this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
733 points (91.5% liked)

Science Memes

20224 readers
1950 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] TheBat@lemmy.world 111 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Dumb meme. You can enjoy something without dedication or being good at it.

I like watching F1 highlights (not even full race lmao) and only vehicle I can drive is a bicycle. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

[โ€“] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Don't sell yourself short.

If you can ride a bicycle, you can probably handle a tricycle.

[โ€“] TheBat@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

Don't sell yourself short.

[โ€“] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Watching races becomes way better if one plays some sim racing games and gets into adjusting the car for the track. Racing is a rare sport that one can somewhat experience themselves without athletic training.

[โ€“] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca -1 points 4 months ago

Sure, because baseball fans are the physical elite of the sports world. Playing a video game is nothing like actual track racing.

[โ€“] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 months ago

OP has a point. Star Wars is not science fiction, it's religious fantasy.

It's definitely not engineering otherwise they wouldn't use 12 ft thick catwalks in space.

[โ€“] lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com -4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And they're saying that's you.

[โ€“] 1984@lemmy.today 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Well the meme is still stupid. :) Basically trying to say that only people who studied science are qualified to say they like science.

[โ€“] lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Their face doesn't go ๐Ÿซค at the sight of hard math & theory? The statement's that it does.

[โ€“] Engywuck@lemmy.zip -5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Maybe they're trying to say that science (at least, Phys) without advanced calculus is "just" outreach or popularization. And they're right, even if your sensibility can't accept it.

[โ€“] TheOakTree@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Does an F1 driver need to understand and utilize advanced calculus on the track to do well? I feel that concepts like grip/slip, aero, centripetal force, and weight transfer are intimately linked to an intuition for physics, even if they aren't being understood at a calculus-requiring level by the driver.

Yet, I would struggle to call that situation "outreach" or "popularizarion." I would still consider the driver's understanding of physics as tangential to science.

[โ€“] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

IMO you need basic calculus to understand the laws of physics. Like at least to understand that the derivative is the rate of change, the integral is the area under the curve, the fundamental theorem(s) of calculus, and what limits are. You don't necessarily need to do ฮด-ฮต proofs, but at least the qualitative stuff is worth teaching.

I took algebra-based physics for my music degree and then calculus-based physics for my engineering degree. Algebra-based physics explained basically nothing for me and had zero impact on my understanding of the world. Calculus-based physics will stick with me forever.

Like I'm with you that outreach is important and should not be dismissed, but I really don't see the utility of algebra-based physics.

[โ€“] Engywuck@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

A F1 driver is not a scientist. And no, you're wrong.

[โ€“] TheOakTree@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I know they're not a scientist. But to say they have no grasp or interest in science would also be wrong, so I think the answer lies somewhere in the gray area, and not this black and white perspective presented in OP.

You can be enthusiastic and have a simplified-but-robust understanding of some kinds of science, that doesn't make you less of an enjoyer. But there are certainly people who only understand at a surface level, yet pretend to be immersed in the material and demand to be treated like experts.

[โ€“] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago

Most F1 drivers have no education beyond high school. Lance Stroll barely has a grasp of grammar.