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TED Talks : Why we don’t understand as much as we think we do – Jonathan Drori (2007)


Today I listened to the TED Talk: Why we don’t understand as much as we think we do – Jonathan Drori (2007).  He starts by asking some simple questions that he claims most people get wrong. We get these wrong, he claims, because of the education and experiences we have had. They bias our understanding. He also makes the point that in some cases, using magnetism as an example, students understand more about a topic before they have been schooled in it.

Early on he features the quote: “Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out” – Cardinal Wolsey, 1471 – 1530

Here are the questions. You’ll have to watch the talk to hear his answers to the first three.

1. A little seed weighs next to nothing, but a tree weighs a lot. Where does all the stuff come from?

2.Can you light a little torch-bulb with a battery, a bulb and one piece of wire?

3. Why is it hotter in summer than in winter?

4. Now please scribble a diagram of the solar system and the way the planets orbit.
The orbits are elliptical, but not very elongated, that is, the distance between to foci is realtively small. See, for example,
http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/permafrosttunnel/Ice_Age_Earth_Orbit.jpg

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