are hamsters flammable, dad?
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2025
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Wait, so a “stick” of butter is just a regular shaped block of butter?
Yes, do y'all not call it that?
German here. We call it a Stück. Could there be some etymological connection?
No, apparently there isn't. Stick does have its origin in the Germanic language family, however from what is nowadays in German "Stecken" for it's penetrative aspect. (Yeah no kidding here, that's what the etymology dictionary said)
Edit: just read the entry to "Stück" apparently there's the idea of "Stückelung" as in parts of a larger whole, which coincides to the idea of a "Stock" (stick from a tree) being a separate part of the larger entity "tree". Going by that logic I can see a similarity
I don't think we call it anything. It's just butter.
Next try driving over a banana peel. I have some theories about what would happen.
Mamma mia
Woah. You've also read that Mamma Mia fanfic with the banana train?
The difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.
-- Adam Savage
Anything can be observable, but "iterative processes" makes it sound fancy
Mythbusters embodied the scientific method, but I do wish they'd stopped to actually properly explain it at some point. "Writing it down" is definitely part of the process, but it's not the whole process. The whole process is what they actually did in most of their episodes:
- Make a prediction
- Design an experiment to test that prediction
- Run the experiment and observe the results
- Come up with a conclusion
Sometimes they played fast and loose with some of these steps to make entertaining TV. But, fundamentally, they were doing science.
Screwing around still covers parts 1-3 though. You say something stupid (hypothesis), your friend dares you to do it (experimentation planning), and you do it (experiment).
You say something stupid (hypothesis), your friend dares you to do it
What's the hypothesis there?
"I'm going to piss on that window." doesn't involve a testable hypothesis.
I could totally chuck an egg on that roof!
Nuh uh your arm is worse than mine!
Chucks the egg
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This is exactly the kind of shit you should do with your kids. It teaches them it is not only good to be curious about things but also how to then go seek an understanding to those curiosities. That and its just fun as hell to do silly, goofy experiments.
When adults run into 'dumb' questions like this, we tend to dismiss them and move on, forgetting that there is always an opportunity to learn or to teach. All this really does is stall curiosity and leave the world with a little less knowledge.
Exactly.
The flipside, however, is that it validates them asking even more questions, which is good for their development but incredibly annoying for the parent. That said, I could name a bunch of useless facts now because I've looked up way more than I should have. Dinner time is frequently like this (I have three kids, will just give them numbers):
Kid 1 - How far away is Paris?
Me - About...
Kid 2 - What happens if you microwave a fork?
Me - Hold on, let me...
Kid 3 - How do you say "ounce" in Spanish?
Me: Why would you even...
Kid 2 - I'll go try
Me - No!! That could destroy the microwave! Sit down, let me answer Kid 1 first. About 5000 miles (made up number, but surprisingly close)
Kid 1 - How much is that in inches?
Me - Hold on, it's Kid 2s turn. If you microwave a fork, you'll get sparks and maybe break the microwave. We're not going to try it, but maybe I can find a video for you.
Kid 3 - You didn't answer my question!
Me - Sorry, I don't know since I don't speak Spanish, but I'll look it up for you. (10 seconds later) Apparently "la onza," though I don't think anyone that speaks Spanish uses ounces.
Kid 2 - What if I microwave my dolly?
Kid 3 - Why?
Me - <to Kid 3> They usually use metric, so either grams (gramo) or milliliters (mililitro). <to Kid 2> I don't know, but it might ruin your dolly.
And so on. I have to juggle three conversations at the same time, and sometime a fourth if my SO wants to discuss something. It's absolute madness, but I do what I can to encourage curiousity, but I don't fault anyone for giving lame answers.
Awesome.
317 million inches to Paris
I'll let them know when they get back from school. :)
Seriously though, I have sometimes gotten back to them a day or two later, when I finally remember that thing they asked in a random rapid-fire question session (aka, dinner time).
I don't know if it would work, but what I'd try to do in that situation is to make it clear the kids will get more of your time and attention if they put in more effort themselves.
