this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023

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Science Memes

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submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 110 points 10 months ago (2 children)

physics majors when they're asked to apply their knowledge (they've never been outside of the lab)

[–] [email protected] 101 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They can design the chicken coop, but only for spherical chickens in a vacuum.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Built from ideal materials with zero tolerance

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Just like the Tesla Truck!

Though lack of both physics and engineering is on display there.

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If you ask a scientist what pi is, they will tell you it equals 3.14159. If you ask a mathematician, they will tell you pi equals the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter. If you ask an engineer, they will say “about 3, but let's round it up to 5 to be safe.”

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I'd replace scientist to something more precise like physicist because usually people consider mathematicians as scientists even if it depends on definitions.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (5 children)

usually people consider mathematicians as scientists

Yikes!

... Wait, does this mean I can call a historian an artist? Then I'm game.

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[–] skybreaker 74 points 10 months ago (2 children)

As someone with a degree in physics who ended up in an engineering role, I approve of this meme.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 10 months ago (1 children)

As an engineer, I don't believe in any of that mind reading mumbo jumbo.

[–] rh4c6f 18 points 10 months ago

Astronomy is one of the many tools of the devil.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Fr, what can you do with a physics degree except teach people physics

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

Come up with new physics to teach people?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Applied physics is a thing. Lots of jobs there. Geophysics, biophysics, engineering physics (yes, that's a thing...)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

Literally everything. All science and engineering is based on physics

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Is the date a perfect sphere in a vacuum with no friction?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Aww, he doesn't understand physics and has a small dick? :(

[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Her: "No I meant I'm a software engineer."

Him: "Oh. I also hate myself and want to die."

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

"Can I lick the science?"

"Nothing else has made the code work so ya might as well!"

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

What's the first indicator a scientist tried to build their own experiment using the soldering station ?

The smell of burnt fingers.

What's the scientist waiting for sitting in front of their own experiment ?

Waiting for the infinite loop they coded to finish after they claimed they didn't need the engineer's help to write the code in their experiment.

How many scientists do you need to change a light bulb ?

Theoretically just one, but it can take several until one of them can call an engineer and admit they only know how to change light bulbs theoretically.

What does a scientist call an electrolytic capacitor ?

Acid distribution subsystem.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Engineering is just physics with real numbers.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago (4 children)

You can have loads of imaginary numbers in EE.

[–] bisby 26 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This guy inducts.

[–] nicoweio 6 points 10 months ago

He has the capacity to.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago

Which is why I stay away from EE.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Ask a ~~physician~~ physicist to build a bridge, it collapse but he knows exactly how and why it collapsed.

Ask an engineer to do it, it holds but he has no idea how it's holding together.

[–] lemmyseikai 36 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wow med school has really upped their game.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

"Doctors Without Bridges"

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[–] Hobo 28 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think the word you're looking for is physicist. A physician is a medical doctor (as in a person that treats sick people). A physicist is a person that studies physics (as in a person that knows how to solve word problems involving pool tables).

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's a classic French speaker mistake because physicist is "physicien" and physician is "médecin", very different.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

(And Russian)

[–] EatYouWell 23 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Isn't physics a pretty integral part of engineering?

[–] SpaceNoodle 74 points 10 months ago

No, integrals are mathematics

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago

Depends on the specific engineering branch. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes nothing at all. But all engineering branches share one thing with physics: math.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

For structural analysts it's very important.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I think the joke is you don't understand enough physics to make that your gig, so you go engineering as the backup plan. Source: am IT, we're everyone's backup plan when their initial goals fall through

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

As a former engineering student who now works in IT.... I resent your comment.

[–] Droggelbecher 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

About to graduate in physics and I've definitely scrolled through IT job postings when anxious about not getting a PhD position

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Don't worry, when IT students get those moments they look at construction ads. It's turtles all the way down.

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[–] pigup 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have worked with guys who got physics undergrad and mech E masters. They are both awful engineers who don't really get it. I take this joke too personally because I know it's bs from experience.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

The absolute worst is when those kinds of engineers graduate but are incapable of thinking about the problems they are designing solutions for.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Who said she's a mechanical engineer?

[–] RagingRobot 9 points 10 months ago

She probably drives a train

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

IIRC they all learn some physics at engineering school. Even the software engineers.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Engineering is more like accounting, but for objects instead of money. Tables, rule books, and lobbyists.

[–] supercriticalcheese 10 points 10 months ago

And writing reports, calculations and such...even manuals if there is time

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Hey we understand plenty! Well the parts we have to to make the thing not go boom anyways....