A Ton of Crap (62 page)

DEBATING

Causality
Avoid causal relationships that are “post hoc ergo propter hoc.” In other words, relationships that state because A happened, and right after, B happened, that must mean A was the cause of B. If you sneezed and then the light went on, it would not be smart to assume that because you sneezed the light went on. You should also avoid the idea that correlation proves causality. For example, if you say people who own dogs are not allergic to dogs, this doesn’t mean that if we give dogs to people they will not be allergic.

CURVES

Conics
Conics are algebraic forms that are curved. They are the result of a cone being sliced by a plane. Four common conics are the circle, the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola. All conics can be written by using the formula:

Ax
²
 + 
Bxy
 + 
Cy
²
 + 
Dx
 + 
Ey
 + 
F
 = 0

GLOBAL WARMING

The Greenhouse Effect
The greenhouse effect is a natural process that heats the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. As the energy passes through the atmosphere, 26 percent of it is reflected and scattered back into space from the clouds. The clouds absorb 19 percent of the energy and another 4 percent is reflected from the Earth’s surface and sent back to space. Fifty-one percent of the Sun’s energy that reaches the Earth’s surface is used in a number of processes such as heating the surface. The majority of this energy is absorbed by the greenhouse gases and then sent back in a continuous cycle, further heating the planet until it is no longer available for absorption.

KOREAN

The Korean Writing System
The Korean alphabet, Hangul, was created in 1444. The consonants got their shape based on the shape the mouth made when the sound was pronounced. The writing direction (vertically and right to left) and method of writing the symbols in blocks was taken from the Chinese. After Hangul was created, most Koreans could write in both Hangul and Classical Chinese, and during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a mix of the two systems (Hanja) became popular until 1945 when use of Chinese characters diminished.

THE WAR OF 1812

Surrender of Detroit
On August 15, 1812, the British forces captured Detroit. In fact, no actual fighting took place. The British general Isaac Brock, along with the Native American British allies, tricked the American general William Hull. Though his men outnumbered the British and Native Americans, Hull thought otherwise and surrendered the fort and town of Detroit.

DEBATING

Regression to the Mean
When debating, it’s important to take into account the regression to the mean, sometimes known as chance or luck. The less reliable a measurement, the more regression to the mean there is. If you take a measurement from a large sample, and then choose the individuals with the highest and lowest scores and do the measurement again, the high-scoring individuals will get a lower average score, and the individuals who scored low will have a higher average score.

CURVES

Circles
The most common curve is the circle. The circle is made up of determinate lines. They do not extend forever, but rather have an ending point. When drawing curves on a graph with an
x
and
y
axis, a basic formula that tells you the curve will be a circle is
x
2 + 
y
2 = 
a
2. Both values are squared, making them positive, and both have the same coefficient, making them equal distances. Another formula for making a circle is:

(
x
 – 
h
)
²
 + (
y
 – 
k
)
²
 = 
r
²

In this formula,
h
and
k
represent the
x
and
y
coordinates that are found in the center of the circle, and
r
is the radius. For example, if you have coordinates (8,5) with a radius of 10, your circle would be (
x
 – 8)
²
 + (
y
 – 5)
²
 = 100.

GLOBAL WARMING

The Role of the Industrial Revolution
When the Industrial Revolution began, not only did it have huge impacts down on the ground, but it also had huge impacts up in the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil pours greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As a result, the Earth is absorbing and holding more heat than is being radiated into space.

KOREAN

Vocabulary
The vocabulary of the Korean language is a blend of pure Korean words and Sino-Korean words, which were taken from written Chinese or Korean words in Chinese characters. This is similar to how Indo-European languages infused Greek and Latin into their languages. Today, many of the loanwords found in the language are from the English language. The vocabulary of North Korea favors the native Korean vocabulary over the Sino-Korean vocabulary.

THE WAR OF 1812