4 ms·
Chemist pet peeve: “The oil catcher consists of a series of tubes that start at the tip of KOBO’s rostrum and funnel down into a beaker.” That’s an Erlenmeyer
by sseagull 2y ago
Chemist pet peeve:
“The oil catcher consists of a series of tubes that start at the tip of KOBO’s rostrum and funnel down into a beaker.”
That’s an Erlenmeyer flask, not a beaker. The quote gets it right in the next sentence. Just sayin’ :)
- pwg 2y agoA prime example of thee "Gell-Mann Amnesia" effect: https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/ https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/
- krisoft 2y agoNo it is not. It is merely an inaccuracy pointed out by an expert. For it to be an example of the "Gell-Mann Amnesia" effect sseagull would have to show some sign that they forgot that the wpri can make mistakes when they are reading something not within their expertise. That would be the "amnesia" part. Plus, is it even an inaccuracy? In common parlance beaker and flask are synonyms.[1] Simply regular people talking to regular people describing some glassware are not as accurate as a chemist talking to a chemist. 1: as evidenced that thesarus.com identifying `beaker` as the strongest synonym match for `flask` https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/flask https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/flask
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoTechnical terminology is frequently different from common use.
- mikestew 2y agoThat’s not even a “well, technically…”. My chemistry education stopped at high school 40 years ago, and even I remember the difference. It’s like confusing a bicycle with a car. And note that the person quoted uses the term “flask” exclusively. The word “beaker” only shows up parenthetically, because the reporter spent their time in chemistry class asking, “when am I ever going to need to know this?”