is technically false though. 3. But if, after the experiment, you go back and erase the information about which slit each photon went through, then the interference pattern magically appears on the screen. Natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires are often attributed by the media to global warming. to ask them what their predictions would be about our main study in our 2008 paper (Vazire & Mehl, JPSP). Whenever you are doing physics and all the sudden some entirely new deep topic in mathematics is automatically spit out. Counter Intuitive Thinking Examples . There's that Galileo who said heavy things don't fall faster than light things. Today, according to many biologists, were in the midst of a sixth great extinction. Previously, she was a senior science editor at Smithsonian magazine. Self-Sabotage - yourself when you find yourself mired in complacency. Science seems to always challenge our intuitive understanding of the world. This article and paper from the USDA Forest Service argues that wildfires and droughts have always been a part of California ecology, and that prescribed burns and forest thinning are best for preventing bark beetle damage that contributes to out-of-control fires. You 100% wouldn't do it unless parachutes existed but because they do.people go skydiving and accidents happen. Patients who received tirzepatide in a recent clinical study lost more than 20% of their body weight (52 pounds, or 23.6 kg). But after doing some more research, we realized that sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction. Something that came up in another thread, the Mpemba effect i.e. So the "intuitive" in counterintuitive could refer to the intuitions of experts. When a liquid solidifies, bonds form between the particles (in this case, cyclohexane molecules). And here's an example from the April 1979 issue of Scientific American that describes a factual . He used a telescope to provide evidence for the heliocentric theory, and some of his contemporaries were so disturbed by what the new invention revealedcraters on a supposedly perfectly spherical moon, other moons circling Jupiterthat they refused to look through the device. Sometimes different people having different ideas; sometimes the same person having different ideas at different times. Cool to well below 0oC, being careful to avoid disturbing it. 2 What is another word for counterintuitive? One moose, two moose. Ever since the late 19th century, physicists have known about a counterintuitive property of some electric circuits called negative resistance. How to help students develop their practical skills. From the decisions we make to the way we deal with people, life is full of lessons that are completely counterintuitive. how we should evaluate counterintuitive claims. 2.In Fig. Environmental activists and vegans want to reduce the impact of beef production. Weve already changed the climate for the rest of this century. Testing hypotheses by experiment is supposed to be the hallmark of science. The ability to appreciate and understand nature is just the sort of thing that is supposed to make us special, but instead it allowed us to realize that were merely a recent variation on the primate body plan. We loved learning new things and expanding our horizons. I don't think this is right. As Simine points out, many people in psychology say that counterintuitive findings are more valuable so clearly there is an incentive to frame things that way. If something is counterintuitive it means it's the opposite of "intuitive" in other words, it's not easily understood in an instinctive, unconscious way. Similarly, we understand boil the kettle to mean heat the water to boiling point, not turn it into steam. Place a thermometer in a test tube of cyclohexane so that its scale remains visible from 0oC upwards. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, citizens are understandably confused about the benefit of face masks. Science itself is counterintuitive. This is the so-called Simpson's . "3 out of 2 Americans do not understand statistics." Wtf is going on down there!? Cow farts make methane, weve heard. A graphical representation of the unified trust distribution mechanism is shown in Fig. To address this issue, this study examines high school students' cognitive responses to three counterintuitive physics problems. In the age of Hostess pies and sedentary lifestyles, those cravings arent so adaptive. Advertising Notice counter-intuitive meaning: 1. Before repeating such claims, one should investigate funding sources. The most common example of Bernoulli's principle is that of a fluid flowing through a horizontal pipe, which narrows in the middle and then opens up again. When Copernicus proposed that the Earth and other planets instead orbit the Sun, his contemporaries found his massive logical leap patently absurd, says Owen Gingerich of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Maybe; maybe not. If you were an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, youd have your servants slaughtered and buried adjacent to your tomb. The definition of counterintuitive is something that goes against what you believe would be logical or something that goes against common sense. Here are 13 counterintuitive business truths I've come to know, even if I can't exactly explain why they make sense. This is why it irritates me that we lie to undergrads about these things so much. When students compare their predictions with what actually happens to temperature in these scenarios, there will be lots to think about and discuss. Common sense does not always follow . Viscosity of gases increases with increasing temperature. Kim Scott, once the head of Google's AdSense and . By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Now I wonder what my intuitions are about the meaning of the word counterintuitive, and what sort of information about the way the word is used might contradict those intuitions. I tend to think of intuitions as thoughts that pop into our heads as the result of conditioned reflexes, even if that conditioning is part of scientific training. We dont always know what we think we know. Describe the procedure fully and neutrally to a group of people (experts or nonexperts, depending whose intuitions you want to claim to be counter to) and askwhat they think will happen. For example, you probably wouldnt say that the double-slit experiment was counterintuitive; youd say it falsified classical mechanics.
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counterintuitive examples in science