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To get any work done these days, you need science, engineering and technology.
As a fifteen year old student I used a stop watch and a pendulum to measure the gravitational constant. It took a while and needed focus and attention and there were no calculators in those days. The final year of school I bought a Slide Rule, the latest and greatest, as graduation present. It cost £5 and that represented a lot of hours work. I still have it, I consider it a work of art. It displays the nature of numbers and mathematical concepts in an easy to read visual form. It looks very much like this one shown in the video.
In the video comments... "..so you have to know where your answer lies in the realm of numbers." That is one of the most beautifully worded descriptions of one of the basic tenets of using a slide rule effectively I have yet heard."
That trick by the high school science teacher, David Chalmers, was new to me. However the clock any mobile phone has is extremely accurate, and traceable to atomic clocks. Likewise, the number of measurements made is high and the calculations performed quickly giving a high degree of precision. The facts given can be easily checked by anyone (like the dimensions of the building) so the measurements given are reliable.
David Chalmers take down of NIST is so complete it is embarrassing to watch for anyone who has the slightest knowledge of Physics. High school Physics easily understood by fifteen year old students. The fire explanation, not only is proven incorrect, it assumes total ignorance of Physical Chemistry, Materials Science, or even standard Fire Regulations. It is WAY beyond dumbassed stupidity of the first degree.
Which means you need a really dumbed down and compliant society to believe anything different.
And with such "facts" available we expect our most talented teenagers to develop into people who can compete with countries in Asia .... any of them? India, China, North Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaya etc?
Maybe North Korea at a stretch. The people there really do believe the garbage their government is telling them. No big surprise, their achievements in Science and Technology are sparse.
