Terminology Memes

Posts tagged with Terminology

The Big 5: A Scientific Lost In Translation Moment
Psychology Science Academia
24 days ago 16.7K views 0 shares
The Big 5: A Scientific Lost In Translation Moment
When someone mentions "The Big 5" and "oceans," psychologists are thinking about personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) while paleontologists are mentally cataloging extinct marine reptiles from the Mesozoic era. It's the scientific equivalent of ordering a "regular coffee" in Boston vs. New York. Same words, completely different worlds. The facial expressions say it all—one field is smugly thinking about human behavior questionnaires while the other is geeking out over mosasaurs and plesiosaurs.

Way Of Looking At Numbers
Math Physics Science Academia
1 month ago 5.5K views 0 shares
Way Of Looking At Numbers
Regular folks see "7" and think "number." But mathematicians and physicists? They put on a tuxedo and smugly call it a "scalar." It's the same thing, just wearing fancy clothes and charging you tuition to explain it. Classic academia—turning simple concepts into sophisticated-sounding jargon so they can feel superior at cocktail parties. Next time your physics professor tries to impress you with "scalar quantities," just remember it's Winnie the Pooh in a bow tie.

Exponentially With What, Base e?
Math Academia Science
1 month ago 4.7K views 0 shares
Exponentially With What, Base e?
Every math professor's internal monologue when someone says "our profits grew exponentially" without specifying the base or exponent. The mathematical rage is real! Exponential growth follows a specific pattern (y = bˣ), not just "it got bigger fast." The goose is all of us who've spent years teaching this concept only to hear it butchered in corporate meetings. Next time someone uses "exponentially" loosely, channel your inner angry waterfowl and demand the rate constant!

They're The Same Picture
Physics Engineering Science
1 month ago 5.3K views 0 shares
They're The Same Picture
This is what happens when physicists design corporate training exercises. Voltage and electric potential are literally the same physical quantity, just with different names. One's from the engineering world, one's from physics textbooks. The only difference? The number of syllables you waste explaining it in meetings. The real joke is that 60% of people don't know they're identical, which tracks perfectly with how many people in my department still ask why the multimeter readings "don't match the theory."

Time Travel Priorities: Math Nerds Edition
Math Physics Science
1 month ago 5.7K views 0 shares
Time Travel Priorities: Math Nerds Edition
The gender divide in time travel priorities is hilariously spot-on! While girls apparently use time machines for family reunions and ancestry verification, guys are busy correcting mathematical terminology with historical figures. That bottom panel shows peak nerd behavior - traveling through time just to suggest a nomenclature change to a mathematician! The fact that someone would use this incredible technology not to prevent disasters or witness historical events, but to debate mathematical semantics with Bernhard Riemann (or similar 19th century mathematician) is pure scientific pedantry at its finest. It's the ultimate "well, actually" moment spanning centuries!

Rookie Mistake: When Chemistry Terms Kill The Mood
Chemistry Academia Science
1 month ago 5.7K views 0 shares
Rookie Mistake: When Chemistry Terms Kill The Mood
Nothing kills the mood faster than a chemistry terminology error! While your partner's thinking about physical attraction, you're having a mental breakdown over someone confusing absorption (taking something INTO a material) with adsorption (molecules sticking ON THE SURFACE of a material). That single letter 'd' makes all the difference between a night of passion and a night of passionate peer review comments. Chemistry nerds have priorities, and apparently, proper surface chemistry vocabulary ranks higher than romance.

When Physics Textbooks Get Naughty
Physics Science Academia
1 month ago 4.9K views 0 shares
When Physics Textbooks Get Naughty
Physics textbooks getting spicy with that "kink-charge" and "topological kink" talk! 😏 This equation is actually about wave functions and field theory, but the terminology is hilariously suggestive. Physicists really know how to make differential equations sound like something you'd need to be 18+ to read. Next thing you know, they'll be explaining the "excited states" and "forbidden interactions" between particles! 🔥 Physics: where even the math needs a safe word.

The Great Mathematics Schism
Math Academia Science
1 month ago 5.4K views 0 shares
The Great Mathematics Schism
The transatlantic linguistic divide strikes again! While Brits casually refer to "maths" (because, you know, mathematics is plural), Americans clutch their calculators in horror at this abbreviation blasphemy. The "Math is math!" reaction perfectly captures that moment when Americans encounter the British version and have an existential crisis. It's like discovering someone puts pineapple on pizza – technically valid but deeply unsettling to certain populations. Next up in cultural mathematics warfare: whether "z" is pronounced "zee" or "zed" in algebraic equations!

They're The Same Picture: Physics Edition
Physics Engineering Academia
1 month ago 5.7K views 0 shares
They're The Same Picture: Physics Edition
Physics professors everywhere are silently nodding in approval. Torque and moment are mathematically identical concepts—both measuring the tendency of a force to rotate an object around an axis—just used in different engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineers say "torque," while civil engineers prefer "moment." It's like calling carbonated beverages "soda" or "pop" depending on which state you're from, except this linguistic divide causes endless confusion for first-year engineering students. The real difference? Absolutely nothing... except maybe which professor is grading your exam!

Know Your Spikes: Botanical Pedantry In Full Bloom
Biology Science
1 month ago 5.8K views 0 shares
Know Your Spikes: Botanical Pedantry In Full Bloom
The botanically pedantic strike again! While poets and romantics wax lyrical about rose "thorns," any plant taxonomist worth their salt knows these defensive structures are actually prickles—modified epidermal outgrowths that can be easily snapped off, unlike true thorns which are modified stems with vascular tissue. Nothing says "I'm fun at parties" quite like correcting someone's floral terminology while they're trying to be romantic. Next time someone hands you roses on Valentine's Day, be sure to point out their prickly inaccuracy... if you want to ensure it's your last Valentine's Day together.

The Relativity Of Scientific Literacy
Physics Scientists Science
1 month ago 4.5K views 0 shares
The Relativity Of Scientific Literacy
When you confuse the father of relativity with someone else entirely, you've created your own parallel universe of facts! The mix-up between Einstein (E=mc²) and Epstein plus physicists vs. physicians is like mistaking a quark for a quack. Scientific literacy just experienced a quantum collapse into its ground state.

The Sodium Chloride Showdown
Chemistry Science
1 month ago 6.5K views 0 shares
The Sodium Chloride Showdown
The ultimate showdown between casual speech and chemical precision! One guy's like "just a little sodium chloride" trying to flex his chemistry knowledge, while his friend's all "dude, it's just salt." Then comes the nuclear option—a full breakdown of iodized table salt with potassium iodate and anti-caking agents. This is every first-year chemistry student who just learned the periodic table and won't shut up about it at dinner. "Please pass the sodium chloride" while everyone else at the table contemplates seasoning them instead of the food. The irony? Mr. Scientific Terminology gets absolutely destroyed by even MORE precise chemistry. Nothing humbles a chemistry novice faster than discovering there's always a bigger nerd.