My parents were grade-school teachers, and my dad almost got fired for defending the idea that nickel metal is magnetic.
But it's right there in the grade school textbooks! The only magnetic materials are IRON AND STEEL! PERIOD! (Oh and also the blood in your veins is bright blue like paint. And gravity in space is zero.)
Back in the 1980s I decided to do something about this (via science museum exhibit designs.) Then I discovered the great power of "educational memes," like engineering your own Vaccina viruses which spread all through the textbooks, jumping from author to author and innoculating millions of little kids against the bad information.
But to do this successfully, I'd have to write website articles which 1) correct the misinformation in textbooks, 2) didn't draw attention from powerful critics who would put a stop to all that and, also 3) didn't create even worse mistakes!
This "lifting-force counter-meme" has now spread system-wide. Air doesn't split before the wing, then rejoins behind the wing. Instead the so-called"path-length" or "equal transit-time" explanation is wrong, and actually the air above the wing will greatly out-race the air traveling below. The parcels are split, but then they experience significant "phase shift," so they never re-join again (this as long as lift is being created.)
But it's right there in the grade school textbooks! The only magnetic materials are IRON AND STEEL! PERIOD! (Oh and also the blood in your veins is bright blue like paint. And gravity in space is zero.)
Back in the 1980s I decided to do something about this (via science museum exhibit designs.) Then I discovered the great power of "educational memes," like engineering your own Vaccina viruses which spread all through the textbooks, jumping from author to author and innoculating millions of little kids against the bad information.
But to do this successfully, I'd have to write website articles which 1) correct the misinformation in textbooks, 2) didn't draw attention from powerful critics who would put a stop to all that and, also 3) didn't create even worse mistakes!
My first one was this: http://amasci.com/wing/airfoil.html
This "lifting-force counter-meme" has now spread system-wide. Air doesn't split before the wing, then rejoins behind the wing. Instead the so-called"path-length" or "equal transit-time" explanation is wrong, and actually the air above the wing will greatly out-race the air traveling below. The parcels are split, but then they experience significant "phase shift," so they never re-join again (this as long as lift is being created.)