Like, the kid asking how far away Paris is: get the kid to come up with an estimate and how he/she'd check that estimate. Once they put in the work like that, you give them more time to get to the answer.
The kid asking about microwaving a fork, tell them it's a dangerous thing to do, tell them you might be able to find a video showing what happens. But, first, ask them to come up with 5 other things they shouldn't touch in the kitchen without a parent's permission and a reason why and write them down.
I don't have kids, but my dad did something a bit like that with me, and my uncle did something like that with his kids. It seemed to work. I was too young to really remember exactly how it worked with me, but I do remember happily doing research on things and then getting attention from my dad about what I'd figured out. With my uncle, I got to watch his kids (5-6 years younger than me) and how this sort of thing worked. He'd spend about 5 seconds deflecting them, they'd go off and do some things on their own, and he'd have more time to relax. Sometimes they got bored or distracted and didn't come back. When they did come back, they'd come back with something more than just a random question, and he'd spend time with them about what they'd discovered.
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This reminds me so much of my dad (a house painter) when I was a kid! He was always down to indulge my curiosity by experimenting or building something. It was fun at the time, but I'm now in engineering and I'd say a lot of it is just because my dad thought it would be fun to attach a potato cannon to a go kart.
I'm sure he's very proud that you became an engineer though!
Potato canons and go karts were the slightly dangerous things we needed as kids.
I recently read a book called "The anxious generation" that goes into depth talking about the developmental changes in young people over the last 30 years, and it attribute a lot of it to the douboe-whammy combination of 90s and 2000s helicopter parenting paired with the rise of the smartphone.
We need to unsupervised, slightly dangerous playtime and mischief to learn how to deal with problems on our own or with peers, and we need human interaction to learn to socialize. Removing both of those leads to an increased number of people unprepared to handle social situations and stress.
The book definitely had a feeling of bias for argument to match preconceived conclusion that social media is bad, but I think there may have been something to it.
Must be nice to afford science butter in this economy!
If it's anything like scientific grade peanut butter then yeah, it's expensive! https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductDetails?sku=2387&cclcl=en_US
I just sent this to my wife and told her I ordered some peanut butter on line.
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I'm very curious about the alternative hypothesis.
Mario Kart banana peel spinout
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I would often turn it around and ask them first, what do you think might happen, and walk them through why they think that. Let them build their own hypothesis to be tested.
Teaching your children to think for themselves? We’ll have none of that here!
Good for you. Socratic method.
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Now do it with margarine and write a paper on the differences
If Mom had been home, she'd have told you both to put the butter in a clean plastic bag first, unsealed so it won't pop. That way it could have been salvageable, and your tire wouldn't be greasy.
I dunno, plastic bags sound like confounding variables. The 4 year old peer reviewers won’t stand for this!
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Stick of butter like $12 salted these days
Where the fuck you getting your butter? I pay like $4 for 4 sticks of Kerrygold.
I get all my butter down at the local sex shop, "Slippery Al's". I slather it on my body when I need to go swimming in the cold Canadian ocean once a week
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It's a good habit to question how we know what we know. Kudos to this guy for encouraging his child's curiosity!
Next question. If your tire was bald, would it stick to the ground or the tire?
Probably still the tire, the material is chosen for grip / stickiness
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These are the stupid memories that stick with you when you grow up though.
Nobody remembers all the times their parents just said no and dismissed your curiosity. But we absolutely remember the times where our parents engaged in our curiosity.
Good dad. Good kid. A bit of a waste of butter, but it was worth it for the internet points and bonding between parent and child.
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Reminds me of the time I put a partially filled Gatorade bottle under my parents' Jeep as a kid. I remember trying to run it over with my bike, but would just go right over it. Then I got curious what the Jeep would do and wedged it under the back tire. But we didn't go anywhere till the next day, so I forgot I put it there.
The following day, we're backing out of the garage when there's a sudden loud POP. I quickly turn to look and see Gatorade covering that area of the garage. Scared the hell out of my mom.
Was an informative time for everyone involved.
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