Complex Numbers

Weight a Minute...

I don't have a lot to say about today's article; I just think it's a good, fairly simple, example of how science gets scienced.

Which Weighs More, a Pound of Stone or a Pound of Styrofoam?  
It’s not a trick question: your brain answers differently, depending on whether the materials are part of the same object or not

Ah, but it is kind of a trick question, isn't it? There's objective weight, which can be measured by a scale, and subjective weight, which is what your muscles anticipate and feel. Consider two packages of the same weight, one large, one small (maybe the large one contains nothing but packing pillows). The small one will be easier to pick up and carry if only because of the bulk involved.

That's not what this article is about, though.

For more than a century, scientists thought they knew the answer to a curious question: why does 10 pounds of a low-density substance such as Styrofoam feel heavier than 10 pounds of stone? It isn’t heavier, of course, but repeated experiments have shown that it feels that way.

Science tip #1: Just because you think you know the answer, doesn't mean you do. Always test.

Now psychologists say their initial explanation may have been incomplete, and the new explanation could have far-reaching consequences, including for the way Netflix designs the algorithms that recommend movies to its customers.

Science tip #2: Your experiment doesn't have to have practical, everyday applications. But if you can come up with one, it'll be easier to communicate it to the teeming hordes.

The article goes on to describe the experiment and their results, which, as the headline hints, are that people are ass at guessing weights. Or something.

Knowing how the brain estimates weight isn’t just an interesting experiment—it can actually help scientists develop smarter technologies that we use every day. Now that we know more about how context changes the brain’s decisions, programmers might be able to update technologies such as Netflix to imitate the brain more accurately and provide more fine-tuned recommendations for users.

Article is from 2019. Netflix is still trying to recommend shows and movies to me that there's no way in hell I'd watch.

Anyway, like I said, not much else to say, and you'll have to go to the article to see what the actual experiment was, because it wouldn't be easy to take any of it out of context. And I'm all about easy. Give me the smaller package.