4 ms·

I'm skeptical half the men really know what piezoelectricity is, for example. Much less 75% being able to define boson. Maybe if the survey was at an engineerin

I'm skeptical half the men really know what piezoelectricity is, for example. Much less 75% being able to define boson. Maybe if the survey was at an engineering college.

macintux 5y ago
I suspect by “knowing the word” the implication is “familiar with/have encountered”, vs “being able to define correctly”.
- mcguire 5y ago
  The study was literally picking words from non-words.
wolf550e 5y ago
"familiar with the word" doesn't mean "knows exact definition or the facts from the first paragraph of the wikipedia article". "a boson is a particle in physics" would be adequate definition, no need to actually know the details. Similarly, "piezoelectricity" is "the thing used in electric cigarette lighters / guitar pickups", no need for details. Women who know about fabrics don't necessarily know how they are manufactured.
Symmetry 5y ago
It's fuzzy. I know exactly what a terraflop is including that most people use it to refer to 32 bit floating point operations by default but it can still mean other widths if specified. I thought a parsec was somewhere between 2 and 20 light years which is correct but still imprecise. I know damask is a fabric associated with dresses I've run into in books but have no idea what it looks like. So do I know 1, 2, or 3 of those words? It's fuzzy.
Karsteski 5y ago
I feel like anyone who did secondary school physics would have come across piezoelectricity though? I certainly did.
qubitcoder 5y ago
I would be surprised if any of my male and females friends from Georgia Tech ('07) couldn't identify and accurately describe every technical word in great detail, or even talk about them for hours on end. The same apples for colleagues I work with daily. Among the general populace, I'm guessing that's less likely.

4 ms·

I'm skeptical half the men really know what piezoelectricity is, for example. Much less 75% being able to define boson. Maybe if the survey was at an engineerin

by TigeriusKirk 5y ago

I'm skeptical half the men really know what piezoelectricity is, for example. Much less 75% being able to define boson. Maybe if the survey was at an engineering college.

macintux 5y ago
I suspect by “knowing the word” the implication is “familiar with/have encountered”, vs “being able to define correctly”.
- mcguire 5y ago
  The study was literally picking words from non-words.
wolf550e 5y ago
"familiar with the word" doesn't mean "knows exact definition or the facts from the first paragraph of the wikipedia article". "a boson is a particle in physics" would be adequate definition, no need to actually know the details. Similarly, "piezoelectricity" is "the thing used in electric cigarette lighters / guitar pickups", no need for details. Women who know about fabrics don't necessarily know how they are manufactured.
Symmetry 5y ago
It's fuzzy. I know exactly what a terraflop is including that most people use it to refer to 32 bit floating point operations by default but it can still mean other widths if specified. I thought a parsec was somewhere between 2 and 20 light years which is correct but still imprecise. I know damask is a fabric associated with dresses I've run into in books but have no idea what it looks like. So do I know 1, 2, or 3 of those words? It's fuzzy.
Karsteski 5y ago
I feel like anyone who did secondary school physics would have come across piezoelectricity though? I certainly did.
qubitcoder 5y ago
I would be surprised if any of my male and females friends from Georgia Tech ('07) couldn't identify and accurately describe every technical word in great detail, or even talk about them for hours on end. The same apples for colleagues I work with daily. Among the general populace, I'm guessing that's less likely.