Not The Same As Being Wrong
Posted by Don in Hollister on October 15, 2003 at 14:18:53:

Hi All. I always have fun with this little ditty. I use this some times when a scientist tells me I’m wrong because I can’t explain something. Of course I could be wrong for using it.

I’m sure most of you have heard about the bee that isn’t supposed to able to fly. Take Care…Don in creepy town

Though the folklore began as a joke about a steady-wing flight equation foolishly applied to moble-wing, as often seems inevitable of folklore, the joke took on its own separate life. Silly reasoning evolved, building fallacy upon fallacy: Bees can't fly because it takes rear-wings to steady the flight, & they have no rear wings so they should tumble through the air ass-over-teakettle. No, that's not it; bees can't possibly fly because it is physically impossible for wings to beat as fast as bee's wings beat. No wait, bees can't fly because the texture of their wings is too flat, unlike a bird or an airplane designed like airfoil. Oh! No! Wait! Though bees can fly (because we've seen 'em do it) & it does follow physics, nevertheless science can't explain it, so there!

Well, actually, Navier-Stokes flight equations are applicable to bees, & were developed in the early 1800s. So all that is really true is this: most of us couldn't follow Navier-Stokes theories of motion even if a professor tried to make it simple for us, so we still have to make an emotional decision to embrace the strong probability that physics do govern the universe, or that physics have no applicability because God & magic rules the universe.

Heidi: It won't be the first time scientists have been wrong either.

Scot: Just for the record, to not be able to explain something on the basis of present evidence is not the same as being wrong.